the elephant

Whenever I shoot my XA at night I usually follow it up with a couple of rolls shot at ISO 800 in daylight, because I forgot to change the setting of the light meter. This time I ended up with a roll of K400 and a roll of Tri-X, both shot at ISO 800 in bright sunlight. Both of them could probably have worked in Rodinal at 60min as well, but I decided to give them a little push anyway. For K400 this was just about right, but the Tri-X actually didn’t need it. For K400 the push actually sorted out the low contrast issues it usually has in Rodinal, but then it increased grain a little as well.

I will also have the opportunity to try out some new film that just arrived this morning from Nik and Trick Photoworks. Now I have a couple of rolls of Eastman Kodak Double-X cine film, a roll of XP2 and a roll of high contrast film that Richard kindly added as a bonus – now that’s what I call service! After seeing some great results from Double-X online, I’m considering a proper investment in a 400ft roll of this stuff at some point, but of course I wanted to try it out myself first before really going all in. 400ft are about 70-80 rolls of film, so that would be quite a commitment! However, I love Tri-X myself and this film looks like a mix of Tri-X and the old Double-X – it’s ISO 200 – and it might be around 50ct cheaper than Tri-X if I can find a way of getting it from Kodak directly. The XP2 is actually C41 black and white film, but after seeing some good examples I’m planning to stand-develop it in Rodinal. Although this is a fine grain film that I normally wouldn’t even consider, there is something special about this one: It actually works with the ICE dust and scratch removal of my scanner which normally doesn’t work with black and white film. At least once I want to try it out. If it works well I might try Rodinal 1:25 or 1:50 to see whether I can get some structure from it and have less work with dust-spotting my scans. As for the bonus roll, I actually don’t really know what this stuff is. It’s ISO 50 and supposedly like Eastman Kodak’s SS-331, but other than that I’m not sure. ISO 50 is of course a bit of a stretch for shooting street, but I’ll give it a try. We certainly get enough sunny days around here, although ironically it’s grey and rainy today.

All pictures taken with: Olympus XA, F.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8.
Kentmere 400 EI 800 stand-developed in Rodinal 1:100, 75min.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

It was almost as if he was posing for me.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Looks like she has flowers coming out of her ears!

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Decisive moment practice.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Little surfites enjoying the icecream.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Injured …

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Ah, the sea!

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

The dog was clearly curious.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

One for the enigma series. I see this tag all over town and as graffiti skills go in this place, it’s one of the better ones.

Comments

  • George

    The last time I left New York I carried in mynder a book called Hiding the elephant.
    What’s that about photography?
    After many readings and thousands of photographs there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
    And her (photography, in the case it has a gender) is returning me back a proud harvest.
    At last I’ve learned that technicalities don’t deserve much attention…
    If you choose trix or Ilford hp5, if you scan with such or some other, if you have a leica or not. Or summicron and bla, bla, bla.
    What matters is what photography is for you and how you achieve that goal.
    Which one? Your personal one.
    Dreams are private.
    But don’t forget Cervantes:
    “God bless the inventor of dreams, the cloak that cover all men thinkings”
    Enjoy

  • George

    Computers. They are so ironic…
    They take mynder for bag.
    The s missing cover is my fault.

  • 🙁 The comments were the last straw…:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(

    • Lilly Schwartz

      Which comments, Subroto?

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