Developing Ilford XP2 Super in Rodinal

Developing Ilford XP2 Super in Rodinal

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

One of the first shots from a roll of Ilford XP2 super, developed in Rodinal – my first foray in to the world of home developing.

Film: Ilford XP2 Super, ISO400
Camera: Yashica Electro 35GT set with the ISO as-rated for the film

Development: Since XP2 is designed for a C-41 process (colour processed, but resulting in B&W negs, apparently to make it cheaper/easier to get processed on the high street) I thought I’d made a mistake in loading this in to the Yashica if I wanted to home develop.  A bit of Googling turned up some excellent articles (references below) about processing XP2 in a B&W developer called ‘Rodinal’, or ‘R09′, so I decided to give it a try.

The process is a bit different to a normal B&W method and opinions vary on best way, so I thought it was worth putting what I did out there as it may help someone get a second opinion.  This is a brief overview of what I did, if you want more info on any point, let me know!

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Shooting from the hip

Shooting from the hip

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

Tynemouth Market is held every weekend in the wonderful Tynemouth Metro station, its a fantastic place to wander around even without a camera and there is always an interesting stall with some oddity or knick-knack to take your interest.  It’s a great place to hone your street photography skills too since its packed with character, both the surroundings and the visitors!

I took along my Yashica Electro 35, loaded up with a roll of Ilford XP2 Super and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible.

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Benches: Part 1 – Leazes Park, Newcastle

Benches: Part 1 – Leazes Park, Newcastle

Friday, May 6th, 2011

I’m in the early stages of what I hope will be a long running street photography series based around people sitting on benches – as I’m planning on heading out again soon to take some more shots I thought it’d be a good idea to post the first of the shots here to kick things off properly.  These were all taken in Leazes park in Newcastle using a Bronica ETRs with a 70mm lens, on Fuji Velvia film.  All the subjects were asked for permission before shooting them so they’re not really candid shots, but I think its interesting to see how different people react to the camera and being told not to pose.  Ideally I’d like to get hold of the 40mm or 50mm lens so I can get in a little closer, but that’ll come when money allows.

See the rest of the set on Flickr here: Benches: Leazes Park

Shooting analog

Shooting analog

Monday, March 28th, 2011

I love my digital camera, I love taking photos with it and I love the ease with which I can transfer them on to my laptop, fiddle with the colours, crop them, straighten the horizon up and post them to Flickr with a few quick clicks of the mouse.  Its easy, its cheap (once you’ve bought the camera anyway) and its a reasonably safe bet that if you mess up a shot, you’ve taken another 50 very similar images, one of which will be good – but – its not exactly good for honing your skills.

Filling up a memory card with images pretty much assures that you’ll get at least one good photograph somewhere in the mix, but through good luck rather than good judgement.  The images you’ve taken are disposable, you cherry pick the best then delete the others and in some respects I think that removes some of the care, some of the thought process behind creating a photograph – in short, at least for me, it devalues what I’m doing.   I’m a terrible culprit for all of those crimes, I think its hard not to take advantage of the conveniences offered by digital cameras but I’m also aware that in order to get better, I need to slow myself down, think more and break out of the ‘three shots of everything’ mentality.

I recently bought a few film cameras (both 35mm and Medium format) from ebay with a view to forcing myself to slow right down, think about what I’m doing and hopefully produce better photographs as a result – time will tell if it pays off.

Tyne Bridge Tower

Tyne Bridge Tower

Monday, March 28th, 2011

 

The Tyne Bridge Tower building will be familiar to most people crossing the Tyne regularly – though certainly not for its architectural significance. Located on the Gateshead banks of the river, just along from the futuristic Sage building, its 13 stories of 1960s concrete clad exercise in function-over-form.  Abandoned by its former owners, the Inland Revenue, in 2005 and vacant ever since, its now scheduled for demolition and as I write this that operation is well under way.  It does have a redeeming quality though and one that was worth putting effort in to exploiting.

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