mindofmel

Robert Capa

Mel — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:01:37 +0000

“If your photos aren’t good enough, then you’re not close enough”

John Berger

Mel — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:20:13 +0000

“All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this – as in other ways – they are the opposite of paintings. Paintings record what the painter remembers. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it.”

Author Unknown

Mel — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:20:52 +0000

“One photo out of focus is a mistake, ten photo out of focus are an experimentation, one hundred photo out of focus are a style. “

Duane Michals

Mel — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:18:40 +0000

“Photography deals exquisitely with appearances, but nothing is what it appears to be.”

Ansel Adams

Mel — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:18:01 +0000

“The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print the performance.”

My first home developed 3 rolls of film!

Mel — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:30:48 +0000

After some great help over on talk photography.co.uk forums, I bit the bullet and ordered my set of chemicals:

T-max Developer
Ilford Stop Bath
Ilford Rapid Fixer
Kodak Photoflo

I got the times needed, temperature and dilution of developer for the various films from http://massivedevchart.com.

I can tell from these three rolls and subsequent rolls and flickr search age that fujifilm neopan 400 is going to be my go-to film for the coming months. I love the subtler tray tones, and it seems to be a bit more giving of my mistakes in the development process. The Ilford HP5 whilst it seems to be a film everybody raves about, I find it just a tad too contrasty and blacks seem to come out with no detail whatsoever, which lends itself in some shots but not in others. The Kodak P3200 is great for shooting at night, however, I don;t often shoot at night, also, when there is light, no matter what aperture I’m on it’s just whiteness – maybe it was me in the development.. meh

Massive learning points from my first week developing film:

– NEVER ever use the fixer first before the developer…. You end up with no pictures. I got confused as to which chemical was in what jug and used the fixer first instead of developer – needless to say 15 minutes later I was staring at a blank negative, scratching my head for 5 minutes before google searching revealed my noobie mistake. LABEL YOUR JUGS

Fujifilm Neopan 400

Ilford HP5+ 400

Kodak T-Max P3200

Edward Steichen

Mel — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:15:16 +0000

“A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it.”

52 week challenge.

Mel — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:32:34 +0000

The folks over on talkphotography.com have organised a 52 week challenge whereby each photographer must take a photograph about a particular theme each week for a whole year. The first week’s theme was “direction” and this was my image.
Week 2: Fear
Ilford HP5 400, T-max Dev 20C

Southwark Cathedral

Mel — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:06:46 +0000

Photograph taken on Illford XP 400 Black and White 35mm film, NIkon F301, Nikon 50mm f1.4 AIS.

Ken Burns

Mel — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:37:04 +0000

“I treat the photograph as a work of great complexity in which you can find drama. Add to that a careful composition of landscapes, live photography, the right music and interviews with people, and it becomes a style.”