“Seasons Greetings”

24-12-19

It’s been some time since I last posted on the blog. Lots of socialising with old friends who have recently retired and getting in quotes for work that needs to be done on the house, how did I find the time when I was working ? The weather in my part of the UK has been really awful, lots of grey days and rain, when it was OK I took the opportunity to catch up on chores. I have bought a couple of old film cameras that I’m really looking forward to trying out, and blogging about.

Wishing you all a “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays”

Monochrome Wednesday

13-11-19

Last week I went to The British Motor Museum at Gaydon, Warwickshire with some old friends that I’ve known since the early 1960’s. The lens on my Olympus EPL1 has given up the ghost, it’s a fault with an internal ribbon cable according to the web, and quite common, so I took my old Olympus E620 along instead, it’s a bit noisier at higher iso’s but it didn’t do too badly.

Rovers
Speed 14 Saloon.

Gas turbine Prototype.

I have a bit of a soft spot for Rovers, I had a 1953 Rover 75 in the late 1970’s, exactly the same as the one in the picture above, and in the 1980’s I worked at an electrical engineering factory that made gas turbines. 

Jaguars

1932 -16hp coupe.

1935 Airline, love the style of this one, so elegant.

Aluminium XJ.

James Bond XKR, there have been a few times when I wished I had one of these on the roof of my car.

Daimler

1950 Daimler “Green Goddess” coupe, and a bit of a selfie.

It was a great day out with good company. 

Stray Cats

11-11-19

Cats have been a part of my daily life since the early 1980’s, I think they are lovely animals and can’t imagine a life without them. As I’m writing this post Fleur is on my lap purring away helping to keep my blood pressure in check and legs warm.

As well as my own two beasties a little stray has started coming in at night for food, she taps on the cat door at around 11.45pm, (the time I usually get ready for bed) to let me know she’s there. I put a dish of food down for her but she is very wary and doesn’t come into the kitchen until I switch out the light and pull the door to.

Stray

She’s quite small but feisty, and  eats every last scrap of food. I managed to get this photo of her by sticking the phone through the cat door and hoping for the best. She really needs a home, hopefully I can get in contact with Cats Protection this week and see what they can do for her.

Semi Stray

I’d just got back home this morning after running some errands for myself when the black & white lad appeared through the cat door, he consumed a dish of food and then snuck upstairs for a sleep. He must be being fed by someone as his coat is in good condition and he has a such a lovely nature. There are at least another 3 strays in the neighbourhood which I see walking through the garden from time to time !

Subway Street Art

08-11-19

I haven’t been out taking photographs very much these last few weeks, we have had such a lot of rain, and on the good days I’ve been trying to catch up with tidying the garden.

At the end of September I met up with the PhotoBuddies to have a look at some new street art in a subway that runs under a busy road junction in the city, not a place I would normally wander around on my own. I took a digital camera with me (Olympus E620) luckily the weather was really good.

Mono

Tight Lipped

Afraid

Feeling Blue

Sleep Easy

?

The street art has really brightened up what was a dismal area.

Monochrome Wednesday

06-11-19

Flowering Ivy

Pentax MX – Pentax 50mm f1.7 – +2 Dioptre Filter – Fomapan 100

With all the rain we have had in my part of the UK the Ivy has gone into overdrive, this is the first time I’ve seen it flower.

Monochrome Wednesday

30-10-19

Big Leaves

Rolleiflex 3.5 E3 – Ilford HP5+ – Kodak D76

Scanning 35mm Black & White Negs And A Sunbeam

“Warning” this post contains some technical stuff, if this causes you to experience yawning or a mild case of narcolepsy just skip to the last image.

The screenshot below shows the interface for the Nikon Scan software that I use for scanning in 35mm film, Pentax MX and Fomapan 100 in this case.

It looks a bit daunting at first but I find it quite intuitive, and it’s easy to turn all the enhancements on or off.

a) Histogram Black & White Points Unadjusted

This is the histogram display with a straight scan from the negative. I scan my Black and White negatives as a positive and invert the image in post processing. It seems to capture all the tones a bit better doing it this way. The small spike on the left is before adjusting the image size where it has picked up a bit of the area outside the negative frame.

This is the cropped and inverted straight scan of the image. I’ve noticed on various social media sites some people make a thing about the fact it’s a straight scan, but to my eyes at least, it looks too flat.

b)Histogram Adjusted to Black & White Points

I’ve adjusted the Black & White points (circled in Red) to just touch the histogram, this is the useful information captured by the film and scanner..

To me it’s starting to look more like the scene I saw when I took the shot.

c) Nikon Scan Image Enhancer

By selecting Nikon Scan Image Enhancer (SIE) from the scan menu it cuts into the histogram a little and gives a bit more contrast to the image.

It does a really good job on some images, but a touch too contrasty for me.

1930’s Sunbeam – The Final Image

Using scan b), Cropped in a bit tighter, some sharpening added, a small amount of clarity and a touch of vignette.