Half a picture

April 3, 2023 fishyfisharcade3 Comments

The weather yesterday was good for once. Paired with the fact that it was a Sunday and I wasn’t at work, I felt almost duty bound to make use of it and go out with a camera.

As I’ve not shot the 4×5 for a few weeks and I’m still in the “getting to know you” phase of figuring out how to use it while still trying to make interesting pictures, I got the kit together and headed out. It was late morning before I had chance to set off as my dad came over for his usual Sunday visit first thing so I decided to stay relatively local and headed out to a couple of villages and other places I’ve photographed previously, albeit not with large format.

I only shot four sheets, although, given how long it takes to shoot 4×5, I was still out for over two hours even though I shot two of the pictures walking distance apart, and the other two were at locations not that far away by car.

I had a chance to develop the photos this lunchtime (the benefits of working from home) and they all looked good apart from the picture featured today – which had a large light leak down the left third of the image. I’m not sure if one of my film holders is a bit tempremental and prone to light leaks, or if I’d not been sufficiently careful when removing or re-inserting the dark slide when taking the photograph.

Luckily for me, the image could be salvaged with a crop. The original frame has all the house in the composition, plus a garage and part of a tree down the left of the property. The crop removes that completely but still manages to leave a pretty nice picture. At least I think it does. The 4×5 format means there’s still an absolute ton of detail in the remaining part of the image too.

The wheelie-bin isn’t the most attractive thing, but cropping that out too unbalanced the picture a bit too much for my taste.

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 12 mins @ 20°

Taken 2 April 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Vegging out in the house

March 26, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

No photography stuff for me today. I have a roll of film to develop but I couldn’t be bothered with faffing around with that (or rather, all the getting stuff out, and then having to wash it all and put it away again afterwards). The weather has been overcast, although with some definition in the cloud cover, but after walking around Leeds taking pictures yesterday I didn’t feel the need to go out agin today. Yesterday’s trip left me with a full roll of HP5+ (the one I have to develop) and also some Provia 100 to be sent off to the lab (fingers crossed as it’s an expired roll).

So instead, after my dad came over to visit, I spent the day watching TV and YouTube. Sometimes it maked me feel a bit guilty that I didn’t use my free time more productively, but at the same time sometimes a day vegging on the sofa is a productive use of time in terms of re-charging your batteries.

A friend of mine once said the following: “When I say I’m doing nothing, that doesn’t mean I’m free. It means I’m busy doing nothing.“. Sometimes doing nothing is what you need.

Here’s a random photo of a house. Not mine, and not the one I’ve been vegging out in.

Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 50mm f/2.8 MC & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 5 February 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Sprotbrough Bridge and Lock

March 12, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

The bridge in today’s photo is the northern span of Sprotbrough Bridge which crosses the navigable part of the river Don. The southern span crosses the river just below Sprotbrough Weir.

In the background of the shot can be seen Sprotbrough Lock.

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Fomadon R09 1+50 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 4 March 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Another Don crossing

March 11, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Just downstream from the bridge I shared a photo of yesterday (you can see it in the background of today’s shot) is a second bridge, this time an active railway bridge. Indeed, as I was setting up this photo a train was sat idling off the the right of fram and actually crossed when I was ready to take the picture. I waited until it had passed though as, even though it was moving slowly, the half-second shutter speed I was using would have rendered it blurry, and probably not in an aesthetically pleasant way.

I’ve been out making more photos today, although with the Bronica ETRSi rather than the large format kit. We’ve had a big dump of snow the last couple of days which eased off yesterday afternoon and then began to melt quite rapidly. However temperatures overnight fell below freezing so I decided to go out this morning – a lovely sunny start – and try and catch some wintry scenes while they remained. I managed to shoot the full roll of HP5+ I had loaded, and also one or two frames of expired Provia 100 that is loaded in a compact I was carrying in my coat pocket. It was a nice morning and I was pleased that it actually fell on a day where I could take advantage of it for once!

Thos shots will appear here in due course, although I expect the snow will have become memory by the time they do.

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Fomadon R09 1+50 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 4 March 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Where the Trans Pennine Trail crosses the Don

March 10, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Just downstream from Sprotbrough, the Trans Pennine Trail crosses the River Don on this former railway bridge.

While I wish I’d had better light, the riveted structure still manages to be an interesting subject, and the large format negative really captures the detail.

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Fomadon R09 1+50 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 4 March 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Riverside house (again)

March 9, 2023 fishyfisharcade1 Comment

This is another of those scenes that I’ve photographed on more than one occasion. The subject almost cries out to be photographed and the location features in the photographs of many others besides mine.

You can see an earlier picture here, when I walked the same path three years ago.

Some nicer light would have been good, but, hey – the UK…

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Fomadon R09 1+50 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 3 March 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Riverside path and frustrating weather

March 7, 2023March 7, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I returned to work today following a week-and-a-day’s leave. The whole week I was off, the weather was dull and overcast, which kinda spoiled the days of photography I’d hoped for. I still went out and took pictures, but I knew the light was poor and they wouldn’t be what I might have hoped for.

Today, back at work and unable to venture out to take pictures, the weather has been lovely all day. Blue skies with smatterings of cumulus clouds and nice light. Sometimes it feels like I am being punished…

Here’s one of the pictures from last week, took while walking alongside the River Derwent in the Peak District near Calver.

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Fomadon R09 1+50 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 3 March 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Froggatt Bridge

March 6, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Crossing the River Derwent at Froggatt, this narrow stone bridge dates back to the 17th century.

On the day I took the picture it was difficult to find a spot to get an unobscured view, so I plumped for framing the slighly messy bush in the centre of the arch.

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Fomadon R09 1+50 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 3 March 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Botanical rescue

March 5, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

One of the two photographs I took of the Botanical Gardens was a bit of a bust. The shot was alright but I got a big light leak on it. I suspect the leaks I sometimes get when shooting large format are caused by my taking insufficient care when removing the dark slide, perhaps pulling the film holder away from the camera slightly and letting light in.

Given the time and effort it takes to shoot large format (and the cost per sheet!) I decided to attempt to rescue the picture in Lightroom. I had to crop it by a not insignificant amount and then had to apply quite a lot of dehaze and spot editing to try and remove the worst effects of the light-leak. In the end though, I managed to salvage a reasonably useable image from the original. It’s not perfect – the contrast is a bit crunchy, resulting in some crushed blacks, and quite a lot of noise has been introduced, but better than no image at all.

It can’t be too bad – it managed to get into Flickr’s Explore pages somehow!

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Fomadon R09 1+50 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 2 March 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Botanical bicycle

March 4, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Continuing a theme from yesterday’s post, here’s another shot where my composition is out. In this shot I needed more of the foreground to avoid cropping the bench, and also more of the left hand side to avoid the edge of this part of the greenhouse being cropped. I should have moved further back, which would have solved both isssues.

Someone did point out that the loss of the left hand side of the frame could have been caused when inserting the film-holder, which could have accidentally caused the tripod head to rotate slightly if it wasn’t locked tight. It could easily have been my fault for not checking my edges carefully though.