Yes, a gift for myself!
We know what's trending, and what's dying here in Brunei. Ever since returning home for good, I've seen less of film photography being practiced around me. I used to be able to walk out from Brunei Hall for 5 minutes to reach a photo shop that could develop any of my films, be it a black & white, C-41 or an E-6. I could even request for the film to be cross-processed if I wished to.
It was sad to find out that majority of the photo studios here had stopped processing films. Recently I was told that the one that I would normally send my films to had also stop their services. So what's left? If you're from KB, then you're lucky! Because there's still one studio / photo stop next to Marilyn that will be able to accept your C-41 films to be processed, printed and scanned. I would suggest to send in a bulk instead of 1 or 2 rolls. This way they would be able to run their machine without wasting so much chemicals.
When I went to Japan, I decided to bring my SLR Camera and some films; mostly b&w because I knew I would be able to develop it there but when I got to Bic Camera, it would take them at least 5 days to process b&w films. I knew this was normal but I was moving around within that week and wouldn't be able to collect the film by the time it's done and so I decided to buy more of Ilford C-41 because I am just that obsessed with black and white shots on SLR Camera.
We spent some time in Bic Camera and Yodobashi, allowing me to contemplate whether I should buy the darkroom kit I found by accident while I was browsing through the stores. I was running on limited budget, and had been calculating the total expense if I did get this and that, and then I also thought about the weight, and the amount of space it would take in my luggage, giving me mostly no reason to get anything at all. So it finally hit me that I should get the ones that would be the most least likely items that could be shipped to Brunei: the chemicals! And that's exactly what I bought: Developer and Fixer in powder form, and a Stop-bath. I also bought a pair of clipper to hang the negative, and a thermometer.
After I returned to Brunei, my mind never stopped thinking about completing the set. I was itching to develop that one roll I didn't get to send for processing, and I couldn't wait for @thefilmformat.bn (on Instagram) to finally start their services. I spent day after day browsing through different websites, from ebay to amazon to b&h and googling/youtubing/reading on developing your own film at home. I drove myself to an anxiety level that I myself couldn't describe (as if I was ever able to describe any of my anxieties but I feel like calling this the Paul anxiety - no background story to who Paul is but this anxiety feels like a paul to me, maybe steven? I don't know!) Anyway...
....I finally made my mind up. I ordered the Paterson tank, two storage bottles, a graduate, a daylight changing bag, a squigee and a stirring paddle from B&H simply because their delivery was fast, and I wouldn't need to go through customs at the post office. When I received the items, I realised it was still incomplete and I got the Paul again. I couldn't sleep thinking how I've missed out the funnel, buckets for mixing the solutions, another storage bottle, gloves and so on. I spent two days after work looking and buying all the ones I needed to complete the set.
At last, the set was complete. All in all, I spent nearly BND 250.00 for the above ^ which wasn't so bad, right?
The excitement turned into another episode of Paul. I spent two nights watching youtube videos on how to properly or correctly make the developer and fixer stock. I read on how to develop films, and almost always finding myself googling on it every chance that I could. I was too scared of getting it wrong the first time considering I only had with me one roll to develop. There was also a sudden realisation that when I studied photography before, we were never allowed to make our own stock and all the chemicals were prepared beforehand by our teacher. Also, the last time I was in a darkroom? ... Early 2009 just before I completely ditched SLR for DSLR because I was lazy. Oh Paul got me good this time around.
The big day came after letting the stocks sat for 24 hours. I've tried to capture most of the steps in the video below but we've only got two hands. Loading the negative to the reel would require some practice beforehand, and I was that idiot who would jumped right into it and spent 10 minutes trying to get it right. I guess it would've been easier to do it in complete darkness instead of inside a changing bag. If you're too lazy to read whatever I've written above, you can just watch the video below:
As I write this post, the negative is still hanging inside my bathroom. I think it might've been underdeveloped considering how dark the negative turned out to be, plus my room is too warm to be turned into a darkroom. I guess this is how the Paul made me dream about getting my AC fixed so that I could properly develop my films with temperature consistency. I think too much sometimes (lies, I overthink everything).
So what have I learned this week?
Strength of chemicals comes in two forms: Stock and 1:(something) dilution. Stock is the solution you get after mixing the powder with distilled water at a certain temperature, and ratio dilution is when you mix the stock with water with either 1:1 (e.g 200ml stock + 200ml water), 1:3 and so forth. I've read that most people preferred to go with 1:1 dilution for developer for better contrast, and sharpness but it would double the amount of time for developing process. Developer also gets bad fast when it's oxidised, and when the chemical turns into yellow-ish color then it's not good anymore. Also try to avoid doing all these in the kitchen so you won't contaminate any food or drink or the kitchenware. Remember, the chemicals are toxic so they're probably not all that great afterall.
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