Ian's 52 for 2021

seaodyssey said:
I love the T90 shots, does it still work?
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It does indeed. A bit of a gem, because with the film revival many cameras are getting elevated in price but the fugliness of the T90 keeps it cheap. FD glass is lovely too.
 
Week 19: Toys.

As soon as it was announced I a) knew exactly what I was going to do and b) was glad I wasn't female...

Aaaaaaaaaaanyway... So beginneth the story...

The hard part here was the arrangement and finding a suitable location. Our conservatory was quite bright, and I wanted maxiumum possible detail. Then there was the problem of finding a suitable location. I tried the sofa we have in there, but it was a higgledy piggledy mess, so I ended up on the side table. Turns out this was a good idea because arranging things was much easier.

I took the photo with my Tomiyama Art Pano which is a 6x17 camera that delivers 4 frames per roll. It's an incredibly frustrating camera to use because it is so barebones. It's really designed to be used at infinity, because focussing can only be done with no film in it, using a ground glass. And my close distance eyesight is pants! But I really wanted to take a photo at something other than infinity, so I focussed first, then loaded the film.

IMG_1740.jpg

The first 4 frames were taken with TMAX 100, which I idiotically dropped when unloading it from the camera. 120 film is just wound on a spool with backing paper you have to tape up, so dropping it before taping is not good. Not knowing whether I stuffed the roll, I grabbed a roll of Pan F and went through the whole thing again.

Good news is that you can drop a roll of 120 and it'll stay light tight. At least it did for me!

The bad news is that I didn't control the exposure well. This is my "choice" image.


Week 19: Toys by Ian, on Flickr

I picked this because the arrangement of the cameras is much tidier. However SWMBO decided on alternating dark/light blinds and pulling them down has made the background pretty horrible. The image below was taken when I had the blinds up, and the background is much less of an annoyance. However the arrangement of the cameras is haphazard - as well as there being too many of them on the table.

2021-05-15-panf-tommy-04.jpg

The forum compression will ruin the sharpness, but on my PC, I can make out the focal length of the lens written on the front. The Tomiyama is a fantastic camera, but I've lost count of the number of images and rolls I've lost by not paying attention. Either way - I learned something once again, so glad I'm still in. 4 weeks to go to break my 52 record!

Screenshot 2021-05-15 181310.jpg
 
Toys
The letter box style framing is really pleasing. My only little quibble (and you've already addressed it) is the bright area on the left. But the arrangement is good and the sharpness, especially as that seemed to be a bit of a faff.
I don't quite understand all of the information about the film, camera and lens, but it's good to read and maybe one day I'll get it :)
 
Nostromo said:
Toys
The letter box style framing is really pleasing. My only little quibble (and you've already addressed it) is the bright area on the left. But the arrangement is good and the sharpness, especially as that seemed to be a bit of a faff.
I don't quite understand all of the information about the film, camera and lens, but it's good to read and maybe one day I'll get it :)
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Thanks Dominic. I guess this thread is also for me which is why I'm putting contact sheets and loads of blurb in there - it also acts as a reminder. I'm also hoping that in 2022 I'll be back teaching again, which will put the blockers on a repeat 52, so I'm thinking of making a book from it - along with all my waffle.
 
It’s a difficult choice between the two photos, I think they both have merit, to me either of them would work, nice collection of cameras,
I’m going to have a read up about the camera you used sounds interesting.
 
A nice collection of toys. I'd have to agree with you about the background, and a couple of other distracting 'bits' (like the heart shaped pull) for me plus the bright spot on the left is 'out of place'.
 
FlyPhot said:
A nice collection of toys. I'd have to agree with you about the background, and a couple of other distracting 'bits' (like the heart shaped pull) for me plus the bright spot on the left is 'out of place'.
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Agree on all counts.
 
The second picture is the better one for me as the blinds are distracting because of the incompleteness, but the most distracting things in both photos are those damned drawer handles. IMHO they draw the eye to the point where I can almost not notice the cameras on the top.
 
Yep, that says 'toys' to me.

I do prefer the second shot though, just because of the evenness of the background compared to the first. Lovely tones.
 
rpn said:
You got a nice collection of film cameras there, Ian, and some I've never heard of like the Canon F1. Image wise you've done well considering the limitations of the room and furniture in the way.
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Thanks Stan. The Canon F1 is a gorgeous camera and was the pro camera of it's time and thus is built like a tank. Really nice to use.

Boots said:
A nice shot, and a nice collection!
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Heh... Nice collection of Peak Design dongles too!
 
Very apt for the theme. I have to say I’m going to go against the grain and say I prefer the first image, I think it suits the subject better somehow and I prefer not having the slight distraction of the scene outside :)
 
Both the images are great, it's a fantastic array of cameras, at least one of them looks precariously perched at the edge! Given the differences in camera sizes an interesting alternative image could be to have rows of graduating sizes.
 
StuartPearson said:
Both the images are great, it's a fantastic array of cameras, at least one of them looks precariously perched at the edge! Given the differences in camera sizes an interesting alternative image could be to have rows of graduating sizes.
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Excellent point. Taken under advisement.
 
