It looked bigger than this when it was blown up by aliens in Independence Day…
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Kodak Gold 200.
Taken on 31 May 2020
Tag: Kodak Gold 200
Bathroom light
A possibly familiar composition today for anyone who’s read earlier posts on my blog. It’s a photo of our bathroom window taken from a similar position as the Holga shot in this post from back in March.
I think I prefer the Holga photo if I’m honest, with it’s low-key look and inky black shadows, but I like this one too. The pair of spectacles adds something and the hint of green foliage through the frosted glass window pane is nice as well.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Kodak Gold 200.
Taken on 31 May 2020
Lone tree
This is a photo that came out much nicer than I expected it might, which is always a nice thing to happen. Taken a short while after yesterday’s image of the church at Thorpe Salvin, this was maybe a quarter mile away. Luckily I’d brought my Sigma 105mm lens with me which gave me just enough reach to make the picture. I don’t think it would have worked with the 28-80mm as the tree would have been too small in the photo and other distractions would have crept in at the sides.
I like the minimalism and the colours (although they’re probably a little warmer than they were in reality – I tried a re-scan of this shot on my Plustek too, but it looked much worse than the lab’s Nortisu scan).
Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Kodak Gold 200.
Taken on 31 May 2020
Thorpe Salvin church early one morning
A photograph of the church at Thorpe Salvin which I made early one morning when out for a walk. This is a version scanned on my Plustek with Silverfast which I prefer to the lab scan done on a Noritsu on this occasion. My scan is a little noisier, but the colours and contrast are much punchier and not as warm as the lab scan.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D & Kodak Gold 200.
Taken on 31 May 2020
Golden light
One of the effects of midsummer where I live in the UK is the position of the sun in the evening when it sets. In the winter it drops behind a ridge of hills to the west, blocking its light a little earlier than it might if we leved somewhere flat. In the height of summer however it sets to the north-west, descending in such a way as to shine between two houses across the street from us. The downside of this is that the living room (and our eyes) are filled with bright light, meaning we need to shut the blinds if we want to see the TV. The upside is that some beautiful evening light floods into the rooms on that side of the house, sometimes making for a nice photograph or two.
Today’s photo is one such image. The light on this evening filled the kitchen with a stunning golden glow and alighted on our knife block and a glass of orange juice stood beside it. It looks almost like the white balance on the photograph needs to be tweaked, but this was the shade of light that shone that evening.
Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Kodak Gold 200.
Taken on 19 May 2020 (I think!)
Farewell 6×9
My brief foray into ownership of a 6×9 camera came to an end today with the camera being posted back to the seller for a refund. Will I dip my toes back into the world of large medium format negatives again? At this point I don’t know – while the seller has been very good about my returning the camera, the experience has made me a little more cautious about buying another folding camera online for the time being. I’ll perhaps stick to what I have (for a while, at least).
Some more photos from my Easter back garden session today.
Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Kodak Gold 200.
Taken on 11 April 2020
Further afield
Today was the first time in almost two months that I’ve driven out to do some photography. The lockdown rules here in the UK now allow travel for exercise or other lesisure activities (but with social distancing enforced – you can only go alone or with members of your household, and you still need to remain 2 metres apart from other people you encounter wherever possible).
Despite so many places now being potential destinations, the location I chose is only a few miles from home. If I didn’t mind a long hike, it’s actually within walking distance in fact. Nonetheless, being able to drive there and then enjoy a walk was a definite pleasure.
I set off quite early, and parked the car at eight am, and the entire walk took me around two hours. During this time I encountered one other walker, two dog walkers, one jogger, and a couple of farmers shooting pigeons. Social distancing was easily maintained, and there were far fewer people around than if I’d visited the footpaths closer to home.
I also saw a deer, which was nice.
I took a couple of cameras with me. Firstly, the recently acquired Zeiss 6×9 folder that I shot the other day but which I believed to be faulty. I wanted to shoot another roll to confirm that this was the case before requesting a refund. Secondly, my Yashica Mat, which has just come back from being serviced, and so I wanted to give it an outing.
I’ve not developed the Yashica pictures yet, but I’m hopeful that there will be some nice photographs amongst them. The roll from the Zeiss was developed when I got home and scanned a short while ago. I didn’t have any great expectations from the photos as I didn’t spend too much time composing them, expecting them to show the same issues as before. The scans confirmed my fears, with the pictures afflicted by the same out-of-focus problems on the left of the frames. I’ll perhaps post one or two of them if I upload them though.
It’s disappointing, as I’ve been thinking of picking up a 6×9 folding camera for some time and, given the superb quality of images from my 6×6 Zeiss folding camera, I had similar expectations. Sadly, it’s not to be this time.
I’m looking forward to seeing my Yashica Mat photos though!
Todays’s photos are another trio from my Easter weekend in the back garden. A couple of shots of a snail shell I found perched in some heather, and one of a bag of leaves I’d swept up earlier in the day. This latter photo is one that I fully expect most people to dislike – it is, after all, just a bag of rubbish – but there’s something about it that caused me to make the photo in the first place – I think it’s probably the warm colours of the dead leaves framed by the black plastic of the bag. I dunno though, I like it whatever it is. 🙂
Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Kodak Gold 200.
Taken on 11 April 2020
Freedom?
This is the first weekend in England under the slightly relaxed lockdown rules, which allow people to travel for exercise or leisure. The weather is forecast to be good in many parts of the country.
This has resulted in calls from the national parks, seaside resorts, and other areas likely to attract visitors, that people should stay away. Many locations have not opened their carparks and other facilities to try to prevent visitors from coming. Despite this, there have been reports of full carparks and large numbers of people turning up at these locations. I expect we’ll be able to look forward to another full lockdown in due course…
Today’s photographs were made in the back garden during the Easter weekend a month ago. I was reading William Eggleston’s Guide in the sunshine and it inspired me to make pictures myself. I ended up shooting nearly a full roll of film during the afternoon, so you’ll see some more ot those in the comimg days. Some of them worked out pretty nicely, some not so much, but I’m pretty happy with the Kodak Gold. It’s the first time I’ve shot a roll of this, believe it or not, and I like how it looks.
Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Kodak Gold 200.
Taken on 11 April 2020
Steel City Snapper photography 