timdobbsphotography

It goes all the way to 1.1 …..

A twitter friend posted the other week that he was selling a recently purchased lens for a really good price that I could not refuse.

I have the Voigtlander 35mm Ultron f1.7 for my Leica M2 so the chance to add a 50mm to my bag was welcomed.

The 7 Artisans 50mm f1.1 is a pretty impressive piece of kit to be honest, it felt really well built and is pretty heavy to boot.

And when attached to the M2 it felt well balanced but it was noticeably heavy when carrying but was great to shoot.

I loaded a roll of Kodak Ektar and set out to test how well it performed.

The viewfinder on the M2 is lovely and bright normally but maybe it was in my head but it did seem brighter and the focusing patch was very easy to get focus quickly.

The lens barrel did creep into the finder but not into the 50mm framelines so it was not a problem.

Anyway here is a selection of images shot at various apertures … only the one of my son at the end was shot wide open at f1.1 as it was too bright when I was out and didn’t have an ND filter with me.

Overall I am extremely pleased with the lens, it is not as sharp as the Ultron wide open or even at f2.8 but how it renders the out of focus areas is lovely so its a keeper for me for sure.

Anyway thanks for looking ….

Click on an image to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek 🙂

#BIFScale18 … my keepers from 2 rolls of 35mm Redscale …

Just like last year over at Believeinfilm.com there is a challenge to shoot and post Redscale images during February with the added bonus of prizes on offer.

Here is the link … believeinfilm.com/BIFscale18

Anyway here are my images that I liked taken with my Nikon F100 and both 50mm f1.4 & Nikkor 24-85mm VR.

I made some of my own Redscale using a roll of Agfa Vista 200 & Kodak Colorplus 200.

You can find my link to a post I did for emulsive.org here … Making-and-experimenting-with-homemade-redscale-film-agfa-vista-plus-200

Nikon F100 - Kodak colorplus Redscale018

Nikon F100 - Kodak colorplus Redscale010

Nikon F100 - Kodak colorplus Redscale008

Nikon F100 - Kodak colorplus Redscale006

Nikon F100 - Kodak colorplus Redscale002

Shooting Redscale film is fun and the resultant images do surprise sometimes but also disappoint too … I was happy with 11 frames from my 2 rolls to be honest.

Anyway thanks for looking ….

Click on an image to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek 🙂

Sunshine & Shade .. Provia 100F and my Yashicamat 124G ….

The weather here in South Wales has been pants over the last few weeks and I have some E6 chemistry sitting in my darkroom quickly going off as I have not had the light I need to shoot my recently acquired Fuji Provia 100F.

But last weekend we had some reasonable sunshine breaks so I loaded up my Yashicamat and went out to chase the sun.

But as it turned out there seemed to be more poor cloud cover than sunshine so as you can see from my 12 frames here how Provia changes its look depending on the conditions.

It goes from a cool, subtle palette to a vibrant glowing look when the sun shines.

I quite like both looks to be honest.

I was happy that my Tetenal E6 chemistry still had some legs on it and I was very happy with how the roll looked …. and managing to get 12 out of 12 keepers was a bonus.

While on my walk I met 3 gents who were quite taken with the Camera requesting a photo be taken which I duly obliged.

Anyway thanks for looking ….

Click on an image to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek 🙂

“There’s mist on them hills” .. testing my New/Old lens …

A few months back I picked up a Nikkormat FTn from an old photographer who was selling a few bits and pieces, I bought it without a lens as I have plenty of Nikon F mount lenses ( or so I thought ).

Once I got it home I mounted my 50mm f1.4 only to find that I couldn’t meter properly as the lenses that I had with an actual aperture ring didn’t have the little aperture lug thingy that is on the older Ai lenses which tells the camera meter what aperture was selected.

I did however find out that there is a way of using the stop down metering method which I tried and it worked fine but I wanted to get one of the older Ai lens just to use it properly.

So 2 weeks ago I was in Cardiff visiting the David Hurn “Swaps” exhibition in the National Museum of Wales and I paid a visit to a few of the little camera shops only to come across this Nikkor 35mm f2.8 Ai which was in excellent condition and just as importantly it was in my price range.

To test the combination I loaded up some ilford XP2 and went out into the wonderful welsh weather and shot away.

The lens was great to use, very smooth and I love the 35mm field of view so all was good.

I developed and scanned the film and here are the results.

I am very happy with how they both performed especially the lens which is sharp and contrasty given the condition that I was shooting in.

The camera shop that I purchased this lens also had 2 Nikon F3’s and a Nikkor 28mm Ai which I played with a bit but held my nerve and left them in the shop … until next time I am in Cardiff (I don’t have an F3 in my collection) 🙂

Anyway thanks for looking ….

