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A Story
From the recent snow storms. Ilford Delta Pro 100, which I think is totally the wrong film for this shot – I would have preferred it on HP5+, or developed in some much-granier way. Which brings me to the new news: as of tomorrow, I should have a functioning darkroom in my basement. Well, not an actual darkroom – but everything I need to develop my own B&W film. Which means I can develop with Rodinol ’till my heart’s content and get as grainy and contrasty a shot as I want. 🙂
But seriously: how do you lose a shoe in the middle of a snow storm?
Well, the losing part is somewhat conceiveable. But how do you not go bavk for it?
P.s. it was nice knowin’ ya before you became a b&w film snob… 😉
I still have some darkroom equipment boxed up in the basement, if you find yourself in need of anything.
My first take is that I disagree on the graininess — the detail in the snow could get lost in the grain. I might like a contrastier film, though, like Tri-X 400. Though this does look pretty constrasty…
But it’s a different mindset. With film, you have to make those sorts of decisions before you shoot. Sometimes before you even know what you’re going to shoot.
Ha ha, funny Steve. (And I’ve got a digital shot queued to post in a couple of days, so you haven’t lost me entirely!)
And Mark, I think the snow looks much too smooth here. It’s not a portrait model, and I’d rather it looked less like one. 🙂 The “model” here is the shoe, which doesn’t need a low-grain film to make it look shiny and new. I would have rather had the contrast in texture between the dirty, driven-over snow and the shiny shoe be accentuated by the grain. Even with loss of detail in the snow, which I think would have made this a better image.
But as you say, I shot what I had in the camera already. Fortunately I’ve got two of these Bessa 66s, so hopefully I’ll be able to preload them with different films and achieve results closer to what I want. As soon as the second comes back from having its bellows replaced…
I’ve just about picked my working films for these cameras. Ilford Delta Pro 100, HP5+ (shot at either 100 or 200), and Delta 3200 (at whatever speed I can manage, due to light conditions). So far, I prefer HP5+ over the other two. And if all goes well in the darkroom, I’ll see about color…
I’d like to point out that it’s quite easy to lose a shoe (glove, hat, earband, or teenager) one isn’t wearing.
Jorj, you should check out Fuji Neopan (Acros 100) as a fine grain alternative to Delta 100. It is dirt cheap and far easier to develop that Delta or T-max. Keep the film coming you snob.
Thanks Robin. I did shoot a test roll of Acros 100, which worked out fine. I’ll keep this in mind once I get the darkroom up and running; I’m starting it up with all-Ilford product (mostly because I liked HP5+ best of all the film I’ve shot), and will come back to Acros 100 once things are working. Or not working – right now I’m practicing feeding 120 film onto stainless developer reels… 🙂
Would love to buy a print of this! Superb.