With the success of the March #CameraChallenge Jason Avery asked the film photography community on Twitter if we would like another one in April. Of course we said yes. The theme was to be Textures and we could use any camera we wanted which freed everyone up to take their pick of their collection.
I chose to use Ilford FP4 metered with my Gossen Trisix at 100 iso in my FED 2 with Jupiter 8 50mm f/2 lens. However, two things would derail my best plans. For the first half of the week it was persisting down with rain as Storm Noa rolled across the UK, the second half of the week saw me laid low with a rotten case of Lurgi and I slept for most of it.
It wasn't a complete bust as I managed a couple of hours on Saturday morning, capturing various textures in my garden. Fences are always good for texture, as are wooden doors and brick walls. I managed to shoot half a roll of FP4 with my FED 2 before I was exhausted and got back in bed.
Sadly that's as far as I got and ended the week with half a roll left in my camera. The next question was do I finish the roll or do I snip the exposed film from my camera? Either way was a perfectly acceptable way forward, but as the weather was steadily improving through week two of the challenge, I decided to finish my film and get some much needed fresh air and exercise.
Ilford FP4 is always great on sunny days, it was built to excell in those conditions and a sunny Tuesday afternoon gave me the chance to get out, even if I wasn't going far, my garden was again all I could manage. The sunshine illuminates the other side of my garden in the afternoon so I made the most of my fence which is part wood, part concrete panels and posts. This gave me great textures to play with and meant I had done a lap of my garden, yay me!
I know I was late finishing my film, but I needed to do it just to hoist a finger at the lurgi that laid me up. I developed it later that day in HC110 1+63 dilution H for 11 minutes at 20 ceclcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. FP4 is a high contrast film and going long with dilution H tamed that contrast to even out the tonal range and makes it more pleasing to my eye. I could see that I had a good roll to choose from for the challenge and, after scanning it with my trusty ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner, I tidied it up with a few minimal adjustments in Affinity Photo 2.
Here's some of my favourite photos taken for the #CameraChallenge and I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I had big plans for this challenge, but I think I got some decent textures from my garden without overthinking it. Sometimes the challenge we have as photographers is to do what we can with the limitations placed upon us. I chose a camera and lens with no built in automation and a 1950's light meter that works off a selenium cell, no batteries required. Nature chose stinking weather and a stinking cold for me to work with. I hope you enjoy them.
Textures - Ilford FP4 - FED 2
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