Week 2 – Pack Faster Film – Kodak Max 800 (Expired)

So far so good. I am on schedule to make things happen this year. It's becoming harder than I expected already, not because of shooting and processing a roll a week, but more because I am trying to only shoot a single roll a week. 

The following images were taken on New Year's Eve/Day using a roll of film that was given to me sometime within the last year or so. It hasn't and hadn't been kept in a temperature controlled environment so I had no idea how the images would come out. My only worry shooting it was thinking that I should have experimented with pushing it to 1600 iso. The only image I thought was properly exposed was of a lit up cigarette machine.

This was also my first attempt at home developing C41 film using this kit.

I read and watched everything I could to hopefully get everything right. Needless to say I was a nervous wreck the whole time. I have processed film before (See Week 1) using a Caffenol process, and in a darkroom during college, but this was my first time using a pre-made system that was very temperature specific. 

UNICOLOR C-41 Powder kit:
Factory instructions/Dilution

Tumblr/Wordpress visit UNEXPhotography.com/52rolls to see the gallery

Week 1 – The Great Dust Bowl – Ilford Delta 100

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Welcome to the first official roll from the year of film project!

Ever want to know the fastest way to see how clean your apartment isn't? I would be willing to say it involves developing a roll of film after a day at work, and with no prior preparation. Then throw in a white fluffy cat who has more fur than I know what to do with (just for good measure). 

I am going to need to figure out a cleaner option for future development cycles. Or basically what I mean is that I have a week to figure this all out. I think I'll need to invest in a lot of canned air. Although Photoshop's automatic dust removal tool is pretty good at doing about 80% of the work in exchange for a little sharpness. I'm going to try and retouch some of these for the sake of the project, hell I may even try to re-scan them. But a fair warning these started out very dusty and covered in a bunch of junk.

Also this roll is also kinda a cheat roll. Since my chemicals haven't been delivered yet I needed a quick way to get something together. I also didn't want to have a roll of unprocessed C41 film just lying around for another week, and its far too early to break out the instant film yet. 

"I'm a fluffy cat, my fur gets on everything...especially negatives". I'm leaving this one specifically to shame both the cat and myself. 

(Not my cat)

Just a heads up, the next two images are NSFW.

I kinda liked this one with the dust.

Development Notes:

Caffenol Developer:
250ml Distilled Water
2.5 tsp Instant Coffee
2 tsp Vitamin C
2 tsp Washing Soda

18 Minute Developing Time @ 70 Degrees F

Standard Fixer 3:1 Dilution 

Negatives were a touch underdeveloped. But my scanner was able to get most of them scanned no problems. I would probably increase my developing time to 20 minutes to insure that everything was solid on the negative. 

 

Gallery below. Tumblr Viewers be sure to check out UNEXPhotography.com/52rolls

Week -1 – First 2 Test Rolls – Fuji Superia X-TRA 400

Hello everyone, so for this week I cheated a little bit. I didn't process these myself because the chemicals haven't been delivered yet. However I was able to pull a few of my favorite images from the last couple of days. 

It occurred to me as I was leaving my family's place and hit home after I got the scans back from the lab but South Georgia just looks very de-saturated this time of year. I did not change any of that in post. 

That also brings up a good point, I will be doing minor edits to the final files that you see. Nothing too wild, but just minor corrections here and there.

I will also include a gallery at the end of each post of the "raw" files for anyone that wants to see both how the negatives look out of camera, as well for anyone that wants to see any outtakes or files that didn't make the cut.

Tumblr users may need to visit the direct blog at UNEXPhotography/52rolls to see the gallery. 

2014: a year in review

Well its about that time again. In 4 more days it'll be 2015 and another year will begin. As always its a good time to look back over the last 365 days and reflect on what this last year has brought. 

All things considered I really didn't get a lot accomplished over the last year. I shot less than in most years previous. But I can say there were more than a few extenuating circumstances. All of that aside here are my top 5 images from the last year. 

 

Shortly after starting my new job I was invited to photograph one of the owners at a show he was performing at. This image was taken as part of a "contest" with him, and even though it didn't win overall he said it was his favorite of the bunch.

It wasn't until 4 months later that I picked up my camera, but when I did it was one of my regular models Nicolette that was the subject. I say it every year but I love shooting with this woman. She always has great ideas and is game for any position that I choose to put her in. 

As a quick aside I should mention that this is actually version 2 of this image. I saw that because until this last year I would have told you that I despised Photoshop. I hated everything about it. But since I have been using it every day for work purposes, I can say that it is a very useful tool that I am eager to learn more about.

My second time working with Hada Pixie came next. Another set for Zivity.com. Pixie is another great model that always comes up with interesting options to work with. This set was ranked "noteworthy" by Zivity staff members, and is another example of an image that I re-worked post photoshop hatred. 

Jason AKA Davinci Black, was a previous co-worker of mine a few years back. He wanted some new photos for an album he was working on. And I was very happy to hear from him and to get the chance to help him out. Keep an ear out for what is coming from this guy. 

Finally one of the many photos of The Imperial Opa that I took at their burlesque show earlier this year. I loved shooting all of the various acts, but I thought this photo of the whole troupe summed up things much better. 

So that's it. That was 2014. Onward to new projects and new photos. If you haven't read recently I have started my 2015 project blog over at UNEXPhotography.com/52rolls where I will be shooting a roll of film a week for the next year. What would you like to see? Let me know below!

Until next time, thanks as always for taking some time to see what I have been up to.

-B

© 2006 – 2023 UNEXPhotography and Blake Griffin.

Privacy Policy