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.
Yashicamat 124G & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with negative lab pro.
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.
Yashicamat 124G & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with negative lab pro.
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.
Yashicamat 124G & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with negative lab pro.
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.
Another photo of the Humber Bridge, and another affected by some unusual out of focus areas (this time the far river bank in the lower right of ther image). The good news is that I may have worked out the cause of these odd defects – I think it might be the yellow filter I’ve been using. The rationale behind this is that I’ve realised that the out-of-focus areas are only present in shots where I used the filter. All the others are either fine, or any OOF bits can be easily put down to camera movements.
The next thing will be to take some photographs without the filter. Hopefully these will be ok and I can move on and put this situation behind me (and also throw the filter in the bin – it was only a cheap one. Which I gues may be from where the problem stems…).
A couple of pictures from a recent trip to the Humber Bridge. For once I actually got nice conditions, with plenty of light and also an interesting sky, helped quite a lot by a yellow filter. I did have to hang around for awhile on occasion when the sun was obscured behind clouds, but I can’t really complain.
I’m happy with these two pictures but, again, there are issues with the focusing, with the far tower of the bridge being out of focus in both images, even though I’m pretty certain I checked it was ok before taking the picture. I’m wondering if it might be the way I use my loupe to focus and so I’ have’ve made some changes to this proces ready for my next 4×5 outing. Fingers crossed.
Another large format shot. And another with faults, this time some out of focus elements in the middle right of the frame. I’m not sure whether this might not just be a gust of wind blowing the power lines and trees about though. I’ve had similar issues with other shots however, including some I’ve just developed, so it could well be something else causing it. More (time consuming and tedious) trial and error work will no doubt be required. So far I have to say that it’s the promise of large format that is keeping me going rather than the actual process – 35mm and medium format are sooo much less faff!
Still, the problem in this picture is barely noticeable unless you start pixel peeping, and otherwise I like the picture. Maybe I should give myself a break. I used a yellow filter here which has really given the skies some nice contrast.
The last couple of medium format pictures from this year’s Sheffield Steam Rally, the first a late 60s Bedford coach, which reminds me a little of childhood daytrips with school, of on a working man”s club outing to the seaside (although this style of bus would have been dated by the time I was going on those).
And secondly, a hundred-year-old Triumph motorcycle. I’m not sure which model – either an SD or an R perhaps?
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE, & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed, home scanned, and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Well, after two-and-a-half-years, I’ve finally tested positive for covid-19. My wife too (although this will be her second time).
I’m not sure exactly where I picked it up, but the flight to Spain is probably a good bet, confined in an airplane for two-and-a-half hours, plus walking through two international airports would seem to increase the odds. That said, I might have just picked it up in the local shops. Who knows?
I first noticed the symptoms last Wednesday, a couple of days after we returned from our trip. Nothing severe, just a mild sensation at the back of my throat like there was something stuck there, maybe a bit of granola from my breakfast of something. I also had some achy muscles, but I was putting those down to all the hiking about I did in Malaga – especially a hike up a steep path to the castle – but they may well have been covid symptoms too.
By Thursday I was feeling worse and under the belief that I’d caught a summer cold. My muscles ached more and I was suffering from bouts of fever and chills although, again, nothing too severe. Friday and Saturday were similar, but paracetamol kept the worst of it at bay – a headache around the base of my skull being the most debilitating symptom. This morning my wife was feeling ill too and we pulled out some of the covid testing kits we still have at home. Almost instantly, both our tests showed two solid lines indicating infection.
I’m actually feeling quite a lot better today and haven’t needed any paracetamol, but I’m feeling somewhat pissed that my remaining annual leave – where I had quite a few things I’d hoped to do – has been blighted by illness and resulted in my doing little. It’s a public holiday tomorrow here in the UK and the weather currently looks nice so, if I don’t feel ill, I’m tempted to take a trip with my camera somewhere. It’ll be someplace outdoors and I’ll not be mixing with anyone, so it should be fine if I decide to go ahead.
It still makes me feel oddly guilty to be considering it though, even though there are pretty much zero restrictions regarding covid here in the UK anymore. Even people working in healthcare are allowed to go to work while infected in most circumstances, so a trip out somewhere by myself should be ok I guess.
Here are three more Sheffield Steam Rally pictures. 2023 was the first year the rally returned after three years away due to the pandemic.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE, & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed, home scanned, and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
