I had reason to be in Madison, Indiana, on the Ohio River, a few weeks ago. After I wrapped up my business there, I took a walk in the section of town between Main Street and the river, making photographs of buildings that struck my fancy. Madison was laid out in 1810, making it one of Indiana’s oldest cities. It boomed in its early years as it competed with Louisville and Cincinnati to be a major port. Cincinnati eventually won, which had the effect of freezing Madison in time. A large percentage of the buildings in the oldest part of town still exist today. The town was into historic preservation before it became cool, which has led to the overall good condition of these buildings.
I shot my Pentax ME SE on this walk, with my 35mm f/2.8 SMC Pentax-A lens attached. Because of heavy cloud cover, I looked through my film stash looking for an ISO 400 black-and-white film. I found my last roll of New Classic EZ 400 first, so I loaded it.
The images came off the scanner super flat. I can’t tell for sure whether they were slightly underexposed or underdeveloped or both. Either way, I needed to boost exposure and contrast in Photoshop a lot more heavily than normal to make them look good. I simply lost detail in deep shadows on this roll.
Everybody says that HC-110 lasts for years even after it’s been opened, but I’ve not found that to be true. I transfer the bottle to a one liter plastic bag from which I can squeeze out all of the air — I need to write about these bags soon, as they’re a good solution to the air problem. Then I transfer about four ounces into a small glass jar to work from. I don’t develop so much film that I go through HC-110 very fast. After a two to three months I find that my negatives are not turning out so well anymore. I throw out whatever’s left in the jar and put fresh HC-110 in, and the next roll looks great. Maybe that’s what happened to this roll.
Of course, this was a gray, gray day. That’s going to affect contrast, especially on a medium-contrast film like EZ 400.
I think the seals in this camera are starting to deteriorate, as the first few frames showed signs of a slight light leak. I ordered a seal kit from US Camera so I can replace the seals. None of the rest of the roll showed any leaked light, but I shot the whole roll in under two hours and perhaps the leak is so slight that there wasn’t time for light to penetrate the film.
When I developed this film in HC-110, Dilution B, something was off in my agitations. You can see some streaking around the bottom of some images that line up with the sprocket holes. It’s either bromide drag, which means insufficient agitation, or surge marks, which means too-aggressive agitations. I have no idea which. It’s a shame, because I especially like this photo otherwise.
This photo shows the marks a little, too. This is the Hyatt House, completed in about 1818.
Here’s a wide shot of it. Historic Madison, Inc., makes this house its headquarters. The house underwent a good restoration a few years ago.
This building, which overlooks the Ohio River, is a Fairfield Inn today. But it began its life as the Eagle Cotton Mill.
This building has been in sad shape for as long as I’ve been coming to Madison. See a photo I made of it in 2008 here. After I photographed it this time, a fellow walked up to me and introduced himself as the owner of the company that’s currently renovating this building. So perhaps the next time I visit, it will look a lot better!
Centennial Park is right on the river, and at its entrance is this curious scene. I’m sure there’s a story behind it, but … wow.
There’s lots of brick construction in old town Madison. These generally aren’t frame buildings with brick exteriors — they’re true brick buildings.
I think I’d enjoy a lot about living in Madison. It’s not a big place, so options are limited, but the options that are present are pretty good. It’s also a highly walkable place.
And, of course, there are oodles of wonderful old houses here. Old houses come with a special class of maintenance and repair problems, but the charm of living in one can make it worth it.
It’s just delightful to walk the blocks in Madison and see the rows of old houses.
A few buildings here are just strange, however!
Although most of Madison’s shops are on Main Street, you’ll find the occasional storefront on the side streets.
You’ll also find churches and schools as you walk Madison’s streets.
I love warm, sunny days. The grayer and colder it is, the less happy I am. But I still managed to have a lovely time walking through Madison on this afternoon with my camera.
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