Over the last few years we have been slowly visiting each of the main habitable islands that make up the British Isle’s and photographing them.
Last year we visited the Isle of Skye again (one of our favourite Islands) but also spent a week exploring the Isle of Lewis and Harris.
When shooting film, sometimes you are very pleased with the results, other times less so. I find whether shooting digital or film, its often worth revisiting a photograph months later, when the emotional side of taking the photograph can no longer influence you.
Sometimes you want to like a photograph because of the effort it took to take it. The above shots are a little like this.
There was quite an effort to get down to the coast and setup for 4:30 in the morning to be ready for the dawn. When the results came back I was a little disappointed, all that effort for not a very good result.
I reviewed these shots again, and this time I liked them.
Its interesting what time can do to your opinions on photography and on life.
Generally I shoot colour for clients, with a little Black & White. For myself its a mix, sometimes mainly colour, other times its all Black & White.
Often Black & White images for clients are now more of what I call, selective colour. Its a Black & White Image but some colour has been left in.
Its proving very popular exspecially for Weddings and if it sells then you do it.
I am in a very mixed mind set; not sure if I like it or not
If you click on the above two images you will be able to judge for yourself.
I shot these with my Leica M4 film camera with a Leica Summicron 35mm f/2. I used a colour film, and scanned the results. I suspected at the time that the image might look good in Black & White with a slight sepia tint, but the green bottles would also look good in colour.
Once I had the scans in Adobe Lightroom I produced a Black & White version and then decided to go the desaturated route, while taking out most of the colour, the green stayed fairly strong in the bottles, so I decided to make a feature of it.
Now I cannot decide what I like most. What do you think?
Now that I finally have a Leica M camera, it was time to see what the lens could do. They say that Leica M lens control the light well, even shooting into direct sunlight they handle the contrast and flare extremely well.
I currently own two Leica Lens, Leica 35mm Summicron f/2 and a Leica 24mm Elmar f/3.8.
This set was shot with the 35mm Summicron. Shots into the light work very well, and while it does desaturate the image, flare and contrast is controlled exceptionally well.
While the lens is a good performer stopped down, with the right subject, shooting wide open at f/2 is where you get that lovely dreamy Leica look that everyone wants.
I also took a few sports shots. The other weekend was the Saxilby 5k, and while most people were photographing the event with either Camera Phones, Compacts or SLR’s; I tried the unthinkable, the Leica M4 and a wide Angle lens. Not only that, I picked a shutter speed what would not freeze the movement, but would leave some image blur to the image.
I think they work extremely well. Using a camera that many consider much more restrictive then the 35mm DSLR certainly makes you think more about the photograph, and any mistakes or successes are certainly my own and not due to the electronics in the camera.
After purchasing my Leica M4, I wanted a quality camera strap to go with it. I was torn between a wrist strap and a neck strap. Finally I went for a neck strap, but I may get a wrist strap later.
Looking around on the internet, the prices ranged from expensive to ridiculous. Did you know you can pay over £250 for a camera strap that has the Leica name on it!
I went for one of the cheaper straps I could find, still expensive but of very high quality. Its mentioned on a number of review sites and seemed well liked.
It arrived and was quickly fitted to my Leica M4. Its a quirky looking strap but very nice, and I think it looks great. I’ll be giving it a good test of the next few weeks as I intend to put through a number of rolls of film through my new Leica learning its quirks and follies. Its going to be fun.
I recently tried Street Photography with a Medium Format Camera, now it was time to have a go with a Leica, yep I finally have a Leica!
Leica M4, Leica 35mm Summicron, taken with an iPhone 5
More years ago then I care to remember, I fell in love with a lovely little range finder in a shop window. I saved and saved and finally managed to buy it. It was not a Leica but it was a very nice looking camera with good optics. Unfortunately it had not been looked after and it just would not work properly, the film advance kept jamming. The shop took it back, but I did buy a rather nice looking Zeiss Ikon Ikophot Light Meter which I still have to this day.
Since then I have been on the lookout for a Range Finder.
