I still screw up

Bronica SQ-A. Zenzanon PS 150mm f/4. Ilford FP4+ 120 film. Developed in LC29. Scanned on a V500. Repaired in Gimp.

I took this photograph at an open air event in Wisbech last weekend.  The past year, we’ve both been learning music and stringed instruments.  Never too old to learn.  I’m 52 years old, and Anita is … considerably younger.  I’m dedicated to learning the mandolin.  I’ve ordered a hand made mandolin from a local luthier.  I wont receive it for at least a year, so for now, I’m dedicated to practice with a much cheaper mandolin.  Meanwhile, for Anita, it has been guitars – acoustic, electric, and now an electric bass that I recently picked up used.  So when I saw this local rock band playing, I felt drawn to the bass guitarist.  And I think that he made a cool subject.

I still screw up refers to the fact that my photography is far from good, never mind perfect.  I still make silly mistakes.  On this medium format film of FP4+, I didn’t give it enough time to dry.  I was impatient.  I’ve got away with it before, but perhaps this time, I just didn’t leave it enough time hanging in the bathroom.  I cut it, stored the strips in a negative binder.  Next morning I scanned it.  Some of the strips “stuck” a bit in the binder, needed a little tug out.  When I scanned them, there was damage – vertical lines where I guess still sticky film scored in the negative binder.

I did some repair work to the digital scans using Gimp 2.8 software.  Its not perfect – you can still see some scoring on this scan.  However, I have learned a new lesson.  Wait!