Faking it

May 21, 2020 fishyfisharcade4 Comments

I made photos of a bunch of things in the house during lockdown. Some that looked appealing in the viewfinder resulted in disappointing photographs. Some, however, turned out pretty well.

The three photos today are of a small vase containing some artificial flowers (I don’t know if they’re supposed to represent an actual species of plant or if they’re just some kind of made up blooms – I know little about plants). Framing them against the out-of-focus yellow wallpaper has created a nice colour contrast.

Considering the fact that flowers are not something I readily turn to as a subject for photographs, I’m very happy with these – artificial or not.

Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Lloyds Pharmacy 200 (expired 2008).

Taken on 11 April 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Freedom part deux

May 20, 2020May 21, 2020 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

The insect screen that hangs over the back door catches the wind pretty easily, and so it did while I sat on the back garden one day back in April. I liked the way the fluttering tassles looked against the blue sky so decided to take a photo. Obviously, as soon as I got my camera in hand this meant the wind dropped and I had to stand in place for five minutes before they blew into the air again.

This shot isn’t perfect – it has a significant vignette for some reason, and very few sections of the tassles are in focus, but I like the summery feel it has.

Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Lloyds Pharmacy 200 (expired 2008).

Taken on 11 April 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Kinda drifting into the abstract

May 19, 2020 fishyfisharcade3 Comments

Another photograph shot over the Easter weekend, something a little abstract. We have an insect screen that we fit over the back door when we leave it open. The last one, which had plastic beads on threads, became tangled and had to be thrown away, but the new one is made of plastic ribbons. The slightest of breezes sends it fluttering about (usually resulting in a large gap that allows insects past!), and I liked the look of it as it blew about just beyond the frosted glass of the back door.

I’m quite happy with the colours I’ve gotten from this roll of expired film. A few outdoors shots are showing marked grain in shadow areas, but most have come out fine, including this one. I believe the film is re-branded Ferrania Solaris.

Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Lloyds Pharmacy 200 (expired 2008).

Taken on 11 April 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Farewell 6×9

May 18, 2020May 18, 2020 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

My brief foray into ownership of a 6×9 camera came to an end today with the camera being posted back to the seller for a refund. Will I dip my toes back into the world of large medium format negatives again? At this point I don’t know – while the seller has been very good about my returning the camera, the experience has made me a little more cautious about buying another folding camera online for the time being. I’ll perhaps stick to what I have (for a while, at least).

Some more photos from my Easter back garden session today.

Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Kodak Gold 200.

Taken on 11 April 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Further afield

May 17, 2020 fishyfisharcade6 Comments

Today was the first time in almost two months that I’ve driven out to do some photography. The lockdown rules here in the UK now allow travel for exercise or other lesisure activities (but with social distancing enforced – you can only go alone or with members of your household, and you still need to remain 2 metres apart from other people you encounter wherever possible).

Despite so many places now being potential destinations, the location I chose is only a few miles from home. If I didn’t mind a long hike, it’s actually within walking distance in fact. Nonetheless, being able to drive there and then enjoy a walk was a definite pleasure.

I set off quite early, and parked the car at eight am, and the entire walk took me around two hours. During this time I encountered one other walker, two dog walkers, one jogger, and a couple of farmers shooting pigeons. Social distancing was easily maintained, and there were far fewer people around than if I’d visited the footpaths closer to home.

I also saw a deer, which was nice.

I took a couple of cameras with me. Firstly, the recently acquired Zeiss 6×9 folder that I shot the other day but which I believed to be faulty. I wanted to shoot another roll to confirm that this was the case before requesting a refund. Secondly, my Yashica Mat, which has just come back from being serviced, and so I wanted to give it an outing.

I’ve not developed the Yashica pictures yet, but I’m hopeful that there will be some nice photographs amongst them. The roll from the Zeiss was developed when I got home and scanned a short while ago. I didn’t have any great expectations from the photos as I didn’t spend too much time composing them, expecting them to show the same issues as before. The scans confirmed my fears, with the pictures afflicted by the same out-of-focus problems on the left of the frames. I’ll perhaps post one or two of them if I upload them though.

It’s disappointing, as I’ve been thinking of picking up a 6×9 folding camera for some time and, given the superb quality of images from my 6×6 Zeiss folding camera, I had similar expectations. Sadly, it’s not to be this time.

I’m looking forward to seeing my Yashica Mat photos though!

Todays’s photos are another trio from my Easter weekend in the back garden. A couple of shots of a snail shell I found perched in some heather, and one of a bag of leaves I’d swept up earlier in the day. This latter photo is one that I fully expect most people to dislike – it is, after all, just a bag of rubbish – but there’s something about it that caused me to make the photo in the first place – I think it’s probably the warm colours of the dead leaves framed by the black plastic of the bag. I dunno though, I like it whatever it is. 🙂

Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Kodak Gold 200.

Taken on 11 April 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Freedom?

May 16, 2020 fishyfisharcade5 Comments

This is the first weekend in England under the slightly relaxed lockdown rules, which allow people to travel for exercise or leisure. The weather is forecast to be good in many parts of the country.

