Those of us who were brought up on film can surely remember the excitement and indeed trepidation as we left the photo shop clutching an envelope full of freshly developed photos. What was on that film? Would they all have come out alright? Well, I experienced similar excitement just last week.
I think it was sometime in January 2013 that I plopped a roll of Ilford HP5 into my 30 year old Pentax ME Super. The big question was whether the camera would still work after many years shut away in a cupboard? As it happens the photos were OK, certainly nothing to shout about, but OK. I must confess I had, with few exceptions, completely forgotten what was on the film. It was therefore quite interesting, on hot Saturday afternoon in August, to be sent back in time to cold, bleak landscapes taken six months or so ago.
Compared with images taken on the little Yashica T5, the latest photos proved to be considerably more grainy, which I would expect from a 400ASA film, but most of them were a stop or two underexposed. This may perhaps be partly due to the fact that the film was several months past its ‘develop by’ date, and partly due to exposure errors on my part, It may even be that the old Pentax’s battery needs replacing or the metering system is not as reliable as it once was. Not to worry, The Gimp saved the day.
All the latest film images can be viewed at:
http://www.harding.ch/Gallery21/main.php?g2_itemId=1346
