As I mentioned in my last post, The Wrap Up, I have some photos I shot on the trip using film. Because I tend to be verbose, especially when it comes to technical or "how I did that" topics, you might want to just scroll down to the images.
My intention in taking a camera that is over 45-years old was to use it for street photography where I take not-so-random photos, usually by shooting from the hip. I wanted some images that were less posed, less formal, and caught subject matter in a more natural state. Yes, I could attempt the same using the camera on my phone, but there is something about the process of doing this the traditional way that attracts me. For one, using the phone would mean that I could view the photos immediately which would prompt me to change what I am doing based on that feedback. With film, I wouldn't know what I got until I returned home and develop it. The delayed gratification and the element of chance provides a level of personal satisfaction that I am looking for. Additionally, with film, I only have a certain number of shots per roll which prevents me from blasting away like I might if shooting digital. Film requires a higher level of intentionality.
All that said, I used my Minolta SRT-201 35mm single-lens reflex camera that I bought in the early 1970s. It's fitted with a 50mm lens and has an internal light meter that tells me how to set the shutter speed and the f/stop based on the ISO of the film I am using. Other than focus, that is the extent of the settings.
The film I selected is Ilford HP5+ 400 which is a black and white, fairly fast film which I chose because I knew that I would need the extra speed to shoot in the shade. I purchased it in a 100-foot roll and used my bulk loader to fill 6 reloadable film canisters. I shot a test roll before we left to make sure it's speed matched what my meter was telling me and that my developer would yield the results I desired. Everything was ready.
I had the film hand inspected at the Billings airport as they have one of the new scanners which would assuredly damage the film. In Italy, we had to go through security at a few of the museums and, seeing that their scanners were the older, smaller type, and that I wasn't going to hold up the line asking for a hand inspection, I just let the film go through and figured that I would get what I get. I forgot to ask for hand inspection when I flew out of Venice but did get it manually examined when I left out of Denver. However, in Denver, the end cap off one of the canisters came off, exposing that roll to light, and, unfortunately it was one of the 3 rolls that I had already shot. Not a good thing. Those end caps can come off on their own if the canister is squeezed or pressed and I don't know if the inspection did that or if it happened in my carryon. I'll get what I get.
I carried that camera with me in my backpack as we walked around the city and when the situation and lighting looked good, I'd take the camera out, check the light settings, and take some random shots. On occasion I would see a composition, like a canal scene, and I would shoot that or, as shown below, I would see people that I wanted to record and I would look through the viewfinder to get the shot.
The day after returning to Billings I developed the 3 rolls that I had shot, which included the one with the loose end cap. I loaded the film onto stainless steel reels and used Kodak D-76 developer, stock, for 7-1/2 minutes at 68 degrees. Stop bath and fixer were done using normal times after which I rinsed, used a hypo clearing bath, and then a final wash. I rinsed the film with a wetting agent and then hung them to dry. This was my first chance to look at them. Two of the rolls looked great and, to my surprise, about half of the roll from the canister with the loose end cap looked pretty good too. I think that the fact that the film is wound tightly on a spool with flanges on the end, limited the about of light that could strike it. I sleeved the film in glassine pages and glanced them over on my light table. The page on the right holds the roll that was exposed to light.
At this point I go into "hybrid" mode and I scan the negatives into digital using my Epson V500 scanner. I had almost 100 images. I selected some, did some light editing, selecting 32 out of the bunch, did a crop and a brightness/contrast adjustment on a few, and came up with what I am posting below. You can click on the images to enlarge them and get into the slide show mode.
This wraps up the posting of the trip, unless I think of adding an appendix. I will add a table of contents page since this software defaults to showing the oldest post first.
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