I recently tried the 100 asa version of this film so thought I would try the 400 asa version as well. Due to the success of the first film, I decided to buy a longer roll of this version.
I used the bulk roll loader to create a short roll and loaded it into my Contax 137 as I hadn’t used it in a while and blasted through it in a few minutes after school. I made sure no students were around and asked permission just in case. I then finished the film in our bird aviary. I wanted to finish the film to figure out the development times before I used more for something important.
For this roll, I used Fomadon R09 as it has started to form crystals and I want to finish it. I used a ratio of 1:50 for a time of 12 minutes with a temperature of 20 degrees.
Here are the results.
I like it. I love the photos from school. I have asked permission to take more and the headteacher said yes…no children though of course.
I think I will try the birds again on a brighter day with a 135mm lens so I can get a bit closer. They don’t mind me being in the aviary with them, especially if I take a misting water squirter so they can have a bath.
As for the Contax, I might move that up my top ten list. I always forget how much I like that body and lens combination.
Reading your post I was struck by how sad the times that we live in. As a former teacher myself, I was often asked to photograph students and staff for various secondary school events. Back in the late 80s and early 90s I used to shoot with an EOS 650 on XP1. How times have changed!
In the past so have I. But now, even having a camera in school is tricky. I had to ask permission and be where there was another teacher. Teaching is very sad sometimes.
Thanks for posting these, Peggy. The ISO400 emulsion shows tight grain structure and a long tonal gradation – a pleasant surprise considering your choice of developer.
Regarding permissions for photos: I recently completed a b&w shoot for our church’s revamped website. In shooting images of our adult and kids’ Sunday school classes, I had to work at limited angles, to avoid showing any faces other than those of folks who work for the church. These days one must avoid presenting images of cute children and teens online, for reasons that are both obvious and heartbreaking. As Mel Brooks once said, “What a woild. What a woild.”
I love seeing the photos I do have as they are a wonderful reminder of the influence I have had, it is sad that I can’t look back at recent classes, buy I understand why. I once got into a dispute with a teacher who posted photos of his students on Instagram. His argument, it is a private account…nothing is private on the Internet, and his argument was pure vanity, nothing to do with education.
Quite right. Whenever I took photos, I always passed on the finished prints to those who asked me to take them. Of course, I’m glad to say that social media didn’t exist at the time, thankfully…