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I love summer. I love nature. I love green. Shot in July this year on Kodak Portra 400.

A couple of months ago a friend in Berlin sent me a roll of Lomography’s Fantôme Kino black and white film. It was way too dark and cloudy to shoot it over winter, but we’ve had a few brighter weeks recently, so I thought I’d finally give it a go. Some days have been starkly bright actually, which I think is perfect for this ISO 8 rated film. The lowest ISO film I’d shot before was Rollei RPX 25, so I didn’t actually know what to expect to be honest.

I didn’t realise the film is not DX coded, so my camera remained at 200 ISO (rating for last film I shot before this one), and I shot a couple of frames like this, before manually pushing the ISO down to 25; as low as I could get it in my dad’s old Chinon. Those first frames were pretty much wasted (very underexposed). Most of the shots I took indoors at ISO25 were very underexposed too, but I got lucky with two that I shot right in front of a window on a sunny morning. On the whole, this is one for outdoors. Or flash and tripod indoors. Apart from the leaf double-exposure below, I shot the whole thing freehand. 🙂

As far as development goes, I used Rodinal at the timing they recommend for Compard R09 (8min) and used Ilford stopbath and fixer. Despite using Ilfotol in my final wash, I had issues with watermarks again. Super annoying. And constant problems with dust while scanning. I feel like I have tried everything to reduce dust while scanning, but still have issues. Would love some tips. Worth mentioning that this is super curly film, so was a pain to scan. Might be easier if you have a flatbed, don’t know, but I was up until 1 am and I started scanning at 9 pm. Jokes.

Here are the best of the results I got:

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to try my hand at colour development this year. The results I’m sharing here are from a roll of Fuji Superia Velvia 800 I shot in March. It gifted to me by some friends for my birthday last year; not an easy to come by film – it was actually sourced from Japan. That alone should tell you I should have sent it to a lab, but I decided to develop it myself anyway. This was only my third go at developing colour film. Obvs decided to develop in the evening of a day where I’d had about 3hrs sleep the night before. I think I’ve been trying subconsciously, to squeeze as much art into the last 10 days as I can, knowing I have some stressful stuff coming up in my day job in the next few days, which will wipe me out as far as creative inspiration goes.

Anyway. I used the chemicals from my Tentenal C41 kit again for this one. Side note here for the self developing nerds, I’ve noticed the developer going dark already, and I only mixed this up about 2 months ago and have done only 2 films so far. Not great. Would be keen to know what C41 developers other people are using. This kit is supposed to be good for 10 rolls, but doubt the developer will last that long. Onto the actual development; I must have put too little blix in, because I ended up with a whole roll of only half – 3/4 exposed frames. If I had inverted the development tank to agitate the blix it might not have happened, but blix leaks out of my tank when I invert it, so used a stirrer instead. I did something wrong anyway. I could be annoyed with myself, given how promising some of the shots look, but I sort of love these shots anyway; they hint at something greater.

Despite the lack of sleep I ended up scanning the film the same night as well. I think scanning film when you’ve been awake for 21 hrs is the “you can’t just pause the game, mom” of film. A few sample shots below. Keen to know what you guys think.

Starting last year, I’ve managed to develop 12 films black and white to date. With varying success – hah! I feel reasonably comfortable with the process now though, so thought I would finally venture into trying to develop colour film. A short note here; I prefer shooting colour, but everyone always tells me to shoot more black and white. I will give it to them that it is easier to shoot in monochrome when the weather/sky is consistently grey. It took me around 7 weeks to shoot this roll (vs film 12, which I shot in 2-3 hours), just seeking out colour-worthy scenes in this bleakest part of winter. Oof.

I ordered Tentenal’s Colortec C41 kit from Fotoimpex in Berlin; even with international postage, it was cheaper than what I saw it listed for anywhere in the UK. Go figure. I won’t go into what mission it was to get it from the courier, but I wasn’t in a hurry anyway, so no harm was done. The way the chemicals are supplied, makes it dead easy to mix 1L of developer, 1L of bleach fix (blix) and 1L of stabilizer. That is where it being “easy” stopped for me.

