Shaken, not stirred

James Bond was right. He always was, and I should have listened to him.

But no, I, I knew better. Because you know, shaking the coctail can get a bit messy and so I decided to stir the stuff would be the better idea. I mean, the most important thing is to mix the ingredients, right?

Oh how wrong I was. The result was thin, lifeless. It didn’t have any of the magic everybody else was talking about. For over a year, I did it the wrong way. Frank Sinatra might have his own view about *Doing it my way”, but boy was I wrong.  I changed ingredients, temperatures, anything I could think of, but the results were still shatteringly disappointing

And so, discouraged,  I stopped doing it. I had started one, waiting for me for almost three months, but just couldn’t bear another of these stale, boring shots.  Still, I did come back reading about it, admiring the work of others and wondering what I did wrong.

And then, this very Friday, I had an brainstorm. Maybe it wasn’t about the igredients. Maybe, just maybe, shaken or stir did matter. I would not shake the stuff, that would be to much, but just… turn it up side down and back. I admit, I was quite nervous when I was done, emptied the shaker and saw the result.

And boy, did it make a difference!  When scanning the negatives –

Hold on – NEGATIVES?! What are you talking about?

Oh.. Sorry. I thought you know I talk about film development… So, where was I? Ah yes – 

And boy, does it make a difference!  When scanning the negatives, the histogram was no longer huddling all the way on the left side, but stretched nicely across the range.

Beautiful blacks, lovely greys and even delicate whites, they were all here. I guess the film bug got me again.
And a bit of a travel bug as well.

But that’s a different story.

corn wreath, taken with TMAX400

Train station Enge, shot on TMAX400

All important travel literature, shot on TXAX100 @ 80 ISO
(God, just have a look at the shine on the lens. Like melted butter 🙂