35mm · Film photography · Photography

Breaking the creative block

The last few days I’ve noticed a lack of enthusiasm when writing for the blog, resulting in a number of rather concise posts. I’m not sure what is causing this apart from, perhaps, having too many other things to do.

Because I write these posts ad-hoc and rarely with any planning or forethought of any kind it’s very east to just bash out something quickly so I can get on to doing something else, and I suspect that this probably shows.

I’ve had this sort of fatigue before, and I think my daily posting regime is to blame for this. But the daily routine is also the thing that keeps me posting – I think that if I stop doing so every day then the gaps between posts will grow longer and the number of posts will dwindle, which I don’t want to happen.

And so I will get these periods of low-input from time-to-time where I need to push on and break through the creative barrier.

Wall and wires

Olympus 35 RC & Ilford FP4+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°.

Taken on 11 May 2022

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Beetle bonnet

I guess that photos like the one posted here today are something of a cliche these days – pictures of the fronts (and rears) of cars, especially classic cars, is something that seems to have become a widespread trend. Nevertheless, they can still be interesting pictures, I feel, so please excuse another one appearing. 🙂

Beetle bonnet

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D & Fujichrome Velvia 100 (expired 2011). Lab developed. Home scanned.

Taken on 25 June 2022

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Small cars with grand names

This little car here is the somewhat graniosely named Vanden Plas Princess 1100. It’s a model from the BMC ADO16 range of which there were multiple variants. The Vanden Plas version was at the upmarket end though, with the model sporting leather interior furnishings and a walnut dashboard. It also had a posh-looking radiator grille by way of distinction from its lower spec stablemates.

Vintage runabouts

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D & Fujichrome Velvia 100 (expired 2011). Lab developed. Home scanned.

Taken on 25 June 2022

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Hot days and gridlock

It’s a bit of a hot day here in the UK today – with temperatures where I live nudging past 30 degrees. That’s not very high compared with other parts of the planet, but it’s high for me and the only consolation is that the humidity isn’t too bad. The forecast is for cooler weather through the rest of the working week, but then it’s predicted that it could soar to potentially record-breaking highs again next weekend.

I hope I’m not stuck in traffic…

Rush hour

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D & Fujichrome Velvia 100 (expired 2011). Lab developed. Home scanned.

Taken on 25 June 2022

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Lincoln Continental

This big barge of a car was at the Sheffield Steam Rally when I visited. I’m not sure what year this dates from – I would guess late 70s, but I could also be out by some margin thanks to my relative ignorance of such things. It looks nice in a photograph though!

Continental
Continental 2

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D & Fujichrome Velvia 100 (expired 2011). Lab developed. Home scanned.

Taken on 25 June 2022

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Popular corrosion and further slide scanning

I wrote a few days ago about how I’ve been having difficulties scanning a roll of Velvia 100 that I shot at the steam rally last weekend. I’ve scanned Velvia 50 before and was similarly granted with the same red-cast that I got this time, although on this occasion I’ve also had problems with the actual exposure of the scans – some images looking under-exposed in comparison with the physical transparencies. The under-exposure issue is something that I’ll have to atempt to rectify in Lightroom, but at least I seem to have found a working solution to the red-cast problem.

After carrying out all my post processing in Lightroom, I always open the final image in Photoshop to add a white border. This time, as well as adding the border, I also used the Auto-colour option in the Image menu. I don’t usually find that this does a great job – it tends to be hit and miss on the occasions I’ve used it in the past – but for these Velvia 100 scans it works a treat. Hopefully this will mean I’ll get much more satisfactory images from the roll than I’d feared.

This picture of a slightly rusted Ford Popular has come out very nicely. I used a polariser for most shots on the roll, and it’s really deepened the sky for this photo.

A hint of corrosion

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D & Fujichrome Velvia 100 (expired 2011). Lab developed. Home scanned.

Taken on 25 June 2022

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Red Mercedes

I think that the car featured in the photographs today is a Mercedes Benz 190 SL. I have worked this out by my usual detective pathway of looking at pictures online until I find one that appears t match. This means that I could be wrong about the model – sometimes there are subtle differences only apparent to an enthusiast (something which I am not). But, while not a car enthusiast, I do think they can make fine subjects for a picture of two, as usually becomes apparent around this time each year when I visit vintage rallies on the hunt for such things and subsequently flood my blog with the results.

Red Merc
Driver's seat

Yashicamat 124 G & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 25 June 2022