This week Becki and I took a trip to Hollywood to go album shopping at Amoeba Music on Sunset Blvd. I am rebuilding my LP collection, looking for some jazz and rock classics that I had given away long ago. I just bought a new amp, speakers and turntable, now I need the vinyl. I haven’t been in a music store for years and it was so much fun rolling through the stacks of new and used albums.
Across Sunset, up Ivar, the farmer’s market was happening so we walked through and people watched for an hour or so. We met a guy playing guitar while his dog Savannah slept. He told us that he is trying to earn enough money to get back to New York. The people in LA just didn’t tip enough and he couldn’t afford to stay. Even though the weather is so much nicer, the people aren’t he said. I asked if I could photograph he and his dog before I put a couple of bucks in his hat. I gave him a card and wished him good luck, telling him he could email me if he wanted a copy of the photos.
When I finished the roll of film and opened up the camera I realized that I had made a mistake. I had a roll of Plus-X in there, not Tri-X and I had exposed the roll at 400. Instead of developing in HC-110 or D-76 as usual I decided to go with Diafine. I am very happy with the negatives. A couple of the images are OK, but the tonality and quality of the grain are very much to my liking. I have a ten roll brick of Plus-X in the freezer that I am more apt to use now. I had never been much of fan of the film, I find it generally ho hum, so I don’t reach for it when I load my cameras. Now I have a few ideas on how to put those rolls to good use.
Anyway, these images were made with the Leica MP, 50mm Summicron lens, Plus-X at 400 and then developed in Diafine. A mistake that ended up OK in the end.
