I freaking love photographing this kid. My son is 2 1/2 months old in these photos and he makes taking good photographs pretty easy. Plus it’s rewarding as a parent and all that good stuff.
Here he is with an Areca Palm, a plant that wishes it lived in Hawaii and not Alaska this winter. My son might think that too, but so far he seems to like the snow.
I took these photos on my living room couch with an Olympus OM-2n and Zuiko 50mm f1.4 lens on Ilford HP5 Plus 35mm film. It was pushed 1 stop during development using Cinestill DF-96 monobath, scanned with Silverfast on an Epson v600, and light balanced in Adobe Lightroom.
I have used Ilford HP5 Plus film off-and-on for years. For a long time I preferred Kodak Tri-X 400 over it for the gritty grain, but the more I use it the more I’ve fallen in love with HP5. It is still extra-contrasty and gritty, but to me the grain seems buttery and the film also pulls out more details in the blacks, which I love.
At any rate, I have a whole brick of 35mm HP5 in the freezer, and a couple rolls in 120 format, so expect to see more stark posts and pictures with it in the near future.
