Author: Thomas John Usimaki

  • Grain & Granite: Hiking Lac de Gaube on Recordak AHU 5786 Film

    A spontaneous overnight hike in the French Pyrenees turned into a field test for a rare and long-expired microfilm: Kodak Recordak 5786, manufactured in France under the Kodak-Pathé label. Armed with a Nikon F5, a Sigma 24mm f/1.4, and a 55mm Micro-Nikkor, I shot the roll at ISO 6 and developed it in POTA —…

  • Shooting Svema Mikrat Orto Direct in the Pyrenees

    What happens when you take a nearly forgotten ISO 0.8 direct positive film, POTA developer, and a tripod up into the French Pyrenees? Magic, it turns out. In this post, I take Svema Mikrat Orto Direct Positive on a 14 km mountain loop around the Pic du Midi d’Ossau to see if this ultra-slow microfilm…

  • Life and Nature in San-Sebastián

    May 1st is the French Labour Day holiday. This year, it fell on a Thursday, so I decided to take Friday off and turn it into a four-day weekend. I’ve been to San Sebastián a handful of times, but this time I wanted to spend two full days there—just enough time to enjoy some great…

  • Kodak Panatomic-X

    Today was a bright, crisp day. I decided to escape the city and breathe in some fresh coastal air. As I wandered along the sandy shores, the rhythmic sound of the waves and the interplay of sunlight and shadow evoked a sense of timeless beauty that perfectly matched the vintage character of Panatomic-X. A few…

  • Underdeveloped exposures from the mountains…

    Sometimes, even though I try my best, I fail. But with every failure comes a learning experience. In this instance, I developed old rolls of Copex Rapid in POTA, which I had already used for two other rolls. The developer was likely too oxidized to fully develop my negatives. I tried to salvage what I…

  • Crossroads in Barcelona

    Sometimes in life, you’re at a crossroads. In those moments, a solo trip to Barcelona isn’t a bad idea. On Friday evening, after checking the weather app and seeing rain forecasted in Bordeaux for the entire weekend, I bought a round-trip ticket to Barcelona, booked a hotel, and off I went. I had never flown…

  • Sunday in the Alps

    On Sunday October 20th, I decided to go to Chamonix for a hike. It was sunny outside and quite warm for mid-October. I was wearing a t-shirt and wasn’t cold, even though I was at around 2000m in altitude. With me I had both of my Zeiss lenses, the D850 and my FM2n. I’m incredibly…

  • A short trip to Biarritz

    About a month ago I decided to take the train to Biarritz as I hadn’t been there in a while. I brought my FM2 the Otus 55mm and some Agfa Copex Rapid. Here are some of the few shots I took on that day.

  • Another Copex Rapid adventure.

    Yesterday, I decided to take the train to Arcachon. Having been there multiple times, I was afraid the novelty had worn off. In many ways, it had, but I was determined to come back with a few black-and-white shots I would be happy with. For this trip I brought the old trusty Nikon FM2 along…

  • Kodak Vision3 50D film in the Vercors.

    A few months ago, after developing a good number of black and white rolls, I decided it was time to move on to color film. Initially, the idea of developing color film seemed intimidating, but I soon realized that the main challenge, compared to black and white, is maintaining precise temperature control. Color film has…