The end of Woolworth's in the UK & Ilford XP2

Nikon FE 24mm/Nikkor

Ilford XP2

It is hard to listen to the radio or television for any longer than fifteen minutes before you hear the word credit crunch.

Its all doom and gloom greedy bankers and redundancies.

One of first big visible victims of this credit crunch on the high street was Woolworth's, every town of any size in this country probably had a Woolworth's.

In the last 10 years I have probably bought two things from Woolworth's and its demise will not affect me a great deal.

I have Friends who will really miss Woolworth's and would be in there twice a week.

I continue document the world around me and took this frame in the last 15 minutes of my local Woolworth's.

Some retailers and organisations are very sensitive to photography inside there stores.

Not wishing to be confronted by store security and possibly loosing my Nikon and my new to me 24mm Nikkor I took this grab shot.

The film I used is Ilford XP2

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/products/product.asp?n=11

This is a chromeogenic B&W film, basically its a colour film that has just black dye couplers.

It is processed in the standard C41 colour process which means you can get you film processed and printed quickly at a mini lab.

If you make your prints (Wet prints) in a traditional B&W dark room this film is optimised for this process.

One of the most useful features of this film is the enormous exposure latitude.

You can expose if from ISO50 to ISO3200 on the same roll and you will get a good print.

Ilford recommend you expose the film at ISO400 but if you over expose the film you get extremely fine grain and good shadow detail above iso 400 you will get higher contrast a loss of shadow detail and more grain.

So you are almost guaranteed to get a negative from which you can obtain a good print, just what you need for grab shots under mixed light and a guesstimated exposure.

I personally much prefer conventional B&W film but XP2 is ideal in difficult light when all you need is a print.

Contax IIa

Un-Coated Zeiss Sonnar 50mm/f1.5 + Lens hood

This is outdated AGFA APX400 Shot with a very old Contax II.
The low contrast of the film and the lens combined with the grain of the film add to the gloom..

Oh! How confusing life can be.

Over the weekend in Norwich there were various events connected with The Lord Mayors Celebrations.

One of these events was street entertainers...

The girl in the photograph had walked out from a side street to be confronted with a pixie walking with her dragon complete with a dragon's egg in a hand cart.
This scene totally confused her.

What the ???!!

Help where am I ??

What's going on ??

Oh I see!

She wants me to sit on her dragons egg

I'm off.. everyone is laughing at me.

A pixie walking her dragon in Norwich.

Nothing to out of the ordinary here.

Nikon FE Nikon 105mm/f2.5 Nikkor

AGFA APX100 Developed in Rodinal Special 1-30 8.5 Mins

Where has he gone??

I have not posted to this blog for a while you can find my most recent photographs here on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10239287@N06/

Found Film Ilford FP4 Chemistry class 1980'S??

I bought an early Voightlander Brillant on Ebay last month. It is a nice early all metal one with a compur shutter and a Skopar lens. The added bonus was that there was a partly exposed roll of film inside!

The film was Ilford FP4 this film was revised to FP4+ in 1990 so the film must have been purchased prior to then.

The film was on frame 4 when I got the camera the wheel on the camera that works the frame counter had left a rusty deposit on the film. so it was exposed some time ago.

I developed the roll of film that day in Kodak X-Tol. I have found that developer works well on old ilford films.

Looking at the photographs it looks like this could be a high school chemistry lesson in progress, bring in an old camera and load some B&W film shoot some film and develop the pictures. I would say that the person that took these pictures turned up with there grandfathers old camera which takes 120 film, and the school did not have a developing tank for the film. so it stayed inside the camera.

The cameras that the other people are using are point and shoot jobs, I would guess that this film was exposed in the 1980's

The voigtlander Brillant that the film was inside is a very nice example I have cleaned its Skopar lens and cleaned the shutter I am in the process of running a film through the camera, The skoppar lenses are very sharp and I have had good results from my other Voightlander brillants that have this lens.

more from the fringe

I have posted a number of my pictures from the Fringe on Flickr the link is here.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/10239287@N06/sets/72157600886304431/

Nikon FM3A Nikon 10.5cm f2.5 Film Agfa APX100 Dev Rodinal 1:50

Edinburgh Fringe 2007

Some shots from this years fringe festival in Edinburgh. These shots were taken on Monday and Wednesday of the first week.
There are more photos on my Flickr page you can find it here http://www.flickr.com/photos/10239287@N06/sets/72157600886304431/

Nikon FM3a Nikon 35-105 zoom. Film frist 2 frames Agfa APX25 other 2 frames Kodax

Tri-X Dev: Agfa Rodinal 1:50 10mins for APX25 Tri-X Dev X-tol Stock 7:15

Edinburgh Fringe 2007 Pentax 6X7

This photograph was taken at this years fringe festival in Edinburgh with a Pentax 67 camera, my back is now hurting now that I had this monster of a camera and a 105 and 150mm lens in my bag for the day. One American photographer commented when I was loading another roll of film into the Pentax " Now that's dedication- do you use that for snaps?!" I shot 3 rolls of transparency film as well I have not got the transparencies back from the lab, should be interesting.