There were two makes I would like to own, either a Nikon SP or a Leica M. Nikon SP’s are very hard to get hold off, and while I am a Nikon man, with Nikon SLR’s and 35mm lens to match and Nikkor Large Format Lens to go with my Large Format Ebony 45s; the Leica with its fantastic glass was the one I wanted.
With digital getting more and more popular; the Leica M became a bit of a niche product, and their lens, while new very expensive, second hand were more affordable.
With the release of the Leica M8 I started to think more and more about a digital Leica, and while it had its issues, the M8.2 was a great camera for Black & White with its extended infra-red sensitivity.
So a digital M was on my list, but cost was going to be an issue, and would I get on with a Range Finder. The best thing would be to get an old cheap film M and learn with that.
So to that end, over the last few years I have started to buy Leica M lens. So far I have only managed to get two at a good price, but with the release of the M9 and the increasing interest in the brand, its turned out to be a good investment, so if a Range Finder is not my cup of tea, I can sell the lens at a rather nice profit.
So the choice was a film Leica, but which one. Well it would either have to be the ultimate film M, the Leica M-P, or a classic. Well an M-P retails at the sort of cost I could buy a Digital M8.2 for, so a classic would be the cheaper option, but which one?
To be honest there was only two choices, the original M, the Leica M3 or to get the model that was available the year I was born. The original M3’s are either very much collectors items and have a corresponding cost, or of very poor quality.
The Leica that was manufactured the year I was born was the Leica M4, while not as many M4’s were made as M3’s and the later models still fetch a very high price, the ones from the year I was born are very affordable.
So for the last two years I have been searching the internet for a good copy of a M4, made in the year I was born.
When it arrived I was very surprised at the condition, its very nearly mint, and looks like its been really well looked after.
I popped in an old out of date cheap roll of Fujicolor Superia (I wish people would spell colour correctly), and went out to give it a try. The M4 like the Leica M3 has no meter, thats becoming a bit of a theme with me. Of all my film cameras, only my Nikon FM2n has a meter, my Leica, my Hasselblad and my Ebony all lack meters. So I also took with me my spare studio meter, and my classic Zeiss Ikon Ikophot, I would use my modern meter but compare the readings with my classic to see if it was consistent.
We went for a walk into Lincoln and I shot a few few frames of what every took my fancy.
With the low sun, depending on what direction I was shooting I was getting a stop difference in the light, so I had to keep remembering to change the shutter speed or aperture depending on what direction I was shooting, focusing was another challenge. The technique I used was to make a guess at the distance, and set that on the lens, then I would bring the camera to my eye and make a final adjustment.
Most people have seen the photographs that Leica’s are famous for, a sharp focus and lovely out of focus background. Well possibly not the best subject but when I spotted the ribbon tied to the gate I thought I would give it ago and try a wide open shot.
At lunch time we had a walk to one of our favourite coffee shops. They say Leica M’s are very good in low light, this was a chance to try it out.
Leica M4 35mm Summicron
In all, I shot eight frames that first day, and fully enjoyed my time. Like my Medium Format Hasselblad and Large Format Ebony, its a very involving experience and there is a lot to think about. Its a lot faster and easier to shoot with then the latter two cameras and a different experience but very full filling.
One has to keep ones wits about you, with it being 100% manual and no meter, catching moments like this can be tricky, but while underexposed its still a pleasing image.
If I carry on enjoying the experience, then i’ll be on the lookout for a Leica 90mm M lens and a 50mm standard to tryout in the studio. I’ll also be looking out for a second hand M9. With the release of the M-E the old M9’s have dropped considerably in price, and I hope this drop will continue when the new Leica M (240 model) is released.
Overall I am very impressed with the results; for an out of date roll of old film, and a basic scan, the results are very pleasing.
Next i’ll try a little landscape and also some sport. They said you could not use medium format for street photography; and they say a Leica M is useless for sports and wildlife, might try and disprove that.
Last Saturday I had reason to pop into Lincoln, while there I did the tourist bit and walked up to the Castle Square.
