I went along to this year’s Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride yesterday and shot a couple of rolls of expired Tri-X on my Yashica Mat 124 G. I overexposed the film by a stop to compensate for its age (it expired in 2006) and the results are, on the whole, pretty nice (although this is likely down to the large amount of latitude for overexposure that the film has).
Anyway, after a slight hiccup where I turned up at Victoria Quays to find not a single motorcycle in sight, I overheard a couple of other people chatting to someone about the same concern, and after listening and chatting to them, we walked to the correct venue a short distance away (rather giving itself away by the sound of dozens of motorbike engines).
Apart from four frames, I shot two rolls of film at the event and came away with nineteen shots. I lost the final shot on the second roll when the film jammed, necessitating me taking it out and rolling it onto the spool in a dark closet when I got back home. A few of the shots on this roll ended up with a mark along the top edge of the negative, possibly as a result of the jam. Luckily, in almost every case, the mark was on an area of sky and I was able to edit it out, but I’ve had to crop one shot where the mark was overlaid on a building.
I’d gone with the intention of trying to get a few portraits, but in the end only got a couple, both of the same gent who was kind enough to pose for my photos*. The first one hasn’t quite worked as I messed up the exposure – something I suspected at the time – but the second has come out a treat, as have a couple of other shots of the same chap that I took while walking around.
*If you’re reading this, apologies, I didn’t get your name, but I’d like to say thanks to you for allowing me to take the shots and being patient while I fiddled around with the camera and my light meter. Hope you like the photos!
Anyway, before the photos, here’s a link if you’d like to donate to the cause supported by The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride:
https://www.gentlemansride.com/donate
And now, here’re the photos (in the order I took them):
All photos: Yashica Mat 124 G & Kodak Tri-X (Expired December 2006).
Taken on 24 September 2017
Steel City Snapper photography 