Mother Cap

November 28, 2019December 21, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

A couple of photos today that I took while walking on the moors around Over Owler Tor / Higger Tor / Carl Wark last weekend. I actually shot a couple of rolls – one Delta 400, and one Shangha GP3 – but I’ve only scanned the Delta so far.

I made a concerted effort to remember to use the mirror lock-up on the Bronica this time – a roll of Velvia I shot recently had resulted in a number of shots that were less sharp than I’d hoped, which I’d put down to camera shake caused by mirror slap. All the shots this time were nice and sharp – even those shot at slow shutter speeds (half-a-second and the like). The only downside was my lack of experience in shooting the camera with the mirror locked up. The process is:

compose the shot
lock up the mirror
fire the shutter
unlock the mirror
wind on to the next frame

If you forget stage 4 and wind the film on, the mirror remains in the locked up position until you take another shot. As a result of this I had a few double frames where I had to take a second, identical photograph (although I altered the aperture in some cases just for the hell of it) as it’s imposible to recompose while the mirror is up.

Anyyway… here are a couple of images of Mother Cap, a gritstone outcrop just below Over Owler Tor in the Peak District national park above Grindleford. It doesn’t look too big in the first image, but it’s a decent size when you’re up close – being maybe 20-25 feet high. The guy at the left of the frame was taking his own photos of the rocks when I caught him up, and was interested to see the view through the Bronica’s waist-level finder.

The second shot is a close-up picture of part of the the formation – this is the actual angle that the layers are at.

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Ilford Delta 400.

Taken on 22 November 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Padley Gorge

November 22, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Padley Gorge is a steep sided wooded valley situated in the north east of the Peak District national park, not far from nearby Sheffield. The sides of the gorge are packed with interesting twisty trees and the ground is littered by gritstone boulders of all sizes, many of which are covered by moss and lichens. Burbage Brook runs down the middle of the valley, carrying runoff from the moorland above. It really is a beautiful place.

When I visited last weekend we’d had a considerable amount of rainfall over the preceding weeks and the brook was in spate. It’s always nice to see, even when the flow is gentle, but when the water is a torrent it’s very impresive indeed.

Despite the somewhat grim weather meaning I had to keep putting my (non-weather-sealed) cameras back in the bag at frequent intervals, I had a really nice time walking to the bottom of the gorge – where there’s an excellent cafe the does a great job of filling the bellies of passing hikers – and then back up to the top where I’d parked my car.

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Fujifilm Velvia 50.

Taken on 23 October 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Mossy topped rock

November 21, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I shot my first (ever) roll of Velvia last weekend, and today’s picture is the first of them that I’m posting. It’s a fairly simple shot of some autumnal leaves atop a mossy rock.

I underexposed most of the shots as I wanted to try and get nicely saturated colours, and they’re definitely there on the transparencies. Scanning them satisfactorily on my Epson V550 flatbed has taken some work though and they’ve needed quite a bit of Lightroom faffery to get them close to looking like the originals.

I think part of this is down to shooting it in somewhat gloomy conditions – I think I’ll try shooting something in better (or at least sunny) weather next time. I also noticed that a number of photos are a little soft. I have a feeling that this is down to the longer shutter speeds that I needed. Although I was using a tripod, I have a feeling that I ought to have made use of the mirror lock-up switch for these to prevent vibrations.

Oh well, I’ll try that next time.

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Fujifilm Velvia 50.

Taken on 23 October 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Waterlogged field

November 14, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

After yesterday’s flooded field photo, today I present a field that is merely waterlogged.

The photograph has some similarities to the previous one beyond the water, namely the powerlines marching across the fields into the distance.

See! I told you I had a thing abouth photographing powerlines – this is three days on the trot that they, or similar transmission equipment, has featured.

As it no doubt will again.

Holga 120N and Kodak Tmax 400 (expired).

Taken on 9 November 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Flooded field

November 13, 2019 fishyfisharcade1 Comment

I mentioned in yesterday’s post about my trip out to photograph the saturated fields that have resulted from the recent period of heavy rainfall, and here’s a picture of one of them. I have a number of others that I hope to post soon, but as my job has involved a trip across the country, I’m tired, so it’ll be a somewhat truncated piece today.

Holga 120N and Kodak Tmax 400 (expired).

Taken on 9 November 2019

Medium Format · Photography

Behind the fence

November 12, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I posted a little about my odd fascination with electrical transmission lines back in January, and there have been a number of images featuring pylons, power lines, electicity poles and suchlike throughout the time I’ve been posting this blog. Today features another addition to the set.

