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I’m a lover of the serendipitous half-frame negative that appear at the beginning and end of film rolls in the 35mm format camera. This shot of Dita in the sunroom was snipped off to about one third of the potential photograph. I know she’d eat my face in a heartbeat if she ever learned to use a refrigerator door solo. I imagine there would be nothing more satisfying for Dita that very afternoon to lay in the sunshine licking my face off her deliciously blood-smeared people skewers.

Ilford FP4 125 shot as ASA 80 on a Nikon F2A Photomic
Rodinal at 1+24 for 9 minutes at 24 Celcius

To look at these small ceramic birds on a shelf there isn’t any apparent photogenic purpose to putting them inside our dining room window. However, once you place objects into an environment there is an interplay of light and shadow, texture and shape. This photograph is moderately pleasing because of that environment. Rather than the objects photographed.

Ilford FP4 125 shot as ASA 80 on a Nikon F2A Photomic
Rodinal at 1+24 for 9 minutes at 24 Celcius

Here’s an interesting thing to consider in your quest to avoid major problems when shooting pictures. The incremental errors that can creep into workflow. Often these will cancel each other out – a little too much exposure + a little less chemical and it’s like a balanced investment portfolio. Mostly it doesn’t fall over in the wrong direction. In this instance I accumulated errors by (a) forgetting to reset the camera from ASA80 to ASA125; (b) shooting to the over-exposed end of the meter; (c) adding slightly too much rodinal developer to process the film negatives; (d) having that film developer slightly warmer than usual, and (e) using a stop bath that should have been replaced. So there are my accumulated small errors of judgement on this roll of film.

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