The actual development instructions supplied with the kit was pretty confusing to me, so I took the advice supplied here. I don’t have a sous vide/water bath, so I was struggling to think how I would bring my chemicals to the exact temperature (I went with the 30°C option), whilst having to constantly agitate the developing tank. Ended up feeling as clumsy as I used to in chemistry lab sessions. First, after carefully bringing the developer to the right temperature, I started pouring it into the tank, before pouring out the water I was using to soak the film. Only realised when the tank started running over, so had to empty the tank, and accept the developer I had poured into it was down the drain. Heated more developer, and then started the 8 minute development process, trying to agitate with one hand, and trying to bring blix up to temperature over a bowl of hot water with the other. My agitation method was very stop start, and with a mix of stirring and inverting; who knows how the process was affected. Blix leaked out of the tank when inverting it, so I settled for stirring. I think that step went okay. Blix stinks by the way. I then washed/rinsed the film for 6 minutes in running water (wasteful, I know), before doing 1 minute of agitation with stabilizer. The kit / blog I consulted does not recommend this, but since I often have problems with watermarks, I did one rinse with de-ionised water, and one with de-ionised water with a few drops of Ilfotol. The latter might have been a mistake, because I had massive problems with fluff/dust on the film while scanning. To an infuriating degree actually. The featured image at the header of this post, I probably scanned 20 times, before begrudgingly cropping it. It is one of my favourite shots of the last months, but I could not get a scan of it without spots of fluff/dust on it. If anyone has tips for me in this regard, let me know for sure.

The result are a bit of a mixed bag. I would blame the lack of sunlight, more than I would the fact I’ve not been able to go anywhere in the last 7 weeks. The right light can make the most mundane things glow up, and worth looking at. So it is not the lack of things to photograph. It is the lack of “look at what the light did” moments.

I should say, I’ve not used this kind of film before (Fuji Superia 400 Premium), so not sure what results to expect. There was a reddish tint to most shots. This might have been a result of my development process, but I managed to correct this with scanning software anyway. Again, if anyone knows, let me know. Not sure how I feel about doing colour development myself. I feel like it might be easier to drop it off and get the scans back in an hour from a high street place. I don’t know if I’d want to risk developing myself if I had treasured / potentially amazing shots on a roll. I might shoot a few cheap practice rolls, just around the neighbourhood to see if I get a hang of the method, and what the results look like. Standing in the kitchen for an hour noodling away with chemistry kit is better than looking at screens anyway. Some of the results from this first go:

Took this one on 02Jan, when I met my boss for the first time in 10 months. We walked from Edgware Road to Embankment across an eerily deserted Zone 1. You can see the reddish tint I mean in this shot:

Took this on my walk home from getting the Covid vaccine, using cranes in the sky to navigate by. Might be my favourite from the roll:

I sort of like these bare branch fringes / frames in winter shots:

This was early one morning, and there legit was a golden glow in the air:

Two guys asked me if I was lost when I stopped to take this. They didn’t see the 🙂 hiding in the shadows behind them:

Weird double/triple exposure. Figure on rollerskates in a dreamscape:

I haven’t been shooting any film in the last few weeks. Lacking inspiration / motivation at the moment. But we had a rare snow day on Sunday, and I decided to go out and shoot a roll. I’m currently midway through a colour film on the Konica, and felt like shooting B+W, so dug out my dad’s old Chinon CP-7M. That one also had a half shot film in it, but it was an expired roll, and I didn’t have high expectations of it anyway, juding by the last expired roll I had developed. I might double expose it at some point. Think the last time I touched it was when I was shooting some mega sunset from my window back in November.

Anyway, decided to try a roll of Rollei RPX25. I shot one of these last summer and the results were pretty interesting. I developed it using Rodinal at 1+50 (11 min dev time; 30 secs inversion and then once every minute or so), and the usual Ilford stop bath and fixer. I probably need to make the stop bath fresh at some point, because the colour is starting to turn. I’ve been using deionised water in my final wash, with Ilfotol in the very final rinse. It seems to have done the trick to avoid water marks. No major scratches on this one that I could see, so I was pretty happy.

The sun made up for a mostly grey week, by showing its face yesterday, warming the day to a balmy 2°C; an invitation to head out. None was needed. I’ve been heading out in all sorts recently; rain, fog, night, day, freezing wind, just to get a break from being inside.

