So that didn't work 2x, and a Lomo 100 review

Part of the fun of film is not knowing what you'll actually get once it's developed. You can plan, do exposure calculations, double check focus and lens cap removal, and still be surprised. This image, for example.

I was out for a walk with some buddies in the Forest Lawn neighbourhood, informally known in Calgary as The Hood. With that clue, some of my readers know exactly where I was for that photo. Then again, if you squint you can probably read the street sign.

Those of you that have followed along know I've been doing some long exposure work on film, mostly with running water so far. I'd been thinking about traffic, wondering how that would turn out. Yes, light trails at night are fun, but I was thinking of daytime.

The Co-op store and gas station was an ok background, but what I was really after was the blurs from passing traffic. So two points. I'd carefully double-checked the exposure with a 10 stop ND filter and with Kokak Gold 200 loaded (It was what was in the camera for a previous session that didn't happen.) I came up with a 13 second exposure. That much worked out just fine. 

Here's where the guesswork came in. I had no idea if the vehicles would be in the frame long enough to captured or not. Pretty much not. The one above is the best of the bunch, and you'd have to be pretty keen-eyed to find the transit bus in there. Look for the faint horizontal white streaks across the middle of the frame. It was just sitting there, off to the left of the frame for several seconds after I opened the shutter. I had hoped to see that as a faint but recognizable image, then the ghost trail heading right and fading out as the bus accelerated.

Here's where I goofed. I took all 8 images at the same exposure time, plus or minus a second or so, varying the traffic conditions. What I should have done is open the shutter a stop for each new exposure and shortened the exposure time accordingly. I started at f32 and 13 seconds, should then have done f22 and 7, f16 and 4, f11 and 2, then f8 and 1 second or so. With the GW690 those last two would start getting tricky as the camera has a T mode, not a B mode for long exposures.

At some point, I think I'd get the results I'm looking for. Of course, as the shutter time gets short, it also becomes more tricky to time the traffic. Once I know which exposures work, then it's time to find the right composition, where the background is actually interesting.

In one of the eight exposures a man is walking through the intersection while the shutter is open. He'd held back a bit to stay out of my photo, but I told him to do his thing, that I was hoping to see him as a faint blur. Can't see him at all.

That was the first thing that didn't work. I found out the other thing that didn't work shortly after the long exposures. I'd also taken the Canon 7 along, loaded with Flic Film Elektra 100. I was happily finding window reflection photos, knowing I was near the end of the roll. Then I looked at the camera, thinking I had to be at the end of the roll. It said 39. I know sometimes you can get 37 and maybe 38 out of a roll of 36, but 39 was a surprise. I figured maybe because it was an off brand it had been cut a few inches longer.

I did 40 and was sure there was a problem. Most likely I hadn't loaded it correctly and I hadn't made any exposures at all. Or that the film wasn't anchored properly in the canister as a manufacturing defect, and it had come out to be spooled onto the take up side. 

I started to rewind, and within a couple turns I got that subtle click that told me the film had been rewound into the canister. Oops. I ended up going to London Drugs and asked nice if the tech could pull it back out for me. There is a special tool for this. It only took him seconds. In the mean time I've got some Acros II loaded, so when it's done I'll reload the Elektra and try again. 

The Lomography 100 you ask? This is a cheaper film brand that I associate with variable colour chemistry, and with cheap plastic cameras. Still, I picked up a 3 pack of 120 for a good price and figured I'd try it. 

There is an alley near the above Co-op that has been painted as part of a beautification process. I'm dumbfounded there is no graffiti. We strolled and I thought I'd see how the paint turned out in the bright sunlight. I'd forgot that the GW690 gives me a pentagram flare when aiming into the sun, and that spoiled a couple of photos. Here's the best of the rest.

I didn't have to tweak the exposure in Negative Lab Pro or Lightroom. There were minor adjustments, and some dust removal. I'm pleased at how the colours are rendered. This film seems to do really well in bright sunlight. I have a few exposures taken in Fish Creek to see how some natural colours show up. There's 3 left on the roll as I write this. Maybe I'll have another go at some long exposures. I'd buy more of this.

My photo walk buddies, both checking the back of their cameras. They both occasionally carry film cameras, but were doing digital that day. I went just with film.