Parts of Route 403

This has been stuck to my wall for months and months, I finally got around to scanning it.

It was a partial accident. I was cutting up prints to send to friends in little square envelopes and these were the parts I cut off.

B + W + BESSA =

I've not shot much black+white film since leaving Uni. I don't like that I don't have control over developing it (that way, I know if something goes wrong it's my fault) and that I can't then hide away in a darkroom for a day or two and make prints. I really wish I could be using fiber based paper, I only used it in my 3rd and final year of Uni and it's just SO good.

Due to all this I have not bought any black+white film in a long time and only have a couple of stray rolls that are well past their expiry dates and have been slowly cooking in my room over the past 3 or 4 summers.

Hence the grain and contrast.....

I shot some anyway, paid the silly developing costs and just got it back.

My cousin, Kayleigh, featuring in my photos once again. We went to Winchester and had a wander around, it's a beautiful city.

  

There's this great little book shop hidden between the arches of one of the old buildings. No one there to watch it, just signs to let you know the price and a box to drop your money in. If I'd had any cash and if I wasn't trying to reduce my number of possessions, I would have bought this one. Even if I never read it.

  

We sent text messages to the sculpture to make it light up. I imagine it would be more impressive in the dark.

 

I have missed black+white a lot, it's so different to shooting digitally and then stripping the colour. I feel like I need to know BEFORE I press the shutter button rather than deciding afterwards.

I have a roll of C-41 process black+white waiting to be shot now, so expect more in the future. Hopefully with less grain and a better tonal range...

The 403

It's still one of my favourite places to be, particularly now that I have my new bike. I went out with Bessa, we're really good friends now, despite one overlapped frame (but only by a little) and something covering the lens. I'm assuming it's my finger but I don't see how I managed that, potentially the strap or clothing since it's happened on shots I took holding the camera right up to my chest and sort of under my chin.

There's been a lot of tree felling in the area. I still don't understand why, it may be to create a field in one spot (the shot of my feet). Whatever the reason I'm a little concerned since there's a lot of wildlife in the area, the light has totally changed as well which is disappointing but not the end of the world.

I plan to go back out and explore a bit more. I picked up a 2nd roll of film when I was getting ready to leave and then decided to leave it which turned out to be a bad move! It's getting much easier to eat through a roll of 36 exposures with the Bessa before realising how much I've shot.

Cambridge

Ready for some pictures?! I took Bessa with me to Cambridge and made a point of shooting two rolls while I was there (I realise this is a small number by a lot of people standards but I am poor and processing is not free anymore, it's very disappointing). One was B&W so I won't be getting that back for a while but the colour one is here!

Sian took us a rather zig-zag-y route down the river and I punted us back again (in a, mostly, straight line! First time punting as well!). I really want to go again, it was lush.

I saw my first bike polo game(s). Cambridge Vs. Brighton. Cambs won by quite a margin, it was really fun to watch. It looks like a lot of fun to play too but I can't justify ANOTHER bike and it would appear Bath doesn't have a team.

CAMBRIDGE BREEDS SUPERSTARS

All in all, not massively exciting but I'm impressed with how the colours turned out, considering it was a freebie roll of some generic fuji stuff (I generally prefer Kodak). I'm much better friends with Bessa now, only one overlapped frame and some new batteries seem to have made the meter happy again. By the end of this roll I was changing the exposure without any dithering about or having to look at the dials which meant I could actually concentrate on the pictures so that's a big improvement. Pretty excited to go out with it more now we're getting to know each other a little better!