Month: September 2023

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Sturton-le-Steeple

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I took a trip out with the Chamonix 4×5 camera last weekend. I had two reasons for doing so. The first was that I had some free time, the weather was nice (even if the skies were a little too clear this time), and I wanted to go out and take pictures. The second reason was to shoot some pictures without my yellow filter to see if I would still get any out of focus areas without it being used.

The answer to the second was that, no, I didn’t, which is a relief. I did get some out of focus areas, but these were ones that I can explain away to camera operator failure. 🙂

I went out to North Leverton Windmill and took five photos there, some of which I’ll publish here in due course. After photographing the windmill I headed over to Sturton-le-Steeple to shoot my final sheet of film, with the idea of photographing West Burton Power Station which sits a mile ot two away, taking advantage of the nearby River Trent.

I did take a picture of the power station but with the Bronica, which I’d also taken out with me, and which had my 150mm lens, giving a better view of the station (one day, I think I’ll go for a walk around the power station, and try to get some nice atmospheric pictures from closer range – there are a whole bunch of public footpaths surrounding the facility).

In the end, I shot my final sheet of Fomapan in the village itself, with the church as the subject, and it has come out quite well. A functional yellow filter might have added some more “pop” to the skies and, annoyingly, the new box of Fomapan I’ve just received appears to have the same issue with white speckles on the negative that I’ve encountered before, which means I now need to try and get a refund and the messing around that will entail. I think I might stick to Ilford film in future, even though the cost is higher.

St Peter and St Paul's Church, Sturton-le-Steeple

Chamonix 045N-1. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken 2 September 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

A hot day?

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When this is published, I will be on my way home from a day-trip to London to see an Evelyn Hofer exhibition at The Photographer’s Gallery (and, if I’ve had time, a nosey around The National Portrait Gallery).

At the time I’m writing this (Friday evening) I must confess that the 32°C temperature that has been forecast for London on the day is not filling me with glee!

Anyway, apropos of nothing, here’s a random picture from back in 2016 that I took with the first Medium Format camera I owned – a Lubitel 166 Universal TLR. It wasn’t the best camera to use, but it could produce nice pictures nontheless.

FILM - My first roll of medium format-10

Lubitel 166 Universal & Ilford HP5+. Lab developed.

Taken 2016.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Beached

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My final shot taken while using the knackered yellow filter. As with the other pictures shot with this filter, there are unusual out of focus areas on the image – in this one, it’s the trees (and part of the bridge suspension cables) beyond the front of the boat. The filter is now in the bin.

Otherwise, I’m pleased with this shot.

Beached

Chamonix 045N-1. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken 28 August 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Monochrome Ektar

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The colours on these two Kodak Ektar pictures were very strange and I couldn’t get them to look right no matter what I did in Negative Lab Pro, Lightroom, or Photoshop. So, in the end I decided to convert them to B&W, which has worked quite well, I think.

Tiddly-om-pom-pom
Tower

Yashicamat 124G & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted to black and white in Lightroom.

Taken 1 July 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Coral Island

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Another Ekatar shot with slightly odd colours. There’s something off with the purples and greens in the shadows and midtones and, for some reason, the foreground road and pavement looks almost monochrome. It’s a shame as I like Ektar as a film and it normally scans just fine, but this roll has taken much more effort to get looking closer to normal.

Coral Island

Yashicamat 124G & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with negative lab pro.

Taken 1 July 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Blackpool North Pier (in colour)

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Blackpool North Pier marked the spot where my roll of black and white film ran out (pictures still to come!), and where I switched to a roll of Kodak Ektar. The three pictures here show stuff on the pier, plus one shot of the view north from the pier. I cropped the third shot as there was quite a lot of uninteresting sky in the image and I felt it looked better without.

The colours are still a little off in these frames, but not too bad, I don’t think.

Eating (and becoming) ice creams
The tower from the pier
End of pier entertainments
Seashore

Yashicamat 124G & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with negative lab pro.

Taken 1 July 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Comedy

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If you walk along Blackpool promenade in front of Blackpool Tower, you will come across the Comedy Carpet. This is a section of the floor covering 1880 square meters that is packed with jokes, routines, and catchphrases from 850 comedians and writers. You cand easily spend a good hour reading through it all, hopefully letting out a few good laughs while you do.

Comedy

Yashicamat 124G & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with negative lab pro.

Taken 1 July 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Gulls

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In a break from tradition, I’m jumping right to a photo I only uploaded to Flickr today, rather than slowly working through them in a mostly chronological order – I have a whole bunch of other pictures that pre-date this shot (and this roll), but images from those sets will come later.

I jumped to this shot mostly because I didn’t want to write a long post, and this image seems to suit a shorter form blog entry (although I’m already writing more than I often do, so go figure!).

The photo was taken during a recent trip to Blackpool which I took with my wife (although it’s already two months ago!). There was an onshore breeze blowing on this day which, when it hit the sea-wall along the promenade, created an updraft that these gulls were taking advantage of. They were effectvely hovering and it made for a nice shot.

There is something a little funky about the colours in this roll of Ektar. I’m not sure if it was an older expired roll that I’ve not looked after well, or if I maybe underexposed it or something but, whatever the case, the colours looked odd when I put the negatives through Negative Lab Pro. I even went back and re-scanned an older negative to see if I’d somehow messed up my scanner settings, but that one was fine. As a result I’ve had to faff around with the colours in the pictures more than normal, so if any look a little weird, that’s my excuse.

Gulls

Yashicamat 124G & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with negative lab pro.

Taken 1 July 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Old-school ice cream

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This vintage ice-cream truck was parked close to the car park when I visited the Humber Bridge and made for an obvious subject for a picture. Annoyingly, it’s another shot marred by the out-of-focus issue that I wrote about yesterday, and I still have another two sheets to develop where I also used the yellow filter that I suspect to be the cause, so those might also exhibit the same problems.

Ice cream truck

Chamonix 045N-1. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken 28 August 2023.