Kershaw 450, 6x6
Incident meter, zone focus, hand held
Fomapan 400 Ei 320 in Adox HC110
PP one click auto, crop to align and contrast boost
I am beginning to enjoy the convenience of this little camera its compact for MF and slips quietly into a jacket pocket, there is a bit of vignetting from the lens, but I can live with that as its quite a nice effect. The main thing I enjoyed was the encouragement to explore, because it does nothing apart from open and close the shutter, even the film advance is manually wound on via a thumb wheel, not stuff to carry I played with the light meter as I walked along, taking readings when I was in bright sunlight and when I moved into shaded areas, I then tried to second guess a scene where I was in the shade and the bit I wanted to photograph was in bright sunlight, I had not considered this adequately enough previously, so I think I might be getting a bit better. the ranges I encountered were from F22 down to F4.5, the widest capability of the lens. But with an accurate impression of what I thought was going on enabled me to better consider the scene.
The fomapan 400 I had not used since an outing to Manchester earlier this year and I think I have got a bit better with camera operations in general since then. Recalling advice previously received I made the decision, as conditions permitted it, to Expose at 320 or as near as I could get.
When I scanned the film this morning I was pleasantly surprised that the pictures turned out so well, and impressed the flexibilty of the film giving very different looks depending on the selected exposure area, with these two shots I stood in the shade so could not get an effective Incident reading and was estimating, based on previous readings as I had walked along, what exposure I wanted for the scene in front of me, ie. sky, shade or somewhere in between.
This first shot of the marina I went "middle of the road" as there were bright white building and plenty of black boats.
The next shot I glimpsed as I turned round to shout the dog, the trees in the distance were picked out by the light and it looked lovely so I made the decision to make sure I capture the sun falling on the trees. The difference in the look created by just those simple estimations is, to my eyes, incredible. Under normal circumstances I would just think I was lucky, but I had considered a few things so I am patting myself on the back for once instead of beating myself up.
I love the effect on the trees in the distance, to me they really look like an old painting. I knocked the exposure right down a couple of stops knowing that I would maybe lose the path as it was in total shade and that was not the bit I wanted anyway so I was surprised to see that the path was not completely lost!
The film I have a new found respect for, as many articles I have read dismiss it. I have categorized it as flexible and responsive to exposure adjustments as required with a gorgeous look on certain scenes. A nice walk where I was pleased with the camera, pleased with the film and pleased with myself, not because the images are magnificent or anything, but because I think I learned something important that will stand me in good stead for future expeditions.
