For the last couple of years, me and a dozen close friends go on a weekend break just after New Year, to catch up, drink too much and eat a massive roast dinner in a big house. This year, we decided to visit Foreland Point Lighthouse and stay in the Lighthouse Keeper’s Cottage there! It was windy, cold and rainy – ideal weather for visiting somewhere on the edge of a cliff!
I brought along my Olympus XA4, loaded with my last roll of Tri-X 400. It’s been languishing in my fridge vegetable drawer for a while, and I decided it needed using up. After my less-than-successful experiments with developing HP5+ in Rodinal, I hoped Tri-X would come out a little less grainy and contrasty. Luckily, Tri-X seems quite well-paired with Rodinal (I semi-stand developed it at 20ºC at 1:50 for 13 minutes), and produced a lovely range of tones.
I need to work on my washing/drying methods though, as there’s a few watermarks on some of the negatives, and quite a bit of dust. The problem I had with my sticky reels seems to have been resolved though (thanks so much to the person who suggested washing them in super-hot water!)
