Scotland - Ilford HP5 with a Trip 35

I like grain and contrast in my black and white pictures. That's why I enjoy using Ilford HP5 400 ISO film in my Trip 35. Autumn and winter are the perfect seasons to get out and enjoy the landscape. The faster film speed enables use of the camera in weather conditions where other films might render the scene more flatly. 

I took my Olympus Trip 35 to the Highlands of Scotland and was pleasantly surprised at how well the film produced images with tons of character. I experimented with a yellow filter in some situations, to give even more contrast. 

When the clouds were low across the landscape, the combination of HP5 and a yellow filter really exaggerated the misty atmosphere. The grain looks natural and the images are timeless. The tarmac road leading into the cloud-covered hills represents how moody the landscape looked to me at the time.

The Trip 35 was made for this type of photography. It is easy to carry and when a scene opens up in front of you, the camera is ready to capture that moment. The 40mm lens has the perfect field of view for open landscapes and the HP5 film works so well to capture the tone. 

Autumn and winter are not months for putting your camera away. I love getting out and about with my camera on a crisp morning, or exploring on a cloudy, misty day. The Trip 35 is very capable in varying light situations and the quality of the lens captures detail in scenes beautifully. Choosing the film for the day's shooting is part of the fun. You can plan how you want your images to look, increasing the amount of contrast with yellow, orange or even red filters for even more drama. 

Using 400 film also gives smaller apertures (larger f-numbers) on the camera's auto-exposure. This will give greater depth of field for landscapes. In this example, I set the focus to 3 meters/10 feet using the red focus symbol on the Trip 35. This gave enough depth so that the dry stone wall in the foreground and the lochs in the background were all rendered pretty sharp. 

I've always enjoyed the tone of Ilford films, using FP4 and HP5 for most of my black and white photography. I highly recommend trying HP5 this autumn and winter. Consider adding a filter too, to experiment with contrast capturing the mood and atmosphere of the scene.