• 1329: Freedy Johnston @ Parkway Theater. (10 Sept 2022. Holga 400 [Fomapan 400] @ EI 1600.) (on top.)
  • 1340: Battle Creek Regional Park / Zoe Keating at Cedar Cultural Center (8–18 Nov. 2022. Kentmere Pan 400.) (on bottom.)

Two more, both concerts.

Loaded inside daylight changing bag. Pre-wet film for about 45 minutes. During the pre-soak, mixed 5mL Rodinal in ~400mL tap water. Poured developer in and topped off with tap water. Agitated 40x over the first minute, then one-inversion (flipped tank over) at 60:00. Initial agitations are half-agitations, gently (i.e., gently twisting to a 90-degree inversion, then gently back).

After two hours, disposed of developer, rinsed in 68 degree water. Fixed in Ilford Rapid Fixer 1+4 for 6 minutes (that’s now 14 rolls from this batch of fixer), inverting 10x over 15 seconds at the top of every minute. Reclaimed fixer and rinsed for ten minutes in tap water, then emptied tank, added a few drops of Photo-Flo, filled tank with tap water and agitated 20x, and hung negatives vertically to dry.

Evaluation and notes

Roll 1329

After the roller coaster of the last three rolls, it’s nice to get a roll at this concert that’s middle of the road, basically competent. It’s a little less crisp, and the shots aren’t quite as interesting, but there’s no big fingerprints, substantial scratching, or trails of mineral spotting across the entire roll, so all in all, it’s a win?

There are in fact some really nice shots here: 07 is a great, well-timed picture, crisp, nicely composed. 08 and 11 are two of the best shots of the supporting musician from the entire show. 09 shows Johnston and the supporting musician (whose name I have to look up) together in probably the best-arranged shot of the two of them from all four rolls.

Fomapan 400 really came through here – it’s crisp, it pushes nicely, it’s got an even, rather neutral response curve.

Lots to like about this roll.

Roll 1340

The shots from Battle Creek Regional Park (01–14) are very pleasant: Kentmere 400 in Rodinal looks crisp and clean, a little lighter in tone and less stately and grave than rolls 1338 and 1339, which I just looked at—both are FP4+ stand-developed in HC-110. This is in a similar register, with an even response curve and similar crisp appearance, and with similar appearance to the grain (which is larger and more prominent, as you might expect from a film that’s a stop and a half or so faster), but without the same air of gravitas to the photos. There’s still that same air of neutral journalistic representation. Textures are very pleasant, since the grain is relatively small; I’m thinking specifically of the gravel in 02/19 and the bark in 03/20–05/22 here, plus the dirt in 09/26.

The second half of the roll is really nothing special: the architectural shots on the way to the concert are rather uninteresting (and the panorama is probably not worth stitching). The few concert shots at the end are too dark to be worth using (but I think that). All in all, though, I’m glad I avoided pushing the roll: getting better quality shots for the first half of the roll was worth not having better quality shots on the (less interesting, after all) second half.

photos posted