We have all wandered around on a sunny day shooting at ISO1600 at one time or another, but what other blues have you made that have ruined photos.
Today was a bit of an epic. I had spent 25 minutes painstakingly feeding the bloody 120 film onto the stupid plastic reels and getting it into the drum. I learnt today that doing it in the heat isn’t the smartest thing to do. And the longer it takes, the hotter you get, and the sweat builds up in the dark bag and it just gets harder and harder to get the film on the reel. Well, finally, I got it on. Screwed the lid on. And reefed my hands out of the sweaty bag. Phew. I love the results medium format photography gives you, but getting the film from camera to dev tank is painful. This was the very 1st roll I had run through the Holga, so I was a little excited to see the results. Everything was a ready to run, the sun was shining, the birds tweeting, and I was off to the developing area of the garage. Day dreaming about the photo I took of Elvis long boarding on Culburra Beach, I wasn’t watching where I was going and managed to trip over Monty the wonder dog.
Poor old Monty can’t take a trick this week. He has been in trouble for digging up the lawn, twice, and so is a bit sheepish of the alpha dog. He jumped, I jumped and the developing tank popped out of my hands. It was now happening in slow motion. I could see the tank heading towards the ground. I could see the worried look on Monty’s face. I could see the negative of Elvis on the long board. Bang, it hit the ground. It bounced. It bounced a second time and POP! off came the lid. Oh for the love off all things holy, get the lid on quick smart. But no, the jolt shot the reel out into the dazzling daylight. I was asking myself, how can I wash the light of the film? The reel fell over and rolled around on its side like a coin in a Clint Eastwood movie. ISO 400 film takes not a lot of time to expose through the shutter, but it must be nano seconds in direct sunlight. I was a broken man. Monty is a still wondering why the alpha dog is so unhappy about a piece of plastic. Where is a chapel, I need a cry.