After discovering that yes, my old Olympus Mju II does indeed work, I put another roll of Ilford HP5 through its paces to see what I could come up with on my commute. Again, it’s another mixed bag of images, which I guess I need to learn is par for the course with film photography. But the key for me is to keep taking it out, keep trying shots and keep trying out new approaches. I’m never going to take 36 bangers, I just need to accept that there will just be a handful that come off, whilst the majority…don’t. I mean, it’s quite a pricey endeavour when you look at it like that, but sooner or later its bound to pay off, right? RIGHT?
This time I tried a different lab for processing: AG Photographic in Birmingham. Coming to a grand total of £24.43, the processing included a high resolution 8bit JPEG scan (with no adjustments), negatives sleeved in Kenro translucent paper ring binder sleeving, and scans delivered via email. Fairly pricey, I guess. But the service was excellent. I sent the film for processing on Wednesday 11th January. They received them on the 12th and by the 13th I was able to download the films on my iPad, transfer to Lightroom and make some light edits. Less than 48hrs between posting them and receiving them. Now that’s pretty impressive! Maybe I caught them on a quiet week and turnaround was quicker than is typical, but less than 48hrs was pretty impressive and helped soothe the pain of the bill (again, something I’d probably need to get used to anyway with film photography).
So, that’s the processing, what about the images…ok…let’s dive into them…
As per the previous batch, there were a number of photos where the focus just wasn’t quite on it:
I’m still yet to figure out why I’ve not quite nailed the focus in these shots. I tried to focus on a particular spot using the crosshair, moved the camera and fired the shot but something is obviously not quite right. The one above was shot in daylight (albeit around sunrise) and the person was walking through the shot, not running. Maybe it’s down to the camera (an easy excuse which I have no shame in employing when it suits!), or maybe I just screwed up the shot. I dunno.
That said, some other shots that missed focus seemed less of a problem to me, for example, the two shots below taken in the rain:
Even though in both of those I missed focus, I kinda don’t mind and I’m not particularly unhappy with them. They could be better, but I’ll take them given I was shooting quickly and in the rain. The top one I thought I was much closer when I took the shot than it turns out. I guess I’m still judging the focal length.
Others came out pretty sharp which I was pleased with, even if the compositions could have been better.
And there were a couple of experiments that didn’t quite come off (but I’m cool with that, I’d rather try things out and see what happens).
And then there was the odd shot that I was just really pleased with…
So in short, still got a lot to learn. I’ve got a third film on the go now, so we’ll see what comes of that.
I’ve put together a selection of images in the gallery below, would be interested to hear which you like (if any!) or any other constructive comments you may have.
