rusty

The summer already feels like it's winding down, even though the sun still hovers over the city, baking the moisture out of every crack, every crevice. The few spurts of rain we get shadow the city quickly and I have to scramble in the wet darkness to get photos like this one. Most of the traditional festivals have come and gone and suddenly fall is right around the corner. I'd like to say there is plenty to see, but after missing the past week the only activity is from the noisy street crews as they operate on their asphalt patients and send charcoal clouds of cinerous dust into the air.

With the slow pace, I've spent time trying to catch up on interviews, archives, and general photo upkeep. My roll of bulk film finally ran out the other day. After the last piece rolled off the spool I realized I should have been keeping track of how many rolls can be had from 100 feet of celluloid. I've got a few left, so I'm going to shoot conservatively until I can get a new order in from New York. Bulk film comes in a box and you have to transfer it, in completed darkness, to a film loader. From there you crank out individual rolls of film, which look just like the kind at Walgreens, only cheaper. My last batch was Ilford FP4, which I loved, but sometimes was simply too slow for night shooting. One of my favorites is Kodak 320, which they do not make in bulk, and the famous Tri-X (Kodak 400) is too grainy for my tastes. I think I'm going to push a couple rolls of Ilford Delta 100 and see how they look. Otherwise it'll be more of the FP4.