Pig Sty Avenue

From a forum on Photrio: Newbie DIY C-41 Recipe/Formula/Process | Page 2 | Photrio.com Photography Forums My note of recipe from Jacobson et al, 1988 Developer Water to make                  1l  Calgon                                                                 2g Sodium sulphite anhydrous              2.2g   [already have] Potassium bromide              1.5g  [already have] Potassium carbonate (anhydrous?)      37.5g Hydroxylamine sulphate              2g  CD-4  (“add 6 hours before use”?)      4.75g [ Axel Color   £12.70 + £29.60 (!) P&P] ...

I'm going to Russia next month for a few days, so I got the FED2 out and remembered having a downer on it, or its Industar61 lens when I used it last summer - but I looked at the photos, like the one above, and they're ok, for Fuji Superia and Dock Head St shop processing. And then one thing led to another and I got to thinking about the cameras I have and want to keep and wtf I'm going with photography. Anyways, the Nikon F will be the main camera for now, though I might get an F5 later in the year. All manner of lenses and filters, too, of course. I'll keep the FED2, also, having mended its light leak and bonded with it somewhat in the process. I'll maybe get some better LTM lenses for it. For MF I'll manage with the Agfa Isolette folder until I can afford a Hasselblad 500. And of course the Holga, the one I paid over the odds for in China, I love it - strong vignetting yet very sharp in the middle of the image. The Ilford Sportis were a wee coll...

"i don't care if your a fictional character created by Mary Shelley, you are still coming with us" , originally uploaded by i didn't mean to go to Stoke . This photo (by i didn't mean to go to Stoke ) gets me thinking: I need to get out more - go places where I can take photos. As it is, I'm stuck in almost all weekend, every weekend. I don't mind so much with studying, but today's its work, marking. I fucking hate this job. Thank God there's only four more weeks of it. The burden of marking, with nearly 80 students, is seriously damaging to a personal life.

I thought I'd take loads. The fact is, I don't really like the whole street candid thing, I've decided. It's overrated, and potentially a bit creepy. So you ask people if you can take their photo, and they stand up straight and put on a phoney grin. Or look offended and say no. And taking photos of women here could be seriously bad for your health. Instead, I've taught myself B&W dev, bought and learned to use a rangefinder, and bought a Sporti for low fi. And I've spent a lot of time on Flickr, looking and asking questions. Lots more time thinking about photography. A read of this blog would tell you that. One of the reasons for not taking so many photos here is, it's not my culture. Any you need to know a culture to know when to take photos, and to get yourself into situations when it's good to take them. I could never do that here, and would constantly risk cultural blunders. So that's the next step, get into situations when it...

Well, now, I'm not so sure about the need for a dedicated film scanner. I've been scanning (pun intended) through the medium format group's discussions and there's a lot of information. Also in the black and white film group . Here's a lot of technical advice and info . The bottom line would seem to be, with b&w medium format you can get good enough results on a flatbed scanner at 1200 dpi. I've spent £7 on eBay and bought a processing tank, (that's it on the left, there). The man says it went in the post on Saturday, so it should be here soon. I spent a bit of time yesterday reading up my Photography Made Simple book. I need to buy developer, fixer, and a wash. I'll get some in powder form for ease of carrying. I could research the individual chemicals making up the solutions, and buy them even more cheaply... All of this because I'm becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of the pics I'm getting from the d5...

People have been developing their own film at home since 1826, long before processing machines, and we’ll keep doing it long after it stops making economic sense for labs to provide the service. In terms of black & white film, we’ve already crossed that threshold. Indeed. Development of a 120 film (12 exposures) costs £5 for colour, £9 for B&W. I'll get a couple of rolls of colour done, but then I'm moving on to B&W, and doing the bugger myself. The link above has the basics, (you can get all the gear, he says, for less than $50, so that's £25). This fella has more detail . There's a film scanner to think of, too...

...the BBC have used one of my photos !

Level 1 cinema space Baltic (1) , originally uploaded by WYGD . I took The Bairn to the Baltic yesterday, for a show of Flickr photos, including some of mine. The photos were shown in the cinema, and it was a bit freaky seeing them so big.