Long Daylight Exposure- It seemed like a good idea at the time. I had an epiphany about using Fomapan. Fomapan film is the cheapest film on the market. Whether or not you like the Fomapan "look" one thing is indisputable, it has horrendous reciprocity characteristics. Horrendous at least if you want a reasonable exposure. But how about long daylight exposures? My idea was to put a dark neutral density filter on the taking lens of a Mamiya TLR and making some really long daylight exposures. The viewing lens would still be easy to focus and compose with. This seemed to be the photographic equivalent of how in the Martial Arts the strength of one's opponent is used in your favor.

However..... Fomapan has proven to be a harsh mistress. Though I was able to make extremely long daylight exposures with ease, they turned out to be quite contrasty. I understood that reciprocal failure led to different exposure relationship, but not that it also effected contrast. And taming the contrast of Foma films has been a major struggle.

Perhaps the ironic saving grace is that not only is the film very contrasty, but amazingly high in grain for a 100 speed film. That grain has the visual effect of breaking up the contrast.

If I continue with the long daylight exposure idea, I think I'll use a more conventional film (and developer combination) and just use more ND filters.

Location: San Quentin, CA
Date: February 2016
Film: Fomapan 100 (Arsita.edu)
Camera: Mamiya C330
Lens: Mamiya 105mm f3.5 Sekor (with Red filter I think)
Exposure: Several minutes !!