Year long trip and film developing

I'm thinking about going on a year long trip at some point and have loosely started planning. One of the

things that popped up is photography. Budgeting is obviously a concern, and I need factor in

photographic needs into that budget.

 

My initial thought would be to take my M6 and Canon 1V and round out the small lens line up I'd want to

take with me (I'd much rather travel light). Both of these are obviously film cameras, which is fine by me,

but I was curious what the best strategy for developing B&W film would be for me. I would definitely bring

a lot of Tri-X, with the intention of either picking up more on the trip or having family fedex bricks of it at

certain points. What to do with the exposed film? It would be lovely to be able to fedex it back to the

states and have a trusted person dev it, but I know of no such person. I guess I could either dev on the

road, or wait until the end of the trip, fedexing it batches back home as I go. Developing on the road

sounds like a pain. Is waiting a year to develop B&W ok? Should I take any special precautions while it's in

"storage" waiting to be developed? Any other random advice?

 

I know digital is a potential solution, but it has it's own problems, never mind the fact that it has it's own

budgeting problems as well. And I like Tri-X.

Bring me along and I will develop it for you on the trip.......

:)

Ha. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to afford to pay for myself... never mind taking a one

year career break.

Where are you going ? It shouldn't be too difficult to develop a film on the way... Keeping exposed films for a year is indeed not a good idea, but you can probably have the opportunity to find a lab every one or two months, it would be fine. Just ask for the negatives, no prints, it would be too heavy. Put your rolls in a ziplock bag away from the heat, that will do. You're a lucky man !

Fed Ex back home and have it sealed and frozen.

 

Somehow you need to make sure it is not x-rayed. See what shippers policy is.

 

You really need to process some samples on the trip to be sure the cameras are working properly. Back in the day, cameras were set to mark the image on the edge of neg and film was sent home for processing. If one camera was bad, it could be identified by the edge marks. They also made dup shots with multiple cameras and the film was never processed all at the same time.

 

Most have gone digital to avoid all the hassles. That requires some experience in backing up cards. Never erase and overwrite. Reformat the card in the camera after backing up the images two ways. Ship one dvd home with images and keep one with you. One of the small travel hard drives is nice. Lap top is better but bigger and subject to theft. Don`t keep the cards with the cameras for that reason also.

 

With digital, you can upload to Picasa from location or and download it later or use one of the online storage services. I would pick the later.

 

Choose your poison. Both choices are bad. I would use digital.

I guess my first question is: where are you going?

 

During a two year journey in Central America, I found acceptable BW processing in Guatemala City (outsourced from a store front in Antigua), but the name of the business evades me (though I could probably give you walking directions). There are a LOT of photographers working in Guatemala, and the photo infrastructure there was better than I expected.

 

When in and near the UK, I've used <a href="http://www.citikey.com/business/10032270?all=grand+union&city=London&current=3&total=8" >Grand Union</a>, just a couple of doors down from Calumet on Eagle Wharf Road.

 

In the US, <a href="http://www.hollandphoto.com" >Holland Photo</a> accepts mail orders and does great work.

 

When travelling, I have typically processed locally where high-quality labs are available, then printed after returning to the US.

Not sure about being lucky or a little crazy to do this. It certainly will be an amazing

experience, but picking up where I left off work could be a bit difficult.

 

Itinerary is pretty much up in the air. My travel partner and I have to discuss that more

since this is really in a preliminary stage, but the goal would be to hit up as much as we

can, with 3 weeks or so per country. Definitely several parts of asia, Egypt, South America,

etc. We've both been to Europe several times, so that is less of a concern.

 

The last time I traveled while taking a lot of pictures was in China for 2 weeks. While

digital was convenient in one respect, it was a real hassle at times getting cd's burned and

KNOWING that your pictures were safe. Obviously having more memory cards at the time

would have helped but I was a poor student. I'd like to think I'll be able to get a 5d or

equivalent before this trip and go with both film and digital, but again, budgeting

concerns might preclude that. It sure would be nice to not have all my eggs in one

basket...

 

Checking to see if cameras work - I see no problem with shooting a roll of c41 every once

in a while as a test roll and getting it developed locally. I'd rather do the BW processing

myself if I could. However, I guess getting it done locally isn't too bad of an option. I'll

have to start compiling a list of reliable labs around the world hope they don't go out of

business before I take this trip :)

Oh I expected that I would go along and not only would you pay my expenses but you would pay me a fee for developing the film! How else was going to afford to help you out? :D

 

Seriously, I believe that as you get closer to having a final itinerary it will be easier to help you find the processing for your trip.

Kodak says that you should process the film immediately and refrigerate it if you can't. However when Gary Winogrand died he left hundreds of exposed B&W rolls. When the Museum of Modern Art raised the money to process them it was already 2-3 years after his death. I believe that they got all the negatives in usable condition. (Unfortunately there was little that was any good, which is probably why Gary did not get the film done).

Of course I'd pay for you to come along Nancy :) Maybe I'll hit the lottery. Did I mention

I'm a grad student currently?

 

I've obviously got some time before all this happens, but thanks for entertaining my

questions. I'd imagine if this ever gets off the ground, some combination of film and

digital will occur. I'll send home the film in batches when I can't get it developed and have

family freeze it for me. Maybe I'll find some fellow photo.netters or apuggers around the

world and I can stop by and have a dev day with them.

 

Thanks!

If you plan to get some developed on the road, I would check out the quality first.

Try shooting Ilford XP2. Excellent B&W Chromogenic film that can be processed C41 which means literally that any street corner 1 hr. lab can process it and voila you have your negatives and a proof sheet. You can mail your negatives back home for cold storage until you print. I did a well received exhibit on Viet Nam and Cambodia using this film in a medium format camera (Fuji GA 645zi) printed traditionally in my own darkroom to 11x14. ASA 400, great latitude. Good luck, Bob Rene

Process the film yourself. As for chemicals, use Patrick Gainer's PC-TEA (DIY recipe), Photographer's Formulary TF-4 fixer, and Kodak PhotoFlo. As for equipment, you need a changing bag, daylight tank, and thermometer. Using a 16oz tank, you can process 2 rolls of film in less than 15 mins.

I do process film myself already and already have the necessary equipment, etc. Just not sure

if I want to haul that crap all around the world with me... :)

I think digital is way to go, even you can have films as backup. get Leica M8 or small DSLR with few gig of memory card, they are as good as film.

 

When I travel, I carry MP with 2 lens, a Hasselbald 501CM w/ 80/2.8, Olympus Epic, and or E-1, but I use Hasselblad when I felt compelled to make the print. Otherwise I just click E-1. I am thinking about getting a M8 so I can save a lot of gears. But it is too expensive now.