Pure Mono

…since I done a post so I better post one to keep my blog alive, well I have been super busy so haven’t had much John time, I haven’t even had the time to do any personal photo shoots or TFP shoots for portfolio building so here is a shot I found on my hard drive that I didn’t bother editing before now, it is a film scan off when I shot Trevor training at his gym. Ilford HP5+ developed in ID-11 for 9 minutes, I always go over with my development times to add a bit of extra contrast.

20 degs

Originally uploaded by HotshotsSR1

The beauty of Ilford HP5+ is not only the fact that is a fast film that is suitable for most occasions but the fact that it can also be pushed to it’s extreme, all film can be pushed or pulled to some extent but this film has an amazing latitude, in this photograph I pushed it to ISO 3200, I used ID-11 for the development as I didn’t have any Microphen which is a special compensating developer used especially for pushing films, it took 27 minutes in a stock strength solution to develop, yes this is a long time but I feel it was worth it looking at the results, the grain is evident but it is only very slight, the slight toning is caused by scanning the negative in as a colour negative. This cat is my mothers cat and he is a natural poser for photographs, every time I am down my mothers house with a camera in my hand he comes over lets me know he is there and then jumps up onto a chair to pose for me, this has to be a first as every other animal I take shots of seems to run away from the camera lol.

Scrapster

Originally uploaded by HotshotsSR1

I personally feel that HP5 developed in ID-11is the best match there is for black and white 35mm film photography, this is only my view everyone has their favourites and for different reasons, my reasons are because of the contrast and the extra bit of speed you can get with it been ISO 400, not to mention the good range of tones when shot and developed right , I always add a few extra seconds on in the development to give that bit extra contrast and “bite” to the image, this one was taken on the cheapest of the cheap Nikon AF SLRs a Nikon F50, I picked it up of ebay for less than a tenner and although it is only a cheap camera with limited functions it does the job, the glass I used was the Sigma 50mm F/2.8 DG macro for this shot, about a nano second later the shot was gone not only because of the freezing of Scrappy on just two paws but also because my oldest dog Foxy came belting over and totally rattled Scrappy, he left the house as a very clean little puppy full of life and ended up walking home not only a nervous wreck but covered from head to toe in scratches and muck, I did try to intervene and stop Foxy from totalling Scrappy but I am just a mere human and my speed compared to a Staffordshire Bull Terrier is about the same a milk float to a 911, the next picture will show the speed well considering these were shot in harsh winter sun and between 1/125s and 1/500s, maybe I didn’t try hard enough as I did take the shot lol.