Lilac Whine - The Penultimate Expired Film

Now that I'm getting slightly more confident with the camera, it's time to get more adventurous with the photos. Sadly the long-expired film I used for these pics didn't get the memo. This image (right) is of one of my favourite Modernist buildings, the Italian Church of St Frances Cabrini in Bedford. Now there's obviously a user mis-op issue here, one of many for this roll it has to be said, but I've included this as an example of the overall colour of most of these scans, and because I quite like it in a 'Cool Album Cover' kinda way. So we're in a rich Lilac area for these scans, occasionally interesting, generally not. I've turned to editing software to bring out their best, some of which I had high hopes for after a long walk through Rutland countryside. Ah well!...

Monochrome is often your saviour when the colours are so shot they're beyond repair, perhaps Sepia would suit this old Bakery Shop signage even better (above). Note the small 'speck' top right, more of which later.

This terribly out of focus image of a Bedford Ghost Sign (left) shows what happens when for some inexplicable reason you forget to extend the lens before taking a shot. It doesn't matter how tight you screw down the aperture, it's never going to focus like that. Bedford has a number of truly impressive Ghost Signs, including the famous Bovril/Greys Cigarettes examples shown below. Once again the 50mm Lens made it difficult to get a good angle on this, but no excuses, this is without a doubt the worst photo I've ever taken of this gem, maybe go see it for yourself.

Slightly better for the Garlick Bros example, but that Speck again! The fact is I forgot to re-engage the re-wind release lever initially, so not only was the film advance not being assisted by sprockets, it also served to shred a small piece of the film that obviously hung around in the chamber. Ouch! All cleared now with no apparent damage to the shutter curtains or mechanism. Phew!

There now follows some accurately focussed and nicely framed images from my walk up hill and down valley in Rutland. These should have been so much better, but that's the risk of using expired film. There are other, even worse risks with expired film, as you’ll see with my next ‘£1 from a Flea Market’ roll…