Tag: arts

Bargain compact point & shoot of the year … Pentax Espio 140M & ilford XP2

 

A year or so ago I took part in a Camera challenge on twitter where you had to buy a cheap camera and shoot a roll of film and post the results.

I blogged the post here

Camera-challenge blog

That was the 1st and last time that I shot the camera but I was looking for a small compact camera to keep in my bag just to shoot as and when I came across anything vaguely of interest so I went through my collection and decided to revisit this little camera but this time load it with a decent roll of film.

So I loaded it with some ilford XP2 and used it over the last two and a half months, finishing it off on christmas day.

Obviously this roll has quite a varied subject matter that tested this camera … Landscape, Street, Macro and flash and once I developed the roll and saw the scans I was so impressed with how the camera performed … the exposures was spot on and the sharpness of the lens was superb, the only downside was the fairly slow aperture especially if you use the zoom but to be fair it didn’t hinder me at all.

The most useful feature for me is a spot focus mode and a Landscape mode which lets you focus at infinity both modes worked like a dream.

There are a few different flash modes, a Panorama mode which just crops the frame I think (not tried that yet) and a remote control to fire the camera.

All in all this is a right little powerhouse of a compact camera that works well in every situation I threw at it and also handles an looks good too.

I picked this up for less than a fiver and if you look on eBay you can still get it at a bargain price.

Anyway here are the images …. comments most welcome

Please click a photo 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 🙂

 

My Crappy Holga re-visited with some Foam/Card and Tape on ilford HP5 …..

Since my lovely experience shooting the Littlest Holga for over a month a while back and producing a zine which was well received by my film photography peers I wanted to start shooting more Lomo style images alongside my other photography.

I already have a Diana F+ (which may feature in my 1st blog of 2019) … a Lomo Actionsampler and a Holga 120GN.

Since owning my Holga I have shot numerous rolls of B&W/C41 and Slide with very little to show in the way of usable images.

I always thought it was possibly my incompetence with the camera but after using another holga and getting loads of images that I was extremely pleased with I came to the conclusion that it was something not right with my copy.

The main problems were horizontal film scratches, huge light leaks that obliterated large areas of the image and ultra soft focus or even totally blurry images.

I realised that my Holga didn’t come with any film masks as I bought it 2nd hand from eBay so my 1st mod was to make my own mask which I guessed the size of by measuring the mask in my Diana  and attached it to the inside using black tape.

I then replaced the foam on the take up side as it was perished and I did notice that I was previously getting fat rolls.

And lastly I attached similar foam pieces on the back door in the hope of keeping the film flatter and hopefully getting a bit better focus on the frames.

I loaded up a roll of my Favourite film ilford HP5+ which as the weather was really dull, overcast and drizzle I took a meter reading with my Sekonic meter and decided to rated the film at 800 iso and developed it in Rodinal at 1+25 dilution for 8 minutes with the intention of getting the best sharpness from the film.

Once scanning the film I was so pleased to find the images were such a vast improvement over any previous images that I have ever got from this camera and I was justified for playing around with the insides.

Ok … these are not a patch on what I get with a camera like my Fuji GW690iii but that is not what it is all about … these images are exactly what I want from my Holga and I am looking forward to shooting it on a more regular basis in the new year along with my other Lomo style cameras (I have already purchased a Lomo Fisheye).

Anyway here are some of the images ….

Please click a photo 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 🙂

Posted 

Christmas Eve Walk with the Bronica SQ-ai and some ilford HP5+ ….

I don’t seem to have shot much recently which is not like me … I blame the early dark nights and rubbish weather.

Anyway I was moving a few of my camera bags around and came across a camera that I have not shot at all this year … my Bronica SQ-ai.

I have 2 lenses for it, the PS40mm f4 and PS80mm f2.8 I had the 40mm attached so I loaded it with a roll of ilford HP5+ and as the weather was pretty grim I rated the film at 800 iso to give me  a bit of a chance hand holding the beast with a reasonable aperture/shutter setting.

