Photos in August - Part 3 - Local Adventures
Following on from Part 2.
Going for a walk
I try to have a walk every day, or every other day, or I at least try and get to the closest PokéStop once a day. I usually try and have a camera on me, and if I am feel really adventurous I’d take a huge zoom lens in case there are birdies. Of course, taking a large lens means there are no birdies, and not taking a large lens means there are always birdies.
Sometimes when I am out walking I am lucky enough to run into friend.
Other times it is interesting just to capture stuff going on.
Anyone else remember the big painted rocks Facebook group wars?
Someone in the area is clearly a Simpsons fan.
I love these two photos. The VW under the car cover especially. I love the pop of yellow against all the grey. The bike, I like the bike, but when I was taking the shot I had my fingers on the focus ring and I felt it shift when the mirror on the Bronica slapped up. There is some softness or blurriness to the bike and it keeps throwing me off.
It has started to get a bit warmer now, and some of the flowering trees have noticed. None of the trees in my street have noticed yet, but I assume they will in a few weeks. 150mm is not a short focal length and even at f5.6 the depth of field is nice and shallow.
Almost spring? Bronica ETRS + 150mm - f5.6, 1/500 - Kodak Gold
Trying to get shots of bees on flowers with a 150mm lens that isn’t macro on film, even more of a fools errand than trying to get photos of birds with 40mm lenses.
Spot the bee? Bronica ETRS + 150mm - f4, 1/500 - Kodak Gold
At least with the Bronica you are looking through the lens so knowing what is in focus, or at least what should be in focus is up to you. The little Ricoh - that’s a bit more hit and miss. Mostly miss. It doesn’t have the closest of close focusing distances, especially when using the 70mm lens. But it does have an indicator in the viewfinder saying roughly how far away it has focused. I think it lies almost as much as the hyper-focal marks on the Franka Solida II.
Sunsets and Sunrises
Nice photos of the sun at either end of the day are a cliche, but if you enjoy taking them and looking at them who cares.
Ricoh TF-900 - Kodak Vision3 250D
Sunrise - Bronica ETRS + 75mm - f11, 1/125 - Kodak Gold
(Field) Hockey
A strange lack of ice - Pentax PC35AF - Ilford XP2 Super 400
As a change from (ice) hockey a friend of a friend asked if I could take some photos at their hockey game. I’d say it was warmer than standing next to an ice rink, but it was rainy and windy and being up in the stands I was freezing.
Film and Cameras
Ilford XP2 Super 400 in the Pentax PC35AF
This is a black and white film that is processed in “standard” C-41 colour chemicals. This means it cab be processed anywhere that does normal film processing - black and white processing can be very varied and a lot of places can only process film using the standard C-41 development process. Because of the standard process there is less creativity when developing the film.
I was really impressed with the images. Basically no editing. I think the camera struggled with exposure in some scenarios, the limitations of the point and shoot camera. I think some spots of bright highlights in a scene can trick the light sensor and it can underexpose.
And then sometimes it just misses focus 🤣
Almost
Kodak Vision3 250D in the Ricoh TF-900
Always a fan of this film stock. This was a roll from Mr Negative and it include a DX code so I could use it in the point and shoot. My main goal with this roll was the make sure I could get the remjet layer off cleanly. I thought I did a pretty good job this time - I mixed up a new batch of pre-bath, and carefully wiped the film down after processing. For the most part was pretty good. Processing the scans I can see some frames with some faint streaks.
And then one or two frames look like this.
Much spot removal
Kodak Gold in the Bronica ETRS
A test roll in a new to me Bronica ETRS, mainly me making sure I know how to load the film, and to get used to the light meter. Kodak Gold because I have a few rolls of it, and I kind of know what it is supposed to look like. There is a process to shooting wih the camera, checking exposure, adjusting exposure, checking framing, taking out the dark slide, taking the lock off the shutter, and then firing the shutter. I was on the last frame after the sunrise photos from the arboretum and decided the light was nice over the lake. I was busily trying to get the exposure right, not wanting to lose the ducks in the foreground even with a bright sky. Half-pressing the shutter to activate the meter in the prism finder. Holding it half-pressed while looking down to check the exposure for the foreground.
I think the exposure was correct
Turns out the difference between enough of a press to activate the meter and enough to fire the shutter is very small. There is a button on the prism just to activate the meter, using that next time.