Tube panic

November 23, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

There wasn’t anything to panic about really, but the blog title suits the slightly disturbing and frenetic imagery that resulted from these two attempts to track a Tube train with my camera as it pulled into the station. Tube Panic is also, incidentally, the name of an arcade videogame from Nichibutsu that I remember enjoying back in the 80s.

While I don’t think these attempts at capturing motion were fully successful (or even partially successful for that matter) I still like them. There’s enough detail to realise what you’re looking at, but it’s distorted enough to make them nice an abstract.

Maybe next time in London I might try burning through a full roll of film taking similar shots to see how successful I am. Maybe I could make a contact sheet and circle the best ones with a grease pen. 🙂

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends!

Olympus OM-1N, G-Zuiko Auto-W 35mm f/2.8 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 @ 20° 9mins.

Taken 9 September 2023.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

ICM Looney Tunes in the arcade

October 12, 2020 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

Another photo from my trip to Mablethorpe in September – a trip which is now over a full month in the past! Where does the time go?

I’ve already posted a couple of shots I made in one of the arcades, and this photograph here was made in the same place, but this one shot with my OM-2n on Superia 100. Although I had a fast f/1.8 lens attached, even at f/1.8 the shutter speeds were hopelessly slow according to the camera’s meter.

So I decided to make an ICM shot. I closed down the aperture until I got a 1-second shutter speed and then made the photo, panning to the left during the exposure. The bright neon of the Looney Tunes characters resulted in something a little like the effect produced by front-curtain sync when using a flash.

I’ve made Intentional Camera Movements before, but with a digital camera as they’re far more cost effective when it comes to making mistakes, so I’m very pleased with how this film exposure came out given it was the one attempt I made.

Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.8 & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008). Grain2Pixel conversion.

Taken on 11 September 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

(Un)intentional Camera Movement

February 22, 2020April 2, 2020 fishyfisharcade3 Comments

Sometimes an accident works out for the best. Had I not inadvertently switched the camera to the No Flash / Bulb setting (instead of just No Flash), this would have been a standard street shot of a chap with a walking stick on a rainy pavement. As it is I’ve got a wonderfully impressionist version instead. While I don’t have my intended shot to compare, I suspect that this would be the one I’d prefer given a choice.

Pentax Espio 140M & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 15 February 2020