No more words left for the ‘Film Week’ pictures.

I saved my favourite of the roll of film till last.

I guess the last bit about film and why I shoot it I have not touched on is the developing stage. Its the part where it can all come together, or go terribly wrong. I typically develop with Ilford ID11. Its cheap and comes in powder form, so I can store if for a good length of time if I don’t shoot film for a while. Although I have several tank options, I generally use my daytime developer. Its convenient and easy. I can do it as soon as I get home, rather than wait for night to be closed into a cupboard. I enjoy the process of getting the water to the right temperature, mixing in the developer, agitating as it develops. We then pour out the developer and put it through a quick stop wash. Following this the fix and final rinse. Once thats done, I unroll the film…has it turned out?…did it develop right?…where is that shot I thought would really come out good?… – its the lack of instant gratification I think. I need to wait, work, and cross my fingers that I caught the shot.

Of course we can all do this on our digital cameras also – just don’t chimp, turn off the preview. Don’t look at images until they are on the computer. Not quite the same though.

So, as I mentioned earlier in the week. We went out for a short shoot around the Winter Gardens in Auckland’s Doman (and also a quick stop at Mt Eden). My film of choice for the day was some Rollei Retro 400s. I had looked at images other had used with it, and having never shot with it before, wanted to give it a go. with 24 shots a film (you can often squeeze one or two more if you wind on carefully), it was a good amount for an afternoons shooting. I often buy the 36 shot films for cost effectiveness, but ironically (compared to digital shooting) fine them just a little too long.

Post developing, I must say I do like the film type. I also have some Rollei Retro 80s to use at some time now. Being quite a slow film,I have not yet decided what type of environment I will shoot it in.