Blog

The photographic blog of Sean Wood (aka motionid)

On the hill

I have been uninspired lately to post anything of  Tokyo. I am wanting to do a series but have too many other half completed series' on the go I cannot muster the energy to start another one. 13 rolls of film yet undeveloped and many rolls unscanned and forgotten. Every photo chosen is a photo unfinished which is probably why I have so many pictures and post so few. That, and I can never decide if I like some shots or not. Or maybe I should accept that I have run out of good shots and should stop trying to feed the blog and get on and make new ones. This is a shot taken mid 2006 in Australia where I first visited Tea Gardens. On the way if you look carefully you can find this tree on a hill. I have visited the site a few times and shot it with the Hasselblad . One of the many forgotten images made. maybe the past is worth revisiting? Even if it's just for a short time.

Avalon

avalon-1.jpg

I tend to sit on photos for a long time before I decide if I like them or not. This, for me, is not one of them. I was just unlucky that day. Too much cloud and sun could not get up high enough to throw colour over the rocks as it rose. Every time I go to Australia I never seem to have enough time to really explore an area. Avalon has some great shots hidden away. It's just a shame I had no time to find them or see the potabilities.

47 minutes

Jim O’Connell. The man seems to have a knowledge on photography that knows no bounds.I've been trying different developers for a while and have found the process a huge time sink. Half of me enjoys it and the other half just can't stand sitting around Agitating every minute. So, over a flickr on the Magnum group (no, the other one) where we seem to have all kinds of crazy discussions, the question came up about Rodinal by Jon about how long to develop for. Jim answers "For that, mix 1/100 with tap water, mix well, pour it in, shake it like a martini for 5-10 seconds and then let it sit for an hour before fixing and washing." but I remember hearing from either him or second hand that 1 hour didn't cut it when he changed to a new batch of chemical so he dropped the time to 47 minutes. So I tried it on 2 rolls of TMax 400 @400 and they "look" like they came out fine. Also tried it on 2 rolls of TMax 400 @800 and THEY look like they are ok too. The real test was to see if I could do a roll of TMax 100 and Tmax 400 at the same time. Result! I can't confirm this 100% until they dry and I've done a few scans but it's looking promising. I think the moral of the story is, if you have a question about B+W film dev just ask Jim. Stay tuned for results.