My membership with the National Trust is running out and I’m not renewing it. I’ve had a mini dispute with them, perhaps I’ll write about that sometime. Anyway – I have some FP4 in 120 to use up, and I made one last visit to my local “trust house”, so I took along the Hasselblad and exposed a roll. My main reason for this is not that I need more images of Kingston Lacy, rather I’ve mixed up a new to me developer and I wanted to try it out on a known subject!
Barry Thornton’s Two Bath (BTTB) – obviously a two bath developer, the first I’ve used. FX55 can be used that way, but I never have. Bath A is rather like D23, and bath B is just a solution of Sodium Metaborate – once known back in the day as “Kodalk”. I used 4½ mins in each bath at 20°C. So far, based on just this one roll of FP4 I’m liking what I see! To my eye, it’s giving sharper results than D23, and a bit more contrast that I like too. The grain seems to be just as fine. I exposed a roll of Ilford Ortho on the same day so I’ll develop and scan that next.
I have photo’s of the greenhouse above when it was in ruins and just a brick wall, the sloping glass and white wood had all decayed and fallen in on itself. Today there is a healthy grape vine and against that back wall, peaches, almost ready to eat!
More BTTB to follow…
S.H.O.U.T. 