Tag: 35mm

The ‘Behind’

When out looking for shots, whether it be in the bush, or more-so in built up areas like town, I am always more interested in finding the less trodden path. Along small alleyways, behind big department stores, up delivery drives and near fire escapes – all are often more interesting than the ‘front door’. I think usually it is because they are run down, dirty and…well, not in need of being presented, because few people intended for inside go there.

Today’s image is one such that I took in town over the weekend with my Ricoh GR1, using ilford PAN 400 film. My film scanner has colour and B&W settings, and I used the colour setting which gave me the more sepia finish. I decided to keep it rather than convert to grey-scale. Other than that, using Gimp I straightened the image a little, applied a sharpening filter and kept the image as is.

Its been a little while since I used my Rollei 35. I have been meaning to measure its light-meter calibration against one of my digital’s. If I have time this weekend (outside running a ‘limited training’ half marathon), I might stick my last Ilford in it and give it a run.

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Fiji Forest

Another 35mm film shot from my Ricoh GR1 in the forest of Fiji I walked through to get to a waterfall. Following the river down, we can see the irritated horse I featured a the day before last (I think its the one anyway), before the river disappears into the forest.

Not a lot more to say about this image as we reach mid-week and I am slowly getting back into the ‘work mode’ – Its funny how just over a week away can both go by so quick, yet seem to last so much longer. I’ve never been to good at getting back into the swing of work after a holiday away!

Photo wise, after scanning the film I used Gimp to play with the levels slightly, apply a sharpen and give the image a very slight sepia like tone.

Whilst I have had a camera on me at all times, I have not really taken many images so far this week. I still have a few more of Fiji I want to share before getting back to my local production, so there is no chance of running out of images anyway!

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A Horse in a Forest

I got the opportunity to develop one of my films from Fiji today. It was by accident that I had loaded a roll of Ilford Pan400 into the camera, planning to shoot colour for the whole holiday, but it made its way into my case somehow, and since Ricoh GR1’s pre-load the film before shooting, it was easier to just go with it than swap it out for colour (my colour films have been sent off for developing).

Anyway, today’s image was shot in a rainforest area several hours south from Nadi in Fiji. We were taking a trip to an inland waterfall after visiting one of the local villages seeking permission to enter. Some tourists ride up rather than walk, and I came across such a group on my return to the village. Unfortunately this horse was not in the best of moods today and had caused some issues on the trip up (I would too if I had to carry people through a muddy forest in the hot midday heat). Using my GR1 I got as close as I felt secure (it looks further away with a 28mm lens) and captured the horse and his guide calming him.

In post production using Gimp, I adjusted the levels a little, but otherwise left it as scanned. Considering the brightness, even undercover of the canopy, I was happy with the result the 400asa film gave me.

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The Street

As discussed yesterday, I managed to finish and develop the film in my Ricoh Singlex TLS last night. I had recently given it a clean up, so was keen to see if all was still functioning well. The slow speeds are still not quite right and will require me to give it a CLA at some stage, but as I cant use them hand-held anyway, its functioning well. A well used and rarer ‘black model’, introduced in 1967, my unit has some well worn paint and brassing. Compared to later model fully manual film SLR’s the TLS is a heavy beast at a bit over 700 grams.

Today’s image ‘The Street’ was taken last weekend when I was testing out the fisheye lens on my mobile phone camera. I got a series of different town shots in my short time there, this one being shot whilst I was quickly walking to my ride home.

Aside from scanning the negative and resizing in Gimp, I made no alterations. Shot on Lucky SHD100asa film, developed with Ilford ID-11 at a 1:3 ratio.

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Into The Air

Taken on my Fed1 35mm rangefinder, I chose todays image because it really felt like it was taken on an old camera. This is the only shot I got when in the plane over the weekend, and with a estimated exposure in harsh lighting (above the white clouds) I do quite like it.

I did a bit of research into my Fed1 when I originally brought it. Its dated ~1951, making it pretty old. I gave it a quick CLA and am impressed how well it functions. Compared to many newer rangefinders and SLR film cameras, they are very compact cameras – especially with the collapsing lens – it literally can fit in a trouser pocket.  A soviet copy of the Leica II, they are in function close to identical. Its often regarded that they are not up to the same manufacturing quality, but to be honest, they are still pretty good if cared for, and dont have any plastic parts, so really are better then a host of later cameras anyway.

All that aside, I find it enjoyable to shoot with such an old piece of machinery that was precision built. In its ~60 years of life one would imagine a camera has seen a lot of sights and has its own story to tell. It also reminds me how easy we have it now – the Fed’s lack of lightmeter, dual composition windows, manual everything…

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Face 2 Face

Meeting up with a friend after work, my main goal was to finish off the film on the Fed1. Strangely with film, I find the 36 exposures too many – yet with digital it would not be enough. However, being I have a number of the 36 exposure sets left I also don’t want to waste film. To cut the story short, I finished the film in the Fed and got around to developing it tonight also. Considering I was guessing the exposure, it looks like I had success. I’ll scan and post something in the next few days hopefully.

As I was walking around in the CBD I came across todays piece of street/wall art. Mostly peeled off the wall, I loved the two faces left looking eye to eye. For some reason they reminded me of the movie Tron (the original) – their masks suggesting some future world (in which we need to wear masks!?!) Armed with my Samsung Galaxy I got up close and snapped the image. At home in post on Gimp, I desaturated, fixed/altered the white balance, added the blotchy boarder and slightly pushed up the contrast.

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Fenced in Forrest

An old 35mm from the archives (cropped and post edited). I remember taking this image and being amused (and worried) about the trespassers warning sign. When you go close up, it looks like the trespasser is being shot… I decided not to venture further into the ‘Fenced in Forrest’.

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UK Countryside

Another one from the 35mm archives today. Im not sure where this was taken and only vaguely remember the outing, but am sure its of the UK countryside. Here in NZ virtually all our country fences are #8 wire. I remember being amazed of the number and lengths of old stone walls out in the country in the UK. The view, whilst not totally dissimilar, is slightly different then the rolling hills down here. After scanning, I cropped this image to square format in Gimp and did a little color balancing. I think the settings on the film scanner have gone a little haywire. As with other overseas 35mm film photos – image taken on the Minolta Dynax 700si.

Im heading down country to New Plymouth this weekend, so should have some time to take fresh images. A lot of this week has been late at work, and then coming home rather then night shooting. I have also been busy working on an old Fed 1 rangefinder camera which I hope to get some shots on soon. I plan to take my Rollei 35T away this weekend with some B&W film loaded, so all going well i’ll have that developed next week also.

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The French Moat

Scanned from film, I caught this image when visiting France for the UK. Moats are a rare sighting on this side of the world, so it was always a novelty for me to see one. Found in many of the continents of the world, ones like this were possibly just as ornamental as anything, but they have/had been used for protection for about 4000 years going by findings archeology. When you look at the steep walls in this image its no surprise they could be very effective in defending from invaders.

Taken on the Minolta Dynax 700si in 35mm, scanned and post edited in Gimp, I brought down the saturation and added a light sepia filter. Finally I upped the contrast a little. It looked fine from the negative really, but I quite like this slightly more ‘washed’ look.

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People of the Tower

Another image from the archives. I took this when on my visit to Singapore. One of the temples, the roof with this amazing detailing could be seen from streets away. Originally in color 35mm, I did some post sharpening and switched it over to B&W. Taken on the Minolta Dynax 700si.

Thats all for today!

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