Bill Smith's Photography

I went back to Forks of the Credit last weekend and had a blast despite the mosquitos. I packed my Nikkormat Ftn with Life brand 400 ISO C-41 film and in my F2 Photomic with Fomapan 200 Creative black and white film. For the most part I am very happy with what I got especially the long exposures with the drug store special film and a neutral density filters. A lot of people associate me with black and white but I do love shooting colour (especially slide)and I am getting a handle on how expose it. One thing I want to do at some point is learn how to make traditional optical colour prints.

I am always trying things out for size. I mixed up a five litre batch of Kodak Xtol film developer and tried it out with a roll of Plus X. I took the photos around Oakville with my Minolta XE-7 on a bike ride this morning. I tried developing with 1+1 dilution with water but I think in the future I will go with stock solution. Xtol does have the reputation of crapping out on you when you least expect it. Most likely with an important roll of film. What I like about it, smooth tonality, very low grain, easy to mix up with room tempreture water. What I don't like,I don't know I will have to get back to you on it. I think the fear of stock solution failure is overblown but I will have to wait and see. I think I prefer the D76 gallon size and cost and I have a high comfort level with everyone's standby developer. I do plan to try Xtol out with Kodak Tri-x at 400 ISO. This developer also has really good pushing properties. I am experimenting in the near future.

A re-print on Agfa MCC 111 paper of Brookfield Place. The photo was taken in January on the way to Union Station after a night class at Ryerson.

Two more prints from my Spencer Gorge trip with the Oakville Camera Club a few weeks ago. At the top of the waterfalls is Steve Flowers, a friend and Treasurer of the Oakville Camera Club getting another perspective of the falls.

I was gifted a full box of 10 year old Agfa MCC111 paper at a recent Flickr Toronto gathering from a fellow photographer who went over to the dark side (digital). Challenge, Agfa paper has a short lifespan and even though this box of paper lived in the fridge, it still fogged hence the results of the bottom print of Webster Falls. Now to solve this requires some Benzotriazapole solution or if you don't want to play mad doctor, Edwal Orthathite will do the trick too if you can find it. A fellow film photographer gave me a mason jar of BZT solution and I used of that 25cc in one litre Dektol stock solution. I had to lengthen out the exposure time and step up to a #3 enlarger filter. The results are the top print, much better. My favourite paper is still Kentmere but the Scotsman in me is not going to say no to a free box of photo paper.