About

Shot in Miyakonojo, with a Mamiya C220f. The film was Kodak T-Max 400. No tripod, just lucky to have a good spotlight on them.

Notes

See those spots on the image? That’s not dust.

My Mamiya was made in an era where the rubber foam used in the light seals around the back of the body decayed quickly. It essentially melts when it’s warm, and since I live in a semi-tropical part of Japan, it gets pretty damned warm here in the summer. Last summer I had a lot of problems with the foam melting on the backing paper of the film. This is the first time it got on the negative itself. The final two images on the roll were ruined because of it. I had replaced most of the bad foam last year, but I guess the foam I thought was good, isn’t any more.

At least, I assume that’s what it is. That’s what it looks like. I don’t do darkroom, but I doubt there’d be some process flaw that would cause clumps to form on the negative. Maybe Greg or Dolly would have more to say about that if they catch this post.

Anyway, this summer was a bust for photography. Miyazaki is pretty country at the best of times, and with the outbreak of hoof and mouth disease this summer, all of the public festivals were cancelled to help stop the spread of the disease. The summer festival is as much a part of the Japanese lifestyle as sushi and covering your car’s dashboard with fake fur and Pokemon toys. Towards the end of August, after the disease was on the decline, the local TV station held a small event that included the dancers you’ll see this week.

Sadly, those are the best images I was able to come up with this summer. Between the lack of things to shoot I haven’t shot already, my mucking about with the Moskva until I broke it, and me being focused on the comic these days, I’m not going to have much new material to post up.

Thankfully, this September will see a number of festivals to replace the summer ones everyone missed out on. I hoping to get some good shots.

Assuming it doesn’t rain. It always rains when I’m not at work. My tinfoil hat thinks it’s a conspiracy.