Working through some of my backlog of undeveloped film from back in the spring while I was down in California for a month or so. I was really glad when I discovered this park located about half way in-between Morgan Hill and San Jose. On a weekday it was largely empty even though the weather was nearly perfect. I suppose in California there are a lot of days when the weather is nearly perfect so it isn’t cause for celebration like it tends to be up here in the Pacific Northwest.
This image was exposed on Ilford FP4, which is a film I’m embarrassed to say I have yet to really master. I like FP4 a lot and I WANT to master it, but of all the films I use I feel like I fail with it the most. I had to play with this particular frame a lot after scanning it to get a look I was happy with. It’s quite possible that Ilford FP4 just isn’t a great film to use with Rodinal and that may be where my frustration is coming from. That’s what I’m going to keep telling myself anyway. It makes my bruised technical ego feel better. Most of the time with FP4 my results just tend to be rather flat with very little punch to it. Looking at the results I’ve seen other people get with this film I’m fairly confident that the problem is with my technique and not a problem with the film itself.
I’m just going to leave this image here though because after some level adjustments post-scanning I am happy with the image.