This has resulted in calls from the national parks, seaside resorts, and other areas likely to attract visitors, that people should stay away. Many locations have not opened their carparks and other facilities to try to prevent visitors from coming. Despite this, there have been reports of full carparks and large numbers of people turning up at these locations. I expect we’ll be able to look forward to another full lockdown in due course…

Today’s photographs were made in the back garden during the Easter weekend a month ago. I was reading William Eggleston’s Guide in the sunshine and it inspired me to make pictures myself. I ended up shooting nearly a full roll of film during the afternoon, so you’ll see some more ot those in the comimg days. Some of them worked out pretty nicely, some not so much, but I’m pretty happy with the Kodak Gold. It’s the first time I’ve shot a roll of this, believe it or not, and I like how it looks.

Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Kodak Gold 200.

Taken on 11 April 2020

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

New toy. Faulty toy?

May 15, 2020June 24, 2020 fishyfisharcade5 Comments

I posted briefly about the Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/2 camera I bought recently, and my concerns that the lens might not be correctly aligned. Well it looks like my fears were correct.

I processed the roll of HP5+ yesterday that I’d shot with the camera the previous day and all the photographs show noticeable soft focus on the left side of the frames. It’s perhaps not noticeable here, but it’s quite apparent if you look at them at a larger size. This isn’t nit-picky pixel-peeping type concerns either, unfortunately. While the slightly askew angle of the lens is very minimal (although enough for me to notice straight away) it’s enough to mean that the results are unsatisfactory. Being the owner of another Zeiss Mess-Ikonta (albeit a 6×6 model), I know thet these cameras are capable of very sharp results across the frame, so having one that fails in this regard isn’t any good to me.

Having looked online though, I’ve seen a number of pages detailing the fact that it’s best to wind the film on after opening the camera. Apparently this action can cause a vacuum that lifts the film away from the plane of focus, so it’s better to open the camera and then wind on the film as you can guarantee it will be taut that way. Whether this is a factor in my results or not (I wound on before opening the camera), I’m not sure, but I’ll probably try another roll using this method to see if it makes any difference. Otherwise, I’ll have to return it for a refund.

The shots below are from the initial roll I shot. The photo of the pylons gives the best indication of the problem as the grass at the bottom of the frame, and the legs of the pylon are equally distant from the camera, so should be of a uniform sharpness across the frame. The grass at the left side is clearly softly focused, as are the leftmost legs of the pylon.

Likewise, the mesh sides of the footbridge in the following shot. The right side mesh is sharply defined, the left side much less so.

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/2 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 @ 9mins.

Taken on 13 May 2020

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Over the fields

May 14, 2020 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Have I posted a photo of some power-lines recently? I’m pretty sure I must have – because I post pictures of them all the time!

Well here’s another one – this is the FINAL pre-lockdown photo I took, the last frame on the roll.

It’s the same field where I took the shots I posted here, back in November of last year.

Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Plus-X (expired 2008).

Taken on 22 March 2020

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

All Saint’s Chapel again

May 13, 2020 fishyfisharcade8 Comments

A few photos today of All Saint’s Chapel in Steetley. I posted about this place once before, about a year ago, when I came upon it by chance while out for a walk – I’d parked my car in the nearby village of Shireoaks and took a long, looping ramble along public footpaths in the area and the chapel happened to be along the way.

I had an email today that my Yashica Mat is serviced and should be back with me shortly. I’m hoping that the viewfinder will be cleaner and that the slight haze in the taking lens will be gone (or at least reduced). It’s a nice camera to use and it produces lovely photographs, and I’m looking forward to using it again.

I also went out for a walk this morning with a new (to me) Zeiss Mess-Ikonta folding camera that I’ve bought. This one is another uncoupled rangefinder model, but 6×9 rather than 6×6. I have some slight concern that the lens isn’t completely parallel with the film plane when the camera is opened and that it might cause some distortion or soft focus in the photographs. It’s pretty slight though, so it might be me fretting over nothing and I guess I’ll find out when I develop the photos. Nothing exciting on the roll, I don’t think, just a few snapshot (in as much as you can take snapshots with an uncoupled rangefinder) of stuff I saw during my walk, but they should highlight any problems with the camera if they exist.

Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Plus-X (expired 2008).

Taken on 22 March 2020

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Expired Film Day 2020 – I won a prize!

May 12, 2020 fishyfisharcade10 Comments

Back in mid-March I posted about my entry into this year’s Expired Film Day competition. I’d entered three images shot on a roll of Kodacolor Gold dated 1989. All three photographs had been made during my visit to Magpie Mine.

A couple of days ago I was alerted to the fact that one of my photos had won in one of the categories – the Lab Rat’s Choice award! I’m not sure that I’ll be able to use my prize as it’s a free dev & scan of a roll of film. In itself this is a nice prize, but as Old School Photo Lab (who kindly provided the prize) are based in New Hampshire, USA, and I’m in Yorkshire, UK, the cost of mailing a roll of film for development will likely outweigh the benefit of taking them up on their kind offer.

Whether I manage to claim a prize or not, I’m nevertheless flattered to have had my photo win in one of the categories.

By way of connecting todays photo to the words in the post, here’s a picture taken of the same location, on the same day as my winning entry. This one shot on a different camera and film though.