5 Frames in Pink

Vague notions of a soft focus springtime, framed by cherry tree branches, bowing with the weight of beautiful pastel blossoms. Those pink and white carpets of petals around each tree. More petals gently swirling in an eddy as light breezes stirred them on the ground.  I had even tried to capture the dancing petals the year before, but been in a bit of a rush.  This year would be different and a single roll dedicated to this theme was all it would take. Something like Ektar might have been nice, but what was available and especially affordable? Maybe the Lomography 100 would do. If you aren’t familiar, this film is a Kodak product and some say Pro Image 100.  Not so sure about that, Kodak don’t make that in 120.  Other suggestions include a stock that Kodak have relaunched under the banner of Kodacolor, but then the Lomo is seemingly warmer and a little more saturated.  Whatever it is, the exact formula is possibly being prepared specifically for Lomography.  Badge engineering in films gets pretty confusing, for me anyway, but there’s no use pretending it’s new.  It went on when film was still what everybody did. Am the kind of photographer who needs to worry about all this? No. Just needed to get out on that guaranteed lovely bright spring morning and enjoy exposing some emulsion with a lovely old camera.  Order confirmed.

The roll of Lomography 100 arrived, in a box with a couple of other black and white products, as permitted by the film budget for that month.  In the weeks that followed, the signs of spring were few and far between.  Martial clouds forming ranks, inexhaustible rain and malevolent winds gathering pace. The ferry service to and from my island home, disrupted with alarming frequency.  Unperturbed, the cherry trees began to blossom in the gales and downpours.  The Mamiya C220 sat loaded with the chosen film waiting for it’s chance. My delusional mind’s eye had seen still days, gently bathed in early spring sunshine, but these were simply absent.  A day with slightly lower wind speeds and a break in the rain was all that could be hoped for.  That break seemed to be occurring one Saturday morning and I was out of the front door in a hurry.  Going out with less than two cameras?  Possibility of mental dilemma and stress here, but this was a specific film project and I’d told the voice in my head to shut up. What if? well better take some precautions anyway. So the bag was still loaded with three lenses, a Pentax spot meter, cable release, Paramender and a couple of lens hoods. Camera bags always go over my the left shoulder, tripod on the other side to ensure I’ll eventually need castors fitting to my knuckles on both sides.

The Lomography 100 roll went by in a pink blur, tinged around the edges with sepia, as that’s how a lot of the remaining petals looked after the repeated thrashing they had endured. Realistically the process was conducted with a haste not befitting a TLR. There was however a satisfaction in the ‘getting it done’ having become so determined to complete this project.  The previous year, C41 was generally getting processed at home.  On reflection, justifying the cost of the chemicals, their shelf life versus my colour shooting rate, wasn’t easy, so this film went off to a lab.

Using the Mamiya C220 is generally a real pleasure and despite the pace, it was certainly enjoyable on this occasion; so here are five of the frames:

Some grain in there, but it possibly doesn’t detract with this subject.

A slightly warm look, which again is probably okay for the subject.

Quite saturated colours, maybe a little less would have been good, but it didn’t matter to me.

A lot pf petals were brown at the edges, as here and there was an absence of that colourful carpet on the ground around the trees; just a damp pinky brown mush. Whilst the images were not quite as envisaged, the Lomography 100 did pretty well in my view.  There is a slight warmth there that makes some of the images seem as though the weather was better than it really was. I have to be mindful of the fact that sitting out in the middle of the Irish Sea, when it comes to cherry blossom, Ramsey, Isle Of Man isn’t quite Tokyo.

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