Bridgend – Page 2 – tim dobbs photography

Bridgend Show with my Fuji X-Pro & 35mm f1.4………

Popped along to the Bridgend Show on Sunday with just the X-Pro 1 and 35mm f1.4 with the intention to shoot as much as I could as near wide open as I could but it was rather bright and sunny so managed f2.0 -f4.0 and the camera and lens performed superbly.

All images shot Raw and processed in Adobe Lightroom 5 using the Adobe Fuji camera profiles, quite pleased with the colours but still not as sharp as with Capture One Pro but getting there.

Click on an image to view larger …….

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/

Pentax Program A & C-41 process B&W film testing………

I picked up a Pentax Program A SLR off ebay last week for less than £10, I couldn’t resist a bargain even though I have an ME Super and MV1 the benefit of the Program A is slightly lost on me as I don’t have any Pentax A lenses but for £10 it was a no brainer.

I also had the opportunity to try out some of West Yorkshire Camera’s C-41 process 400 iso Black & White film which I processed myself at home.

I popped along to a local derelict factory with the hope of capturing some nice contrasty images and I was not disappointed with either camera or film.

All the images were shot using the Pentax 50mm f1.7 lens which gave me lovely detail even shooting at f4.

I don’t normally use C-41 B&W film but I must say this film gave me great results and at the bargain price they charge its definatly worth a try.

Thanks again for looking….

comments most welcome 🙂

also check out my other blog at usingfilm.wordpress.com for more film only stuff

Ilford SFX200 and Black Skies in the Garw Valley………….

I have had a roll of Ilford SFX200 in the fridge for months and decided to give it a try yesterday.

The skies here in the Garw Valley were lovely and blue with large white clouds moving about and a rich green landscape which from most of the infrared shots I have seen was going to be quite dramatic.

Sadly I don’t own a infrared filter as recommended (Hoya R72) so I made up a sort of replacement using my HOYA/COKIN filter kit and a piece of Red Gel filter from my flash filter set.I was not to sure how to go about getting the correct exposure, wether to just let the camera do it as I didn’t know if they would be under-exposed or over-exposed so I took a mixture bracketing as I went.

I also shot some without the filter just to see the difference and boy what a difference 🙂This is without……..and this is with the filter…………

After scanning in the negatives most of the frames were under-exposed but not by much the Canon T90 coped pretty well and nearly all the images came up well using Lightroom 5.The dramatic skies are what really pleased me, I love contrasty images thats why I use Ilford HP5 as my goto film most often but SFX200 really pops its such a pity it’s so damn expensive almost double the price of HP5.I will be buying some more nevertheless and also a Hoya R72 filter too as the results were just my cup of tea.click on an image to view larger……..

Thanks for looking

Testing the Sigma 35mm f1.4 DG…………..

Last week I rented a lens from Lensfettish.com as I had a 30% discount code so I decided on the Sigma 35mm f1.4DG as I had read reviews about it and wanted to see if it was as good as I had heard.

On opening the box I was surprised at the size and weight of the lens compared with my DX Nikon 35mm 1.8 and my Sigma 30mm 1.4, it was a bit of a beast.

The first shot I took in the kitchen (above) was wide open at f1.4 and I was blown away even looking at the camera screen. The lens was razor sharp 🙂

I proceeded to shoot loads of random stuff around the house before popping out for a quick walk.

The sharpness and contrast of this lens was astounding even wide open the point of focus was so sharp and at f8 the detail was stunning.

The following day we popped to Cardiff and I did a little street shooting mainly between f2.8 and f4 and again the lens performed great.

On the Sunday (my last day before returning the lens) we went along to the Bridgend Show where I gave it one last run out and again the resultant images were so pleasing.

I must admit that if I had a spare £699 in my pocket I would buy this lens in a shot, the 35mm focal length was very nice as a walk around lens just a bit more versatile than my Nikon 50mm f1.4 afs which is my usual goto lens.

I also tried it on my Nikon F80 and shot a couple of frames but am yet to finish the roll to see how it performed ( I bet is good 🙂 )

Thanks for looking

Click on an image to view larger……………

Canon 50mm f1.4 and Ilford XP2……..

I had 2 deliveries on Friday.

