Thanks for letting me know about your photos. I’ll be in touch in a couple of months, when I’m caught up on my books and will have time to study your photos. I’m sure they’re astonishing!

Cheerfully,
Fiona

You’re right about the static effect. However, I’m always careful to handle cameras and film so static is not an issue. If I put the camera into a pouch, it’s cotton flannel, never a synthetic or synthetic-blend fabric. I never put my camera into a pocket or a nylon case, either.

(My father had a basement darkroom, so I was raised around cameras and film handling. I’ve seen what happens when people — including me, as a child — don’t handle film correctly.)

That roll of film was new, the photo was in the middle of the roll, and — unless the film was exposed to heat during shipping to the store where I bought it — the weather was far too chilly for a heat issue. I put the camera on the car seat next to me; never near the heating vents in the car. (And, if heat was involved, I’d expect it to affect the film on the outside of the roll before the middle of the roll.)

A photojournalist was with me the night that photo was taken. She studied the photo and the film, afterward. It’s one reason why she became fascinated by this kind of research; she was looking for an explanation, too. She’d worked in a film processing lab for awhile, and she kept looking at my film and the picture saying, “That can’t be.”

I generally avoid ISO 800 film because it edges too much towards grainy results. I’ve used it, but today I prefer ISO 400 or sometimes ISO 200, though the latter can miss a lot of detail in low-light environments.

Thanks for posting this, to alert others to the static and temperature issues. The more people learn about cameras and photography, the better!

Cheerfully,
Fiona