Tag: F Zuiko 50mm f/1.8

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Cathedral in a perspex case

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While wandering around Sheffield city centre last weekend I went into the cathedral to see if there were any photos to be had (and also, because there’s a cafe in there, to get a coffee).

Past experience of shooting film in the cathedral have proven that, given the use of tripods and flash are not normally permitted within the premises, that 400asa film is very limiting in terms of the photos that can be achieved. Even opening my 50mm f/1.8 lens to its widest aperture would still only allow shutter speeds of 1/30sec in the best cases and considerably slower in most others. As a result, while there are some great subjects within the building, without a faster film (or a digital camera on a higher ISO) most of them ar unachievable without significant risk of camera shake.

Today’s photo is one of a couple I made on the day, and even this one – from a relatively well illuminated area – was still shot at 1/30 wide open. It depicts a scale model of the cathedral itself and was located on ground level a little behind the brightly lit tower that can be see at the left side of the model.

FILM - Cathedral in a box

Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 800asa).

Taken on 26 October 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Spurn lightship bow

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A couple of days ago I posted a photo of the Spurn Lightship. Today’s image is a detail shot of that ship’s bow.

I really like the tones I’ve got in this picture, especially the milky quality of the water, but also the relief of the plates and rivets of the vessel’s hull too. Despite the film being pushed to 800asa the grain has remained relatively unobtrusive in the shot as well.

FILM - Bow

Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 800asa).

Taken on 25 October 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Wet seats at the racecourse

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A week ago I visited Doncaster Racecourse with my dad. I’d bought him the trip for his birthday earlier in the year expecting that he’s go with one of his friends, but when that fell through, I decided to go with him myself. I’ll almost certainly be posting more photos from the day – my interest in horse races is negligible, but my interest in photographing such events is considerably higher and I shot about half a roll (despite the conditions) – but, for now, this post has just a single image.

I think it illustrates quite well the weather on the day of our visit – rain, rain and, yep!, more rain.

The stands are on three levels and I would expect them all to be at least partially polulated normally, but on the day in question only the uppermost tier had anyone present as all the rest were subject to the rain falling on the uncovered section (and blowing under the shelter onto the next level). As you can see, they were not busy. 🙂

FILM - Wet seats

Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 800asa).

Taken on 25 October 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Spurn lightship

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This is the Spurn Lightship, a floating lighthouse that served in a position off Spurn Point, a long coastal spit at the mouth of the Humber Estuary where it flows into the North Sea.

The vessel was built in 1927 and was in active service until it was decommissioned in 1975. It was restored and has served as a museum at it’s current location in Hull marina since 1987, although it is currently closed for conservation work and re-location elsewhere in the marina.

FILM - Lightship

Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 800asa).

Taken on 19 October 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Do not climb on the toad

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This mossaic-coated toad sits on the grass outside the Streetlife museum in Hull, where I had a wander around while waiting for the photo exhibitions to open. I smiled as I imagined just how many people must have clambered onto the giant amphibian before the powers-that-be decided to invest in a sign and (somewhat ineffectual) fence in an attempt to ward them off.

FILM - This toad is not for riding

Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 800asa).

Taken on 19 October 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Sir John Betjeman

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This statue of Sir John Betjeman stands in St Pancras railway station, London. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death in 1984. As well as a lover of railways, he was a vociferous voice in the preservation of ancient buildings and was instrumental in the saving of the St. Pancras station and hotel which had been scheduled for demolition. The station was secured and is now the London terminus for both the Midland Mainline domestic route as well as the international Eurostar service to continental Europe. This sculpture was commisioned for the re-opening of the station following its redevelopment in 2007.

You can watch him talk about railways in this film.

FILM - Sir John Betjeman

Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 9 October 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Bench-land

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I guess today’s picture serves as a direct sequel to the one I posted yesterday, given that the two people on the foreground bench appear to be the same couple who were walking through the scene in the other photograph. This wasn’t intentional and I only realised it to be the case after scanning the negatives. but I quite like how it turned out though.

I’ve not photographed the Barbican Centre much before, but it’s a wonderful urban location. Amazing brutalist architecture that is very well maintained and with a wealth of compositional possibilities. I only had a spare 10 minutes to take some photos while passing, but I could happily spend hours there.

FILM - Barbican bench land

Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 9 October 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Flower display

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I got my OM-1 off the shelf the other week thinking that I haven’t used it for a while (since my holiday in Sorrento last summer, in fact) so I fired off a couple of shots just playing around and noticed that the mirror was staying up when the shutter was fired. I decided to investigate and discovered a partially used roll of Ektar still in the camera! Shutting the back as fast as possible, I quickly realised that this was the roll that I thought had gone missing at some point, clearly having forgotten that I’d loaded it on holiday and taken a few shots.

I decided that, given that the holiday shots were probably ruined, I might as well finish off the roll and see if I could resolve the shutter / mirror business. The same problem kept occuring intermittently, so I was sure that I was losing multiple frames – I’d have to wind on twice before the shutter would cock again – and expected them all to be blank.

What I actually ended up with was several frames that are badly out of focus where the camera had mis-fired in some fashion. All the other frames were ok, and even the holiday snaps hadn’t suffered much in the way of light-leak damage from the opened back (although most of them are nothing to write home about anyway). After removing the roll of film, I test fired the camera at multiple speeds, but couldn’t get it to re-occur. Loading a test film caused it to happen once or twice, but nothing like as much as before.

So I now have a roll of expired film in the camera to test it out properly. So far, fingers crossed, it’s been fine (12 shots in). Maybe the camera was sulking due to my inattention? 🙂

Here’s one of the shots from the roll of last year’s Ektar.

FILM - Trough display

Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Kodak Ektar.

Taken 3 August 2019