Return to Learned, Mississippi (using film)

Gibbes&Sons is a venerable country store, in business since 1899, in Learned, Mississippi. During the week, the store sells souvenirs and munchies. But on Friday and Saturday evening, it hosts steak dinners. And it is popular - what a great way to reinvent! The gent in the second photograph said I was welcome to take a picture - I wish I had written down his name.

It features country-style dining. Share a table and bring your own wine or beer. The proprietors will provide glasses. Wipe your fingers with paper towels. My friends and I ate on the back porch, which was reasonably comfortable despite the humidity.

The back yard has some interesting sheds and bits and pieces from the old days. I did not see these when I visited the shop mid-week in 2014, so it was well worthwhile to eat out on the back porch. While my friends chatted, I walked around with the Hasselblad and tripod.

Back out on Main Street, there are a number of old buildings and one interesting Magnolia tree outlined by the fading light (I warned you readers that I would be taking more "pretty" pictures in the future).

This former country store sits at the corner of Main and Front Streets. I do not know if the building is used today or is just part of the ambience of Learned. It is a nice town and I recommend a visit. Go eat a steak.

The square photographs are from TMax 400 film, taken with a Hasselblad 501CM camera and the 50mm f/4.0 Distagon lens. I had not used 120-size TMax before and was testing a roll. I exposed it at EI=320. The frames from dark locations were underexposed, and I think this film suffers reciprocity failure as low as 1/2 second. TMax is one of the new technology films introduced in the 1980s with so-called tabular silver grains (similar to Ilford's Delta films). The TMax is remarkably fine grain, but I think I prefer Tri-X 400's tonality. Tri-X is more grainy, but with a 54×54mm negative, grain really is not an issue. I scanned the negatives on a Minolta Scan Multi medium format film scanner operated with Silverfast Ai software.