I went out for a drive last weekend with the aim of photographing some muddy (and flooded – we’ve had a lot of rain recently!) fields and had equipped myself with the Holga and a roll of slightly expired Kodak Tmax 400. While the sub-station in today’s photograph was on my planned route, I didn’t know it was there until I saw it. I spotted it from a nearby road and then realised that the road I had to turn on to went right past it, so I couldn’t resist the opportunity. The small pylons look like they’re approaching the fence to see what I’m up to (I’m not crazy, honest, I just have an odd imagination. :)).

I think the Holga makes a nice job of this sort of image, and it especially seems to like gloomy, atmospheric conditions – it’s simple, vingnetted lens adding a lot to the feel of the resulting pictures.

Holga 120N and Kodak Tmax 400 (expired).

Taken on 9 November 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Another Whitwell Woods photograph

November 6, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I managed to miss a picture out of my post yesterday, so here it is, last but not least. It’s captures the sidelight on the mossy tree-trunk quite nicely, I think, although the background is perhaps a little messy with all the undergrowth.

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Fujifilm Provia 100.

Taken on 3 November 2019

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A walk in Whitwell Woods

November 5, 2019 fishyfisharcade4 Comments

The weather has been typically November-ish of late which, for the UK, means grey, wet and somewhat miserable. I’ve got several rolls of slide film with “Autumn” written all over them, but I’m starting to think that it’s going to be a somwhat lacklustre year for the colour. We’re in a situation (or at least we are in the part of the country where I live) where many of the trees have already turned and lost their leaves, while others are still largely green.

Despite this, there was a short break in the grey weather on Sunday, so I took a trip out to Whitwell Woods to see if there was anything to be seen and photographed. It was my first trip out with the Bronica in a few months (I think only the third time I’ve shot it, for that matter), and the first time shooting it without the metered prism and speed-winder / grip. As I took a tripod and lightmeter with me I didn’t envisage this being an issue, and it wasn’t.

That being said, my slight unfamiliarity with the camera resulted in my wasting three shots at the start of the roll, and for a couple of shots where I decided to open the 75mm lens to it’s widest f/2.8 aperture, largely missed focus. I’m not sure why this was as, although the depth of focus is pretty narrow at this aperture – particularly when the subject is close to the lens – I was confident that it was in focus in the viewfinder (with a split-prism screen). I think I might set up a test shot in a controlled environment to see if it was user error, or something else.

The woods themselves were very pleasant to walk through, although the paths were a bit squishy, and here are a few pictures.

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Fujifilm Provia 100.

Taken on 3 November 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

A couple of pubs

October 20, 2019October 20, 2019 fishyfisharcade1 Comment

A bit of a dip into the archive for today’s post. I present here a couple of photographs of pubs in Sheffield. They are from a series of images I made that were going to form the basis of a project I was working on. The project kinda fizzled out, but I have a roll or two of images that I shot for it that I’ve not really done much with (although at least a couple of others have appeared in the blog at various points).

The two photos were taken almost two years ago on a wander around Sheffield city centre on a Sunday, and I’ve chosen these two as they feature the same subject matter – public houses. Despite the seemingly never-ending set of pub closures that is befalling the UK, city centres seem to be less affected, and there are still a wide ranges of places still open and thriving. Although these photos were taken two years ago, both of these pubs are still in business as far as I know, and the areas in which they stand are undergoing a lot of renewal (from old, small industrial units, to new businesses, university facilities and residential conversions). If such a time comes when they are no longer trading, then I’m glad I have these documentary pictures.

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Fomapan 100.

Taken on 12 November 2017

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Expired Ektachrome in my Holga

October 19, 2019October 19, 2019 fishyfisharcade1 Comment

I was recently fortunate enought to receive several rolls of free film from a kind person on a photography forum I frequent. All the rolls are expired, but that’s never stopped me before.

As well as some Tmax 400 that expired in 2018 (so, basically fresh), the film is mostly transparency, with a number of rolls of Provia, Velvia and Ektachrome. The Fuji stuff expired in 2014, so I’m hoping that that will be in decent condition, but the Ektachrome is dated 2003. With the age of the Ektachrome in mind, I decided to shoot a test roll through my Holga, thinking that, even if the colours were a bit whacky, I could pass the results off as “Holga” photos.

The results are not too bad considering the age of the film and its largely undocumented provenance. The transparencies have a strong purple cast, but colour correction in Epson Scan did a pretty decent job of removing that. There’s still notable purple / red speckling in the shadow areas, and the backing paper is showing in a few frames, but overall the results aren’t awful – not a film I’d want to use for an unrepeatable event or anything, but fine for a freeby and a bit of experimentation.

Anyway, here are a few shots from the roll. I doubt there’ll be any awards winging my way, but for what they are they’re fine.