this entry should have been posted six weeks ago, since most of the films were developed straight after the photoshoot, but I had shot some large format colour frames and I wanted to be able to see the "big picture" before I posted anything. finally, after waiting one month for the colour chemicals to arrive and postponing the development process due to lack of available time, I developed the colour 4x5 frames on the first day of 2012 - best way to start the new year, really. the result was a bit mixed, since these frames were long expired and some of them were slides that I chose to cross-process. moreover, all the frames spent the last months in room temperature, since it did not occur to me to return them to the fridge after loading them in the holders. turns out that some months in room temperature may indeed damage a 10-year-old film that's been kept frozen for most of its life - so, a note to self: always load the film holders on the day before the shoot and always unload them after the shoot.
the b/w frames were fresh fomapan 100 film, no trouble there, and the medium format ektachrome 64t slide film which, although expired, was developed a couple of days after the shoot so it kept its character as much as possible (it went through a cross-process, too). another note to self: stop using cross-processing and stop buying up any weird film that comes along.
so, what about the actual photoshoot? well, let's see... it was a sunny day during november and nicky was into the mood for photos, so we met near panathinaiko stadium and and walked in the woods above it. we only had one hour until sunset so we settled for some simple portraits, using the speed graphic and a leitz diaron 250mm/f4 projection lens. first, a kickstart b/w shot...
...next comes the cross-processed ektachrome 6122, a very old slide film...
...I'm guessing that the oversaturated yellow and red channels are a result of the cross-process, but since this is an 15-year-old film, I can't really be sure...
...back to black & white, and the trusty fomapan 100...
...and seeing that such close-up portraits were a bit "stiff", a change of clothes and style, and a little bit of colour - this time it's kodak ektacolor gold 100, also a 10-year-old negative film, but since it was processed normally, the colours are mostly fine...
...no more colour film in large format, so back to fomapan...
...and then we're totally out of large format film but we still got a bit of sunlight left, so why not try some experimental stuff? load the 6x7 back with some medium format ektachrome 64 tungsten film, bring out the leitz hektor 150mm/f2.5, a change of clothes again (in order to remove the striking red colour from the set) and let's try double exposures...
...and that's it. one hour of sunlight shining through the woods, enough time to shoot 12 frames of large format film plus 10 frames with the 6x7 roll film back and be a bit disappointed with the result - you just can't rush these things.
the new year will see me moving back to medium format for a bit - its portability and speed are quite welcome during the winter - large format works better when your hands and your model are not freezing.