when missing the mark

On the weekend we were going to go up to Lanaconing Silk Mill in western Maryland to take pictures of the abandonedness. (For an idea you can see here). Only then the school that was arranging the tour went bankrupt! The tour was canceled, and the information on the tour had been removed from their website. I managed to find the instructor on the internet and check with him. He helpfully suggested disputing the charge with PayPal. He was still doing the tour, but since the school hadn't paid him, or the owner of the property we'd have to fork out again. They probably owe him money, and he's probably been screwed too, so I don't hold it against him, in fact I think he was doing the best that he could. I had a negative feeling about the experience and didn't really want to go anymore, so we decided instead to have a nice weekend at home.

On Saturday I started a stew in the slow cooker, and started mixing the color negative chemicals (C-41) and processed about six rolls of film. The kit that I bought is supposed to be good for about 8 rolls, but from what I read you can stretch it for even more. The results were decent, although I hadn't quite worked out the best way to prevent water spots and streaks.

We also did a little photo shoot. Lena got dressed up in a pretty blue summer dress and I took some pictures with my Hasselblad and Nikon F6. I hadn't used the Hassey in a long time, and I have to ask myself why, because it is a mechanical joy to use. All of this was experimental, I had expired film in the Hassey that I wanted to test, and the Nikon had film that I was intending to intentionally damage, which I mentioned a while ago. When I got back I subjected the damaged film to various forms of abuse.

Sunday we hiked through Rock Creek Park in Washington DC. This is a little 6.5mile hike that we first did when we lived in Silver Spring. From there you can hike through the forest in the middle of the city and come out around Cleveland Station and we take the Metro back to Silver Spring. (Although we usually stop for lunch at CalTort).

Sunday evening I went through a batch of about 200 rolls of film that I had won on an eBay auction. It was all in various states and condition. The gentleman that I had bought the film from had purchased a bunch of old film from eBay and used it to design PhotoShop filters to make digital pickys look better. (...so just shoot film and skip the icky digital)? (No there is nothing wrong with digital, but you should embrace its look rather that trying to Make Photography Great Again). Pictured above is a roll of Ilford HP3 from the 1950s. I a little bit want to shoot and process this film just to see how it will come out. But I am pretty sure that it won't. And I am not even sure what the right time should be. There were a few rolls in there that were just too old to be useful for anything, but interesting to have for the pretty boxes. Most of it could be split into to categories, stuff that was effectively still fresh, and stuff that was 10-20-30 years old and good for shooting expired. I expect to have lots of fun experimenting.

The Ilford box also had a green side.

Monday (today) morning I processed another six rolls of film, trying a different strategy to get rid of the water spots and streaks. The negatives looked a bit better, but I won't know until I scan them in tonight. three of the rolls were the damaged portraits of Lena. They didn't look too bad though. Maybe I didn't damage them enough! lol.

Overall I think trying C-41 had some mixed results. If I decide to seriously do my own color I am probably going to want a water bath that will regulate the temperatures. (I don't think I have the patience to do that regularly). In some ways once you figure out the temperature, color is actually easier. The time is the same for all C-41 for example. So you can process different types of film in the same tank. I will have to hone my technique, which is lacking compared with black and white. The real question is, is it worth it? For black and white it clearly is, I have that process down and black and white prints that I make are much better than what I get from the lab. I can get color processed with no scans or prints for about $5. For that it may not be worth doing my own, except for when I want to experiment.

Next weekend we might go to Connecticut. But then this last weekend we were supposed to go to Western Maryland...