# shooting
Yesterday evening was lesson #2 of the 4 week black and white photography course at Stills. Over the last week I filled up a 36 roll of Ilford HP5 Plus ISO 400 film using a Pentax K1000 with a 50 mm 1:2 lens[1]. I found it surprisingly challening to fill take that many images, especially because the last week has been very typical[2]. Without anything "inspiring" to document, and with the "pressure" to shoot a full roll in a week, I mostly took the camera out with the dog. And the dog was often the subject.
We'd been encouraged to write down our exposure settings whilst shooting. Naturally, and somewhat unsurprisingly, I mucked this up. Wanting to capture all the detail, meant I ended up capturing next to none of the detail.[3]. Oh well.
Several shots of the beach at dawn: Water filled ripples in the sand refelecting a crimson sky; the standing waves on the stream's path across the beach; the dog jumping over groyne #2; through the culvert under the promenade. Further upstream; the storm drain; the pylon as viewed from the park; the dog jumping the over the stream[4] in pursuit of a ball. A pair of swans being abnoxious to a pair of geese. The ugly bridge over the uglier road[5]. Our entrance stairway, which sometimes gets good light and casts nice shadows, and the spider plant by the front door. The view from my window.
# developing
It's fiddly. We practiced popping open the cannister the walking the film onto a reel a few times, eyes open in the light, then eyes closed. I don't remember having to cut off the leader when I last did this more than a decade ago, and i wish it wasn't necessary[6]. The last time I did this I used a changing bag, and I presumed that's what we would be doing. Instead we headed into the darkroom, six of us plus the instructor. Red light off. Go. With half of my film on the reel it started binding - pull it out, restart. Again. and again. Swapped to other reel[7], same again, but instead of pulling it out, I opted for lots of half steps to get it home.
The instructor clicks her fingers and echo-locates to move around the darkroom checking everyone has got everything all tickity-boo before lights up.
# chemistry
- 6:30 Develop (Ilfotec LC29 mixed 1:19)
- 0:30 Stop
- 5:00 Fix
- Rinse with water
- Little drop of wetting agent
# first glimpse
With the film still on the reel you can give it a shake to get any excess water off. It's a great feeling seeing images on your negatives as you pull them off the reel. It worked, and it feels like magic[8]. Relief tinged with joy. Or the other way around.
# second glimpse
After hanging it up the dryer for ~20 minutes or so, it's time to slice them up and have a look at them on the light box with a loupe.
# results
Whilst I've only seen them in negative, I am really pleased with how this roll turned out. All 36 are, or at least seem to be, correctly exposed. I caught the dog mid-flight jumping over the stream. And I have some proof that swans are dickheads.
# Next week
Contact sheets. And printing the week after that.
I am feeling impatient.
# footnotes
that had been dropped and dinged, more than once in its past; the focus ring was not smooth ↩︎
read: dull ↩︎
I made a template, for capturing: datetime, subject, shutter, aperture, lat, lon, facing (as in what direction i was facing), notes. But I often didn't take my phone, with the notetaking app with me, or I took a photo, and then another, and forgot what everything had previously been set to. Pen & paper is likely the way to go here ↩︎
if it's in focus it'll be the best shot from the roll ↩︎
a quick look online showed this, which future me will do prior to heading into the darkroom / changing bag. ↩︎
because these paterson tanks can take two films. ↩︎
for the avoidance of doubt: it's not magic. it's chemistry. ↩︎
all lines are geometric ↩︎