And now for something completely different
A roll of Harman Azure
Those nice folk at Harman Technology sent me some Harman Azure to try out - the first time I’ve ever tried a roll of film of anything other than “colour” or “monochrome”.
Not knowing what to expect, I relegated the first roll to my Ensign Selfix 16-20, a 6x4.5cm folding medium format film camera from the 1950s that is truly pocket sized. It fits in my back pocket when cycling, so I thought I’d point the lens at the blues and greens of the South Downs of England.
As I really didnt know what to expect, I decided that I’d fly through the roll in a single day, and then wait to see the results. The first frame is of St Nicholas Church, Shoreham, on the east bank of the River Adur.
Heading up over Lancing Hill on my MTB, I fired off two shots (“fired off” sounds quick fire, but with a 1950s all manual camera with no light meter this is a delightfully slow process).
My subject was the chalky path up to the trig point on top of Steepdown Hill, just north of Sompting,
The intensively farmed chalk hills around my home town produced a few more images, and then I was home, but with a couple more frames left in the roll. (120 film allows 16 frames on 6x4.5 which seems so many, compared to the 8 exposures on my favourite 6x9 format).
Two exposure left, so I pocketed the camera when I walked my dog a few days later and shot into the setting sun at low tide on the river.
One more, and as it was early April and the blossoms were in full swing, I unleashed my last exposure on a tree in my garden. Unfortunately I drastically underexposed, so not sure what colour the Azure would have rendered.
I was pleasantly surprised by the results, but I’m too much of a documentarian to want to load such an unusual film very often.
However, I have a few more rolls of Harman product, both colour and monochrome, so will be experimenting with alternate realities a little more over the summer.