This has been a special year for all of us. Covid 19 has turned everything upside down, and we are more home bound than we usually are. Because of this, I decided to go on holiday in Norway this year, and appreciate the Norwegian nature with some old, cheap equipment and some rolls of KODAK Ektar.
First up, was my Olympus OM-1 and the amazing Zukio 50mm lens. Not a very cheap camera you might say, but I managed to get my OM-1 shipped shipped to Norway for just around 70 euros. That is a real bargain considering the quality and value in use.
These shots are from the area around Brønnøysund in Northern Norway. Closer description as image text.
All images are developed with the Tetenal C41 home development Kit, and scanned with my PlusTek Opticfilm 8100.
Picture 1 – Vevelstad Kommune, Forvik ferry port, Nr 2 and 4, Velfjord in Brønnøy, nr 3 from Klompen in Namsos
For the past years, I have mostly shot digital when doing portrait shoots and other important shoots that involve use of colour. On my recent holiday trip to Denmark, I came across an old fashioned photography shop where they had a sale on «soon to expire» films. On this sale I found a five-pack of Kodak Portra 160, and I decided to give it a go.
I am one of those people who loves to develop films and I decided that colour or B&W, I’ll master the process myself. I did Colour development a few times some years ago, and knew more or less what I was going into, with water baths and temperature control. For chemistry I bought the Tetenal Home kit, which I have to say was really easy to use and fairly idiot proof if you do monitor the temperature.
I stuck the Kodak roll into my Nikon F80, and brought it to a TFP-shoot with the lovely Hedda and her guitar. The Portra is well known for giving the nicest skin tones and I was curious about this as well.
Hedda and her Fender caught on Portra 160
I shot the film at box speed and kept it as I normally keep exposed film for a few days until I had the time to develop it.
I was amazed how simple and straight forward the Tetenal process really is. Remembering earlier experience with C41 as rather difficult I had no problems at all mastering this process. I used a Paterson tank and used the «stirring tap» to rotate the reel in the tank, as the process is made for rotation.
I am very happy with how the images turned out. The images you see here are untouched and straight from the Plustek Scanner I use for all my entries.
You can master any process.
“A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it.”
Cheap Camera Adventures 