Wednesday, August 14, 2013

At the Zoo

The three-month-old snow leopard twins have made their debut at the Rio Grande Zoo.  This is the sixth litter for the Zoo's very productive pair.






I was inspired to do some pictures by the acquisition of an old Sears/Ricoh TLS with a T-mount 400mm Vivitar lens.  The pre-set lens is pretty awkward in use, but it has nice sharpness, even at maximum aperture.  Certainly worth the ten bucks I paid for the outfit.

The combination of Tri-X and Rodinal wasn't one I was planning on, but I discovered to my dismay that Kodak HC-110 developer suddenly commands a sky-high price, and it can't be had locally at all.  Life is getting complicated for film photographers.

5 comments:

Jim said...

I'm not sure what possessed me, but I checked around online at Amazon, Adorama, and B&H, and all of them list HC-110 as unavailable. Ominous.

I like the expression on the cat's face in the first photo.

Mike said...

I feel kind of stupid, having just bought seven rolls of Tri-X. I will probably try some DDX on it. The thing about Hc-110 is that it is good with about everything I commonly use, including TMAX and Acros.

Norman Montifar said...

I'm glad to see your new post Mike.
I have a few Tri-X in the fridge and some half used bottle of HC-110. I had been lazy lately in doing some developing. I should get going again.

Julio F said...

Great animal portraits!

You can use DDX or powder types (D-76 and ID-11 go nicely with Tri-X). Rodinal worked well for you in these shots.

Mike said...

I ended up getting some Ilfosol 3 because that was one of the few types that the local camera stores carry. I suspect it will work ok, but it is pretty pricey at $12 for 500ml with a recommended 1:9 dilution. If I were shooting more these days, I would probably be experimenting now with caffenol, but I may not get to it.