Pentax 6X7 Pentax 105mm f2.4 Film Agfa APX100 Dev Rodinal 13mins at 20 degC

Skegness 29/07/07

A nice sunny day in Skegness last Sunday it was a bit windy but you cant beat a sea breeze.
As always with my Skegness photographs high contrast and lots of grain, I achieve this with a Red or yellow filter and develop my Tri-X in 1:25 Rodinal

Nikon FE 50mm/f1.8 Nikkor & 28mm/f3.5 Nikkor +red25 filter. Film. Kodak Tri-X pan@320asa Dev. Agfa Rodinal 1:25 7mins

Boston Marina 27/03/07

Boston Marina. Looking toward the Town and the Grand Sluce.

Pentax P30t Pentax 28-85 zoom. Film Agfa APX 100 Dev Agfa Rodinal 1:50 13 mins

Found Film. 616 KODAK VERICHROME PAN

I bought a Kodak folder a while ago, It had a part exposed roll of

Verichrome pan inside. The film was in very poor condition as the backing paper was stuck to the film.

I developed the film with the backing paper on and soaked the paper off when I had processed the film.

I got 3 printable frames and here two of them.

This looks like a very proud mother and son with future daughter in law, its a pity the person who took the photographs did not get them developed as they are super pictures, who knows??

A rather wet Horncastle 21/07/07

Very high water levels today in Horncastle. Many doors are sandbagged up.

The marks on the pictures are not a processing fault but rather unsurprisingly given the weather rain drops on the UV filter covering the lens.

Canon F-1 28-55mm zoom & 20mm-f2.8 S.S.C Film. Agfa Vista 400 & Agfa APX 400(new) Dev. Paterson Aculux 2

Horncastle Antique & Curiosity Shops 14/07/07

New laws same old cup

Time for tea

Rear window

Framed

Let there be light

This series of photographs are shot on fast B&W films. This set of photographs are shot on HP5+ uprated to 800 the lost souls are shot on Neopan 1600. Both are developed in Kodak X-tol. I find this developer very useful for low light shots, I get very good emulsion speed fine grain and good sharpness. Neopan 1600 is a film I have only ever used once before, I developed it in Rodinal it was really grainy but great tones. It really works well in X-tol, I shall use it more for low light shots. The only downside is that it is quite expensive. I bulk load most of my film which keeps my film costs very low. The HP5 is outdated but has been well stored its shooting well even at 800 asa it only cost $15 for 100ft.

Nikon FM. 18mm/f3.5 &35/f2.8 Nikkor. Film Ilford HP5+ @800 asa Dev. Kodak X-tol. Stock

Lost Souls. Horncastle Antique & Curiosity Shops 14/07/07

More lost souls.

Nikon FM 35/2.8 Nikkor. Film. Fuji Neopan 1600 Dev. Kodak X-Tol. Stock

Found film. The story so far... HP3 200 & AGFA Isopan I.S.S.

This set of photographs are from the two sets of negatives that were in a metal 35mm Ilford film can.

The negatives are in good condition but a little dirty, I am washing them at the moment.

In my last post I was guessing that the photographs were taken in Cyprus well I guessed correct!

The sign in the photo below reads Khirokitia there is another rather blurred photo that has a sign in it that reads Nicosia.

As you can see here we have an RAF camp and an RAF Land rover The markings on the door reads 751 SU That stands for 751 Signals Unit.

A quick search on the Internet revealed...

751 Signals Unit (Cape Greco and Ayious Nikolos),

Commanding officer Sqdn Leader R Street.

A mobile signal unit camped in tents providing radar coverage of the area.

C.O. Sqd Ldr.Mc.Donald 1958.

Detachment at Cape Andreas Mobile Radar unit based at Cape Greco until late 1959 when it was closed and some personal transferred to Nicisia.

This closed Jan l960 and transferred to Cape Gata i.e 280 SU.