A Canon 50mm f1.4 FD from West Yorkshire Cameras which was such a bargain compared to the equivalent Nikon offering as I can use it on both my Film Canon SLR’s and also my Olympus EPL-1.

And another package was from Ilford customer services with a load of different Ilford films free of charge as they will be using 2 of my film images on their website in the near future to showcase HP5+.

Firstly I must say how over the moon I am with the lens, its twice the weight and build of my 50mm f1.8 which I was pleased with but the f1.4 is so damn sharp it hurts especially on the Olympus.

The DOF and Bokeh is lovely and on my Canon T90 the viewfinder is extremely bright and easy to focus.

I am so glad I bought this, I wasn’t sure if it would be this much better than the f1.8 version as it actually is.

I have never shot Ilford XP2 before so I wasn’t sure what to expect, sadly my C-41 chemistry is shot so the results were a bit mixed but I managed to get a few shots I was pleased with.

The negatives are very easy to scan and have a very smooth tone that suits the type of images I was shooting with shallow DOF but is also nice and contrasty when stopped down a bit.I also had some SFX200 and PanF 50 which I have not shot before either so I am looking forward to see what comes out.

Thanks for looking

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

Olympus mju-11 & outdated Agfa Film………

Popped into Bridgend last week and noticed some old film cameras in the Heart Foundation Charity Shop most were APS format but there was an Olympus mju11 35mm amongst them, sadly not the one with the fixed prime 2.8 but with the zoom but for £5 I was not going to moan.

Eager to try it out it was loaded with some Agfa Vista 400 that expired in 2009 and out I went for a walk.

It was a very easy camera to use once I figured out how to stop the flash going off every shot and after processing the film, the results were pretty pleasing.

I will be throwing this camera in my bag and trying some street photography with it as it’s very small and compact and the autofocus performed great as long as I use fast film or shoot in the sun its a great addition to my ever growing camera collection.

The Bridgend Show…………

Awful weather for this years Bridgend Show, wellies were the order of the day.

This year I decided to just take my film camera a Nikon FM2n with a Nikkor 35mm and try and capture some reportage style shots using ilford HP5.

We went quite early on the Saturday and there was not a great deal going on but I hope I managed to capture a few nice shots.

Nikon F90x and some cheap Kodak film………

My wife asked me last week what I would like for my up coming birthday and was not impressed when I asked for a Nikon D800…….lol.

Instead a much more realistic possibility was another film camera to add to my growing collection, I had been looking on eBay for a good, high spec Nikon autofocus camera and plumped for the F90x.

When it arrived it was in immaculate condition inside and out so I loaded up a cheapo roll of Kodak Colorplus 200 and popped into Bridgend where there was an Italian Market event to try it out.

The camera felt great in use, the autofocus was quick using both the 85mm and 50mm f1.8 it felt just like using my D300s without the LCD screen on the back.

Eager to see if the photographs matched my joy at using the camera I got home and processed the film.

I was very happy with the results, the focus was spot on and the Kodak film gave the photos a nice slight de-saturated look especially for the portraits.

I managed to pick up a few rolls of Fuji Superia 400 at a bargain price from Sainsbury’s and loaded up a roll just to see how the camera performed with a better film stock (see main photo of my wife at top) and I must admit the photo quality was great, I shot a load of portraits at f2 and loved the results.

I am going to be using this camera a lot in the future I fell in love with the handling and the picture quality all for a bargain price of £38, you have to love eBay 🙂

Tree felling in the Garw Valley and the aftermath…….

Over the last few months the trees in the Garw Valley have been felled due to an outbreak of ‘Phytophthora ramorum’ which is a fungus-like pathogen of plants that causes extensive damage and mortality to trees and other plants.

It is so sad to look out of my windows overlooking the once green hills that are now barren due to this disease but from what I have read this is the only way to stop the spread.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-85TDX6

I decided to take a walk and try to document how this has changed the once beautiful tree covered valley using both Digital and Film.

All these photographs were taken using a Nikon FM2n and 50mm lens on ilford Delta 400 and hopefully shows the decimation this has caused, I think the Black and White gives a more poignant/sad feel to the images.

I am sure mother nature will prevail and cover this once green valley again.

Thanks for looking…… click to view a larger image…..