Roll 4: A Lack of Red Filtration

Contact sheet 4

Here, I was shooting Kodak Tri-X with EI400 developed in Rodinal 1:50 for 12:30 sec at 21C with agitation for the first minute and then for 10 seconds every minute thereafter. I used water as a stop bath, Kodak Rapid Fixer for 5 minutes, and Hypo Clear for 2 minutes before the final water wash.

I gave this post a subheading of A lack of red filtration because if you look at the second half of the roll, I was shooting outdoors and blowing almost all the detail in the sky. If I had been bright and added an orange or red filter, I would have held more detail, even if the sky was overcast. I will dedicate a post to this, but for now, check out the following web page on using coloured filters with black & white film.

'Hippy Tunnel' Music

Before taking this shot, I had seen her several times as I made my way to Central Station late in the evening. She has quite a voice that fills the tunnel.

I was trying to capture someone passing her by as most of them do with these street performers. Getting the timing for this was quite hard as I wanted the blurred subject to be reasonably close to her but still in the frame (not as near as I managed to get). Unfortunately, as I was hand-holding with such a long shutter speed, she also became blurred; next time, I will have to use a tripod or some other support.

Flower Light Shade

These are the same flowers you saw in the earlier proof sheets; however, they were starting to droop. I used an extension tube and a Nikkor 135 f3.5 lens to get in nicely and close. I am using natural diffused sunlight from the glass door of my dining room.

When I took the shot, I did not think about cropping and rotating the image, as I ended up doing.

Designer layout

I love walking to photo locations as you never know what you might find on your way that will make a good photograph. Here I was, heading down the Rocks in Sydney instead of walking down George Street (which is what I usually do). This evening, I decided to walk down one of the parallel streets instead for a fresh look.

I noticed this lovely room while looking for opportunities to photograph. Lucky for me, I could take this shot through a glass window while standing on the sidewalk.

Harbour Bridge and Fig Tree

This is a rather popular place for wedding photographers on the weekends. I happened to be there for the sunset on a weekday and had the park all to my photographic self. There were still a couple on benches and women walking their dogs, but I was the only one with a tripod.

This is the classic shot of the harbour bridge from this location where you would use the fig trees to frame your subject, here I included the bench as well, but I did not do an excellent job of separating it from that ugly building (and the one poking out of the trunk) in the background.

Abandoned Palisade

There are still many new places for everyone who lives in a city to explore, and this is one such place for me. This is the start of a little pocket of Millers Point tucked away from the rest of the city, though this will probably change after the redevelopment is implemented. Something draws me to this location: Is this lonely old-style pub that sits lifeless, or is it something else? Looking around Sydney, you will find many other lifeless pubs. (link to article)

This was quite a difficult shot, and I still don't think I got it right. I used a PC lens to keep the verticals straight, which I almost got right, but there is still some distortion. The sky has lost detail for two reasons: the sun was in front of me (but not directly in frame), and secondly, it was a rather gloomy day. I have since learnt that if I had used a red filter, I might have been able to get a bit more cloud detail. (A topic for a future post)