This may be the photographer???

As the camera angle is low and the subject has that pensive when is the self timer going to go off look on his face. Indicating to me that the camera is sat on a box and has been pre-focused by the person in the photograph?

Focusing on the camera that took these photographs, When I got the un-exposed films and the two sets of negatives, and had developed the films, it was obvious that the camera had serious film transport problems.

The rolls of film I developed were partially exposed, the frame spacing was all over the place toward the middle of the roll merging into the last frame being a multiple exposure, the remaining unexposed film was all wrinkled up. I think the problem is that the photographer was unfamiliar with his camera and was not loading the film correctly. the film was being wound out the spool by the camera but it was not winding on to the take up spool.

This sort of thing could easily happen with a Contax rangefinder the contax also has a self timer.

The quality of the photographs also suggests Zeiss optics and the first set of negatives is from a roll of Agfa Isopan I.S.S the empty cassette was also in with the films and was printed entirely in German, The photographer may have done a tour in West Germany and got a very good deal on a S/H Contax RF??? and been given a roll of Agfa B&W film.

Next stop Cyprus and some Rolls of Ilford HP3 from the Naffy happily snapping away during his tour in Cyprus, when he gets back home to Blighty he takes his rolls of exposed film for processing and gets a nasty surprise, only two rolls of film have come out OK, The lab has developed one of the rolls of film and found problems, rather than waste money on processing the remaining films he pays for his prints and the unexposed rolls of film are returned by the lab. When he gets home the problem camera and the rolls of film are put in a draw and remain there for 58 years?

Here we are out on patrol in Cyprus.

This photograph has been taken on early on in the campaign. Because later on the Land rovers were modified with a steel pole being mounted onto the front of the bumper to protect the occupants of the Land rover from wires strung across the roads at night by forces hostile to the British forces. Note the front mounted Bren gun

Series 1 Land rovers were not built for comfort.

They don't make them like this anymore...

Some unknown faces, The person here is sitting in the rear of the Land rover in the earler shot.

And Here he is again in the back of a vehicle sporting a tash!

Its a really super Photograph

And finally a group shot this could be another shot using the self timer?

If you recognise anyone get in touch I can email hi rez scans from the negatives if you wish. The e-mail link in in my profile on this photo-blog.

Found Film Ilford HP3 -200 Weston

Found film is exposed film found in old cameras or in a drawer in a house or garage or some place like that.

With care full development you can often get some interesting pictures.

Your chances of getting an image from a found film depends allot on how the film has been stored since it was exposed.

The type of film can make a big difference to. Fast (sensitive) films tend to degrade faster due to there sensitivity. Slow films tend to yield the best results due to there lesser sensitivity.

The action of time and temperature and solar radiation will cause the film to fog over time. if the fogging is bad you will not be able to see the image, it will be lost in the fog.

With the use of a film developer that keeps fog levels down during development whilst developing the latent image you can get surprisingly good results.

From what I have read in some forums on the Web, Agfa Rodinal, Ilford Microphen and Kodak HC110 are good for this sort of work due to there good anti fogging properties and abilities to pull out the latent image from the film.










Two weeks ago I found on Ebay some exposed rolls of Ilford HP3 200 (Weston) and some Ilford FP3. These films had come from a deceased estate.

When the films arrived in there original metal Ilford cans there was also to my surprise 2 sets of Negatives one is a roll of Agfa Isopan I.S.S and the other is a roll of HP3

A quick look on the web told me that Ilford HP3 200 was on the go from the early 50 to the early 60, it was upgraded to HP3 400. Going on the type of film that I had to develop and the clothing and vehicles in the negatives I got I would say the film was exposed in the early to mid 50's

I clip tested the First roll or film in Kodak X-Tol because thats what I had mixed up, and this is a good dev for fast films. The clip test revealed very little fog in the rolls of HP3 but lots of fog in the FP3, the FP3 cassette looked like it had been opened.

I have a data sheet for these films and came up with a time of 10 minutes for the HP3 in stock X-tol and 8 mins for the FP3

The Fp3 was toatally fogged the other rolls of HP3 yielded some quite good negatives.

The image above is scanned from one of the rolls of HP3 developed in X-Tol

I am not sure where the photograph has been taken it may be Paris? or Occupied Germany?






This shot is from the second roll of HP3 and is rather good considering it was taken so long ago and only developed 2 weeks ago.







And finally this is a scan from one of sets of negatives that was in a film can that came with the films, a real bonus.
More to follow later.