I always considered myself a portrait photographer first and foremost, I just like faces. Maybe this comes from my years of experience as a makeup artist and being able to work with people faces up close. So I always get drawn to faces for some reason ;)
Apart from working with people I tend to photograph a lot of other things. This time I got to be a part of a photowalk organized by Seattle Film Club. They have partnered with Georgetown Steam Plant to get an access to a group of photographers to photograph at this location.
This plant currently is open to public once a month and if you are happen to be in Seattle I highly recommend visiting it someday. To check open house schedule follow Georgetown Steam Plant Instagram.
The location is beautiful and interesting to explore, there are a lot of spots with incredible light and textures. Overall very much an industrial vibe.
Lately I have been experimenting with black and white film so I decided to try Kentmere 400 and Arista EDU 400 in 120 format. I shot both rolls with my Hasselblad 500cm and it was the biggest mistake to choose this camera. It doesn’t have a light meter and using my hand held Sekonic was very challenging. Needless to say I ended up with underexposed images at the end. Having a camera with built in light meter would be a lot easier to get properly exposed photos. But choices have been made.
The negatives came out a bit thin but they were still okay for digitizing, not for darkroom printing though.
Both films were metered at ISO800 and developed in Rodinal by stand development method. This is my favorite BW film developing method of all times. I think it can be very forgiving if the metering was off.
Kentmere 400
Arista EDU 400
Kodak Tri-X 400 & Pentax Spotmatic
I have also finished a roll of 35mm Tri-X that has been sitting in another camera for over a year. These photos were also developed in Rodinal with stand development method. Tri-X 400 is hands down my go to BW film in 35mm format. It is on the pricier side but it is definitely worth it. I can swear by this film. It worked with any developers I’ve ever used, pushes so well, got great high contrast and very nice grain. This is the most fool proof, newbie friendly film I’ve ever came across with. Highly recommend.