Week 20: Artifical - The Head on the Floor


Week 20: Artificial by Ian, on Flickr

I was quite pleased with this. Had a few ideas for a subject but Eddie The Head ended up being chosen. We had some really strong sunlight this afternoon, and as it got later, the shadows lengthened in the lounge. Part of me wanted to isolate the head against a black background, and whilst it kinda worked, I really liked the way there is some background here to add context. Not quite a Head on the Door, more a head on the floor. (Any Cure fans out there?)

Tricky to meter for so I took an incident reading with a lightmeter. A white polystyrene head was always going to be awkward. I included the rebate because I wanted to show that the composition was very much deliberate (whether it's liked or not). The edge of the sofa on the RH side is probably too distracting with hindsight, but I prefer it to the isolated head I tried.

Tmax 100 in DDX for 7 minutes worked well. Struggled with focussing the Automat though. I'd give myself 6.5/10 I think.
 
Great idea for the theme and I like the rebate left there. I'd agree that the sofa is a tiny bit distracting, but not too much to spoil the image and it does give it context. It really works well in mono too. Nice job on a tricky subject.
 
Very good! I really like the lighting and the use of the film rebate to demonstrate the intentional composition is excellent (I seem to recall reading all camera club competitions used to require that, for that very reason; or did I dream that). I agree about the sofa (better luck next time on that).
 
I don’t have a problem with the sofa to be fair I think it adds to the overall strangeness of the image not really that familiar with that particular Cure album but a big fan of the dark trilogy of albums 17 seconds, faith and pornography. I saw them a couple of times the first time supporting Siouxsie and the banshees on the join hands tour Robert Smith did his support set and then played guitar for the Banshees on their set. I’m pretty sure that was 1979 which makes me feel very old.
 
Allan.H said:
I don’t have a problem with the sofa to be fair I think it adds to the overall strangeness of the image not really that familiar with that particular Cure album but a big fan of the dark trilogy of albums 17 seconds, faith and pornography. I saw them a couple of times the first time supporting Siouxsie and the banshees on the join hands tour Robert Smith did his support set and then played guitar for the Banshees on their set. I’m pretty sure that was 1979 which makes me feel very old.
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Would love to have seen the Banshees with Robert Smith... I didn't catch them until 1988 (Peepshow tour) and Smith left in '83. Faith was one of my favourite albums and as I had the tape, I got Carnage Visors on the "B side". Still listen to that today when I want some background music.
 
It's a really interesting image, I must admit I do prefer it cropped from the right to add mystery. Seeing the attempts from developed images on disposable cameras from my daughters recent 21st I really admire the attention to detail that can be achieved by skilled film photographers and developers.
 
That's a really cool picture and the lighting is good too. I did wonder if had the head more towards the lower right you might have a negative space too?
 
Simonbrown16 said:
That's a really cool picture and the lighting is good too. I did wonder if had the head more towards the lower right you might have a negative space too?
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Doh!
 
Artificial
It all works rather well. I don't mind the sofa, the thing I find a little distracting is the black squiggly bit above the sofa, but it's not a major thing. I can imagine the exposure on the head was I bit tricky, it's not something I would want to try on film. Although having a light meter must have been pretty essential.
 
Nostromo said:
the thing I find a little distracting is the black squiggly bit above the sofa
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Well spotted. I agree. It's the very edge of a glass coffee table and could have been dealt with with proper thinking.
 
Lovely mono this with great control of the whites!
 
Great image and very well exposed. I agree, I find my eye drawn towards the sofa though.
 
Just catching up on comments here Ian, I like your artificial shot probably because it has a certain weirdness about it :D
Well done on dealing with the dynamic range in the shot, the polystyrene in bright sunlight must have been challenging.
 
blakester said:
Just catching up on comments here Ian, I like your artificial shot probably because it has a certain weirdness about it :D
Well done on dealing with the dynamic range in the shot, the polystyrene in bright sunlight must have been challenging.
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Thanks Iain. I think that's where incident light meters come into their own.
 
Toys, Nice image and good write up, I think the colour one looks better.

Eddie the head is different and I like the details on the head,but not sure about the sofa being visible.

Pete
 
Toys: I enjoy reading about how you got the image and the trials and tribulations of real film. I like the blind behind, but it's a shame the dark one didn't reach behind all of the cameras. I might have been tempted to squash them nearer together as I think it makes a good background - although then you lose the handles symmetry which I also quite like. I'm a fan of quirky decor i.e. not every blind the same. In fact we have a giant penguin looking out from our front door - now why didn't I think of that for my artificial shot??

Artificial: Really like the composition and viewpoint and you've done a great job with the exposure. That must have been so difficult! I didn't spot the sofa, but now Pete has mentioned it, I suppose it would be good to lose it in the shadows.
 
Bit of a catchup here. I had to load a film to do Pattern and just hadn't finished it before the deadline. So I did closeup on the same roll and developed it all yesterday.

Week 21: Patterns in a pattern


Week 21: Pattern by Ian, on Flickr

And week 22 (which is my new record for doing a 52!): Close Up


Week 22: Closeup by Ian, on Flickr

Both taken on the EOS-1v with the 40mm f/2.8 and a Raynox. Such a handy little thing for doing ghetto macro. Neither images are setting the world on fire, but they're not terrible.

Also, the Raynox really doesn't like edge sharpness which is clearly visible on the window shot.

Commenting might be a bit reduced at the moment. Apologies in advance...
 
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Both nice shots Ian.

I need to get my film mojo back!
 
Both good shots for the themes and well done for getting this far with film, I'd have given up by now
 
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