Of all the pictures I took at Mesa Verde National Park, this was one of the most difficult. Â To see Square Tower House, you have to sort of lean over a railing, and look into a canyon. Â This building seems to be built into the corner of a canyon. Â Additionally, nothing I did conveyed the beauty of the place – it was really hard to get the lighting corrected to show the colors and the details. Â Final editorial choice is obviously the b&w, which I think does the job rather nicely.
Something salvaged from a home film processing disaster. Â Ilford HP5+, Holga 120 GCFN, Epson V600, along with LR6, On1 Photo 10, and PS 6. Â Probably a few other things, but I forget . . .
Well, in the film-changing bag.
I have the Paterson set-up, with adjustable reels, for home developing of film. Â My first round of developing was smooth and easy, using 35mm black and white film. Â This time, though, was awful. Â The Paterson reels are plastic and adjustable, and I like them for the 35mm – but did not like them at all for the 120 film.
The reels are harder to load than I realized for 120, and as soon as I got the film in the bag (without any practicing), I knew I was in for trouble. Â I couldn’t do it. Â Neither could my husband. Â The film was bent, spindled, and mutilated. Â As I had already poured out my chemicals, I just went ahead and jammed the film in, figuring the practice in developing wouldn’t hurt, and since things were already a mess, what the hell.
The film here is Ilford HP5+ used with the Holga GCFN 120 camera I got for my birthday last month. Â I kind of like what happened, but don’t want this experience to be my usual for 120.
The funny thing is, there are some pictures in here I actually like, but will need to do some work on to get them where I find them acceptable. Â Contrast adjustments, cropping, whatever. Â In particular, out of this sea of mistakes, I like the leaves – I’ve never thought about deliberately doing double exposures, but the double exposure of the leaves are pretty cool. Â (I also have some Kodak Ektar 100 I double exposed in another camera that I also like.) Â So, even though there was catastrophe, Pandora’s box is not all dark.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 