Pictures from my brother's housewarming party

Cameron at his housewarming party

This is a picture of my brother cutting the dessert he cooked at his housewarming party.

One more picture and then some photogeek talk

Mom and Dad in the tea nook

My father spent a couple of years refitting things in the back yard; this is the tea nook where they drink tea after dinner.

Some observations:

• Fuji Acros is approximately equivalent to TMX. Since I hate computing reciprocity failure stuff, I will probably buy it in preference.
• XTOL is not as magical about grain as T-Max Developer, but isn't bad.
• XTOL is a pain in the ass to mix; the powder keeps coming out of solution.
• The tonality on the picture of Cameron is fine, but I've also been reasonably happy with T-Max Developer's tonality, so I'm not sure that means anything.
• Nothing can make Tri-X not grainy.
• I like playing with square compositions--I'm not sure whether it'll last or not, but it's different and sometimes it works quite a bit better--the picture of Cameron would be ill served by a rectangular format.
• An off camera flash can improve things considerably even when it's the only light source (this picture was taken with one, for example).
• The fact that the YashicaMat's flash connection doesn't always fire pisses me off.
• I like taking pictures with the YashicaMat on a tripod--waist level viewing is much more convenient than eye level, particularly with my tripod.
• I'm going to shoot a lot more with the YashicaMat, for sure. I suspect that means I should get the one lens element where the coating came off replaced.