Developing at home

Well I guess I haven’t mentioned it, but im quite a fan of photography, mainly the cool old film stuff. Sure ive dabbled in the digital realm, but it really doesn’t cut it for me. I guess ive been spoilt, using the beautiful Olympus OM system for the past year or so. What more could someone taking photos ask for though, simple, small, robust, cheap and a real pleasure to work with – probably the main reasons im having trouble shaking the film habit. You see I can get myself a full pro-level camera that operates independent of batteries and the size of a digi cross-over for the order of 50 bucks.. Don’t get me started on the lenses, which are both ridiculously small and super sharp., and equally as cost savvy as the camera. So im sitting here with somewhere near 500 bucks invested in kit, which leaves me 2 professional bodies and 6 or so lenses to play with. Not bad given that to take similar images id be looking at a canon 5d.

I guess the one flaw in my image taking process that was casing my wallet to bleed was developing and film costs – something like 25 bucks per film for the develop and scan alone. Well a few weeks ago, I decided the buck stops here, selling my trusty OM4 (that started the whole obsession), to free up some cash for some chemicals and a whole host of old dark room ‘junk’, not to mention the cheaper replacement of the om4 with it’s older brother – another om1.

With developing most pro lab’s would have you believe that developing is a black art acquired over many years, and that by entrusting your films to them, your going to get the best results possible. Not so ive just found out. Most of the labs in Brisbane im lead to believe are using only the basic Kodak D-76 / Ilford ID-11 developers for everything – what about those films for push processing? Or those that are shot for extra detail, or where grain would add something?
So a few weeks ago, when my ebay purchases arrived, I took the opportunity to turn my kitchen into an alchemy lab. Now given it was Australian summer – a few things were a bit awry – air tep - 35 degrees, water - 28. Normal developing temp? 15-24 degrees - time to cool things down with a home made ice bath in the sink. After all the pissing about guessing, punting, and filling in the details where you simply haven’t thought about what’s next, my first film emerged perfectly developed, shot with the new untested dodgy om1 with the fired metering circuit. Some days things just work, or is it that developing istn that hard?

Next on the menu was push processing – an absolute dark art if you believe the pro lab hype. Not really – its simply uprating the films ISO at the shooting stage, then increasing development accordingly. So that’s it – set the meter on the camera differently, then put the film in the soup for a couple extra minutes? Dead easy. Well I guess to say im happy with developing at home would be an understatement. Its definitely something that’s helped me to fight off the digital realm for a little while longer.

Oh and the results


APX 400 - nice and contrasty


APX in rodianl - classic toanlity


HP5 @1600 in microphen

It’s my right, not a privilege

Well I guess this is probably not the best note to start a blog on, but here goes; Australians and road rage; the two seem to fit like hand in glove.
So this morning I’m out for the stock-standard Brisbane river-loop ride, not exactly prime time for a car-bike incident, or was it? Well some middle aged woman driving a Chelsea tractor decided otherwise.
So upon getting blatantly cut up at a slow point on the road, my friend and I catch the driver up to have a bit of a talking to. Well it went a little like this – the classic Australian motorists argument against cyclists “you don’t pay rego, so why are you complaining?”. Well sorry love, but just because you drive 2 tones of crap doesn’t make it your god given right to mow down anything smaller in your way, what kind of skewed logic is that at the end of the day! Besides, rego doesn’t pay for roads, that’s from income tax, and even if it wasn’t, who is to say we don’t own cars as well? I guess you really cannot argue with attitudes such as that. Thing is, its certainly not the first time this has happened – 2 road rage incidents involving contact (on the same day no less!)and many more near misses in the last 2 years in Brisbane. Seriously people!

I guess the whole issue stems back to the point of Australians and driving. Licenses are cheap, and the tests hardly rigorous – driving is something we take for granted, wait no no, it’s our god damn right! Well lets face it, despite the fact that licensing has become a little more ‘rigorous’ in the past few years, its still cheap compared with Europe (a few hundred bucks vs 1500 Euro or so), and to pass the test, you could be a complete potato just as long as you check those mirrors! Motorway driving, what’s that? You mean pass on the left, keep left unless passing, No way!

Next must be the insane attitude that is possessed by many Brisbane locals – the type that seem to want it all, the big house, the nice car, and the big city job. Ultimately these things tend to be mutually exclusive in most places, not in south-east Queensland! Yep, that usually means a stress yourself to the eye-balls commute everyday on roads that were typically not designed for such traffic, and the complaint – “we need better roads” – really? How about a simpler solution, like living in near the city a bit, or maybe even show some respect for others in the traffic if you really must do it! God help you if you were to think about riding a bike past these fools as they are stopped in peak hour!