Haven’t done that in a while… Finially developed
the test shots I took months ago at Dad and Butler’s. These are the
first shots with my new (to me) 5×7 field camera. 2 of the three turned
out well, very well actually. They are almost perfect. The third had
nothing on it, but it was uniformally fogged. That makes me worry that
my procrastination has made me waste several boxes of film. They are
expired, but different films age differently. I’m going out tomorrow
and shoot a couple of shots in the back yard to test a couple of boxes
of film out. I don’t mind throwing out the occaisional roll of 35mm
film, but boxes of 5×7 film are a little expensive. I’m going to have
to buy a small freezer to put my film in soon. I have lots of 35mm
film, years worth, so I have to store it properly… I’m hoping to
shoot a lot of it on my upcoming trips next year.
In the short term, I hope to shoot a bunch on my
trip up to Ithaca. I’m going to go through several rolls of film and
(hopefully) dozens of sheets trying to get a really nice shot of my
cousin, and I’ll do a bunch on the upstate New York scenery and cities
that I love so much. Large format availible light portrature is always
a bit hit or miss, so I’m anticipating wasting a bunch of film. If you
nail that one shot though, you forget all the others… I ordered some
cases for my large format cameras at long last. They’ve been shuffled
between duffle bags and a backpack for too long, Now I’ll be able to
carry them round and protect them properly. With any luck they’ll also
help me shoot a little more often (yeah right).
I’ve almost got my 35mm enlarger up and running.
Kenji made a couple of negative holders for me. One almost works but it
doesn’t hold the film flat enough, that leads to some parts of the
picture being out of focus on the paper… Once I get that going, I’ll
be able to do 5×7 contact prints and enlargments from 35mm. If I had
more space, I’d also be able to do enlargements from 4×5 as well…
Jenny, I’ll let you know when everything is ready…:-)
Isaac