Budapest, Hungary. I am probably visiting this city for the umpteenth time, and I am always amazed, taking in the architecture and meanings of this beautiful place. Like Vienna or Prague, it makes you feel the long gone era of its imperial importance, its airs of a truly Central European old city and above all, …
I can’t believe it, but I think I have a new favorite film, at least in 120 format, sorry Film Washi S. I tend to gravitate towards high and higher contrast films, but until recently I hadn’t found a 120 black and white film that really did it for me. I had tried a couple of Film Washi’s offerings in 120, but at that time I was still getting my mise en place together for 120 film and didn’t have a good experience with it. I’m sure that was my fault entirely.
It was only a few years ago I finally noticed that Rollei produced a 25 ASA film! I was excited because in the 1990s I used to shoot almost exclusively Agfa APX25 – and I loved it. It was the ideal film for landscapes and combined with Rodinal it was close to perfection as you could get. Twit that I am, I simply assumed that Rollei RPX25 was a reincarnation of the old Agfa film.
Last summer I had a chance to visit an old friend in Szczecin, Poland, the city we both studied in. He stayed there – I left. This was a rare occasion to meet and catch up. Peter, my friend, is crazy about old cars and their restoration. As a serious hobbyist is supposed to, he runs a website where all his brought-back-to-life beauties can be seen. Do not be worried though, dear reader, this will not just be about cars, but about a few frames of a car shoot with a wonderful camera.
It is fun to experiment, and to learn. I think one of the (many) exciting things about film photography, at least to me, is the anticipation just after developing the film and looking at the negatives for the first time.
These particular experiments were not necessarily planned. Wendell Cheek, also a reader of this blog, contacted me after reading one of my recent blogs on Rollei films via Instagram. Wendell asked me if I would be interested in comparing some of her expired 35mm film stocks and write a blog post about it. She said the film has been bulk loaded, and stored in her freezer for the last 40 years! Of course, I was intrigued, and a week later I received several rolls of 135 film from Wendell. It was perfect timing as the next day I was leaving for a short trip to the Minnesota North Shore.
