My go-to, daily shooter is Flic Film’s Ultrapan 400. It has a smooth midtone roll while zones II and III hold texture. It comes in reusable cartridges for my hopes of one day bulk loading my own film. What makes it the most attractive to me is that it is around $6-6.50 USD. Combine that with developing and DSLR scanning at home and I can feel good about blasting through rolls or experimenting without the weight of cost.
The last few weeks in Nashville, Tennessee, have kept a guy from South Florida indoors. Frigid temperatures, ice pulling tree limbs to the ground, widespread power outages, and consistent cloudy days have kept me humming along on idle. I stayed inside taking photos of my partner, her house, the plant next to my window, or my dog, Jolene. One night I wandered out without gloves for 20 minutes for some flash study with snow covered everything and nearly got frostbite. The lull was coming to a close. A fortunate break in the cold spell came through so I darted out to my favorite greenway in the city: Shelby Bottoms.
On this day, the sun was laying down the shadows I needed to dive deeper into my Caravaggio study. His dramatic chiaroscuro and dark backgrounds inspired me to push Ultrapan to 1600. I was visualizing a compression of shadow latitude with grain replacing the tonal information normally preserved there. Pushing this film was a way for me to portray the place I go for reflection and presence as a memory. For it to feel like returning to a place I remembered more than I recognized.
I set out on my walk finding shadows that seemingly split the concrete walkways into separate sections. I was okay with highlights blowing out because the depth of the shadows were worth more. It was a time for me to get used to my every-day-film as a different character which became a way for me to view the familiar greenway with novelty. There was nothing to lose. The real return is data. What works. What does not. In research, either answer matters.
Reviewing the images reads like a memory to me. They feel like they have been painted over with something more distant. And upon recall, all the memories along that pathway ignite and consolidate as one. What is left is a familiar feeling yet confusion about why it is familiar. Outside of phenomenology, the push to 1600 gave me that bite I enjoy. High contrast and deep shadows are where my voice lives.
Will I push Ultrapan 400 to 1600 again? Absolutely. Will I do it with a yellow #8 filter? Probably not. Additionally, I will meter the shadows more aggressively when I revisit this push. These frames are data. And either result is useful.
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