I had a roll of Ilford FP4, 125 iso, Black & White film loaded in the camera – which probably wasn’t the ideal film to take night time party photographs with – especially without a tripod.
The Pentax MX has an excellent light meter, giving me three little traffic lights to indicate when I’ve got the exposure right – and this has been my main concern. So the aperture was wide open in this image, as I tried to keep the shutter speed in a place where I could reduce blur from holding the camera. What I forgot, was that the depth of field would be reduced and that means no one was in focus. Well, to be fair, in some of the other pictures I’ve looked at, there is a bloke at the table behind our party who is in perfect focus. However, more serendipity of 35mm film photography, several members of my family and friends think this captured the evening well. It doesn’t always pay to be in focus!
This image was taken just after I loaded the film, thinking that the first few images would be lost – I took this in a hurry without worrying about the settings at all… I was winding the film to the beginning. I was surprised it came out at all.
Pentax MX, SMC 50mm f1.4 lens, Ilford HP4 125iso 35mm film. Developed by Analogue Wonderland.