23-02-26 - Site Spotlight Weekly
All changes and updates listed here are from Monday 16th February 2026 - 22nd February 2026!
Monday 16th February 2026
Scanning, editing and a package was delivered:
1.) Today I I didn’t do as much as I would have liked. I did however, do some more scanning of Polaroids and some editing. Something exciting was delivered though. I had ordered myself a Cinestill C-41 powdered 2-step monoboath kit. This is exciting because I'll be able to learn colour developing. All I need is a Sou-Vide and a few extra small bits such as thermometer, mixing jugs, chemical storage bottles etc. The main thing is I have the chemicals! The monolith should be perfect for me especially when I'm developing colour film for the first time because it is only 2 step process and it will not over complicate things for me. Tuesday 17th February 2026
Nearly there with home developing and learning to use my light meter:
1.) Today I was out so I haven’t been on the computer very much. I went to Ikea and got a bit of equipment for home developing. Mainly, a plastic box to act as my water bath, some funnels and a hanging rack with pegs for my negatives to dry. Now all I need is a sou vide and then I'm all set for C-41 developing. Once I have the sou vide I will test my B&W and see if they are healthy and alright to use and then I can do both B&W and C-41. A part of me thinks that I may have somehow contaminated the chemicals so I may have to purchase new ones. I do hope that this is not the case. I can cut a test strip and see if the chemicals are alright. Before I do any kind of developing though I will need to clean one of out sinks. Luckily we have a spare sink and it is much bigger than the one in our bathroom. 2.) I made a slight mistake. I had loaded a roll of Fomapan 400 so recently I’ve been going out and photographing. This was mainly going to be a test roll because throughout the entire roll I am using my light meter. I was also going to keep it for when I home develop. Well I made a mistake. Before loading the roll I was testing the light meter with my digital camera. I was inside and so I had it set to ISO 800. I of course forgot to switch it back to 400 before I went out shooting. I’m already past frame 20 and I've only just realised. A part of me wants to continue the rest of the roll at ISO 400 but I don’t think that is such a good idea. I think I will continue shooting the film at ISO 800 but then I have a decision to make. When developing do I push the film one stop or do I develop as normal? Pushing the film will be beneficial because I practically underexposed each frame by one stop but pushing will not be very beneficial because it will have increased grain. Fomapan 400 is already grainy as it is. Maybe I will push it? I’m not too sure on what I'll do yet. Wednesday 18th February 2026
Lot’s of things happened today:
1.) Today I had a doctor’s appointment so I was out in the morning. I also booked in tone of the photo shoots while I was out. The first shoot will be next week. The second shoot is unknown as of now. 2.) Once I got back home I got to work on editing some more Polaroids. I am almost there with the Black frames from Egypt and I am very happy that they’re almost all done. After that I still have a lot to do but the workflow should go quicker and easier because the rest are white frames. 3.) I ordered the Sou Vide and in the end I went with the Cinestill TCS-100. This should be a very capable heating unit. I also went out in the afternoon and I found some weighted pegs. I already had pegs to hang the film but I needed some weighted pegs to hang on the bottom of the drying films. That step is quite important because film tends to curl when drying and so having something pulling the negatives down should help avoid the curl. Now they aren’t metal which is the only problem so if they actually do work is another story completely. Now all I need are some thermometers and then I am all set for a while.Thursday 19th February 2026
Final steps of development have been fulfilled:
1.) Today something tragic happened. As I was rewinding my roll of Fomapan 400, the film ripped. I obviously opened the camera in the light (which I shouldn’t have done) and realised the entire roll was ruined. I have a feeling I either advanced too much which caused the film to rip from its spool or the tape I used when bulk loading was bad tape. I haven’t had this problem with my other bulk rolls so this is problem is new to me. Of course I have faced this challenge in the past except the film lab was able to sort it out for me. I will learn from this mistake and move on. I’m not too annoyed by it because there wasn’t much saving this roll from the beginning. 2.) I was out all day today and while I was out I was gifted a notebook by my Mum. I am happy about this because starting from now I will be taking notes when I go out shooting and I will also be writing notes about my development. I am unsure on how detailed the notes will be but ideally I would like to write about the location, the conditions such as weather, the camera and lens used and what settings I used. This could get very complicated, especially when it comes to 35mm film so I may just jot down some general notes about the entire roll. The development notes will come in handy especially as I progress because I can then look back and see how I can rectify my mistakes and learn from them better. Writing about the conditions of the shoot will also be beneficial because I can see what settings worked in what conditions. I may also talk about my post processing in the journal as well such as how I scanned it, and what I did to achieve the final images on my website. When I eventually dive into darkroom printing at some stage my notes will then expand and they will become beneficial in recreating an identical print. Once I take more detailed notes I can post them on here and digitise them. 3.) I have finally finsihed editing my Polaroids from Egypt. I will upload them to my website shortly. Friday 20th February 2026
New Content Added:
1.) I finally found the time and the patience to edit my final Polaroids from Egypt and they are now uploaded to my website
You can find the page in the top navigation bar of my website. Hover over Polaroids and then click “All Polaroids”. That will take you to where you need to go. Or you can click the button below which will take you to my 2023 Polaroids.I think I mentioned previously but if not, then I'll say this again. I have scrapped having all my Polaroids on one page. Before, you could find 2022’s, 2023’s, 2024’s and 2025’s in one singular section but now I've scrapped it and I have broken up each year into a different page. If you would like to view all my Polaroids from over the years, then you can find them by hovering over “Polaroids” on the top bar of my website and clicking on the necessary year. Or if you would like to find them here, I have included several buttons below to make things easier.
All of the Polaroids below are ones that I have just uploaded. They were shot in 2023 on a mix of two different cameras. The cameras I used for these photographs were the Polaroid Now and the Polaroid Lab. I shot these in Sidmouth, Seaton, Stourhead and at home.
Saturday 21st February 2026
Nothing done today:
1.) I was out again today. We were going to originally go for a walk and I was going to bring my camera but the weather was terrible and so we decided to go bowling instead. It was a nice and fun day out and later on in the evening we got a Chinese. Sunday 22nd February 2026
I went out photographing:
1.) Today was a bit slow because I didn’t really get anything done on the computer. 2.) In the afternoon we decided to go out and I bought my camera. I started shooting a roll of Ilford XP2 Super 400. I haven’t used my Contax RTS in a while and so I thought I would use that. When I develop this film I will be able to see if I'm using my Light meter correctly. I’ve started writing notes as well so I'll be able to refer back to them and also share them on my website. I metered in two different ways. For anything close up I used incident metering and for far away subjects I used spot metering. 3.) I am still waiting for my thermometer to be delivered and once it is I'll start by developing a roll of Portra 400 and then if things go well I will develop the roll of XP2. I haven’t finished that roll yet though. I may go out this afternoon and take finish off the roll or I might wait a day or two. I haven’t quite decided yet. Well that’s all for now. Thank you!
