Workhorses

Workhorses, originally uploaded by John the Monkey.

This is intended to be the "cover" shot for this year's DVD Forums "Photo a Day" (for the month of July) challenge.

It's from a test roll of Arista Pro 50 that I rolled because of a degree of nervousness about the bulk roll it had come from's journey across the Atlantic from Freestyle photo supplies. Fortunately, it appears to have survived that.

The cameras are the ones that will bear the brunt of shooting for this year's PAD; on the left, a Nikon FE with 50mm f/1.8 AF-N, and on the right, and F3 with 100mm f/2.8 Series E.

The intention is to shoot five frames each day on a "fast" (F3, with 400 ISO film) and a "slow" (FE with 50-100 ISO, possibly 25 if we get sun) body. I met this target over the last week, and will be souping the last of the two films (the full 36 exp roll of Arista Pro 50) tonight, all being well.

This sort of thing is far, far easier to do on digital, because the feedback is instantaneous - if I have all stinkers from one of my days, that's it, one will have to get posted. Still, I'm determined to complete this year's on film, largely because I'm an awkward sod that way, and at least partly to show that it can be done.

The plan is to finish the films on Saturday or Sunday, develop them that night, and then scan them the following day. Thereafter, I'll post one week behind everyone else, i.e. 1st July's shot on the 8th, &c I'm using home developed black and white more or less exclusively, so that I'm not reliant on a lab to turnaround the pictures.