Yashica-Mat • Kodak Ektachrome 64T (tungsten-balanced), expired March 1997 • Cross-processed
The 1964 Ford truck again, taken during the same sunrise as the ones I shared in my recent Kiev 4AM blog post.
I got downright giddy when I saw this truck sitting out on the auction sales floor. Times like these are why I make sure to have a camera with me at all times.
Last year, I bought a batch of medium format slide film from eBay. Very EXPIRED medium format film. Most of it expired in 1999. Why would I buy really old film? Because I have had really cool results by using expired slide film and cross-processing it (I explained about cross-processing in another blog post last year.)
There are a lot of things that can happen to film as it ages. Along with possible color shifts, film can lose a certain amount of light sensitivity when it’s expired. That can make getting proper exposures tricky. Another factor in how well film has aged is how the film was stored throughout the years. If it was kept in a cold, dry place (like a freezer or refrigerator) then the effect of time could be minimal. But with film like the batch I bought, I have no real way of knowing how it was stored. That’s a gamble when you buy expired film from eBay…
I decided that I needed to test a roll of this film so I could see what kind of shape it was in after nearly 15 years. I loaded it in my Bronica ETRSi and gave it a go!
(the above photos were taken with my Samsung NX1100)
I asked the lab to cross-process the film for me, and here are the results:
Dilapidated sign in Memphis
This photo is only included because it makes me laugh. Perfectly captured my niece’s mannerisms
Goldenrod
I got my niece to pose in some of her T-shirts that I like (this is her ‘model’ face, btw)
Probably petting one of her dogs, who were clamoring for attention
Her real personality. Goofy!
I don’t know how I got her to take her glasses off…love her Turtle Power shirt though!
Climbing the front porch
Holding on and hanging out on the porch
Bronica ETRSi • Zenzanon 75mm/2.8 EII • Fuji Provia 400, exp. January 1999, Cross-processed
Conclusion?
I’m pretty darned pleased with how the photos came out. I can look at the negatives and tell how a few were a bit underexposed . That just means I’ll have a better idea about the film’s exposure needs when I shoot the rest of my batch of this film.
(I have eight more rolls of the Fuji Provia 400 in the crisper drawer of my fridge!!! Exciting!!!)
A few months ago, Urban Outfitters had a bunch of Lomography film on sale for half price. I’d never tried any of their films before, since it’s not really any cheaper than the more “serious” brands of film that I normally use. Or even any cheaper than the less serious ones I use. But when I saw all that film that UO had on clearance, I decided now was as good a time as any to give Lomography film* a try. I grabbed a few packs of their 100 ASA color negative film because it was too cheap to pass up. Also too cheap to pass up was some of their Xpro Chrome 100, which is slide film that they mean for you to “cross process” (or x-pro.) That means you take film that would normally be processed in chemicals specific to its type and process it in chemicals meant for a different type of film. Most of the time, cross-processing is referring to taking slide (positive) film that would normally be processed in E-6 chemicals, and processing it in regular color (negative) film C-41 chemicals**. Depending on the slide film, it can give you crazy color shifts or color casts, or high contrast and super saturation (click here to see a bunch of my cross-processed stuff from over the years to see what I mean.)
(Is that whole paragraph much technical information to follow?? I know a lot of you have seen an Xpro fiilter on Instagram!! Maybe it gives you a frame of reference??)
What could this Lomography Xpro Chrome 100 do for me though? I loaded a roll of it into my Ricoh FF-1, and I found out what it could do! I didn’t have anything specific in mind that I wanted to shoot with the Xpro 100; I just carried my FF-1 around and pulled it out when I saw something I liked.
A beauty shop in my town, that I love to photograph
Mustang
Discarded shop sign
“Please, no pictures”
Ghostly niece and dogs
Lunch on the Memphis Pizza Cafe patio
Inexplicable double exposure of my friend during a Midtown photo shoot
One of my favorite post offices
Boat shop drive-by
Cracker Barrel rockers
Niece’s new neon kicks
Waffle House dinner after a photo shoot with my niece
Ricoh FF-1 • Lomography Xpro Chrome 100 • cross-processed
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Conclusion?
I really loved the results – the photos were contrasty, but not over the top with color shifts. Just enough to look a little different than the norm. Now I’m kicking myself for not picking up more than one pack of it when I had the chance to get it for 50% off! Maybe I’ll find a good deal on some again soon!
This was a sunny spring break afternoon spent walking around Graceland Plaza. We didn’t go to the mansion itself, but this served as a way of introducing my niece to Graceland. She loved it. She held my hand, asked me questions about Elvis, picked out TCB items she wanted from the gift shop, and talked of planning a trip to the mansion with her Papa (my dad.) These photos are memories from one of our perfect days together. ♥
Pentax ZX-7 • Kodak Elitechrome 200 (expired), Cross-processed