FP4, Rodinal

Yesterday I scanned in a roll of FP4 I had shot back in February when I came home to Pittsburgh for a visit. One of the really enjoyable things about developing film months after exposing it is that the images have the potential to surprise me. I’m one of those photographers who needs some distance and time from the act of capture to get a sense of what the images could mean and what they could be separated from the expectation of the moment. It always seems to me that when I’m patient about taking a look at the images, a higher percentage of the roll catches my eye than it does when I look at the images right after I shoot them. This roll was no exception; if anything, it proved that rule. Of 35 images, there were four (at least) that surprised me as I looked at them carefully; surprised me in the sense of a kind of out-of-body experience. As in ‘did I take that photo? Really?’

The image above fascinated me. It could have been an accidental exposure; may not have been, since it was right in the middle of the roll, so I wasn’t just casually firing off some frames at the top just to make sure I was past the exposed leader nor was it at the end when I might have been grabbing the last few before I re-wound the roll. But lord knows I have been known to accidentally trip the shutter without meaning to. But there are qualities in the image above that really caught my eye; the abstract nature, the lovely grain; the geometry, and the possibilities inherent in both the out-of-focus horizon as well as the reflection.

There’s also something about this image that screams to me ‘would not feel this way if captured on digital.’

As the days go by this week, I’ll blog the other images from that roll I particularly like. This roll reminded me why I always liked FP4. I don’t think FP4 scans as well as it prints in a traditional darkroom, and so I’ll look forward to printing these images on good old silver gelatin before the end of the year, hopefully.

Also, good news: my replacement 645e arrived, and I shot a test roll of Delta 400, developed it tonight and all seems perfect. I also bought a 45mm lens for it from a local photographer so I now have a 28mm equivalent for it when I take it out for more landscape work.

Lastly, Apple announced their iPad this week, and I fall into the camp of people who are truly excited about the potential for this device as a destination for high-quality digital photo books. I’ll probably get an iPad through work, and I’m thinking of trying to develop for it, if anyone is interested in giving me a hand with such an effort.