Month: December 2024

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Inside King’s Lynn Minster

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A quartet of pictures that I took while inside King’ Lyn Minster. While I don’t think the photos themselves are particularly outstanding, I am extremely impressed by the vibration control on the Tamron lens.

It was pretty dim inside the minster, as such places often tend to be, and I was shooting Ilford Delta 100 film, hardly the best choice for handheld photography in such conditions. The available light meant that I was getting shutter speeds of 1/10 sec to 1/20 sec, even with the lens as wide open as I could get it (f/3.5 is the widest it will go, but that drops down if you start to use even a small amount of zoom). I did brace myself against walls and columns where I could but, even so, those are impressively slow shutter speeds for handheld pictures.

The fact that these pictures are sharp (although with a little drop-off in focus because of the aperture) is a big confidence boost for my trust in this lens’s capabilities.

Inside King's Lynn minster
Inside King's Lynn minster-2
Inside King's Lynn minster-3
Inside King's Lynn minster-4

Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD & Ilford Delta 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10 mins 30 secs @ 20°

Taken on 19 September 2024

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

A millstone beside a tree

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Another picture taken in close proximity to those posted over the last couple of days.

This is a bit of a “tripod holes” scene, and you can probably fine a large number of alternative (and probably better) photographs of the same location. It sits beside one of the main paths leading through Padley Gorge so, unless you take the path on the other side of the gorge, you can’t really avoid it.

Still, I’m quite happy with how it turned out. I’ve cropped in a little to remove some additional brightness where the grey and overcast sky was visible through the branches at the top of the scene.

Millstone tree

Chamonix 045n-1, Schneider-Kreuznach Super-Angulon 5.6/90 & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 30 October 2024

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Burbage Brook in Padley Gorge

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Today’s picture was taken just a stone’s throw from the one I posted yesterday, but shot a year later. Thankfully the Kodak Ektar sheet fil, already expired by a few years when I loaded it into the holders, has stood the extended wait quite well, especially as it was just sat in my office and not refrigerated during this time. I wonder if we sometimes get overly concerned about the longevity of film if it’s not cold stored? I expect that, unless you’re in particularly adverse conditions, it will fare quite well at normal room temperature in a temperate environment.

Burbage Brook

Chamonix 045n-1, Schneider-Kreuznach Super-Angulon 5.6/90 & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 30 October 2024

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Sometimes it’s not as bad as you thought…

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Over a year ago, I wrote this post about a disappointing outing with my large format camera. You can read the post for the details, but the gist of it was that I wasted a sheet of very expensive 4×5 format Kodak Ektar by not paying attention and messing up the exposure.

I remember thinking at the time that I might as well just pull the sheet of film from the holder and throw it in the bin, such was my certainty that I’s messed it up beyond salvation. In the end, I decided to leave the sheet in the holder until I shot the remaining three sheets I had loaded on some other outing. It took almost a year before that next outing with the 4×5 Ektar came around.

Tempting fate somewhat, I returned to the same location – Padley Gorge – although the weather wasn’t particularly inspiring, it being a typical UK dull and overcast autumnal day. Nonetheless I decided to shoot the remaining three sheets I had loaded into my film holders. This being the first time I’ve shot colour 4×5 film, and as I don’t have the chemicals or equipment I’d need to develop the film at home (as I do with black and white), I had to find somewhere to send the film to be processed. I also had to locate a spare film box that I could use to send the sheets (they need to be sent in a light-tight container, usually a double box with a lightproof bag inside). It ended up being a month before I managed to post them out to the lab I chose, then another week to get them back.

When I saw the negatives, the original badly exposed shot looked a little thin, so I was expecting a bad result. Imaging my surprise when the picture you see below appeared from the scanner! It’s the best of the four sheets by far, I think. Yes, I’ve done some post-processing to make it look its best, but nothing too dramatic, and I’m extremely happy with the result. If you click the photo you can see the full-size version on Flickr, with all the lovely detail that a large format photograph provides.

There’s a lesson here about not giving up on things, even when they seem a lost cause…

Autumn in Padley Gorge

Chamonix 045n-1, Schneider-Kreuznach Super-Angulon 5.6/90 & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 30 October 2024

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On a corner

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My son had a job interview this morning, which was good. I offered to drive him there as it would be at rush-hour and I thought it would allow him to prepare during the journey rather than being focused on driving. The traffic was quite heavy, but we got there with plenty of time to spare.

He was in the interview for over an hour, including a walk round the place of business, which felt like a good sign to me. Now it’s a case of waiting to see if he was successful and also if it’s a role for him. He’s hoping to apply for another vacancy that he’s been told about, so hopefully he will have a choice of options. My fingers are crossed for him.

As for today’s picture, there was something that caught my eye about this scene. The colour of the building. The interesting exhibition poster. The windows and signage on the building. And in the background, the street art.

Unearth the Untold

Ricoh GR III

Taken on 16 August 2024