In February I took a short trip to Guadalajara, Mexico. And, naturally, I brought a camera and a bunch of film. Unlike last year’s trip to Bogotá, I brought no color film.
Guadalajara is very sunny. As a result it has a built environment that provides a lot of shade. So I have a lot of photos either with bright sun or a high contrast between shade and sun. Perfect for B&W film!
My third roll of the trip was Ferrania P30, a stock I had not used before. As I keep reminding myself, before shooting a new stock do some basic research on how best to use it. I did not remember to do that this time!
From what I’ve read since, P30 doesn’t do great in open sun. It gets real contrasty. You get better results in shadier situations.
This roll also had a tough time in development. I used it to help teach a friend the steps of film development, but after taking it out of the wash the stock was silvery grey. We could see the images, but attempts to make contact sheets or scans led to terrible results.
I eventually figured out that the problem was my fixer. After soaking the negative strips in a bath of new fixer everything looked good.
Indoors at the MUSA I think the P30 looks quite nice.
And this secluded staircase in Tlaquepaque is nice, though I think I missed focus.
But attempts to do street photography didn’t work as well. This is the best of a bad bunch.
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