Up hill Lincoln is great, and Castle Square as you might guess has the Castle on one side and the Lincoln Cathedral on the other.
The farmers market was on and I though it would be a great day to shoot some street photography, shots of people browsing the market stalls etc.
Now for years the traditional camera for this has been the trusty 35mm Leica Range Finder. With its bright viewfinder showing more then 100% of the field of view, zone focusing with the fantastic fast glass which even now has depth of field markings on, and the silent shutter, its a hard tool to better for this type of photography.
Of course most of us nowadays would reach for an digital SLR or one of the new modern Compact System Camera’s such as the Olympus Pen, Panasonic GF-1 or GF X, better yet maybe a Sony NEX-7 or Fuji’s X range.
But no I decided to be a bit different, well to be truthful very different!
I had read an article recently about a photographer shooting street photography with Medium Format, so I thought I would give it ago.
My Medium Format camera is a Hasselblad V System Camera, it has a waist level finder, manual focus, no light meter, oh and shoots film.
So what did I do, well I loaded it up with some Ilford HP5Plus Back & White film, left the tripod at home and fitted the leather neck strap.
In the article I read, the guy braced the camera via the strap and into his belly, so I thought I would do the same. First of all wondering around I found my view point; whipped out my handheld light meter and took some incident readings. It was a bright day and EV15 was pretty much the reading all day, so with HP5 rated at ISO400, that gave me f/8 at 1/500 second, the fastest the leaf shutter fitted into the lens will go.
One thing that surprised me, was how little attention I was getting. Usually when shooting medium format or large format, on my big Gitzo Series 5 tripod, I certainly get noticed, and other photographers come over and talk to me, very interested and what I am doing.
With the Hasselblad close to my chest and shooting with the waist level finder, people did not realise I was taking pictures as I did not bring the camera up like one would with a traditional SLR.
So even with such a big slow camera, I was able to get shots without people reacting in the usual way.
As you can see from the above two examples its a technique that works surprisingly well.
Since April I had shot seven shots on the Large Format Ebony a traditional 5 x 4 inch none folding field camera, the first few were quite average, but it was a matter of learning the techniques involved. Just loading and unloading the film into the dark slides is a major process where much could go wrong.
Well I have now had those seven shots developed and scanned. One in particular I was very pleased with and fits in with a long term project I am working on. Unfortunately I took it in July, so it did not qualify under my own rules for picture on the month.
I was determined that this months picture of the month would be one shot on large format, so when an opportunity arose for a possible decent shot I took it. It was one shot and luckily it worked. Over the coming months i’ll be posting my scans, so you can see my results as I develop (pardon the pun) as a Large Format Photographer.
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.
Well all the pieces had finally arrived and I was ready to take my first large format photograph with my very own large format camera. I had done some large format photography before but it was either on a course or hired equipment, this would be my first shot with my own large format camera.
It was never going to be brilliant but the purpose of these first shots was to test my ability to load and unload the dark slides, meter correctly and use the camera correctly. There is a lot to go wrong in large format film photography.
This evening in the late afternoon spring sunshine, the old wooden chair we had made many years ago was looking particularly photogenic.
I have looked at this chair nearly every day for over ten years but today I had the perfect excuse to photograph it, my finished large format Ebony 4 x 5 inch Large Format Camera.
Last year I had managed to pick up a mint Large Format Nikkor 150mm f/5.6 standard lens, and since then I have been added accessaries such as dark slides, a lupe and a dark cloth. The Camera a Ebony 45s, came on the 3rd April, a mint condition secondhand model from Robert White. The reason I have not used it for the last two days was because I had no way to attach it to the tripod. Another order to Robert White and an Arca plate for the camera was quickly dispatched to me.
I was torn between black and white, and colour but in the end, the warmth of the late evening sunlight decided; it would be colour.
So with fresh inspiration flowing through my veins I checked out what film I currently had loaded; as I was wanting to capture a ‘real’ image and only film would do, it was also the perfect excuse to try out the Ebony for Real.
