DanCo Photo

I’ve shot a few rolls of HP5 before and have always been quite disappointed in the results. I suspected at the time that this was down to the shop I picked to develop it rather than the film itself, and I’ve now had those suspicions pretty much confirmed.

Black and white film photography has a sexy mystique about it. As soon as you load a roll of black and white film you become Henri Cartier Bresson, or Vivian Maier, or Ansel Adams or any number of fantastic photographers from days gone by. Of course, you’re not any of those people; you’re someone who is alive and shooting antiquated equipment in the 2020s. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use some of that energy to inspire you.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve hovered over a ‘Buy now’ button on a website, deliberating over whether to go ahead with my basket full of home film development equipment and chemicals. This isn’t just because I like having control over my images and don’t enjoy being at the mercy of the postal service for film turnaround times, but it also works out significantly cheaper. Film development generally is pretty expensive, but black and white is a tier above. This is completely understandable, because it’s still a manual process and requires the lab to stock fresh chemicals at all times, but it does move me towards shooting more colour than black and white. 

I didn’t load this roll with any particular purpose in mind, except that it was a sunny day and the last black and white roll I did was shot on a moody day at the beach. I was curious to see how bright sunshine would change the output and whether I could get anything approaching street photography while walking around aimlessly. I’m pretty happy with the results.