Climbing the Mountain (One Tank at a Time)

Two developing sessions down.

Twelve sheets of 4x5 Fomapan 400 now hang quietly in my not-so-high-tech—Really Useful Film drying Box.. There’s something deeply satisfying about seeing those sheets lined up, proof that I’m slowly chipping away at the mountain of film I brought back from the Lake District.

Just one more batch of large format left to go.

Then it’s on to colour—4 rolls of Kodak Gold 200, waiting their turn in the C-41 process. I’ll admit, I’ve never loved developing colour at home. The temperature control is fiddly, the process is less forgiving, and the margin for error feels much tighter than with black and white. But the payoff is always worth it. Every time.

And there’s been one big relief already: no light leaks on the Mania pinhole. This trip was the camera’s first outing, and I put a lot of faith in Ralph Man’s design and build. Thankfully, that faith paid off—the negatives are clean, sharp (in the pinhole sense), and beautifully exposed. That moment when you realise your gear just worked… nothing beats it.

That’s the thing about film: the work comes first, the reward comes later. It can feel like a mountain. But right now, I’m halfway up—and the view is starting to show.