I Miss You, Colour Film

I'm gonna flat out say it: This Winter sucked. I don't normally hate Winter, but this one was just so depressing. Now, that's assuming Winter is done. *Knocks on wood*

I talked about the C-41 B/W film XP-2 by Ilford in February. It's been roughly two months since then and I didn't post anything about this in March (though, I should have), but I did develop my first true B/W film. Just one though, but it's enough to say that I did it. I have picked Kodak TRI-X as my choice this time.
The experience of developing my own film and photos were rather exciting and repetitive. Agitating (shaking) the film with precision and timed, it almost felt like baking where precision of the amount of the ingredients going into the mixing bowl, or how long it's going to stay in the oven matters. It's still part of art, but knowing the science of it is a must. I wont go too far into details about that, though. I will however, talk about how careful CAREFUL you have to be. Any dust or even a trace of just about anything will turn out in the photo once you develop that into the paper. I made a newbie mistake of leaving my finger print in one of the photos (which is posted in entry) and I didn't notice it until after. This mistake is now engraved into my memories and I will try my best not to let it happen again.

I've shot B/W (mostly XP-2's) through out the Winter, I most likely wont be shooting any B/W for a while as I am quite sick of it and want to see some colours in my photos. Although, I did learn about film and the whole developing process quite a bit over season that just passed. *knocks on wood* I will still shoot B/W every now and then, and as much as I do enjoy the convenience of just dropping off a roll of XP-2 to a lab and not spend time on it, let alone worry about it, I'm more inclined to get back to a lab and develop it myself. Like I said, it's like baking. It tastes better when you make it, and if it turns out bad, you got only yourself to blame. Good thing is, it can only get better.

The first two photos are from my XP-2 and the last one is one from my Kodak TRI-X as you will notice it is more grainy. Apologies in advance for my rather crappy scanner and dust I couldn't get rid of for some reason.

As mentioned, you can see my, and this is what I will be calling it from now on, "FINGER PRINT OF DOOM" on the top right corner. And a small thanks to my friend Karmen who let me use a photo of her in this entry. She is rather shy, but she agreed anyway.