Dogs in the Backyard

This the first roll of film I bought from Christine, a fellow film camera enthusiast from South Australia.

Ilford Hypersensitive Panchromatic film HP3 was introduced in 1941 and discontinued in 1960. Its speed was initially 125 ASA that later changed to 400 ASA as the standard changed. So HP3 is a fast film which means that latent images degrade more compared to slower films like Kodak Verichrome Pan.

I soaked the film in tap water for about 15 minutes before developing in 1+1 solution of ID-11 for 12 minutes at 20ºC. To sligtly increase the contrast I agitated the film more often than usual. The negative was digitised with a DSLR camera and converted to positive images in Darktable.

So here you have it. Five 6x9 frames with at least one dog in each. There is quite a bit of fog and a few spots with damaged emulsion but other than that the film held quite well. All the images seem to be taken in the same backyard. I am almost certain that the photographer was a kid. All the images are out of focus. It seems that the camera was set at infinity, small aperture of around f16 and the fastest shutter speed. The exposure was pretty good though. You can notice a low point of view in the portraits. It would be uncomfortable for an adult photographer to keep the camera at an eye level at that height. All images are well composed including the portrait of the black poodle with a lady serving as the background. Such a pity the focus was off.

Over sixty years have passed since the pictures were taken. The lovely people and the friendly dogs are long gone. But maybe the person who took the pictures is still around?