Click on an image to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek 🙂

December’s #FP4Party entries all together ….

This month’s entries were taken using my Nikon F100 with the 50mm f1.4 on ilford FP4 rated at 200 iso and developed in ilfotec HC.

I only manage to get through one roll so I was pleased that I had quite a few keepers on the roll to post.

Anyway thanks for looking ….

Click on an image to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek 🙂

I have made my 1st Zine … anyone want a copy? …..

Over the past few weeks I have been buying zines from fellow photographers that I am friends with on twitter and other social media which encouraged me to produce my own.

I have an ongoing personal project that features artists of various differing types in their place of work which is a thoroughly enjoyable thing to do personally but also gives me plenty of material for this type of zine.

Here are a few sample pages ….

It’s been great fun to do and the finished zine was everything I hoped for also artist”Kevin Sinnott” whom this zine features also loves it which is a bonus for me.

This edition is a limited run of 30 copies 28 pages full colour on 150gm silk paper of which I only have a few left thanks to some of my twitter followers and Kevin himself who wanted some for his studio.

If any of you lovely followers of this blog wish to purchase a copy then either contact me through Twitter @timdobbsphoto or via email at timd.photography@gmail.com for details

Anyway thanks for looking ….

Click on an image to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek 🙂

Lomography Color Negative 400 is becoming my most favorite colour film …

I recently did a post about my 1st time shooting Lomography Color Negative 400 film in 35mm and this is a sort of follow up or my 2nd roll if you like.

This time the light was pretty dull unlike the bright sunshine I enjoyed with the 1st roll but I was good as it allowed a comparison with similar subject matter.

It would be fair to say that the film performed just as good in poor light as it did in bright sunshine giving excellent sharpness even shooting at wide apertures using my Olympus OM2s & 50mm f1.4.

The colours are still pretty vibrant just a little more subtle which lends itself to maybe shooting portraits which I think will be my next subject with this film.

This film is excellent value costing around £4 a roll in the UK here is a link direct to the Lomography site but a quick Google search will bring up some even cheaper prices.

lomography-color-negative-400-iso-35mm-3-pack

Anyway thanks for looking ….

Click on an image to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek 🙂

December’s #FP4Party entries all together ….

This month’s entries were taken using my Canon AE1 Program and my YashicaMat 124G … both with ilford FP4 rated at 200 iso and developed in ilfotec HC.

Luckily we had a bit of snow during shoot week so it gave the images a bit of a theme for a change ….

Obviously the square images are with the Yashica …… I think I will probably keep shooting FP4 at 200 are it gives a little bit more versatility without really effecting the images grain/sharpness wise. I don’t have anymore FP4 in 120 format so I need to get some before the next party starts in January.

Anyway thanks for looking ….

Click on an image to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek 🙂

“Kevin Sinnott” .. Reflecting on a life in painting exhibition

On Sunday 3rd December I was invited to the opening of reknown Artist and friend Kevin Sinnott’s 70th birthday exhibition Reflecting on a life in painting.

It was held at his gallery “Studio 18” here in Pontycymer where it featured his most famous painting “Running away with the hairdresser” which was kindly loaned back to him by the National Museum of Wales for the length of this exhibition.

The exhibition runs until January 21st 2018 and is well worth a visit.

Here is a little selection of the afternoon …

Here is a link to my blog post featuring Kevin at work in his studio

London, New York, Pontycymmer … Artist at work .. Kevin Sinnott

Also some other links

Martin Tinney Gallery
http://www.artwales.com/artists-detail-mtg-en.php?artistID=49
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Wales online link
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/kevin-sinnotts-new-paintings-go-4891977
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Studio 18 link
http://studio18.wales/
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Youtube video link

Anyway thanks for looking ….

Click on an image to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Autumn turns to winter on Fuji Reala 500D …

I have had a roll of Fuji Reala 500D sitting in my fridge for ages waiting patiently for me to try and the other week I decided to give it a go just to see how the colours compare with the last few rolls of different films where I have tried shooting the autumn colours here in the South Wales valleys. As usual here in Wales the weather is always a lottery and this roll features lovely autumn sunshine followed by thunderous conditions and heavy rain.

To be fair the light didn’t really make much difference to how this film looked, it had quite a muted palette which really complimented how the images actually were as it was just about winter really.

I was tempted to tweak the colours in Lightroom after my initial scans thinking that they were too bland but after my dust removal and slight exposure tweaks I realised that I really liked the subtle look.

I must admit that I really love this film so much so I bought a load last week and will be shooting it quite regularly in the future as it is a pretty versatile colour stock especially being iso 500 with not a lot of grain either.

Anyway thanks for looking ….

Click on an image to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek 🙂