29 July 2010

Possibly the most amazing collection of photos I've seen for a while. Taken in the before WWI in Russia, back when colour photography was brand new. Is this a lost world? Perhaps. I'll probably never know, but this is a beautiful collection of images and a fascinating time capsule.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2009/10/21/color-photography-from-russian-in-the-early-1900s/comment-page-4/

Another (not really weekly) Vintage Image

Another one of those old images from my great grandparents' collection. No idea who the budgie is, but he/she was obviously part of the family.

28 July 2010

More reverse-lens macro...

I had to fill up a film on the weekend to get some shots developed of my newborn (pseudo-, non-blood-relative-) nephew on his second night of being out. So to fill up the roll of film, I took a few reverse-lens macro shots.

I have to admit that the worst thing about film is when you desperately want to get some shots developed but have half a roll left to fill. However, this allows me to take photos of things like this and my wife won't be too disappointed, because there are some people shots too!

I did receive my extension tube set, so look out for more little-things-made-big shots soon.

27 July 2010

ol' timey


Latest photos from the Holga 135. I am more and more impressed with this camera every time I get results back. I was a bit worried it might be a bit like a "pseudo-Holga" in that it mimics the look of the Holga 120, however I think that would be a bit unfair to say: the Holga 135 is definitely it's own camera.

Film used was Fuji Neopan 400.

22 July 2010

Henty House



Not a popular building, but certainly striking. Kind of like a Vogon cruiseliner...

21 July 2010

Extension tubes on the way

After my previous post, I decided that some extension tubes would be useful. I know they don't necessarily turn every lens into a super-macro-happy-time-smile, but it'll be fun to experiment with some new (and inexpensive) equipment.

14 July 2010

Macro on the cheap

As I am a bit of a tight-arse (or, more correctly, I have a mortgage to pay off), I am reluctant to spend upwards of $300 for a good quality macro lens for the Minolta. A few weeks ago I came across a zero-cost way to get around this: you simply take off the fixed-focal length lens, and hold it backwards against the film body. Voila! Macro lens for nix.

The main issue I encountered is that focussing suddenly becomes a case of moving the whole camera back and forth until things are sharp. As I was also holding the lens in place at the same time, this was trickier than it sounds -  especially as I was trying to prevent light leaks as well. Not helping the situation was the need for the aperture to be wide open at 1.7 to cater for the poor lighting in my kitchen.

For the people interested, I used a Minolta XG-M slr, the lens was a Rokkor 1.7 50mm prime lens, and the film was Fuji Pro 800z. The subject above is a nozzle for piping icing onto cakes. The subjects below are a fork, the tip of the nozzle, and some spilt flour.

It didn't turn out too badly. Here's some other results...





Rolls

13 July 2010

new project in mind

I'd like to put some 35mm film through this:


as it seems to function perfectly. And it looks amazing.

Some issues:
  • It normally takes 127 film. However as 127 is only marginally wider than a 35mm cannister, I figure that a bit of padding will be all that is required.
  • The built-in mask is wider than 35mm film. My intent is to make my own mask from black card to stick over the top so I don't end up with sprocket hole exposure (I'm not a fan of this look). This will also result in panoramic images, which is part of why I want to do this..
  • There is no rewind. I may need to buy a changing bag so I can get the film out. An interesting quirk is that the film is wound from right to left, but this isn't an issue, more of a novelty.
  • There is a red viewing window on the back. Black electical tape on either side should sort it out.
  • Not sure how the local camera chain will deal with scanning the negatives. We'll have to wait and see. My contingency is to scan it myself when I eventually get around to buying my own flatbed film scanner.
  • Figuring out how far to wind for each exposure. I may have to sacrifice another roll of Lucky. Good thing it's so fecking cheap.
This is my project for the weekend or after work. Wish me luck.

Anyone ever tried something like this? Let me know your experiences if you have

    09 July 2010

    I miss summer...


    I need to get some more Ilford Pan F 50. Just a shame that it takes two weeks for a film to come back from the lab here...

    01 July 2010

    Pointy


    I always like buldings with these kind of rooves.

    Not sure if it's a pity it's blurred (the dreaded B-switch).