Today was another one of those very busy days. I had two Zoom sessions, but the second consisted of a test-taking session, so it wasn't so bad. Still, I was completely exhausted, and I know, I am expressing my privilege when I write this, because others have to work for 10 or more hours at physically-demanding jobs, sometimes dangerous, but I sit at home at a desk, or spend time on the computer, but it is still exhausting. I have to prepare these sessions and monitor students and also map out a course, and it takes so much mental energy.
Well, after I was done, I told myself I would stay in, no going out today for the last three hours of sunlight. I ended up in bed again, and took a sound nap. I woke up, had dinner, talked to family members then decided, today is the day for developing some more rolls of 120 JCH Streetpan with photos of my wanderings this week. I went to two places, Brand Park in Glendale and the Pumpkin Trail in Norco.
I loaded them, but I am not sure everything was well. I am afraid I might not have zipped up the two bags correctly in my changing bag. What else could explain the terrible negatives I obtained today? They were somehow flashed, and I could not get good images. They were, in fact, terrible.
Possible causes: 1) There were light leaks in my Fuji GW690ii which let in extraneous light. Maybe the hatch wasn't closed properly in back. 2) Maybe the IR filter wasn't correctly mounted and it let in light. 3) I was shooting into the sunlight on some of these, so maybe, without a hood, I compromised my negatives. 4) Maybe there was extraneous light because when I unloaded them I had two "fat" rolls, that is, rolls that were loosely wound so light could get in. 5) Maybe I exposed them to light because I unloaded in bright daylight. 6) Maybe the two bags were sealed properly when I was loading them unto the reels in my changing bag. 7) Maybe the chemicals ruined the negatives because I was reusing some developer, although I did mix up half a batch of new developer. 8) Maybe the fix is somehow exhausted and the negatives are being ruined by exposure to light. 9) Maybe I developed too much, since I extended the process to 12 minutes instead of 8.5 minutes.
So many variables, and I don't know how to check each one. So, since I have about 7 rolls left of undeveloped but exposed 120 JCH Streetpan, I will take them to the lab and have them develop them. I hope to eliminate a few of the variables that way. I should only take one, I know, the cost is $5 per roll, but you know, it takes me an hour to develop two rolls in the reels, ten or more minutes to load them, then about half an hour to process them, then time to hang them up, so I would actually be saving myself some work. What I want are pristine negatives, not to save money, although saving money would be nice.
Such terrible negatives. These are from the Japanese Garden at Brand Park in Glendale. Now, I was shooting into the light, but other photos where the light was behind me were also ruined in this way, plus, I remember that I made sure to stand in the shade when I took these photos. So, something else was happening. What it means is that I will have to go back to take these photos again. This time, no IR, there is no gain to be had by taking that film and exposing it with an R72 filter. I will instead just take regular black and white film. I think a few rolls of HP5+ should do, it is a very reliable film.
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