Iain Kendall

Thanks for all the reassuring words about my last post, it means a lot to hear that this kind of stuff happens to everyone. I was unlucky, a series of small issues I had snowballed into a bigger problem which ran from my expectations from the camera, to the cheap film I had chosen, to the processing lab. I think if I’m honest the answers are simple; find out where the Zenit-E sits in my collection, “accept the film for what it is” and start walking to the bigger lab in the industrial estate…they seem to know what they are doing.

Don’t be mistaken though, I love my Zenit-E, it’s a great camera in its own right and mine is a beautiful example (minus the lens which took a beating recently), I just don’t know where it sits on my collection. What is it my go to camera for? I don’t have an excess of cameras; every other camera serves a purpose. I regularly dream of a Nikon F3 but don’t know what I would need one for…I have a 35mm camera and I think I’d be hard pushed to actually, ACTUALLY, tell the difference when it came to shooting. I don’t spend a lot of money on lo-fi cameras either…I have a Holga…job done. I am fully prepared to eat these words later in life.

In my question about film processing services I received numerous suggestions, again, which I’m thankful for. I decided on Darkroom UK Ltd. who have a free postage system and appear to know their stuff. Of course, going by their website, I was expecting the pictures in the mail today but nothing. Early days. I need to chill out.

Back to the photos though and, despite my moaning, there was one film I was particularly impressed with from the Zenit-E. On this day myself, my in-laws and my brother-in-law took a trip in the car around the local roads to see High Force…the biggest waterfall in the UK…except it’s not. Not even close. The local guides clearly state it as the biggest but when we arrived you didn’t have to be an expert to know it wasn’t. It was definitely the biggest con though; the admission fee, the parking fee and painted lines on Country roads for a mile in either direction of the waterfall car park stating you couldn’t park there. These guys were cashing in.

I can’t lie though, it was a beautiful place to be from the walk through the trees to the waterfall itself. When we first set off walking we were taken along a path that has been shaped into the trees, the earth was a bright red and lots of roots were exposed. Some areas were under a heavy tree canopy with mossy rocks and small streams. It almost didn’t matter about the waterfall anymore.

Instantly I became aware of the predicament I was in; my Pentax was loaded with Ilford Delta as I wanted to shoot some long exposures of the waterfall if I could. The Zenit-E was loaded with Kodak Colorplus 200. Looking at the vibrant greens and red of the soil I knew that Kodak Ektar 100 was going to lap this up but it wasn’t going to happen.

I brought out the Zenit-E and started shooting…guessing my exposure values as we moved through the trees and along the river. I did quite well, though the only one I got wrong was the actual waterfall but hopefully I have that in black and white. Hopefully.