Luckily I had a few sheets of 5 x 4 Fuji Provia RDP100 already loaded, as I had gone out that morning to test the camera out but had not used it (don’t ask: but it involved a trip to a Windmill and a heavy tripod left in the garage at home, thus no film used).
I whipped out the Ebony 5 x 4 and mounted it on my largest heaviest tripod, a Gitzo Series 5. For some reason I had committed a cardinal sin, in that I had not put away the large format camera without first centring all the movements, unfortunately I did not notice while setting up.
With the camera mounted firmly on the tripod, I chose my large format Nikkor 150mm f/5.6; a nice standard lens on 5 x 4 inch format. I opened up the lens aperture to its widest setting, and set the shutter open to enable me to focus.
Focusing a large format camera is a very different experience to that of a modern SLR. The lens has an aperture setting but also has a shutter built into it. The Camera is just a light tight box. The lens clips onto the front of the camera, and to focus you need to lock the shutter open to allow the light through to shine on the glass panel focusing screen attached to the back of the camera. The front of the camera holding the lens and the back of the camera holding the glass focusing screen are linked by a soft leather bellows. To actually focus you move the lens on the front and the back glass screen forwards and backwards until the image projected onto the back glass screen is in focus.
The large format camera like my medium format camera lacks a built in meter, so out came the handheld meter. Metering the scene I selected a 1/2 second exposure at f/34. The Nikkor lens allows apertures to be set in 1/3 stops, which is useful, as the copal shutter in the lens only works in whole stops.
With the meter reading taken I closed the lens ready to take the photograph. Setting the shutter speed and aperture I then cocked the shutter and tripped the shutter. The shutter tripped so I knew the lens and shutter were closed and it was safe to load the film. If I had been unable to trip the shutter then the shutter was still open and it would not have been safe to load the film.
I slid in a fresh dark slide behind the glass focusing screen and removed the dark slide’s cover. To make life easier for myself I have a cable release attached to all my large format lens so thats one last task to have to worry about, I then tripped the shutter. Reversing the dark slide’s cover and sliding it back in, I then removed the dark slide. The covers are colour coded, a white tag means unexposed and a black tag means exposed.
So here it is my first photograph taken with my new Ebony, i’ll admit it it will not win any awards as the contrast was too high for the film, but one that I am pleased with.
My first Large Format Photograph, Ebony 45s, Fuji Provia 100, 1/2 second exposure at f/34
Not a brilliant shot, but it did what was necessary, it tested everything out and it all worked. More importantly my metering was right, always a worry for film cameras with no meters built in.
I’ll be going out again later in the month shooting some more large format film. These shots like the one above will not be artistic master pieces, in fact I expect them to be quite poor, but it will enable me to master my technique, then I can move on to more creative shots.
This week things are back to normal. In fact normal work life hit yesterday when my boss phoned as we had a major issue. So today was busy busy busy.
Last week was fantastic, such a great mix of activities. On the photography front there was Wedding and Landscape Photography, the Landscape Photography was more location scouting, the shot above taken with my Nikon Series 1 V1 and RAW file processed on location on my iPad using SnapSeed, if money was no object I would carry a MacBook Air, but then if money was no object I would be spending just about every free minute of my time doing photography.
As previous mentioned, we also managed some motorcycling in the North Yorkshire Dales, fantastic roads, fantastic scenery and we even got to practice some serious water crossings; on a bike; thats interesting!
A seven mile hike was also fitted in, following the river, from Aysgarth Falls, which is where the photography above was taken from.
We also managed to celebrate our seventh wedding anniversary, champagne was the order of the day. We even went for a 2.7 mile run before lunch in the continued effort to get fit.
I also received back, my first developed shots from my Ebony Large Format Camera. I had sent seven off to be developed and all seven came back spot on. There not photographic master pieces but at least they all came out and were correctly exposed.
I’ll be posting results up in the coming months, in fact one of the last shots I took was last months photography of the month, its not great but being film and an early shot on my long road to learning the ins and outs of Large Format Photography, its one that I am pleased with.
