Street – Page 2 – tim dobbs photography

First time shooting JCH Street Pan …. at the wrong iso!

A new online film store opened up recently at Analogue Wonderland which as a film shooter I was keen to support.

I bought a varied selection of films some of which I have never used before … this roll of JCH Pan Street 400 being one of them.

I have seen loads of images online of how this film looks and I loved them so I was looking forward to seeing what I could capture.

As you know I develop my own film and when using B&W I use the Massive Dev app on my iPad to get the dilutions and developing times.

For the developers that I had to hand that were featured in the app database I used Rodinal at 1+25 dilution for 11.30 minutes which was 1 minute over compared to the app because somehow I managed to shoot most of the roll with my OM2S set to 1000 iso.

I have no idea how and it could not have been accidentally knocked to that setting as you have to lift up the ring quite high to set the iso.

Anyway I was not holding out much hope for the 1st half of the roll that I shot in poor light and rain at a local event in Bridgend where the town centre was sent back to the war years featuring soldiers, vehicles etc.

To my surprise when I got the film out of the tank the images looked ok, maybe a little underexposed but I was confident that once scanned I could get useable photographs which was the case in fact they were really good … the contrast/sharpness and especially the grain were excellent.

So here is a selection of the photos that I liked …. I will be buying more of this film for sure … it’s look is right up my street 🙂

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 🙂

and finally I have a new zine for sale if anyone is interested featuring the incredible “Merlin Maddock” friend and neighbour for over 20 years and inventor extraordinaire.

DM me on twitter or email me for more details ….

My new zine hot off the press featuring "Merlin Maddock" & his final project .. DM for details if interested .. very limited quantity @EMULSIVEfilm @FfotonWales #Wales #zines #printyourstuff pic.twitter.com/kUfQpQPzZV

— Tim ….. (@timdobbsphoto) July 9, 2018

Olympus Pen D ….1st time shooting Half-Frame ………

I have always fancied shooting a half-frame camera after seeing a lot of interesting image compositions on various webpages.

I was looking forward to trying to find subjects that could be paired together to make a different image than just single frames.

It was not really all that easy to do as I found out but I did manage to get a few keepers out of 72 frames, I also found out that hand holding the little Pen D at 1/30th second was not very successful in quite a few of the frames.

That said it was a very enjoyable experience with the camera and the zone focus didn’t prove to be a problem either with all the images being in focus except for the camera shake ones.

There does appear to be a slight light leak which showed up in a few frames so I will have to sort that before shooting more film.

I was really impressed with the sharpness of the images considering the small size of the negative, obviously they will be limited to the enlargement size but for up to 7 x 5 (maybe 10 x 7) they are great.

Once we get a brighter day I hope to shoot a roll of colour film just to experiment with trying to pair up colours as well as subjects.

Thanks for looking.

Click on an image to view larger…..

You can also find my film only stuff over at https://usingfilm.wordpress.com/ if you want to see more film loveliness …..

“From behind”………..

I have been looking at loads of street photography lately and noticed how effective quite a few images were when shot from behind.

I didn’t think that I had taken many images this way as I prefer connecting with the subject in my image in some sort of way by either eye contact or even asking to take the image but after trawling though my catalogues I noticed that I did have quite a few images that worked when shot from behind with no subject interaction with me.Some of these images I have posted before but usually I never seem to use them unless there is something I like maybe the interaction with surrounding people or background/place.

Anyway, a short and sweet post today all these images were taken with a mixture of cameras ….. Film & Digital….. thanks for looking.

Aberystwyth in the August rain with the Nikon L35af……

I had the day off on Friday to take Amy back to Aberystwyth to help her move out from her year 2 accommodation into the new house she is sharing with her friends.

Typical British weather in August it poured with rain for the 2 hour drive but after parking up the rain stopped for a while giving me the opportunity to shoot a roll of ilford HP5 that I rated at 800 iso due to the crappy light.I have shot HP5 at 800 quite a bit and I really like the contrast and grain I get much more than when shooting box speed.

The Nikon L35af is a lovely camera to use and the lens is very sharp the only thing I don’t like is the close focus which seems to be a little hit and miss and a few of the frames were out of focus but as a street camera its great.As the weather was holding off a bit we walked up to the “Philip Jones Griffiths” exhibition at the National Library of Wales which was one of the best photography exhibitions I have visited.

Not only seeing the prints but all of the photographers cameras, paperwork, bookshelves reconstructed with all their contents and the various documentaries running in the booths.

