In my first entry as a student, here, I mentioned that I will be using a manual camera and process my film into photographs.

Well, I did just that and I have to say, for a novice, I did good. My photographs, although mediocre, did come out the way I expected.

What I keep noticing, as a creative person, you tend to be your worst own critic. Always trying to be perfect and come up with a better image than before. Until another creative person comes along and says they ‘LOVE’ your work and it’s perfect the way it is. Yet, you still find time to criticise it even more before concluding that it ‘may’ does actually work as it is.

Having said that, I actually resigned to the fact that, once it has been developed, stopped and fixed and there is nothing more I can do about my first (solo processed) film photographs other than frame them.

So……my first ever EXPOSURES were on Resin Coated paper……

Trial and error plus excitement was the order of the day when I used up this film. I actually enjoyed taking pictures and to work on them in the dark room and to see the results was…… THERAPEUTIC!

The image of the hospital tower was taken from the Uni grounds as I walked home from first day of lectures.

The bathroom photograph was a difficult one to produce as it was a very dark negative and to get the exposure time just right to see some of the detail was hit and miss. In the end, I settle for this image, only to discover that the film was damaged (see white scuff mark on the left of print).

I went on to process further images from the same contact sheet on Fiber Based paper and the process although slightly different were much more better than I expected.

Now, I can safely say that I can start on my project for this semester.

EK13 Recommends: ‘Rear Window’ directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Brilliant piece of photography related film.