Last weekend my eye was caught by the reflections at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto.
Rolleiflex 3.5E3 (Xenotar lens)
Ilford HP5+, developed in H-110 Dilution B
Recently I bumped into my photographer friend Leon Bonin, near Downtown Camera in Toronto. When it comes to street photography, Leon is absolutely fearless; he will ask anyone if he can take his/her picture, and he gets great results.
From a technical point of view, I am very happy with the combination of HP5+ film (not know for super fine grain) and Perceptol developer. Reasonably tight grain, and nice tonality!
Rolleiflex 3.5E3 (Xenotar lens)
Ilford HP5+ film developed in Perceptol
Here is another image from the roll of HP5+ film I developed in Pyrocat HD developer yesterday. This developer has really “unlocked” this film for me. Taken in Niagara-On-The-Lake on a very dull day this past summer, the tonality is much better than I would have expected.
Baby Speed Graphic with 120 6×7 film back,
101mm/4.5 Ektar lens.
Ilford HP5+ film developed in
Pyrocat HD 1+1+100 for 19 minutes @ 20 C
Another image from the roll shot using the Pentax 200mm/f4 lens, this time of chess players in front of Metropolitan Church in downtown Toronto. There is always an interesting collection of characters in this location!
(Pentax Spotmatic, 200mm/f4 Super Takumar lens, HP5 film at box speed, developed in D-23 1:1 15 minutes)
Today’s photo is an image of my elder daughter Julia, beside a window in our house that seems to guarantee great light all the time :-). I had a roll of Ilford HP5+ kicking around so I loaded it into my Baby Speed Graphic, using a 6×7 120 roll film adapter from a Mamiya RB67 which just happens to fit 🙂 I’ve never had great luck with that film in 35mm (always too grainy), but in 120 I’m blown away!
It can be fun looking for interesting patterns and shapes in everyday mundane objects, and a bus shelter in Toronto is about as mundane as it gets. But today’s image was created by strong sunlight beaming through a bus shelter onto the concrete sidewalk, and the geometry seemed interesting to me.
(Contax IIIA, Jupiter 8 52/2 lens, HP5+ developed in HC-110 dilution B, 7:30)
Ilford HP5+ is a film that I’ve never had luck with in 35mm; it’s always been just too grainy when I develop it. And that was certainly true with the latest roll, so for this image I decided to bow to the inevitable, and accentuate the grain with some post processing. I captured this image at Ashbridges Bay in Toronto, while waiting for a model to show up; it was a very grey September evening, and this part of the beach was certainly not busy.