Olympus Trip 35 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken 28 May 2024.
Steep narrow streets
Tag: Fomapan 100
Monastery entrance
The building in the centre of this photograph is the Franciscan monastery in Dubrovnik Old Town, or the entrance at least. The building at right of frame is part of the same structure and behind this is the pleasant open courtyard area accessible upon entry. To the right is the northern city wall, and the steps that can just be made out are where I accessed the wall a couple of days later.
I like the busyness of this photograph, with the bustling tourists in front of the monastery entrance. The Olympus Trip 35 has rendered the scene with impressive clarity, helped by the fine grain of the Fomapan 100 film. Click on the picture to see it in more detail.
Olympus Trip 35 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken 28 May 2024.
City walls
I took both these photos after descending from Mount Srđ in the cable car. This is the wall that surrounds the Old Town area of Dubrovnik, in this case the western, inland side.
You can just make out the heads of some people walking the path atop the wall in the first picture, something I would do myself the following day.
Olympus Trip 35 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken 28 May 2024.
Rooftops in colour and black and white
For whatever reason, I took tow very similar shots for the same location atop the old town city wall in Dubrovnik. The colour version with my Canon Sure Shot Z135, and the black and white shot with my trusty Olympus Trip 35.
I like them both, but err towards the monochrome version, I think.
Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Kodak Gold. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Olympus Trip 35 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken 29 May 2024.
Return to North Leverton Windmill
As I wrote about yesterday, I visited North Leverton Windmill back at the start of the month. I shot five frames in total at the location, three of which are posted here today. The other two were both out of focus to some extent, which I put down to a combination of being in a meadow with slightly springy ground, and also because I was using a 90mm lens that I’ve got on loan at present. It’s a nice lens, but it’s huge compared to my 135mm, and the aperture locking switch is a little stiffer than my Fujinon, meaning there’s a risk of me moving the camera when operating it. I’m not sure if that was the cause here, but it’s something I need to take care with.
It was a hot day and there were few clouds in the sky most of the time I was at the site, although a few blobs of fluffy cumulus had started to appear when I took the two pictures of the windmill.
The people who look after the windmill were curious about my old-fashioned looking camera and asked lots of questions. The mill still produces flour, and is apparently the oldest windmill in the country to have seen continuous operation (it was built in 1813). They were even kind enough to set the sails in motion (even though that kinda made it more difficult to get pictures, it was great to see), and also to move the cars from the front of the mill (which you can see in the first shot), which was very nice of them.
Chamonix 045N-1. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 (second shot: Linhof Super Angulon 5.6/90 on Fomapan 100) & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken 2 September 2023.
Dead tree and pylons
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.
Chamonix 045N-1. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken 1 August 2023.
Mother Cap
As promised yesterday, here are the two large format photographs of Mother Cap, a gristone outcrop on the moorland above Hathersage. Looking at them closely, both have focusing issues, and I’ll leave the yellow filter off the lens until after the shot is composed and focused in future as it did make it more difficult to view the scene, but they both look fine if you don’t investigate them too closely.
Chamonix 045N-1. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 12mins @ 20°
Taken 19 June 2023.
Large format difficulties
I had a day off work yesterday and decided that I would take my Chamonix 045N-1 for a second outing. After my initial test a couple of weeks or so back, I felt confident enough to take a slightly longer trip out into the Peak District. By some miracle, the weather was actually good too – warm, with plenty of sunshine and cloud. There was a risk of rain predicted but not until later in the day.
My initial plan had been to visit a few locations but, in the end, I only went to a single spot as I soon discovered that, despite everything else, there was still sand in the gears (not literally!).
I drove out to Surprise View car park in order to photograph Mother Cap, a large gritstone outcrop, and then to photograph the birch woodland in the same area. Although Mother Cap isnt too far from the car park, it is quite a bit higher and the footpath requires some scrambling over rocks – nothing too challenging, but still enough to work up a sweat when you’re carrying a big tripod and a heavy backpack.
The first two shots went well, I thought, although I found focusing a little difficult because I had fitted a yellow filter to the lens (note to self, focus before fitting the filter enxt time). As it turned out, I managed to get some camera shake on the first shot, probably because the tripod was stood on springy heather covered ground and wasn’t stable enough.
The next shot was taken on firmer ground but the issues with the filter meant that there are a few minor focusing problems where I hadn’t set the camera movements as well as I might. It was at this point that my cable release also broke, the threading on the end somehow coming undone slightly, so the next shot had to be taken using the shutter release on the lens without the benefit of the cable. It was at 1/60sec though, so it came out ok. I’ll post these two pictures tomorrow.
The final shot I took was of the birch woodland. This time the camera was placed in a stable spot, and I managed to finagle the cable release enough that it functioned properly again (although I’ll be using a different one in future AND taking a spare). Despite this, a new problem came to bear…
Because it was a warm day with hot sunshine, and because I was quite hot from hiking around with my gear, I now found that beiing under the darkcloth for more than about ten seconds resulted in my spectacles completely steaming up, rendering any attempt to focus of check the scene nigh on impossible (and made even more difficult by the yellow filter).
I did my best with it, but it wasn’t good enough, and the resultant image has a number of problems with soft focus in various parts of te scene. Thankfully it’s not terrible, but it’s not what I wanted. I do like the resulting picture though and it might be worth another visit to try and get a technically better result.
Here it is. It probably looks fine on a small screen, but it loses a lot of sharpness when viewed large.
Chamonix 045N-1. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 12mins @ 20°
Taken 19 June 2023.
Westland Wessex
Another of my rescued 4×5 sheets. Of the eight I shot I’ve managed to recover four to an extent that I’m happy with, or at least happy enought to publish. I only managed to fix one of the HP5+ sheets – the others being beyond the limits of my Photoshop skills or, perhaps more likely, my patience.
The picture today, of a Westland Wessex helicopter is one of the least affected images, but not perfect. This one was affected by the loose tripod as much as by the light-leak. The original image on the ground glass included all of the tarpaulin-covered object that is now partly cut off at the bottom left side of the frame whereas the negative included a lot of additional scenery on the right side which I’ve cropped out. It still works as a picture though.
This version of the Wessex is the HC2 which was designed as a troop transport, able to carry 16 troops.
The Avro Ashton fuselage featured in yesterday’s post can be seen in the background.
Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 12 mins @ 20°
Taken 7 April 2023.
Fuselage
Another rescued large format photo. A number of the images were less badly affected by the light leaks than others, this one included, and it’s difficult to see it at all now (although, again, there has been some cropping involved).
The aircraft in the picture is an Avro Ashton Mk 2 jet airliner (or the fuselage of one, at least). The Ashton was developed in the 1950s as an experimental aircraft using the airframes from Avro 689 Tudor II piston-driven airliners and was never intended to go into commercial service. Only six were built. The fuselage here is from the second of the six aircraft.
Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 12 mins @ 20°
Taken 7 April 2023.
Steel City Snapper photography 