Pig Sty Avenue

(Almost) everything must go. I've started flogging my expired film collection on eBay . It seems to be going for the same price as new film. And REALLY old film is clearly collectable. I've got some Ilford 127 from the 1960s, which someone will perhaps pay good money for, as a display item. I'll spend the profits on new film. Gone are the days when unreliability in the process was what I wanted. I've got a few rolls of expired 120 which I'll use, though, because they're Portra, Ektachrome and Tri-X. I'm going to put them through the Holga, whose hot-shoe is working. You can't rely on natural light with a plastic camera. And there's the Ilford Sporti 4, which takes a 35mm film onto a 127 reel, AND has a functioning PC flash socket. The idea's been growing for some time: when using a camera with few controls and a plastic lens, I need reliable film.

I've had 8 or 9 rolls of film through the Nikon F in the last few months. Every one of them has been underexposed by about 2 stops. I realised this suddenly whilst scanning the 2 rolls from the Orange Walk, and 2 more from the anti-Trump protest in George Sq. And I cast my mind back to the black and white darkroom course I did at Streetlevel back in March, when my prints were all coming out underexposed. Since then I've learned to compensate with the enlarger, which is ok, but one wants good negatives. You can compensate in scanning software, too, but you lose that pin-sharpness you should get from an F and the f1.4 50mm lens. Soon after I got the F I sent it off for a CLA to a company in Liverpool . That was back in 2011, and after seven years I'm unwilling to say categorically that they didn't do a good job. It does seem that a year later I blamed myself for the fact the F wasn't taking quite the photos I wanted, "If you take a not-very-good photo with ...

I took a few not-bad photos at the 10k womens' race: the one of the winner crossing the line with her hands up would have made the back page of a paper in the olden days, but not really good enough to make a sell-able print, now. I learned a lot,including: just be calm, and remember to look at the meter needle, look at the background. And think , don't just snap away. I also learned that I really don't like HP5+, not enough contrast. I've only got the negs to go on from the Orange walk, and from the anti Trump protest in George Square. Several of them look intriguing, and I'm looking forward to scanning them to see what's print-worthy, sometime later this week. I processed four films yesterday, different makes, different speeds and therefore dev times, and promised myself I'll never get into that ridiculous situation again, taking four times longer than it should have. I've been using up expired film, all different manufacturers, but from hereon in i...