After my recent switch to Bellini Euro HC, I had a chat with Richard, owner of Nik & Trick, who got in touch after reading my blog about it. He made a couple of suggestions of developing chemicals to try out and take my film developing education along another step. I have always said there's something new to learn every day and placed an order for some FX-55, a two part black and white film developer formulated by the late Geoff Crawley that first appeared in 2008.
Geoff Crawley was a stalwart of the film photography world and contributed a lot to the community via his formulations of black and white film developers for us to try. Richard liked it enough to have a play about with the formula to try and make it more usable for the home developer in liquid form, extending it's shelf life and making it more eco friendly. Apparently Fomapan 400 shines when developed using FX-55, so I loaded a roll into my Pentax SP500, popped another into my bag and headed to Preston with my pal Keith who had come to visit.
Preston Dock was once one of the busiest ports in the world, but these days it's a sleepy Marina where leisure boats ranging from Yachts to Narrowboats are moored. It's also a nice place to sit and eat a sandwich or just while away and hour or so pointing a camera at stuff. We did both of those as we had nipped into a local supermarket for supplies before heading across the road to the dock to see what we could find.
It was good to be using my Pentax SP500 again and it always reminds me why I paid for it to have a CLA. It's just so blummen reliable and will be me for the rest of my days. I had fitted my Helios 44m-4 58mm f/2 lens and also took my Meyer-Optik Gorlitz 30mm f/3.5 Lydith for a wide angle option where needed. I used both lenses a lot on this day and had fitted a yellow filter and an orange filter to them to help with contrast and highlights.
We soon finished a roll of film around the Dock and it was time to move on to our next location. We didn't have a plan, but I suggested we head to Lytham St Annes, near Blackpool, to see what we could find by the seaside. We headed back to the car to set off for Lytham and I loaded a second roll of Fomapan 400 into my Pentax SP500.
As It turned out, we found a lot of wildfowl and a Spitfire at Fairhaven Lake on the seafront at Lytham St Annes. Fairhaven Lake is popular with walkers, joggers, boaters and paddleboarders. It is also the home of a rather tenacious swan that I mentioned in a previous blog. I had to admire its fearlessness but to be honest, getting bitten by a big swan wasn't on my bucket list. The bugger was convinced I had food in my hand and I wasn't too chuffed when it found out I didn't by having a nibble of my hand.
I wont feed animals in the wild and certainly not at a popular boating lake. The birds wont turn down a free lunch, but are they getting the right stuff? Think before you go feeding the ducks at your local pond. There are plenty of places to look up what the birds eat and you can often buy the right food from a Pet Shop or Veterinary. No doubt it will cost a bit more than "tuppence a bag", but you will be giving the birds the right nutrition. You can find info on what's best for wildfowl on the the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds website based here in the UK. I will leave a link below.
I will never cease to be amazed at the beauty of an aircraft that was built for war. The Spitfire on display at Fairhaven Lake is an exact size replica made from Fibreglass and painted to commemorate Spitfire Mark Vb W3644. The actual WW2 aircraft was paid for with the help of money raised by the People of Lytham St Annes. Many towns across the UK raised money for the war effort in a similar way. The Aircraft was Piloted by Sgt. Alan Lever Ridings who was sadly shot down on June 23rd 1942 over the English Channel.
Sgt Riding's mother, Edith, was born in the town and the link between the town, family and the aircraft didn't become apparent until 2009. The Spitfire Display Team based at Blackpool Airport commissioned the replica with the backing of the general public, local residents and the council. The memorial was officially unveiled in 2012. You can find more info on the Spitfire and Sgt Ridings at the Aircrew Remembered link below.
With my 2nd roll of Fomapan 400 just about finished and our aching bones feeling rather tired, we headed back to the car and came home, thoroughly happy with what we had achieved on this unplanned "3rd star on the left and straight on until morning" kind of day. I like doing things off the cuff. It tends to be more fun when everything falls into place, and it certainly was for us on this day.
I developed my film a few days later in FX-55 developer, a two part solution with Part A that is mixed with water at 1 part chemical to 9 parts water and the activator, Part B added to your Part A working solution. This was my first use of this developer and I'm glad I have a few years experience of developing film under my belt. It's not difficult to mix the working solution up, but the confidence I've built over the last 5 years helped me enormously.
I used a time of 15 minutes and 30 seconds at 20 celcius to develop my 2 rolls of Fomapan 400. Richard published a data sheet for a variety of films and developing times that have been tested by himself and members of the film community. That time may seem a long time to be stood by a developing tank, but it soon passes. I completed the stop bath and fix stages then I hung my freshly developed Fomapan 400 to dry in my bathroom. Once dry I digitised it with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi 35mm film holder and A5 sized led light pad. I processed my RAW files with Affinity Photo 2.
First impressions of FX-55 are it is very easy to use, both liquid parts are supplied in decent containers and it doesn't take long to mix. I mixed enough to develop 2 rolls of Fomapan 400 and it does the job nicely. Once I had digitised my film and got down to processing the RAW files, I didn't have to do much to them.
Using a yellow filter was the way to go, but that's not to say my orange filter didn't produce the goods for me. Fomapan 400 is a contrasty film anyway and what I lost in the shadows, I gained in having definition in the highlights. The day we went for our walk was very bright sunshine with very high UV levels and I am very happy with what I was able to achieve. I haven't shot Fomapan 400 for a while and both rolls had been sat in my fridge for a couple of years before getting their time in my camera. I'm just glad I remembered what to do with it....
Here's a few favourites from our day out at Preston Dock and Lytham St Annes. I had fun experimenting with Fomapan 400 and filters and the chance to use a different developer was too good to pass up. Foma has a vintage look to it at the best of times, but the filters enhanced it and the FX-55 developer brought out the full tonal range with ease. It even tamed the famous "Fomapan Bloom" highlights which were not blown out at all. I have a couple of rolls in Medium Format that I hope to use before the summer is out and I will definitely be developing them in FX-55. As always I have placed these and more in an albums on Flickr you can visit using the links below. I hope you enjoy them.
Preston Dock
Lytham St Annes
Nik & Trick - Geoff Crawley's FX-55 developer
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Aircrew Remembered - Sgt. Alan Lever Ridings - Spitfire W3644
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