Although I didn’t actually make a note of the exact date, I believe it was mid November last year when the Ilford HP5 plopped snuggly into the Yashica T5 and I began to look longingly skyward for the rain to come.
My idea was to use the fairly weatherproof point & shoot camera to capture a few very “soggy” images, to stroll about town as the heavens opened and to capture the rain sodden scenes in all their glory.
With dark, menacing skies and the first spots of rain making their presence felt on the pavements, my expectations for the first photo shooting were very high. Alas the sun won in the end, and the ground was hardly damp by the time I shot the first photo.
Photography in winter is always a bit of a compromise I suppose. When I was walking the streets with camera at the ready it was either too dark or too dry. As I looked wishfully out of the office window it was raining buckets and the lighting was absolutely perfect.
Despite all my little problems, the unique feeling of once again shooting with film after so many years was most rewarding. Not just snapping away with complete disregard of materials or cost, but carefully choosing one scene, framing it artistically and then pressing the button – those were the days.
In an ideal world art shouldn’t be reduced to financial means, but having picked up my film this week I couldn’t help but notice that for the price of about 25 films (incl. developing, printing and scanning to CD) I could buy myself a nice new Nikon D7000 or a Pentax K5.
I will of course be using this argument to convince she who holds the purse strings that by not shooting off another 25 films I could easily afford a nice new DSLR after all 😉
On the 36 exp. film about half the photos complied with my very soggy requirements. Too many were not sharp enough, perhaps because I hadn’t used the camera for years or perhaps because I was simply too excited about this retro phase to hold the thing steady.
I only used one film for this project, but I do have another roll waiting patiently in the cupboard. Whether to load it in the T5 or perhaps fire up ye olde Pentax once more? That is the question!
To view all the rain drenched photos take a look at:
http://www.harding.ch/Gallery21/main.php?g2_itemId=1346
Update 25.08.2013: A second film has now been developed and so, in an effort to tidy up the Gallery a bit, I have moved all the ‘Soggy Pics’ images into an album called ‘Black and White Film’. The Photos referred to in this Post are all those with the phrase ‘Yashica_T5_HP5’ in the title.
