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.

Infinity, Zits, and Purring #2

09-12-18

Zits, hickey’s (UK English definition !) spots, my negatives had lots of them even though I used demineralised water for mixing the stock developer solution. I think I now know what’s giving my negatives a bad case of acne. Kodak D76 developer is a sachet of powder that needs mixing with water at 50 – 55 deg C, simply the developer isn’t fully dissolving, so I will be using Ilford ID11 from now on, this is virtually the same as D76 but the developer powder comes in two separate sachets (mixed separately) and from a dim and distant memory is easier to mix, and why I used to use it.                                                                                           
The  only upside to all these Zits and spots is that I need to spend a long long time in Lightroom cloning them out, this becomes an invitation for my cats to take it in turns sitting on my lap and Purring.

In The Queue 

Helios Swirls

Limb

Textures

Symbiotic

Dangling

Hanging On

St Denys

Infinity, Zits, and Purring #1

06-12-18

After attaching my new (£15.00) 37mm Mir lens to the Canon 500n/Rebel G and half  pressing the shutter button the batteries immediately expired, and I didn’t have any spares. So I dug out my M42 to PK adaptor and decided to give the Pentax Super A an outing. The Pentax is in really good condition apart from the viewfinder which at some time in its life has had water ingress which has left staining on the focusing screen. Loaded it up with Kodak TriX and set off reasonably early to the Arboretum, the Sun was out and coming in at a low winter angle. After a couple of shots I realised the back of the lens caught the mirror if it was focused at anything approaching Infinity, fortunately I had packed an Helios 44-M – 58mm lens, which I used for the rest of the frames.

Low Light 
 
Tangles

After the above 2 shots I switched to the Helios lens.

Spider Webs

Straight

Felled

Swirly

Tilted

Part 2 to follow.

 

Silver On Blue

29-11-18

The weather has not been very good over the last few days in my part of the UK, the barometer was well into stormy when I looked this morning. The forecast for tomorrow though looks more promising. So I will set the alarm for early and go out for a walk with a film camera, probably to the local Arboretum where I took the following shots on a lovely sunny October day.

Silver On Blue

These were taken on my old Olympus E620 Digital with a polarising filter.

Autumn Arboretum #2

22-10-18

I was hoping to have posted these images at the end of last week but seem to have been busy doing nothing, to be fair to myself I had a birthday along with one of my photobuddies, a few visits from friends and relatives, and of course looking after the lovely cats.

Yellow Glow

Russet

Late Bloomer

One For The Birds

Contrast

Colour Palette 

Catching The Rays

On The Brink

Autumn Arboretum #1

14-10-18

After the walk to the Botanic Gardens last Monday, Tuesday I took myself off to the local Arboretum, it was a really sunny bright day. Took my old Olympus E620 with the standard 14 – 42mm and 40 – 150mm zoom lenses, because it was so bright I used a polarising filter for all the shots to cut down the reflections from the leaves and bring out the colours. I opened the images in Lightroom  and then edited them in On1 Perfect Effects, really like that program, it’s quick and easy. Glad I went early in the week as the weather has taken a turn for the worse. Took far more photo’s than I normally would so will divide the images into two or maybe three postings.

Through The Trees

Still a lot of Green

Ready To Fly

Pine Tops

Show Your Colours

Old Wounds

Veil Of Leaves

Bend With The Breeze

Botanics #2

10-10-18

It was a unusually warm day today, 71 deg F. / 22 deg C. Spent the day in the garden catching up on the chores I’d put off, pruning and tidying up, could do with another week at least. The best part was having my cats with me, both of them laying on the lawn enjoying the sunshine, interspersed with dashing around and investigating/supervising what I was up to.

Here are the last few images from my walk to the Botanic Gardens on Monday.

Cheerful 

Fuzzy

Maples x4

Fall Fallen

Seed Pods

Botanics #1

08-10-18

Wasn’t sure if autumn had shown up owing to the hot weather we had recently. But to prevent seizing up I needed a walk, the Botanic Gardens seemed a good idea, an easy 3 mile round trip. So off I went this morning with my old Olympus E620 digital camera and Minolta HiMatic of 1962 vintage. The weather was changeable so I set the Olympus to 400asa to get reasonable shutter speeds with the penalty of a bit of noise in the images.

Lemon & Lime

Autumn Grasses

Contrast

Still Blooming

Hostas On The Turn

Good For The Eye

Soft 1&2

The Arboretum tomorrow I think, it’s supposed to be a sunny day, better for film images.

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.