Photography 2009

It's going to be Ilford all the way this weather. I got a roll of colour I'd taken with the Leica back from Boots. There might be some problem with the shutter by the look of some of the photos. And none of them are really any good. The fact is, I just haven't gelled with that camera. I always feel afraid of dropping it or putting it in a puddle of beer or wtf.

And so, I'm going to go 120, and more specifically 100% Ilford Sporti. It has just the one shutter speed (about 1/30sec is my best guess), and the two apertures (f11 and f16, approx.) What that means is, with HP5, this is a splendid night-time and low light camera. The photo of The Bairn below shows you what I mean - and that was dev'd at 400 - I could have pushed it to 3200.

Another big attraction of 120 is the twelve exposures, which is just about right for a shoot-and-dev-all-in-one-day approach: which is what one needs to learn about how the camera works in particular light situations. A roll of 36 exposure 35mm sits in the camera for weeks, sometimes, before I get around to developing it; by which time, of course, I've only the dimmest recollection of what the original light was like. Whereas 12 exposures, get the buggers clicked and into the home-made ID11 before bedtime, eh? I should say so.

And working with such limited settings will be great: a kind of photographic haiku.

So I'm starting to stock up on HP5 120 from eBay, and get the separate chemicals to make my own developer and fixer. And all that will be funded in this uncertain-employment situation by flogging the Leica and the Industar61 lens, and the bulk film loader and light meters and God-knows what other bit of paraphenalia I've impulse-eBayed and never used. 'Tis engendered. Hell and night/Must bring this monstrous birth to world's light. Or something.



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