I cannot recommend more highly that this exhibition is really worth the drive and long walk up to the Library it was a privilege to get to view it.If anyone is looking for a small point and shoot film camera that takes well exposed and sharp images then the Nikon L35af is a cracker, I picked mine up for £15 off e-bay which in my eyes was a bargain.

Thanks for looking…

Click on an image to view larger

I also have a film only blog over at https://usingfilm.wordpress.com/ if anyone is interested 🙂

The Streets of London with the Fuji X-Pro1 …………

We have just got back from a few days in London which was a present for my 50th from the better half.

It was a few days of excessive eating and drinking with a little bit of walking and photography, in fact we really blended in with the 1000’s of typical tourists.I shot all the time with my Fuji X-Pro and the XF 18mm f2 except for a few of the night shots where I used the XF 18-55 f2.8 and then processed them with SilverEfex as I felt the B&W contrasty feel gave the look I was after.I shot both day and night and the X-Pro performed great, I really love this camera the quality of the raw files is top notch even at iso 3200.Street photography is so easy in a place like London, nobody seems to mind you shooting not that has ever stopped me but I could spend hours just walking and shooting.

Next time I am going to shoot some film as well…It was an enjoyable few days and even though I shot less than 100 frames nearly all were keepers (I shot quite a few on my iPhone too).

Please Click on an image below to view larger…………………..

Thanks for looking

1st ever roll of Fomapan 100 …….

My favorite film is ilford HP5, I also shoot Delta 400 and T-Max 400 but after reading quite a few posts on the internet and recommendations from some fellow Twitter photographers I bought 5 rolls of 35mm Fomapan 100.

I shot it at box speed and processed it in Ilfotec HC at 1+9 dilution and the results were very pleasing.

The images shot in bright sunshine where lovely and contrasty with plenty of detail in both Shadow and Highlights while the one’s shot in low natural light almost glowed while still holding detail.I am extremely pleased with this film and after reading more on the web I will be getting some Rodinol next as this seems to give even better results.

Please click on an image to view larger …….

Thanks for looking, comment most welcomed 🙂

Fuji X-E1 & 18-55mm on the streets of Aberystwyth ……

Last weekend we went to Aberystwyth to pick up Amy for the summer and in between all the carrying/cleaning and throwing out bin bags I managed a walk along the seafront to see where her next terms accommodation will be and took the X-E1 with the new zoom instead of the primes.

It’s very handy to be able to zoom slightly especially if I see a shot and have to get it quick, its not so good when attempting shooting from the hip as I got far more missed shots than I did when I tried it with the 18mm prime.

Click on an image to view larger ……….

Fuji X-Pro 1 on the street …….

I treated myself to an early 50th birthday present last week …. a Fuji X-Pro 1 along with the xf 18mm f2 and 35mm f1.4.

This post is short and sweet and is just to show my 1st quick attempt at some close street shooting using the 18mm wide open at f2 just as a test.The lens is very sharp even at f2, obviously not the best aperture to be sure of getting the image but as it was an experiment I wasn’t to upset at the missed shots.

I had a few surprised looks as I took the images but I didn’t feel as conspicuous like I do that close with my Dslr.I am shooting Raw and Jpeg at the moment and I must say the Jpegs are really nice, great colour and sharpness and seem to have the added bonus of a little lens correction in camera over the Raw (not drastic but noticeable) which makes a difference with the 18mm.

I will post a lot more in the next blog, I have just tried the 35mm at f1.4 and its gorgeous 🙂

Thanks for looking …….

A bit of Street Shooting for a change ………

A short and sweet blog post today.

Popped into Bridgend on Sunday to get a few things and took the D600 for a change with the idea of shooting some street stuff.There was a few people milling around and I tried some shooting from the hip as well as straight shooting with varying success.

I shot all of these at f8 in Aperture priority with the focus set manually at approx 10-12 ft.I only shot about 30 frames in total and was very pleased that I managed to get this many keepers, not that they are pushing any boundaries in street photography but still they seemed to work, especially when converted to Black & White. Thanks for looking …….

please check out my other blog dedicated to my Film Photography at

http://usingfilm.wordpress.com/

and also my Flickr stream if you are interested 🙂

http://www.flickr.com/photos/timdobbsphotography/

My Fuji x10 and SilverEfex ………

I had a day off today so as the sun was shining briefly this morning I loaded up my Mamiya 645 with some Fuji Pro 400H and my Fuji x10 and popped out while the sun lasted.

While waiting for the film to dry I decided to run through the shots from the X10, some of which I processed using VSCO film 1 presets and the Fuji 400H setting just to see if the actual processed film was similar. (still waiting for it to dry)