Wednesday, 16 August 2023

Kodak Double X - Pentax K1000

 It's been a while since I spoke about my photography. I have been waxing lyrical about my Grandson's progress as we got to spend some time together over the summer, the boy done good! However, as much as I appreciate the progress he has made and the journey he has ahead of him, I think it's my turn again. For this photo walk I loaded my Pentax K1000 with Kodak Double X black and white film and set the film speed to 200 iso.

The day was warm but cloudy and blue holes were few and far between, but that didn't worry me as I wanted to get out with my camera again. Having a walk with my grandsons was all the excuse I needed. I had been very busy during the spring and early summer and a break to recharge was definitely in order, but I decided it was time to get back into it.
 I fitted my K1000 with my trusted Tamron Adaptall 2 28-70mm f3.5-4.5 CF Macro lens and we set off for the local farm.

One thing I hadn't forgotten was the joy I get from using my Tamron Adaptall 2 28-70mm zoom lens. 28mm is my favourite focal length and the ability to reach out to 70mm makes it a great walkabout lens. I have often spoke fondly of Tamron Adaptall 2 lenses as they are a cheap way into photography for a newcomer or someone returning to photography as I did in 2017. For Film or Digital slr's, this lens has served me well.

I tried a couple of shots in the local woodland, but the lack of sunlight hindered me a little and I had to really slow my shutter speed down, too slow as it turned out, even with my lens wide open. I then tried a couple of compositions further along on our walk next to one of the corn fields. A patch of thistles had gone to seed thanks to the studious work of the local insect population and they made for a great study when the sun graced us with its presence.

We visited the Horses too on our walk. I never tire of seeing the Horses at the farm, they were making the most of the nice weather we had enjoyed for a few days and didn't mind us taking a few photos as we stopped at each field on our way. They normally stand still, but one Horse was nodding at us as as we approached and we stopped to say hello. It would have been rude not to.

We then turned off the farm road and headed through a smal patch of woodland where we found an abundance of Fungi. Mushrooms and other Fungi come in a myriad of textures and colours that can catch the unwary person out. Not all are edible and I don't really know which are the good ones and which ones can do you serious harm. I stressed this point to my Grandsons to warn them not to touch the Mushrooms! 

Our route through the woodland took us to the path across the top end of the field we passed earlier and on to the corn field. It's amazing how quickly corn grows, it doesn't seem all that long ago we were walking past fresh shoots of corn. On this day it was at least 8 feet tall, maybe more and the corn husks were beginning to fill out. The rain we had in July has really benefitted the corn this year and it looks like the Farmer will enjoy a bumper crop.

I soon finished my roll of Kodak Double X and we were only half way through our walk, but I didn't fancy reloading my camera and we enjoyed the rest of our walk home. I hadn't really been feeling the photography bug the last few weeks, but we all feel like that from time to time. I felt that this was the walk I needed to get back into the habit again and I thought about how I was going to develop my film on the way home.

A few days later I managed to get around to developing my film in my new favourite developer, 510 Pyro from Zone Imaging here in the UK. A quick check of the tech sheets on the Zone Imaging website and the Massive Dev Chart gave me a time of 7 minutes in a dilution of 1+100 at 20 celcius to develop my roll of Kodak Double X and I soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. Scanning was done with my Ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner and I edited the photos with Affinity Photo 2. 

Heres a few of my favourites from our walk in the local countryside. It was good to get out and about with my Grandsons and enjoy my photography again. As always I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Kodak Double X - Pentax K1000









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