I help as a guide in running members’ tours around the East Lancashire Railway, a large heritage railway based in Bury, near Manchester. These monthly tours are well attended. On the last tour this year I was able to take the Leica M6 and 7Artisans 35mm f2 lens along with me in an attempt to get some monochrome pictures, whilst also keeping an eye on the tour members, who have a tendency to wander ‘off piste’.
The lockdown has given people plenty of opportunity to buy stuff they can’t afford and don’t really need, I know, I’m one of them. I’d been thinking about replacing the 7Artisan 35mm f2. This lens is tremendous value for money, but in the long term I want a lens with better control over edge sharpness and flare.
If you shoot monochrome film, you don’t have to make do with shooting at box speed if it is a higher speed that you want, and if that is the case for you, you should not hesitate to push process. If you have not heard of push processing, it means altering the developing process so that you can under-expose your film and still get great results. If you would like to learn more about push processing, there is a good article here.
Entering the world of film photography was a bit painful for me as I didn’t get to see the results from the first 2 film rolls I shot. The first one was loaded incorrectly and the second one was processed erroneously by my local lab. Nonetheless, looking back at those minor inconveniences, I realise they were there to teach me what film photography is all about and how the digital revolution changed how my approach photography.
T-Max 400 has an odd place in my film workflow, as although I rate what it offers aesthetically very highly, I find myself choosing not to shoot it that often, opting instead for Ilford’s Delta range. I think this is because T-Max is almost too reliable in what it delivers; exceptional cleanliness, beautiful rendering across the tonal spectrum, and stellar sharpness.