I quickly burned through the roll and really enjoyed shooting with it, I don’t know why I don’t use it more as it felt great.

I have the metered prism finder also but I didn’t use it on this occasion and stuck with the waist level finder which didn’t slow me down at all.

As per usual HP5 looks lovely when pushed, plenty of detail and the shadow/highlight areas looked just fine.

I processed the roll using ilfotecHC 1+15 dilution for 6 minutes.

Anyway here are 11 images as I managed to lose the 1st frame while getting it out of my bag …. “I MUST PUT ON THE SHUTTER LOCK”

Please click a photo 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 🙂

Last remains of Autumn on Kodak Elitechrome 100…..

I was lucky enough to be given a batch of expired slide film from a friend and fellow photographer a few weeks ago.

I have already tried some without any problems even though there was no guarantee on how the rolls had been previously stored.

Just as a precaution I bracketed this roll due to the overly bright sunshine that we managed in November.

I shot the roll with my Pentax Program A and Tokina SD 28-70 Macro

It was developed the roll in the Tetenal E6 kit and scanned on the Epson v500.

I was glad that I did bracket as the dynamic range was very small even by slide standards and the fact that it was expired.

I was happy with the results that were at the optimal exposure 🙂

Please click a photo 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 🙂

1st time shooting the new Kodak TMax P3200 …..

A couple of weeks back I managed to get some of the new Kodak Ektachrome when it arrived here in the UK along with some of the new Kodak TMax P3200.

I have yet to shoot the Ektachrome but did manage to put a roll of the P3200 through my Nikon F100 which I shot at 3200 iso .

I developed it with ilfotecHC 1+31 dilution for 11.30 mins.

I will shoot the next roll at either 800 or 1600 to compare the results.

I have previously shot well expired P3200 and I was looking forward to seeing how the new emulsion compared.

See links for blog posts ….

Post 1

Post 2

Overall I was pretty pleased with the photos which seemed to give pretty sharp images (most shot at f8/11) and the grain didn’t seem to hinder the look unlike when I have shot Delta 3200 where I could never seem to get many shots that I was happy with.

I will have to buy some more Delta 3200 and do some similar tests as maybe I am giving the film a disservice.

Anyway here is a selection of frames which were shot on a very overcast day ….

Please click a photo 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 🙂

Holiday snaps …..

We managed a few days away down West Wales in the cottage  2 weeks ago and as usual I couldn’t make up my mind what camera or film combination to take but as the weather forecast was for lovely bright days albeit pretty chilly I decided on some Fuji Reala in 120 and some Lomo Color Negative 400 in 35mm ….

I would have taken some of the new Kodak Ektachrome but my order didn’t arrive in time for me to take.

Eventually I decided on my Yashicamat 124G and Nikon F100 with both the 50mm f1.4 & 24-85VR and had the processing and scanning done by Filmdev who as usual did a brilliant job.

Anyway here are the images ….  first Lomo Color Negative 400

and now the 120 …. Fuji Reala

Apart from the egg shots & cottage image … the locations were Saundersfoot and Tenby.

Please click a photo 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 🙂

 

First time shooting Silberra Pan 200 ….

I got a few rolls of Silberra film for supporting their Kickstarter  a while back but only now got around to actually giving them a try.

My first roll was the Pan 200 which I shot at 200 iso using my Nikon F100 and developed in Rodinal 1+25 dilution for 8 minutes.

The day was pretty overcast and actually got quite dim on a few occasions so I was a bit worried hand holding at speed as low as 1/30 sec on a few frames but to be fair they didn’t turn out too badly.

The film gave very good tonality and sharpness but with quite a pronounced grain which I didn’t mind in fact it added to the mood of these images.

Anyway here are a selection from the roll …

 

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 🙂

 

 

 

Out in the wind & rain … the Littlest Holga part 3

Following the heatwave that we have been experiencing over the last few weeks the usual summer weather hit last week bringing wind and rain so It was time to get out with the Littlest Holga and some lovely ilford HP5 to shoot the gloom only as a Holga can.

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