Last week there was a rare sunny February day, so Paul and I wandered down to Bristol docks to try for a few photos. I was carrying my grandfather’s Voigtlander Vito II, loaded with cheap colour film from Poundland.
I developed the C-41 colour film at home using Digibase chemistry. It seems there was a problem with the stabiliser and it left small droplets of something on the film which looked like water, but turned sticky and slightly cloudy as they dried. I didn’t notice until the film was dry, by which time it was too late to wipe it off. It would have spoiled the scans of images, so I gave the film a long wash in warm water to dissolve and wash away the gloopy residue. Unfortunately this made it worse, and it went from being cloudy and sticky to being dry, opaque white and permanent. When scanned, this residue is opaque so appears black, and when inverted back to a positive image, this shows up as white spots. Ho hum.
Of these pictures, I like the picture of the cranes best. The juxtaposition of the steam crane in the foreground with the tall cranes further away, the tall sailing ship on the left hand side and the railway tracks is quite a nice celebration of the former glory of the harbour. And I also like the snap of Paul, demonstrating what not to do on train tracks!
Jonathan Gazeley 