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. 

Monochrome Wednesday

09-10-19

Fleur With Feather

Olympus E620 Digital Camera – PP in Silver Efex.

Fleur had proudly captured this feather. Image taken earlier this year in my garden.

New Box

15-08-19

New Box

Fleur & Mimi

Painting The Town

28-05-19

Met up with the PhotoBudies last week to have a walk around the cultural quarter of the town, and have a look at the new street art going up. Because of the variable weather we have had recently (I guess) they had only just started their artwork, but it was a lovely sunny warm day and it was great to just walk around. I took along a film camera and my Sigma DP1.

Back Of The Funfair

Waves

They were setting up a funfair on the park that I walk through to get into town.

Town

Sticker

I have no idea what this sticker is about, hopefully it’s not too contentious.

The Look

Keep Clear

Be Warned

Shadow

Magpie

Hopefully the film shots will be ok, if so I will post them when I get the film developed. Anyway we have another excuse to visit the town and see the new street art and drink lots of coffee.

Ilford SFX 200 – And The Spinney

23-04-19

I had the Olympus OM2sp CLA’d a few months back but after using it I noticed the selector lever for the exposure modes was loose and getting looser. So I sent the camera back and they adjusted it foc, and it’s now working as it should. Took it with me to Dams Spinney last week loaded with Ilford SFX 200 (expired 2009) with just one lens a Vivitar 19mm wide angle with a Red 25A filter attached to try and bring out some infrared effects, because the film was so expired I wasn’t sure what I would get. Developed the film in D76 stock solution and was pleasantly surprised by the results, good job as I have another 2 rolls in the egg compartment of the refrigerator. 

New Growth

Fallen

Stand

Atmosphere

Next time I use this film I’ll try an R72 filter to get more of an infrared look. Really enjoyed using the Oly OM2sp, it has a lovely big viewfinder and spot metering, which I used for most of the film to help with the tricky lighting in the spinney. And best of all the negatives were really clean, I filtered all the chemicals before pouring into the developing tank and added a little bit of IPA (not beer) isopropyl alcohol to the final rinse.

Walking To The Dentist

22-01-19

It was lovely and bright this morning as I set out to the dentists surgery, another filling, only two more to go. Arrived in town early so decided to walk the rest of the way along the path by the River Soar and Grand Union Canal, an area I haven’t visited for many years, what a change, new paths, green areas, and apartment blocks of course. I had my Sigma DP1 with me, and for a change could use it at 200 asa because it was so sunny. As I arrived back at home the clouds rolled in and it tried to snow.

The Canal

Old River Soar and Great Central Railway (Remains Of)

You Are Here Map

Apartments, Apartments, Apartments

More Apartments

I quite like these as they have restored an old factory building, so it still has a bit of character. 

Walking In The Rain

18-01-19

Some friends suggested going for a walk last Wednesday, nothing too strenuous as we had all over indulged over the Christmas holidays and the weather hasn’t been the best for getting out and about. I suggested a walk to the Arboretum and a place called Dam’s Spinney which is just a bit further along, until a friend told me about this area a couple of weeks ago I no idea it was there. Of course on the day it was dull and raining but we decided to make the effort. I was going to take a film camera but opted for my little Sigma DP1. I had to set it to 800 asa (maximum it will go to) and convert the images to Black & White, the Sigma looses a lot of colour information at this asa. With the lens set to wide open the shutter speeds were 1/30th or slower at times.

It’s situated at the edge of a medieval pathway, the whole area is adjacent to an old Roman road that eventually runs on into the city.

A Fine Specimen

No Sweat

There’s a lake too.

It Was A Bit Muddy

New Growth On Old

It Feels Quite Wild In Some Parts

Heavy Sky

Dreamy

The lens fogged over at this point.

All Angles

Tyre Graveyard

The site is next to an old farm which is now a pub and small business area.

We walked around 5 miles (8Km) altogether, so not too far, then back to my place for a pot of tea. Can’t wait to visit again in better weather with some film cameras and watch the seasons change the spinney.

De Hickey’d

18-12-18

Well I seem to have cured the hickey (UK definition !) problem by filtering the D76 developer before mixing it 1 to 1 with demineralised water, only a few spots on the negatives.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been using an Olympus 35DC, a fully auto compact rangefinder camera. The weather has been really mixed so I loaded it with Ilford HP5+ and pushed it to 800asa, the maximum the camera will set. It has a nice 40mm f1.7, 6 element lens, and is surprisingly heavy for a small camera.

Headless

Comfy Coffee Shop Corner

Leicester Coffee Co.

PhotoBuddy

Pentacon – Reliving The Past #2

23-09-18

A few more images from my Pentacon lens test, really ought to be called “Helios – Reliving The Past” as I swapped over to the lovely Helios lens half way through the roll.

Leaning To The Light

Pentacon 30mm

Rest Awhile

Pentacon 30mm

Seed Pods

Helios 58mm

Signs Of Autumn

Helios 58mm

Catching The Light

Helios 58mm

Tree Hugging

Really enjoyed the walks through the Arboretum, autumn colours should be showing in a week or so, a roll of colour film for the next visit.

Pentacon- Reliving The Past

14-09-18

After scanning in some old slides from the 1980’s see:- (turning vintage) and being impressed with the quality of the Pentacon, f3.5, 30mm lens I managed to get another copy (gave the last one to a friend when I updated my camera gear to Olympus)

I have an adaptor for M42 to Canon ef, I like the plastic Canon as it has focus confirmation, very good for my ageing eyes. I found that when I focused the lens at infinity the mirror wouldn’t return until I turned the lens to a closer focus distance. Loaded the Canon with a roll of TMax 400 that had expired in June 1994 that I found lurking at the back of the fridge. Developed the film in Adox Adonal at 1-100 dilution, and used semi-stand method for 60 mins. The results were not too bad considering the age of the film, and I know It wasn’t always fridge stored (my fridge isn’t that old !) 

All You Need Is Love

This was taken on a very dark path leading to the arboretum, lens wide open. I have yet to post process the other images, spot removal, a bit of contrast, and sharpening, hopefully should be able to run them through LightRoom over the weekend, although I’m out tonight with my buddies for a Beer & Curry evening.