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View from Roseberry Topping
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“View from Roseberry Topping”
Yashica 124G / FUJI RVP100F
This is a scan from a print from a roll of slide film. As you can imagine, it barely does it justice. It’s a helluva climb up here, and that’s without carrying a half ton toddler!
Dusk at Cow Green
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“Dusk at Cow Green.”
Holga 120FN / Found Ilford Delta 400
Hibernation over, the sun is shining. Lots of film processing, plenty more to shoot. This is from a Russian plastic Holga, they give a lovely feeling.
Magician
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“Magician”
EOS 5 / Ilford film
Professor Bernard Grant Campbell, chair of anthropology at Cambridge University, Harvard, UCLA and an authentic man in every sense.
Douglas
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“Douglas”
Superheadz / Ilford HP5+
This is Douglas. He’s a horse obviously, and every time I walk past his field I stop for a quick convo. He never has anything to say, but he’s a great listener, and always seems to take me seriously, which is refreshing.
Ted
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“Ted”
Olympus 35RC / Ilford HP5+
I mentioned this scenario just the other day on here, this is a fairly old photo now, taken on an Olympus rangefinder which I’ve had film in for several months. Some of the frames have deteriorated (but they are even so, entirely valid) and some bring a smile because they are forgotten times. This is one such, with Ted looking a little sceptical. He is probably wondering where his breakfast might be.
The Winter Sun
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“The Winter Sun”
Superheadz / Ilford hp5+ (expired)
As an aside, I went out yesterday with the Zorki and tried out a Jupiter 12 35mm with a viewfinder adapter and finished the film. I am going to try very hard now to finish up all my film before starting with another camera. I have to be out today so I will take the 35RC and the Halina 35X for a spin.
Zorki 4, Canon II and more processing.
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It has been a long time since I wrote on here, I seem to have too many projects on the burner, to keep this current. But the plan was always to keep going and although I am not quite so fixated on chemical photography just now, I maintain a steady interest.
I pick up old cameras where I can. Today I found a Voigtlander Vitomatic IIa for £15, a tenth of its real value. This is a beautifully engineered 1960 rangefinder, and I am becoming much more in the groove with rangefinder photography than any other. Indeed, I recently bought a Canon II from a Moscow dealer. I have been thinking about getting a decent 1950s rangefinder forever, and while I liked the idea of a Contax, my little collection of beautiful Russian Jupiter glass has pushed me over into thinking in the direction of the Canon Leica copy.
Okay maybe a Leica III would be the way to go, but it costs maybe 5 times more than the Canon copy, which is (arguably) a better camera. So it’s £800 for the badge on the front, and that is not a great deal in my view.
I have a great stack of film to process. I have Ilford film from a Holga which I can process in the kitchen, but I also have several colour films from the Yashica and the Lubitel to send away to the lab.
So I will leave you with a picture taken on another Leica copy, the eminently worthy Zorki 4 with that amazing Jupiter 8, 50mm attached. It is a remarkable lens for the price of a bottle of vodka. Of course the quality of the subject is beyond compare and you won’t find one of these anywhere for any price.
Dunstanburgh III
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“Dunstanburgh III”
Yashica 124G / Ilford Delta Pro 100
This is the last of the Dunstanburgh pictures from the Yashica. I processed another roll of Ilford last night, this time from the Lubitel 166. I am going to the Cleveland Hills today, in Yorkshire with the Yashica, the Superheadz and a Werra. It’s a beautiful day.
Brownie Flash III on Fuji Acros 100
no imageThere isn’t an outing in this house that doesn’t involve at least four cameras each (per adult) and one each for at least three of the children… That’s a *lot* of cameras…
And there’s a danger with this modus operandi: one tends to forget which camera does or doesn’t contain film.
I had assembled my photographic equipment for our walk the other day: my Halina Paulette, Bencini Comet IIS and my Lomo Lubitel 2, when another appeared on my ‘pile’ – a Brownie Flash III. I asked Jem if he’d put it there and he told me he’d noticed it had a ’4′ in the red window. Eek! That meant it had film in it and I had no recollection whatever of when or where I had loaded it and taken the first four shots. The only thing I did know (because it was another of our ‘live and learn’ moments) is that it was loaded with Fuji Acros 100… because I had put a sticker on the bottom of it saying so.
So, now that we’re up and running with our own developing, it seemed prudent to finish the film as quickly as possible and get it processed.
Of the mere eight shots that a roll of 120 yields from a Box Brownie, only four and a bit really came out. Despite the fact that the camera had been stored in its original canvas case, the film had still deteriorated and there’s serious fogging throughout, totally destroying two shots, making the third unusable, but the other five came out with varying degrees of success.
My lessons for today, then, are:
- Remember which camera is loaded.
- Make sure you use it till it’s done.
- If you store it for a while without using it, make sure you cover the red window with electrical (or similar) tape.
One of them, however, came out beautifully in spite (or maybe because) of the deterioration. One of our favourite photographic spots:
Cathedral Cloisters
Gaol Hill
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“Gaol Hill”
With the spire of St Mary’s overlooking Norwich Market.
Gakkenflex / Ilford HP5+
