On entry, you are greeted with a series of tanks and what-have-you, in an eerily dark entrance tunnel, complete with camouflage netting and subtle lighting.
I know, very subtle lighting, wasn't it? It really was pretty dark, and I only had the 21mm f/4 lens with me, so I was rating the old HP5+ at 1600. I was trying to capture some of the mood of the whole thing and seem to have succeeded admirably, don't you think? While I could have perhaps let a little bit more light in, there is something visible there - just! OK I may have over-developed slightly too, which didn't help matters. It was ID-11, stock, for 14 minutes in case you are interested in that sort of thing.
It was the last of the fixer too. I make up 1 litre at the time at 1+4 and that works, according to Ilford's datasheet, for 24 35mm films. I don't push it though, and call it a day at 20 films. That's without replenishment. Properly replenished, a fixer bath can be used 'for a very long period of time', Ilford say, and I've no reason to doubt them. I might find myself having to test that theory sooner rather than later, given recent events in this part of the world.
This last one was of an early Enigma machine, which I admire a lot, what with me Maths background and all that.
Great snaps from Jersey, my friend, even though they're all from somewhere hidden away down under kind of place. I really like that first one up there!
ReplyDeleteThe old fixer problem, or issue, or challenge or whatever you like to call it. Nice to see that you put it all a bit into numbers as for how many films one liter of 1+4 mix can take before it's due. I think I might have a job to do in that respect, as I got no system in place to know how many films my fixer has been seeing. I need to do something about that!
I'm just home from a great trip to Ona, and had 9 films going through some developer (and fixing) yesterday. Now I'm at the cottage by the sea, but hope to get something scanned within a few days time.
That Enigma thing is a great computer... huh? Clever heads on top of the ones putting that one together I would say!
Thanks Roy - the War Tunnels were the best. A difficult story but very well told.
DeleteSounds like you had a productive time on Ona - for 9 films you need one of those multi-reel tanks. I rarely do more than 2 at a time, but on the odd occasion that I have more to do, I use the Uniroller, which can take a mix of 35mm and 120 reels, up to 6 I think, although I've never done that many at one time. The gasket has split but a liberal application of Vaseline/petroleum jelly seems to work OK :)
The whole Enigma series of code machines are just amazing. Clever heads indeed. This one looked so ordinary, too. Real innovation there.