MikeHawkey.com

photos and other things…

recent posts

about

  • Ilford Micro -Neg Pan Type B on Tram Day

    Weekend been featured ‘Tram Day’ at our local technology museum Motat. What better a subject to take out a roll of my vintage (60’s) 6ASA Ilford Micro-Neg Pan Type B film. Armed with the Canon EOS 10 (one of the few SLR’s which can shoot sprocket-less) and a nifty fifty set to 1.8 for the vast majority of the shots.

    As with my opening image above, there is something cool about the feel of this combination. Wide open adds a touch of vintage softness in look and feel, the film itself is high contrast and old…add a few trams from a golden age – what a combo.

    It was a pretty challenging day light wise really – bright sun in the most part combined with the naturally high contrast film made a few scenes difficult (like that one of a train in the distance above). Overall I was pretty pleased with the result. As you might recall in another post about this film, I went part’s with a mate in purchasing it. He’s not had much luck With what he shot. Don’t know if its roll of a dice or different developing techniques – Im not getting the same issue with what we think is emulsion lifting. Different part of the roll – I have more film left, so may yet experience it.

    It was great to see all these old trains and trams out in live action. I loved the steam tram – I had not seen that one before. I was also amazed how many working trams they have in action also. A lot of the conductors and drivers (in full uniform) are the engineers who work on restoring them and there is no shortage of volunteers of all ages – great to see younger people (I’ll admit Im not young anymore) getting into historical transport from a age long gone.

    [Digital] Developing wise, I just reversed the negatives and added a boarder. I didn’t apply a full monochrome selector as I love the slightly sepia that came from the film. Again – adding to the age.

    The fourth shot in the above was inside the train. ‘Usually’ on F1.8 and say a 400ASA film you can get away with indoor shots. Not sure where I had a mind blank about being on 6ASA, but it was about a 15 second shot…’this won’t work’ I said – I was right, but Its still an interesting shot (to me).

    Old army trucks – another good theme for this film. But I ran out. I had gone a little bit snappy on the trams and before I knew it the film was out. Not to worry – a fun outing, a successful few images from a film long past its time.

    More of something photo’s next time!

  • Through Someones Vintage Eyes – Farewell Africa.

    This is it for our current journey people and Africa – my last box of slides on this continent I think. It’s a bit of a mixed lot – numbers of the slides overall match, but I think it’s from a selection cobbled together. We start off with the above ‘Lourenço Marques Portuguese East Africa’ – now Maputo the capital city of Mozambique. I chose it as my opening photo as its got a bit of a street photography vibe – Im not so sure our traveller would have appreciated the man walking into frame in all reality!

    Sticking to the city front, roughly moving left to right top to bottom, our traveller explore more of Durban during the day and dusk. The city centre, for its time would have been reasonably high rise – less so by modern standards. With the red motorcycle parked out front, we see the city hall of London (now called a more culturally fitting KuGompo City), before jumping back to arriving at Durban again (yep, mixed slides). Our second to last slide in that set is the Durban city centre… all pretty classical colonial look buildings. The final slide there is the foot of the table mountains Cape Province. OK, lets move onto some ‘wildlife’

    Not all blockbuster animal shots. Tricky lighting, fixed lens (just a nifty 50?). Im including these to not exclude any of the historic records here. We start with two ‘exotic birds’ at the snake pit in Port Elizabeth before moving over to the ‘Game Farm’ in ‘East London’ (KuGompo) where we see the Ostrich, the “Giant Kudu” and the “Wily Fox”. Big Kudu’s approach near 300kg, so they are certainly not a small beast. We then see a purpose at the Oceanarium in Port Elizabeth. Now called BayWorld, they are current closed and deconstructing the oceanarium section of the venue – I only have one very old photo to go by, but if that was part of the current setup being removed, its probably not a bad thing. None of the animals shown here would have had great homes in the 1960’s if ‘most’ zoos of that era are anything to go by! We finish back at Port Elizabeth Snake Pit… with a snake! Look at those gloves!

    Bit of another random mix here above. A few familiar faces from the prior post. Passengers from the Table Mountain boat trip, our traveller himself in slightly blurry dusk at Durban. A view of Cape Province from Rhodes Memorial. Closing with another dusk at Durban and Snake Pit Tree.

    We are getting near the end now. A beautiful image from the slopes of Table Mountain before a short snap back at KuGompo with some sailing boats. Dusk over Maputo and Durban Port. But lets land back in Durban just for a moment to relax on the beach:

    The sunbather probably knows the shooter – but the slide gives no clue. Nice clean sand!

    And that is it, that is our travel back in time with our traveller in Africa. I’ll finish up with another shot I like, the City Square of Durban.

    Next time, somewhere else!

  • Debonair Super-Lens No.809

    The ‘Toy Camera’ is something I seem to drop in and out of over the years. A recent rummage in one of my local quirky second hand stores revealed a vintage Debonair Super-lens No.809. A replica of the original Diana 120 film plastic cameras. the Debonair (depending where you read) is probably the best clone of the bunch.

