Family, Photography and other misc news
Its been a while but here is another film image. Taken on a walk down Brayford Wharf in Lincoln one lunch time. This was shot on my old Leica M4 with a 35mm Summicron on HP5 Film. My partner bought a great quality ladies shopper bike from ecosmobike.com, perfect for the film.
Its part of a project I have been working on for a number years now but I thought I would share this one with you.
Recently on Twitter there has been a discussion running about which camera, more particularly if you were limited to just one camera for the next ten years. No changing and no upgrading, what camera would you pick.
Because a lot of photographers in the discussion were Landscape Photographers there was a lot of bias towards the Larger formats and using film, but I though it an interesting question.
Because my Photography a mixture of genrers it’s difficult to pick a single camera. I would either have to pick a compromise or give up some genre of photography.
I found it very interesting that the top choices were for cameras like the old Bronica and Hassleblad and also for the brave the Ebony 10 x 8.
Certainly very good choices for the Landscape Photographers and the Bronica and Hassleblad also make good choices for studio photographers but for most of us not every day cameras.
While travelling back to Lincolnshire from London, I had a while to wait in Kings Cross Railway Station. Its a very curious mix of old and Architecture and has a number of photographic opportunities. Since I took this photo I have seen a few by another Leica Shooter on the DPReviews called Michael Toye. You can see more on his flicker Gallery here: www.flickr.com/photos/michael_toye. Much better then mine I think you would agree.
My shot here was shot on my Leica M4, with a Leica 35mm Summicron, on Ilford HP5 Plus developed in Kodak X-Tol developer.
Do motorcyclists see it as a life style choice, a cheap method of transport or a thrill for Sunny Sundays.
OK so the photo above is a pair of bicycles, but I could not resist this rather nice image taken with my Leica M4 and a Summicron 35mm lens.
To be honest if you have a small sub 250cc bike then it is a cheap method of transport. But for those of us with larger bikes it can be an issue. For a while my little Honda 650 V twin was considered a commuter under the tax rules and had cheap tax. Then the government decided that all bikes over 600cc where sports bikes used on Sunny Sundays. So the tax rate greatly increased.
Come on; lets be sensible about this, there is quite a difference between a commuter on a little 50cc or 250cc or even a long distance commuter such as a BMW RT which is 1200cc.
Some of us have 600cc sports bikes which we only uses for sunny Sundays, but some of us have 1200cc or even 1600cc bikes which are highly fuel efficient and effective commuters that have far less environmental impact on the Earth then a car.
Lets tax transport sensibly, encourage public transport, bicycles and scooters. But don’t forget those of use who use motor vehicles that are essential due to our location or the nature of our jobs. For some of us, using a car or large bike is the only option. Either put an option in place for us or tax us suitably.
15th April 2012 – Post dated blog entry
This is going to one of many post dated blog entries generally about film photography. One of the delights and difficulties about shooting film is the time between taking the image to actually viewing the image. This can be a benefit and also a negative.
Today I set out to visit Hartsholme Park in Lincoln. It is a location I visit often in the spring, as it is a great location to get some really good bird shots.
Today though, it was not wildlife I was after but two landscape shots.
When I arrived the sky was a little too blue and lacking in some cloud but I had hopes that at least one of my two ideas would work.
I parked up and as I walked over to the lake I was surprised to lots of old Austin 7 cars arriving. I would definitely have to check them out later but for now I needed to get setup to make the most of the low sun.
Today I was shooting film on large format and small format, with digital being handled by my trusty Nikon V1.
I arrived by the lake and started to search out the position I had spotted on a previous visit. I soon found the spot I wanted but was disappointed to find that there was someone in the water marking out a model motorboat course. With the foreground I wanted those nice bright yellow markers floating in the lake would be right in the middle of my picture. Time for a re-think. A slight move to the right would mean I would lose the foreground I wanted but would give a clear view of the main focal point.
Well it would still be a nice shot so I decided to go for it. I setup the tripod and got out my meter and started to measure the scene.
The shadow on the far bank looked to be about the darkest part of the scene so I took a spot meter reading. It measured at 9.6EV which I loaded into the meters memory, I then measured the highlight on the water which was 13.8EV, and the sky was 15.6, that was a six stop range, bit much for film, but I thought I could afford to let the shadows block up a little so I would risk a shot using the Large Format Ebony 5×4.
Setting up I shifted the camera back to move the focal point lower in the frame, as there was no foreground interest in this new position. I some close trees framing the shot on the bank but being so close there were out of focus. Time for the scheimpflug effect. The great thing about large format is the camera movements, its like having photoshop built into your camera.
Not thinking I used some front tilt to drop the lens board forward to allow me to shift the focal plane and give me more depth of field. I rechecked the focus and something was not quite right. I used a little more front tilt and checked again. Things seemed worse, thats weird I thought. I stopped and thought for a moment, what was going on. Then it hit me. Dropping the front with front tilt is used to bring the foreground into focus, but this shot was unusual, my foreground was the tree cover; I was tilting the wrong way!
I soon reset and started again, tilting the ‘wrong’ way this time to bring the overhead branches into more focus, time to grab the film.
I took a dark slide loaded with Fuji Provia 100 and put it in the back of the camera. Time to re-meter.
That gave me an average 13.2EV, a bit more manageable. I closed the lens and set a aperture of f/36 (thats f32 and a third) and a shutter speed of 1/8 second and took a shot.
Time to pack up and move to the next location. This was a scenic view of the lake, I walked over but the light was not right and there was no cloud interest, it would have been a pretty shot but nothing spectacular.
Time for a walk.
