Continuing the 4×5 journey

February 18, 2023 fishyfisharcade1 Comment

Another couple of shots taken this week and then developed today. The good news is that I’m now fully confident that the light leak issues I had before are now resolved. The bad news is that I think I somehow managed to load these two sheets incorrectly. Not in a significant way, but negatives from both sides of the film holder indicate the the sheet wasn’t aligned properly and the photos are wonky as a result. You can see what I mean in this photo of the negs on my lightbox – if you look at the film border you can see how it’s out of whack:

I’m not sure how I managed to do this and, to be honest, I didn’t even realise it was possible! None of the other sheets I’ve loaded have suffered from this problem so I will have to keep an eye on things in the future. Sadly it means that the side-on picture of the church is spoiled as the wonky frame has chopped the top off the church – this is made worse when scanned as the border isn’t included in the scan.

The other image was retrievable though as I’d not framed the subject so tightly. The good news is that these were really just a couple of final test shots to make sure everything was working ok. I think I’ll make sure not to tightly frame my subjects for the time being though, just to be safe.

Here’s the shot that worked ok. If you click through to Flickr you can see that there’s a lot of detail.

Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Beighton, South Yorkshire

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 15 February 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

The other side of the Don

February 17, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Behind the fence and trees flows the River Don. Across the river stands New Testament Church of God (formerly Holy Trinity Church). The chimney and large brick building to the left of the frame is Aizlewood’s Mill, which I wrote about the other day.

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Fujifilm Pro 400H. Lab developed. Home scanned and and converted using Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 5 February 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Little boxes

February 16, 2023February 17, 2023 fishyfisharcade3 Comments

There’s a definite appeal to these block-like houses. It’s like someone has taken a cube of fresh clay, imprinted a brickwork pattern, and then cut perfectly angular upenings into the material. Despite the very up-and-coming nature of this part of town, I’m not sure I’d want to live in a home that people can walk so close in front of, and I’m unsure if they have any sort of green space such as a garden (although it could be atop the flat roofs for all I know). Photographically though, I find them very attractive.

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Fujifilm Pro 400H. Lab developed. Home scanned and and converted using Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 5 February 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Foggy willow

February 15, 2023 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

Following on from yesterday’s post about me testing my newly repaired 4×5 camera, here’s the second of the two photos I made while out. Again, this is nothing special, and mainly a test shot. It’s a little out of focus at the top of the frame, but otherwise ok. Had I spent more time I would have corrected the focusing.

I’ve photographed this willow tree on a number of occasions (see here, here, and here) and I think it would be a good subject for a more carefully considered large format shot if I pick the conditions right.

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 14 February 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

4×5 back off the bench?

February 14, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how I’d been having problems with light leaks when using my 4×5 Chroma camera. When I posted on another forum about the difficulties I was encountering the guy who builds the Chroma range of cameras, Steve Lloyd, got in touch and offered to take a look at the camera. I gratefully accepted his offer and, about a week later, I received my camera back with the problem resolved. This was extremely kind of Steve as I bought the camera second-hand, so I didn’t have a warranty or anything. This is amazing service and the sort of good stuff that really should be praised.

Anyway, today was the first opportunity to give the camera a test. The weather looked bright but a fog began to appear just as I was setting out. Normally I really like foggy conditions, but some more brightness might have been preferable today. My intent was to walk to the local country park, shoot a couple of frames, and then get them developed at lunchtime, which I managed to achieve. The photos aren’t the best as I was rushing to get everything done before starting work, so the focus is slightly out against what I would have hoped for had I had the time to be more precise. This shot of the bench is in focus, but I would have liked the foreground gravel to be sharp too rather than the background grass, but getting the camera movements just right on large format takes time, and I had little today.

The good news is that there are no signs of any light leaks. Fair enough, it was a quite dimly lit morning, but I would still have expected to see efects on the negatives were the problem still occuring. I’ll try to get out in some brighter light and test it in those conditions too. Fingers crossed that it’s all ok now though. It’ll be nice to go out and use it properly and spend the time I need to do so.

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 14 February 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

How’s this for heartbreak?

February 13, 2023February 17, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

So says the graffiti art on the wall beside this derelict building.

I seem to have got quite a lot of grain on this roll of Fuji Pro 400H. More than I recall seing when shooting it previously. It’s been develepoed at the same lab, and shot with the same camera as my last roll too. The main differentiator is that these were scanned on an Epson V700 rather than the V550 I’ve used previously. I’m not sure if that’s the cause though.

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Fujifilm Pro 400H. Lab developed. Home scanned and and converted using Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 5 February 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Aizlewood’s Mill

February 12, 2023February 17, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

This building is Aizlewood’s Mill, now a business centre, but originally used to mill grain harvested in Lincolnshire to the east. The building was directly adjacent to Sheffield’s first railway station, making offloading of the grain a case of carrying it across a bridge from the goods yard and straight into the mill.

The building was constructed in 1861 and remained in industrial use until the 1960s. The building was sold to Sheffield Co-operative Development Group Ltd for £1 in 1985, leading to it being re-developed for current use as a business centre.

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Fujifilm Pro 400H. Lab developed. Home scanned and and converted using Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 5 February 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Sheffield old town hall

February 11, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

The Old Town Hall in Sheffield dates back to the early 19th century, although there were other buildings serving the purpose before then. This building served as the home of the town trustees until the council (which was formed in 1843) took over the lease in 1866. A year leter the clock tower was added to the building as part or extensive renovations.

By the 1890s the council had outgrown the building and moved to the current town hall building on Pinstone Street. The old town hall then housed the local crown court and high court, where they stayed until 1995. The building became Grade II Listed in 1973.

The building has remained disused since this date and, despite a number of planned uses for the site being proposed, none of these have yet come to fruition. The latest plans are to convert the building into a mixture of apartments, hotel rooms, shops, and cafes.

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 50mm f/2.8 MC & Fujifilm Pro 400H. Lab developed. Home scanned and and converted using Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 5 February 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Winter chill

February 10, 2023 fishyfisharcade4 Comments

The photo published here today is the only decent photo from the roll of Kodak Gold I shot recently that still looks good in colour. All the others had colour casts and I had to convert them to black and white. This one managed to avoid the weird colours. The colour here is quite subtle but I think it still adds something to the image.

Fujica GW690 & Kodak Gold . Lab developed. Home scanned and and converted using Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 21 January 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Cow Parsley

February 9, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

One of the common nicknames for cow parsley is Mother-die. I learnt this from my grandma when I was pretty young and I remember spending quite a few years as a child being especially careful around the stuff, just in case. The name mother-die is thought to originate from rural villages and said that if a child picked the plant and brought it home then their mother would die. The rationale behind this is likely that, while cow parsley is edible, there are a number of very similar looking plants that are harmful, including hemlock.