I have a habit of bringing my camera everywhere with me, even while if I have to travel for work. Even if I’ve been to a place before and even taken photos of it, different conditions may come up, or I may want to frame a picture a different way. I may have a different film than before, or I’m experimenting or trying something new. I’ve shot pictures going up to Deale, MD before, but I’ve changed up some automatic metering techniques and used different developer since then.
My grandfather’s shop is also a good place to do tests and try things out as well. It gives me a consistent environment, as the lighting it mainly the same. I also like to document what he is working on. You may have seen this bench in its half-complete state previously. These are pictures of them finished.
So on my road pictures, I’ve been more mindful of exposure metering and a bright sky. I’ve found myself loosing a lot of detail in the shadows as the camera is not metering for it when I shoot. If I have a bright day, I’ve been setting the automatic exposure setting a stop down (2x), sometimes 2 stops down (4x) if I’m facing more towards the sun.
That’s been giving me better results and better ground detail. The exposure compensation setting on the automatic shutter speed gives me more flexibility without sacrificing time, which is important for drive-by (photo) shooting.
I love and hate a lot of bridge shots, depending on the bridge. One one hand it gives you a great clean perspective, higher up with fewer obstructions. On the other hand, many bridges have high railings that block the view. Even if they don’t the railings on an incline, which makes the shot look crooked.
Lastly, I got some macro filters for my 50mm and 28mm prime lenses. I love shooting macro, and I can get up really close with these now. The macro mode on my zoom lens is pretty good, but I’m stuck at the one setting it has. I have 4 different filters now I can get closer or farther away and adjust my composition and depth of focus. They’re cheap little filters, but give a lot of different options, so I’m glad I picked them up. With the 10x filter, you can see the pixels on my monitor, and it comes in nice and sharp.
Development Details
- Film: Fomapan 200
- Camera ISO setting: 200
- Developer: Kodak XTol
- Development Time: 6 Minutes
- Development Agitation: Kodak Style (5x inversions every 30 seconds)