Tag: TLR

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

The weekend is thisaway

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Another working week draws to a close. I’ve managed to complete something I’ve been involved with at work over the past couple of months, which is nice. While there are some bits still to do they won’t be required until after the Christmas break. My usual situation is that I end up working right up to the final hours before my Christmas leave kicks in but this year, hopefully, I might have a slightly more relaxed time next week and maybe get into the Christmas spirit a bit more than I currently am.

Today’s photos are a couple more from my trip to The Hepworth. Some more signs of the veil flare are apparent in the picture of the stairs, but it’s manageable. My lens spanner arrived yesterday evening and while I’ve not attempted the repair to remove the lens haze yet, I was able to confirm that the taking lens seems to come out easily enough, which is a good sign.

Arrow
Stairs

Yashicamat 124G & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 5 November 2022.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Inside The Hepworth with lens haze

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I visited The Hepworth back at the start of November to see the Hannah Starkey: In Real Life exhibition that was (and, at the time I write this, still is) present in the gallery. The exhibition was good – Hannah Starkey isn’t a photographer I’ve followed particularly – much of her work takes the form of staged portraits designed to depict candid scenes of women going about their lives – but I always tend to find such exhibitions interesting and inspiring, even if the work is not something that would be my first choice of style. Seeing the huge prints in the gallery environment was a great experience.

I took my Yashicamat 124G with me on the visit in the event I might find some things to photograph while I was there, and the posts for the coming days will feature some of the results. Today’s two pictures were made inside The Hepworth gallery, though not in the confines of the Starkey exhibition.

I’ve noticed over the past year or so that my Yashica tends to flare in certain conditions – a diffuse veil flare that reduces contrast, turning deep blacks to greys. Closer inspection of the taking lens reveals that there is haze present, so I need to try and get that fixed. I’ve looked online and it appears to be a reasonably simple job to remove and clean the taking lens, although not without risk of my cack-handedly breaking the camera in some way. To this end I’ve bought a lens spanner and will attempt to effect a repair this weekend. Wish me luck!

Art
Inside-outside

Yashicamat 124G & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 5 November 2022.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Fire escape and veil flare

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I’ve walked around the Kelham Island area of Sheffield on numerous occasions and posted many photos of it on my blog. Despit this, I’d never walked through the Little Kelham section before. This section is a mixture of modern housing and gentrified industrial buildings, such as the one in today picture. It’s an area that will benefit from futher visits to see what other photo opportunites await.

This picture was shot with my Yashicamat 124G, which I think may have some haze forming on the taking lens as I’ve noticed on a few occasions that images suffer from veil flare and a loss of contrast towards the centre of the image. Oddly, it’s an inconsistent effect though, sometimes not appearing at all, even in compositions where I might expect it to, so maybe it’s not haze at all? I’ve had a quote for a CLA, but it’s quite expensive, although still much less than a replacement camera, so I think I will need to bite the bullet and get it done at some point. It’s one of my most used cameras so worth the TLC.

Fire escape

Yashicamat 124G & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 23 September 2022

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Dune grass

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Whenever I see pictures like this, Escape (The Piña Colada Song) springs to mind.

If you like piña coladas
And gettin’ caught in the rain
If you’re not into yoga
If you have half a brain
If you like makin’ love at midnight
In the dunes on the cape
Then I’m the love that you’ve looked for
Write to me and escape

A colleague I used to work with told me he always sang it as “In the dunes in a cape“. 🙂

Dune grass

Yashicamat 124G & Kodak Plus-X (expired 2008). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 6mins @ 20°

Taken on 27 August 2022

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Mill house

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The house in today’s picture is clearly a former windmill. When it became a residential building, I know not. It looked like a good subject for a picture or two though.

I took a couple of pictures of the house and, while I was doing so, I was observed by a lady looking out from a window in a nearby property who was engaged in a telephone conversation. I smiled at her when I saw her watching, but her face remained resolutely stern and she didn’t return the expression. The first shot I took was with my Nikon F80, a fairly standard looking SLR camera, but I wonder what she thought when I pulled the distinctly old-fashioned-looking Yashicamat 124G TLR from my bag to make the photo below? I did smile at her a second time as I did this, but again to no trace of a similar response. I wonder what was said about me on her phone call that day?

Windmill living

Yashicamat 124G & Fujifilm Pro 160NS. Lab developed, home scanned, & converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 17 September 2022

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

A print perhaps?

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It’s very rare that I make prints of my photographs. Occasionally, I’ll get a bunch of cheap mini prints of random shots as they can be nice things to put in gifts, and I had a print made of a picture my cousin liked for her to hang on her wall, but rarely do I make a print for myself.

I might get a print of the picture posted here today though. It’s not a perfect image and probably not something anyone would buy commercially, but I like the photo – it’s evocative and also, because I was there when it was made, personal. It’s mine. It would be a nice thing to look at when I’m at work, I think, maybe even moreso when the dark winter days kick in proper.

To the beach

Yashicamat 124G & Fujifilm Pro 160NS. Lab developed, home scanned, & converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 17 September 2022

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Coastwatch revisited

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This is the Coastwatch building which sits atop the dunes at Mablethorpe’s north shore, tucked away in a corner of the visitor car-park. On the day I visited, it was still a couple of days before the state funeral of the queen and the country was still in the official period of national mourning, so the flag is being flown at half-mast.

I’m quite pleased with how this image turned out. The structure itself makes an interesting focal point, but it’s helped no end by the cloud detail, the light, and the colour rendition of my scan which has rendered the Fuji Pro 160NS very nicely to my eyes.

It’s not the first time I’ve shared pictures of this place on the blog and you can see some earlier images in this post.

Coastwatch

Yashicamat 124G & Fujifilm Pro 160NS. Lab developed, home scanned, & converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 17 September 2022

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Crazy golf

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One of three crazy gold courses at Mablethorpe. When I was younger, this was part of the Arnold Palmer chain of courses. The Arnold Palmer course had a hazard in the form of a windmill with ball-blocking rotating blades (which, for all I know, is still present on this new pirate-themed course, but it was closed so I couldn’t take a look). The trick to beating the windmill was to bounce the ball from the sides of the course, bypassing the rotating sails completely, and still allowing for a skillful hole-in-one if you were good enough.

The final hole was a sloping contraption with a single hole in the centre and a set of traps. Missing the hole would result in your ball rolling back into one of the traps and being lost (or, as I suspected, conveyed back to the hut where you payed and collected your club and ball via some sort of underground channel – you could hear the balls rolling back when you were paying for your game). A successful shot however would cause a bell to ring and allow the lucky player to claim a gift and a free pass for another game. I still have a free game pass in my wallet, despite it having being rendered useless decades ago. It’s worth more for the memories than the free game ever was.

Crazy golf

Yashicamat 124G & Fujifilm Pro 160NS. Lab developed, home scanned, & converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 17 September 2022