    Image courtesy of Lensgarden.com

    Dusty, dirty and not entirely 100% it looked more like a vintage display piece than a still working toy camera – but I saw some hope for it. It was complete!

    The shutter was working fine in bulb mode, but sticking a little in normal. I gave the unit a clean over with a damp cloth and buds (dont use chemicals on plastic lenses!) and gave a single drop of machine oil on the shutter – that brought it back to life operating like new! yay!

    Unlike the more modern Holga, the Debonair/Diana has three proper aperture options (depending on your modern Holga, you have 2 or 1 (even if the switch says 2). Handy for a camera with a single shutter speed. Focus was a little harder to make out, so I made a new focus sticker to save me squinting as I twist to zone focus.

    For a first outing I confirmed that the camera all works as it should. Even at roughly 60 years old the camera had no light leaks of note and featured the familiar sharper centre than edge lens. Unlike the Holga, its square format is a little smaller at about 4cm X 4cm (Holga is 5.6 X2). This means smaller negatives, but more shots! – 16 in total.

    I also rigged up a new home made scanning setup for it. Still needs some tweaking, but Im happy with the result. The Debonair has pulled me back to take some more Holga shots now. Im not sure which I like more – the vintage original or the ‘modern’ Holga.

    More next time!

  • Through Someones Vintage Eyes – Canary Islands and East Africa.

    Our journey continues with the adventurers from last ‘Someones Vintage Eyes’ and remains ‘around’ the African continent. I think this post is likely both a prequel and afterward of the last as we bounce between Canary Islands first (going by slide number) and then to East Africa. But I am taking this box by box and not all the slide numbers line up, so lets just stay a little in the dark!

    So here we go ‘Coming into the Harbour of Tenerife, Canary Islands’ The largest of Spains landings in the Islands. Blessed with ‘eternal Spring’, countless beaches and plenty of inland nature to boot. Im sure it looks a bit different now 60 odd years later!

    Our adventurers arrive in the harbour and set foot on land to walk off those weary sea legs. The city of Santa Cruz – Even today it has things like its church from the 1700’s – so some sights might not be so different to our adventurers then as it would be to us now!? We see Candelaria Square and waterfront walkways in their warm glory.

    In arrives the Brasil Star enroute to South America. The Brasil Star was a historic 10,716-ton cargo-passenger liner operated by the Blue Star Line in the mid-20th century. Built in 1947, she and her sister ships (Argentina Star, Uruguay Star, and Paraguay Star) primarily maintained a 1940s-1960s route between Europe and South America. Later in 1973 she was sold to a Japanese company and made her final journey from London to be demolished… Roughly within the decade of the adventurers trip – I wonder if they read about it.

    We then pop up in Lourenço Marques – Portuguese East Africa. Where? – ah yes – now days it is better known as Maputo, the vibrant capital city of Mozambique. Times change and much like the Brasil Star, Mozambique got independence in 1975 and the colonial name was put to rest. Putting aside many many political and ethical things, it must be quite strange growing up with all the colonial cities/countries and later in life seeing them change from/back to other places. To a smaller degree, I can see it with my own country as the indigenous people of the land have gone from a darker period of time and in my life time have seen a regrowth/rebirth of their mana.

    We leave ‘once was’ Portuguese East Africa, regaining our sea legs. I love the image of the Tug. Whilst we leave, our adventurers pass the TS Infante Dom Henrique – Portugal’s largest liner. Built in the 1950’s she was ultra modern with beautiful first class facilities. Unlike other stories above, she lasted a fair deal longer – until 2004, where her last journey took her to India for breaking. There is a decent amount of material about her to read over out there!

    An the last shot above, ties us back into the previous posting of the adventurers – ‘Early Morning View of Sugarloaf Mountain, CapeTown’

    A note on my opening and closing images.

    Opening: ‘City Street Tenerife, Canary Islands’ Those look like narrow streets to navigate by modern day standards!

    Closing (below): ‘Mr Bell (Tasmania), Self [our adventurer!!!], Dr Navotny’ – quite possibly Dr Novotny who’s early trials on diabetic and hypertensive subjects laid the groundwork for how eye specialists treat systemic diseases today!

    More next time!

  • Bits and Bobs

    Sometimes one just ends up with a few shots in an outing. Maybe the others were complete flops, or maybe you just didn’t shoot enough.

    You throw them all into a folder. They don’t really go together. They don’t really have a theme. Perhaps their only common attribute is they are a captured point of time.

    Today’s selection is mostly that. A little juxtaposition between the created (man made) world and nature, some complimentary palettes of colour. No real relationship.

    Both locations signal an outing, an escape, a venture looking for some adventure (or just a cool shot). An opportunity to return again with an idea washed through the mind and pressed into a vision.

    Or maybe they are just pictures.