My Life on 35mm #9 | December 2018: My First Time Shooting Tmax!
I’ve mentioned before that I am trying as many different types of film as I can so I can figure out what I love the most. In the black and white world, I really only shot HP5 for the first year of shooting film, just because it was the purist favourite, and figured there had to be a solid reason for it.
Pre Christmas I was doing a bit of a buy up of film for the break, and Sam suggested I try Tmax. I promptly did, not really knowing anything about it, and decided to give it a go when I was in Wellington for Christmas. I had the idea that I would shoot a few bits and pieces around Grandma’s garden on film for memories sake. Grandma’s garden has always been best known for her gorgeous roses, and they’ve been her pride and joy for as long as I can remember. She can’t tend to them herself anymore, but the gardener keeps them up so she can still enjoy her flowers. And white roses honestly sounded like the best thing to photograph in black and white.
Back to the film itself. I shot these not expecting anything tooooo special. I was still shooting a bit blind in terms of exposure and hoping that by stopping it down the white roses wouldn’t get blown out. These rose photos in particular turned out to be some of my favourite film shots so far. Tmax is super contrasty, the black are richer than HP5 and it has made for some seriously dramatic shots. They honestly look really similar to how I like to edit a digital black and white, just with a bit more grit. I couldn’t be more in love.
I did manage to get some other shots with this roll too - a few shots of Mt Ruapehu out the car window on the drive home, because everyone was too impatient to get back to Auckland to stop on the Desert Rd and let me get the shot properly, and a few of my friends and bach (beach house for you non-Kiwi’s out there) on New Years Eve. I shot a whole roll of Portra on New Years Eve too, which will be next week. We did a photoshoot on the beach. Just you wait haha.
Ultimately, I think I need to shoot another roll before I make a hard and fast final verdict, but I am so in love with the results from this roll that it has stolen my heart already.
Anyway, check out the shots and let me know what you think! Aren’t the roses photos just contrasty perfection?
Please excuse that my exposures are still a bit whack - remember I’m shooting without a light meter now and I’m no where near perfect.
