Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
Given that I mentioned it in yesterday’s post, heres the second most underexposed shot from this roll. While it has definite faults (not least all the dust spots that I didn’t have the will to remove!), it still kinda works I think.
Fujica GW690 & Shanghai GP3. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 10mins @ 24°.
Taken on 23 December 2020
This is one of the underexposed frames of Shanghai GP3 that I mentioned a few days ago – the least underexposed of the three and it’s been recovered for the most part in post-processing. The other two shots were also made within the trees of the plantation, so I suspect it was caused by poor metering on my part. The next wrst exposed shot has also recovered enough that I might post it too, but it’s noticably more contrasty than this one. The worst of the bunch is mostly “soot and whitewash” unfortunately.
Fujica GW690 & Shanghai GP3. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 10mins @ 24°.
Taken on 23 December 2020
The small hamlet of West Handley have decorated their phonebox and streetlamp for Christmas as usual. Santa seems to be re-purposed for various tasks as required, having had the face of previous UK prime minister, Theresa May in protest of Brexit on one occasion, and as an anti-fracking protestor on another. There are a number of other Christmas trees and festive decorations along the road that runs past the small group of houses that make up the settlement, and I expect it looks quite nice in the evening, although relatively low key in comparison with some of the extravaganzas of illumination that I’ve seen esewhere.
I’m still getting to grips with the rangefinder patch of the GW690 and have missed focus on Santa in the second shot. More practice needed!
Fujica GW690 & Shanghai GP3. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 10mins @ 24°.
Taken on 23 December 2020
Another shot from the “getting to know you” phase with my GW690. There will be a few rolls of me getting used to the camera, I think. I developed another roll today – this one some Shanghai GP3 I shot yeterday and a few frames are quite underexposed. I think all but one can be rescued (based on my scans so far), but I’m not sure what went awry. I suspect my metering is to blame though as it was only on a few woodland shots where the exposure issues occured. I sometimes think I should bite the bullet on a proper spot meter to avoid these problems, but those things are not cheap! Anyway, some of the GP3 shots will be up here soon.
This shot from my first roll of B&W through the camera isn’t too bad I don’t think – it’s pretty contrasty, but the scene was a mixture of shadowed areas punctuated by bright highlights, so it’s to be expected.
Fujica GW690 & Ilford Delta 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 20 December 2020
I shot my first real roll through my recently acquired GW690 last week. When I say “real” roll, it’s actually the second one – the first was a roll of Velvia that the previous owner had left in the camera when they sold it. It had seven unused frames which, in my eagerness to try out the camera, and the somewhat temperemental relationship I have with that particular film, meant that I was mostly unhappy with the results. The compositions were not especially interesting, the exposures were not good – I blew the highlights significantly in most of the shots – and my scans were disappointing in their colour reproduction. As a result I’ve not uploaded a sigle frame from the roll.
For this second attempt I used something I knew I should have more success with – at least in the exposure and scanning apects, if not the composition of the images (although, in this, I hope I still managed to get something nice). The results are much better than the first set, although still not quite perfect and, given the relative expense of using the camera – just eight shots per roll! – I need to up my game, slow down, and pay full attention to what I’m doing. Also, at this satge, I still have that “exciting new camera” feeling, so I’m probably not doing the best I can. Most of the shots are nice though, but a couple are slightly soft due to camera shake (I think I maybe need to do some weight training before using this handheld 🙂 ), and a couple of slightly dull compositions.
The photo posted today is one of the frames I liked. The curve of the road is nice and the light is good. It also shows the very nice results that the lens on the GW690 can produce.
More to come soon…
Fujica GW690 & Ilford Delta 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 20 December 2020
Steel City Snapper photography 