I’ve been photographing with a lot of Ilford FP4 film lately. I’m not going to deny this is mostly because a local photography shop in my area had it on sale for 15% off and I tend to gravitate toward the cheapest roll of film on the shelf in most cases.
After going through about five or six rolls I’m starting to wonder why I don’t work with Ilford FP4 more often. It’s really lovely stock! The grain structure is very classic “black and white” while still retaining sharpness and the contrast is easy to keep under control. I’ve been developing every roll in Rodinal at a ratio of 1:100 for twenty minutes and the negatives are coming out spot on exactly how I tend to like them.
I feel like this is one of those things that needs to be filed under the “Captain Obvious” heading of my personal journals. I mean, it’s not like I’ve never used Ilford FP4 before, it has just been a long time. But still, it feels like a revelation of sorts and I’m looking forward to using a few rolls of Ilford FP4 in the summer when the light gets to be a bit brighter and more harsh than the gray skies of winter.
This image was made with my Mamiya C330 TLR. I know I’ve been raving about the Hasselblad 500c/m lately but for this shoot it felt good to go back to my old faithful camera. Overall, the Mamiya is still my favorite camera of all time and taking it out every once in a while feels like getting a cup of coffee with an old friend.