I had a bit of an explore and found a number of areas that could produce promising pictures. The shot above was a quick snapshot with the Nikon V1, certainly an area that needs more investigation.
I then headed back to the cars, and took a quick snapshot of the cars.
A good days photography, I did not get the shots I wanted but I certainly got some new ideas for more shots in the future.
I also tried a snap shot of the cars using the Ebony, a shot bound to end if failure you would think, well I like it even with the blur of the people.
There seems to be a growing interest in Black & White recently, and as part of this tread Ilford have now released some Black & White Disposal Cameras, so if you want to give Black & White a try you can, even if you do not have a film camera.
You have the choice of sending the camera to Ilford or getting it processed yourself or even have a go at processing the Black & White yourself.
Post date Blog Post Day 2 Sunday 2nd December.
The plan for today was a trip to the harbour and the Abbey, I had three shots in my head for the Harbour, but knew that I would likely be only able to get the one. After that we would be heading up to the Abbey, I had three shots in mind here but it was likely I would only be able to get two of the shots.
We were stopping at Hillcrest Bed & Breakfast, and over a breakfast of Whitby Smoked Kippers I checked the iPad to confirm the tide times and also using ‘The Photographer’s Ephemeris’, checked the sun position. Unfortunately it looked like unless i could be in two places at once I would have to give up on one of the shots. To get the Sun and tide in the right spot for one of the harbour shots I would not be able to get across the harbour and up to the Abbey to get another shot I wanted.
Still we would try and get at least a couple of shots.
As a bit of an experiment I had borrowed Caroline’s Crumpler Bag and packed the Ebony Camera, two lens and some dark slides. It’s a lot smaller bag then the ruck sack i usually keep it in. I also had the Nikon V1 with me. While the kit all fitted in the bag, the weight could be telling.
First off we walked into town and across to the other side of the harbour using the swing bridge. Once down onto the beach to the area where I thought the first shot was, I was unsupprised to see that the sun was unable at this time of year to rise to the point where it would illumiate the main focus of my photograph. So it was 0/1 for the first attempts.
In fact it you could say it was 0 for 2 as there was another shot I wanted but it meant being on the other side of the harbour and it just would not have been possible to get across and capture both shots before the sun had moved.
Next I climbed onto the Harbour wall to shoot the stone seabed. There are some interesting features visible at low tide that I wanted to capture.
As you can see in the quick snap I took with the Nikon V1, the sun was not high enough to illuminate what I wanted to photograph. I will just have to go back in the Spring.
It was now time to head up and take a shot of the harbour from part way up the cliff face. The ramp up was somewhat icy and it made the climb up a little tricky, but we managed.
I’ll blog about the next shot which I took with the Ebony 45S later once I have the film developed in Day 2 part B.
Finally it was time to shoot the Abbey. There was two shots I had in mind, but it was unlikely I would get the first one as by the time we got up there the sun would have moved round too far, but we should get the second, which I did. Again I’ll blog about that shot later.
Once the Abbey shot was in the can, we headed back down for a Spicy Mocha Latte and a toasted chibatta.
Then a last walk round the shops and back to the Bed & Breakfast for a rest. My back was by this time killing me. The Crumpler bag while fine for a short while was not good for a full day of carrying the large format kit. Still now I know.
Overall a pleasing day.
Leica M4
Leica 35mm f/2 Summicron
35mm, 1/60 Sec at f/8, ISO400
Ilford HP5 Plus Processed in Kodak X-Tol developer
Scanned and Post Processed in Adobe Lightroom V4.2
On a Mac MacBook Pro, OS-X 10.8.2
Medium Format 120 Ilford HP5 Plus.
Its been a few years since I shot much Black & White film. About twenty years I had a two year period where I shot nothing but Black & White, developing and printing it myself, but apart from a few rolls of medium format film in the last couple of years shot on my Hasselblad, I have not shot any. Most of my Black & White has been either digital or Colour film converted to Black & White.
During the summer I tested some Ilford HP5 Plus on the Hasselblad in quite bright and contrasty conditions, I was very impressed with how it handled the dynamic range.
The last couple of weeks I have been trying out some Ilford HP5 in my Leica M4.
Its generally rated at 100ISO but you can go much higher, its a bit grainer then some people would like but even in these duller shots its handled itself quite well. When the sun came out and the contrast increased it certainly looked better. A Black & White film for those high contrast days I suspect.
When shooting people with the Leica, I used zone focusing in the shots above, which meant setting the aperture to f/8 to give me enough depth of field, this meant on occasion the shutter speed was a little low resulting in blurred movement, in this shots they still work but it is something I need to be more aware of. If I was shooting with my DSLR’s (Nikon D200) or my CSC (Nikon System One V1), I would just ramp up the ISO to give me a faster shutter speed, but with film or a camera with poor high ISO capability, that is something you cannot do.
Post dated post – 21st July 2012
Last July I spent some time at Lincoln Cathedral, doing some large format testing. I still have some difficulty visualising the field of view from my 5 x 4 camera. Practice is what I need so I went out to capture a few shots.
My first shot was of a door, I have a long term project shooting doors and windows, and this will join this. The high-lights were metered at EVA 12.4, the darkest shadows at 10.5, this gave me an average of 11.6EV. So I set the lens to f/22 with a shutter speed of 1/4 second.
Inspecting the film with a lupe, the level of detail is simply amazing, yes medium format digital or a 35mm digital stitch on say a Nikon D800 could also produce this level for detail, but there is a simple joy in using the Large Format Ebony that makes the whole shoot an event to enjoy.
There are some wonderful features and details to Lincoln Cathedral and i’ll certainly be going back again to shoot large format again there.