Numbers – Hoarding Film Edition

Yesterday afternoon, I caught a motherfucking huge batch of film from someone on CraigsList. Black and white and colour, 120 and 220, fresh and expired, various ISOs … all in two large Ziplog bags.

All this shit for $25. That’s $25 for this:

Here’s in bag 1:

6 Kodak 400TX 120
5 Kodak Portra 400NC 220
4 Kodak Portra 160NC 220
4 Kodak Portra 160VC 220

Here’s in bag 2:

8 Kodak 320 Tri-X 220
7 Kodak 125 Plus-X 220
6 Ilford FP4 Plus 120
5 Ilford 100 Delta 120
3 Ilford 200 SFX 120
2 Agfa 100 Optima II 120
1 Agfa Scala 200X 120
1 Kodak T400CN T-Max 120
1 Fujifilm 100 Acros 120

So that’s:

38 Black-and-white
15 Colour
25 120
28 220

Here’s my initial reaction upon getting both for the price of one:

Yeah … we’re gonna need a bigger boat.

220 Tuesday #1 (belated) + Model #2 Shoot #3

A funny thing happened on the way to the shoot. Me and my friend were sitting in the bus on the way to the station. Two women who were looking rather odd (who doesn’t in this city?) and giving me looks. I was trying to ignore them when I noticed a perfect opportunity to take a photo of the back of someone’s head. I took the shot, and noticed the girls moved away to the back of the bus. Me and my friend were sitting by the side doors in the middle of the bus, just beside the stairs that lead up into the rear of the bus. At the station when we were on the platform, the girls approached us and began giving us shit about taking pictures, and threatened us with police action or reporting. I confronted them back, telling them that they were idiots who like to cause shit for no reason or for minor things. So they went and attempted to report me to whoever. So I went and thankfully confronted them again with their behaviour. The guy in the booth was already on the phone calling someone when I managed to get his attention. I kind of recognize him because he was a photographer and knows what I’m doing was perfectly legal. The girls, knowing that they couldn’t do shit, stormed off as I was telling the guy my side of the story, even going as far as describing the girls as idiots.

They had an accent, either French or Russian, so naturally these people have no idea what country they’re living in. French folk would undoubtedly be much more tolerant since their country underwent a revolution while ours has been stagnating from reform since the start. Russians or Slavic folk are not familiar with this country, despite our own mock-democracy. Little moments like this make me appreciate what I have at least in this country, even though I honestly still think much more needs to be done, like dumping the monarchy, replacing our constitution, and replacing that rag called the Charter of Rights and Freedoms with something more solid and more broad.

Endure, indulge or enjoy.

All images © Mikailus 2011

What Luck

On the subway home, in the early hours of the evening, I had just taken a photo of a girl/woman with her face in her hands when a man approached me. He was around my size, though slightly shorter, with a shaved head and glasses. He asked me about the camera, and we talked about it for a bit before he raises the prospect of selling some of his old 120 stock. He gave me his phone number and then parted ways. I was supposed to call him around 8:00 pm but came home around 9:30, then discovered that the piece of paper that had his number was missing. Then early this morning I received a phone call from him, and we went over what he had. After making a deal on the phone, we met at one of the subways around 4:35 or something. For $60 I got myself twenty-six rolls of film, with six rolls of Agfacolour Ultra 50, and twenty rolls of what’s been said to be the legendary Kodak Ektar 25, considered it’s masterpiece product and that it produces fine results . . . well, according to hearsay, that is he said they said this. Let’s see, shall we? 🙂

Meanwhile, I’ve yet to develop more rolls of glorious black-and-white.

The Latest 220 Roll

The first shots I posted of from my Yashica were in colour and from rolls of expired 220 Fujifilm, mostly in 400 iso. Here’s a second batch, but this time it’s expired Agfa film. Enjoy, indulge, or endure.

All images © Mikailus 2011

Pending Arrival and Pending Purchase

Today the Yashica was shipped out. I might get it either tomorrow or next week. One may never know.

Sunday, I’m fetching a bulk of 220 film from a nice guy that answered my CraigsList ad. 5 rolls of Fuji Pro 400H and 12 rolls of the ever rare Agfa Optima 400 for $75. I’ve only heard of Agfa film, though never used their films at all. They stopped making black-and-white slide film in the early 2000’s, and most recently stopped making them altogether. This isn’t black-and-white slide film, of course. Though it would be nice if it was. BH photo still sells them, in 50 or 100 ISO.

But despite the effort, I’m still looking. Anybody want to help out?