35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
It’ll be the 2017 Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride in a few weeks’ time, so here are a few pics from last year’s event in Sheffield. This was the second outing from my (then) recently acquired Olympus 35 RC.
All shots: Olympus 35 RC & Kentmere 400 film.
Taken: 25 September 2016
A couple of photographs taken on a recent(ish) trip to Sheffield cathedral, when the venue was opened in the evening to a local photography group, enabling the use of (normally forbidden) tripods etc.
It’s the same subject in both shots, just from opposite sides.
Both shots: Yashica Mat 124 G & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 17 July 2017.
Earlier this year I bought three compact 35mm cameras for a couple of quid each at a camera fair. One of them was the Konica Pop with which I took the photos in today’s post.
The Pop is a pretty bare-bones machine. Essentially the only options you have are altering the film speed setting and deciding whether to manually use flash (it fires automatically if there’s low light, popping up from the top of the camera, hence – I suppose – the name). Mine, however, doesn’t do this as there were a couple of badly corroded batteries in it when I bought it and the electrics no-longer work.
However, after a bit of research, I discovered that it’s possible to shoot it manually using Sunny 16 type guidelines. The camera has a fixed 1/125sec shutter speed, and the lens is fixed focus (at 2.8 metres). The aperture though can be controlled by an odd combination of the film ASA setting and whether the flash is set in it’s up or down position and provides a decent set of apertures to use:
ASA 400 & Flash Down = f/16
ASA 200 & Flash Down = f/11
ASA 100 & Flash Down = f/8
ASA 200 & Flash Up = f/5.6
ASA 100 & Flash Up = f/4
It’s a bit ‘Heath Robinson’, but it works. Based on this, I decided to run a roll of film through it to see what I results I might get. Now, some of the shots were a little underexposed based on my misjudging the light, but on the whole they weren’t too bad, with the Hexanon f/4 lens being pretty decent.
So today’s post features a small selection of the better shots. All were shot on Agfa Vista Plus 200 film, a few of which I converted to black and white in Lightroom. I’ll get around to re-scanning them at some point and hopefully squeeze a bit of extra detail out of the negatives.
Of all of these, I think the shot of the curved building, and the bottom shot of the people on the railway platforms are my favourites.
A couple of photos taken earlier this year when I had to attend a course in Manchester. As I had a little time each morning after getting off the train, I would wander the streets and take a few pictures with the camera I had with me (an Olympus Superzoom 105 G compact in this case). These are both of the same street, but from the opposite ends.
Olympus Superzoom 105 G, Fomapan 100
Olympus Superzoom 105 G, Fomapan 100
Two shots today, both of the same subject, taken on the same day, but with different cameras and film. I’d gone for a day out to visit Gainsborough Old Hall, but stopped off at Retford for a ‘comfort break’ at a Morrison’s supermarket. The store sits beside the River Idle and the riverside foot path is accessible from the car-park (which is also adjacent to the road that is carried by the bridge in the photographs).
Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8, Rollei Superpan 200
Olympus Trip 35, Kodak Portra 160
(I’ve taken to adding ‘arty-farty’ white borders around my colour shots lately).
Both shots taken on Monday 31 July 2017.
Well, this morning’s issue with linked Flickr images seems to have magically resolved itself, so here’s a bonus post to make up for the disruption!
The front end of some vintage car or other (I neglected to take note of what it was and don’t have enough here to ID it). Taken at the Classics on The Moor car rally in Sheffield.
This outing was my first time shooting Ilford Delta 100 and I’m very happy with the results. Very clean and contrasty.
Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8, Ilford Delta 100
Date taken: 6 August 2017
For some reason today, a large number of my embedded Flickr photos have stopped showing as images and just show a link instead. It’s not all of them, so I’ve no idea what is causing this, but it’s infuriating. I don’t know if it’s WordPress or Flickr to blame. It’s not just my browser or PC either – the same thing shows when viewed from another device too.
Normal service will hopefully resume shortly.
😦
Between Solly Street and Scotland Street, Sheffield.
This small UFO was sighted on a lamppost in an alley joining the two roads. I’m a bit of a sucker for shallow depth of field shots.
Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8, Ilford HP5+
Taken: 23 July 2017
So, as some of you who read this blog might have noticed, the gaps between posts has gradually gotten larger following the early flurry of activity when I first started. In an attempt to combat this and increase the rate at which I post, I’ve decided to change the way that I update the blog. Instead of posts containing multiple shots, I’m going to cut it back to posts containing a single image (although there may occasionally be multiple shots, and even some of the longer posts every now and again) with a concise description. This will hopefully allow me to post frequently and keep the stream of content moving. It also has the benefit of me being able to mix things up a bit and publish photos from different sessions and rolls as I feel like it, rather than posting a whole bunch of pictures from a single event, trip or location (unless I feel like it, of course!). I’ve got a large-ish backlog of pictures taken since I started the blog, plus a pool of other shots taken beforehand to choose from, so there should be no shortage of content at least. I’ve also started re-scanning some of my earlier photos to get better results (I’m now much more adept at using the scanner and software than I was back then), so some older shots have now become a bit more presentable than they were.
To kick things off, here’s a shot from the first roll I shot when getting back into film photography. It was shot on 23 July last year using my Olympus Trip 35 on Agfa Vista Plus 200 film and re-scanned recently on my Epson V550 flatbed. I’d bought the Trip to replace one I already had (given to me by my dad), but which doesn’t work properly anymore (the red flag doesn’t pop up to indicate bad exposure) and chose the Agfa Vista because it was available for £1 a roll at Poundland and, as this was my first foray back into film shooting in about twenty years, I didn’t want to risk a more expensive brand. The film was developed at a branch of Max Spielman and I was happy enough with the results, but I get the impression that film development is becoming a bit of a lost art at some of these high street outlets these days, and after a couple of subsequent rolls yielded very unsatisfying results, I switched to a pro-lab (Peak Imaging) for all subsequent processing and have been very happy with the results since.
This is the dam in Crookes Valley park, Sheffield, UK where I went with my wife and younger sons. The re-scan is far better than my original version (which was a scan of the actual print instead of the negative). The colours are better and more vivid, plus the image is sharper and has less cropping (the person’s legs at bottom left, and the child at mid-left were not visible in the original version at all).
As my slovenly updating of the blog continues, I thought I’d just drop in a bunch of photos to keep it alive!
These were taken back in June at the Sheffield Steam Rally ay North Anston. I’ve already posted the shots of the traction engines, but there were also some classic cars that I photographed, plus a few random shots. These were shot with my OM-1 with the F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 on Fomapan 100. I like the Fomapan, it’s a little grimy in my experience, sometimes having little back soot-like flecks on the negatives, but the results are pretty nice.
