Pig Sty Avenue

  Marvellous idea, Flickr . Without it, I wouldn't have remembered that I'd used Rodinal back in 2012-ish. This photo ticks a number of "cool" boxes: taken with a Nikon F, (which was showing its age), on Ilford Delta 3200, pushed to 6400 and developed in a Shanghai kitchen-sink darkroom, in Rodinal. Those were the days.  It's set me to think about Rodinal again, and then in the last couple of days, I've learned about Parodinal . Sodium sulphite, paracetemol, and ffs, caustic soda. I am writing this whilst waiting for the safety glasses and nitrile gloves to arrive in the post so that I can make up a batch. What larks! 

  The iPhone chose to take this at 180 ASA, f1.78 1/202sec and an ev of -1.3. So, with the F4: 100 ASA film, 1/60s and f2(?) it'd be a good exposure without EV compensation? I'm not quite guessing, but I haven't yet got the ability to be more or less sure of an exposure without a meter. I had thought of getting a Pentax K1000 or Nikon FM, both good cameras with simple light meters and otherwise fully manual, but that's just daft when I've got a bloody good camera which can be fully manual if wanted. AND it avoids feeding my Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I've got a nice straightforward light meter app on the iPhone, rediscovered only yesterday. 

I like the way this has a sixties look. A low res jpeg here, but still nice and sharp around her face and the tatty arm of the chair. This was with Kentmere 400, the Nikkor 55mm f1.4 D, and it probably had the aperture fully open. Dev'd in Kodak 23, fixed in plain hypo.  Also, I bought a negative squeegee which greatly accelerated the drying process. I'm at the stage now where I can shoot a roll in the morning, develop by lunchtime, the negs by tea-time, post process and blog any keepers with a glass of wine in the early evening. 

Saturday 9.15 I had an appointment at Parkhead for my 2nd shingles vaccinations. You have to get 2 to make it stick. I got home and put a roll of Kentmere 400 into the F4, and realised the lower display in the viewfinder wasn't working. I did a bit of research and found out about A.J. Johnstone in Hope St. I decided to take the camera in on Monday. I had planned to go to the Men's 10k in the city centre on Sunday, and would still do so, the viewfinder display being non-essential for a couple of rolls. But the side-effects of the shingles vaccine began to kick-in on Saturday night (dizziness, mostly) and by Sunday morning it was clear I was photographing nothing that day.  Monday morning, I managed to get in to work, and whilst the class were doing online tasks, I had a shufty at what AI was saying about my defunct lower display, and I learned that it's likely related to the connections between the finder and the rest of the camera. And so it transpired: the finder can sit ...

 I'm pleased with the two rolls I scanned at the weekend, but they're not as sharp as I would like. The possible reason for that is: the stand that holds the iPhone is not rock solid, so when I press the button, it wobbles. I set a timer at 3s, and watching it carefully, the wobbling was done by the time the photo of the negative was taken. But was it? just a little shake would be enough to soften the image. So, next go-round, I'll make it 5s.

  That's all from Molly and Sparky for now...