A Little Winter Color

A couple weeks or so ago a received a mysterious and unannounced little package. To my surprise and delight, it turned out to be a couple rolls of Harman Phoenix 200 from a friend who happens to be a brilliant photographer. Thank you Jacki!

Even though there had been a lot of hubbub recently about the new film from Harman, it had mostly flown under my radar. When I realized that it was an experimental film with no anti-halation layers my curiosity was really piqued.

Harman recommends giving this film plenty of light and I got lucky in that it was a nice sunny day when I got out to shoot this roll. I do understand now, why they recommend plenty of light for Phoenix. This film absolutely lights up and glows given enough light! The saturation with reds, blues and greens is absolutely crazy! I love it. I think I have a new favorite film.

I don't think though, that this film would be most people's go to every day color film. It does have a quite a narrow exposure lattitude, under expose it even half a stop and you can say goodbye to any glow and saturation. It also features a prominent green cast under most circumstances, of course I could have easily removed it, but I wanted to show this film in it's natural state. Actually, I'm convinced that it's not film at all. I think Harman has found a way to put magic into 35mm canisters.

I've heard rumor that Phoenix may not be available for all that long as it's not considered a final release, but just a developmental stage in a forthcoming film. In its current state, Phoenix is right up my alley. I better start hunting down some more, if there's any to be had?

These shots were taken with my trusty Leica Ic/Voigtlander 12mm combo and developed by The Darkroom in San Clemente.

You'll notice that the whole roll isn't here. I decided to divide it up into two tiers. These are the shots I liked the most and the others will be presented at a later date.

Actually, amongst this group there is a shot that I like a lot, I almost never say that about my own shots, but I find one shot amongst these to be exceptional, although It's probably naive to think that anyone else would find it to be so.

Now that I've taken what for me, must be my ultimate shot, maybe I should find another avocation? Just kidding. I believe what H.C-B. said "Your first ten thousand shots are your worst."