I ended up walking around random suburban streets for hours and hours. Not really going anywhere. Just enjoying the sun, and delaying going home. Terraced housing, was one of the things that weirded me out most when I moved to England. Whole streets and neighbourhoods; same, same, same. I grew up outside a city where 80% of houses are detached, and each is different from the next. When I walk around here, I look around for small details in amongst all the sameness. And find it too. At one point yesterday, I had two old guys across the street call out to me, asking me if I was lost/needed help. “No, I’m just looking at that, thanks.” *points at a thing*

Maybe I do feel a bit lost. Lost in limbo. Like a lot of us do at the moment. Unable to make plans, go places or see/meet people. But I’ve been finding it sort of comforting just walking around without a set destination in mind, and without consulting maps on my phone. Being in motion, if only temporarily. Maybe there’s a comforting analogy here; we’re all individuals, but we’re all in a similar boat. Or in similar-looking boxes. Waiting out a time when we might escape again.

Well, I’m continuing the trend from the last post and doing a bit of writing for the sake of catharsis. I like this idea anyway of words flowing from images. I took this one down the street this morning.

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In a normal year, I’m usually travelling between Christmas and NYE, because it’s usually pretty dead in the city around that time. It’s also a good time to try and grab a few days of winter sun. Last year I spent Christmas day walking around a completely deserted forest reserve on Sao Miguel island on my own. It was eerie, but it was amazing. Pure nature. A total dream day. This year, under the current Tier 4 restrictions, I stayed home like I was supposed to (although I had invites from friends to join them at theirs). In the evening, my neighbour and I dragged out chairs into the shared hallway, put on our biggest coats and had a drink by candlelight; a cool little bonding session.

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Even when I’m travelling, I’m usually back home before NYE, to decompress before getting back to work the Monday after. I’ve always been loathe to go out and see the big fireworks in the city. The idea of being in the crush of people in the cold doesn’t appeal to me. The last time I thought fireworks were actually beautiful, was watching the red glow of them reflected in the turquoise waters of the ocean at Arniston, when I was a teen. The air was still warm from the scorching day, and from the bluff where we were sitting, we watched a few drunken skinny dippers run into the waves below. Red glow, blue water, white waves, warm air. Some memories stick like that.

Last night I went to bed around 11pm, feeling mellow (and slightly drunk), and thinking I might sleep right through the fireworks. But I was stirred by something like the sound of popcorn popping in another room just before midnight. I was going to stay in my warm bed, but the noise increased, and beckoned me to do what I always do. Open the window, and watch it all go off. Fireworks are always big around here, but it felt like everyone had bought twice the amount they usually do, and was hell bent on blasting every bad memory of 2020 to smithereens. Every internal scream, every anxious/frustrated hour, every depressed feeling, was tied to a rocket and blasted into the night. The sound of it resembled a war zone. Every loud pipebomb-sounding explosion, every screech and every whistle, was aimed at obliterating 2020. The red flashes on the horizon resembled lightning.

I suppose fireworks are meant to be celebratory, but from where I stood, it looked like a send off. A great big “f*** you” to the year gone. A cleansing of sorts. I thought about the people I met around my neighbourhood this year, and in bordering neighbourhoods, seeing and hearing the same thing. Wondering what they were thinking and feeling just then. I felt a weird sense of solidarity, even though I curse the fireworks every year. Eventually the noise started dying down to a low crackle. The air was thick with smoke. It blanketed us. Everything and everyone. And I imagined a collective sigh of relief rising up through it.

the travel tracker app on my phone recently informed me that it has been 281 days since my last trip. it feels as long, and longer. (I think it might be the longest period I’ve been at home uninterrupted….ever. e-v-e-r.) a few weeks ago I was scrolling back through pictures of past trips, and found one of those nothing and everything pictures that take you right back into a time and place.

an attempt at a “self portrait”, taken in the room I was staying in in a “lodge” of sorts in juodkrante in lithuania a few years ago. I’d been to juodkrante before, but only passing through on a daytrip to nida. I don’t know why I thought spending a few days there, and out of season would be a good idea. I guess the appeal was the forest and the isolation (the deep, deep irony of that); far away from london. it was a slightly bad idea actually. I ended up being slightly bored and lonely. everything was pretty dead at the end of season. there was no decent food to be had, and it was eerily quiet, except for the odd shouty drunk who would join me to watch dusk settle on the glassy pink-blue of the lagoon in the evenings.

I walked through the forest to the beach every day. and shared it two or three people. I remember exactly how warm the sun was, and exactly how cold the water was. exactly how cool and green, and slightly scary the forest was, walking through it and in it. how sticky the spiderwebs and how pungent the mushrooms. the creak of trees leaning in the wind. the pink-blue lagoon, and dreaming in green in that room.

TL;DR: it’s great what vivid memories pictures can evoke

Expired Fuji Xperia 200 shot on Konica C35 (what else?)