Abandoned

Holga 135, probably XP-2, possibly Fuji 400

Not really abandoned. Just early morning at the Seaport. I can't for the life of me remember why I was down here early enough to experience an empty car park. Perhaps work? Maybe.

I've always liked this shot, pointy rooves, nice even-ish mix of tones: no black-metal-blacks or blinging whites.

International Commie Camera Day

The results are in for International Commie Camera Day 2009. Or more correctly, the film was developed and the negatives scanned.

I'm pleased with the results, considering it was my first outing with the Zorki. It's a nice camera, feels solid, looks superb, and is relatively quiet. It was almost a disaster on May 1st, as it was bucketing down with rain in the morning, and holding both a camera and an umbella proved too much for my sleep addled brain. However, the afternoon was quite sunny, and leaving 5 minutes early from work allowed me to take advantage of the light. And seeing as I'm reliant on Sunny-16 for shots with the Zorki, difficult light is best avoided if possible.

They seem to have come out alright...and I didn't forget to cock the shutter before messing with the speed.

A couple of photos from Strathmore, a property behind Evandale. Incidentally, this is where I was married 4 weeks ago. These shots are from the morning after our celebration (bear in mind this is not representative of where our wedding actually took place...that was in the garden area around the other side).

Ilford XP2, Minolta XG-M, 50mm lens. And, if I remember correctly, the first time I've used the UV filter. Whether it had any effect on the resulting film is difficult to say; some say UV filters are only good for protecting your lens from scratches. I have a weak theory that as we have higher levels of UV in our skies down here (thanks to proximity to the ozone hole), it's not completely unneccesary. But I have nothing to back that up.

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Following this wonderful day, we spent three weeks in sunny New Zealand by way of honeymoon. I took 10 rolls of Fuji Reala 100, 2 rolls of Fuji Velvia 100, and picked up 2 rolls of Kodachrome 100 (which went unused). I think I have 3 rolls of Reala left. I'll be developing those in the next few weeks - more correctly, Stallards will be developing them, and I will be paying them - so I'll post the results as they happen. First time I've used Reala or Velvia, so it'll be interesting to see the results. The Reala I shot at 80iso on advice from a friend, the Velvia I shot at 100 as I've heard horror stories about correct exposure...and as I'm new to Velvia (and slide in general), I thought it best to stick with the safest path, and branch out if I feel like it later.

I'm excited to see how the Reala comes out, as I've had nothing but good results with the standard consumer-level Fuji film (Superia 100, 200, 400), and Reala is supposed to be the bee's knees of Fuji neg. Green is supposed to come out wonderfully vivid, so we'll see...Heidi kindly obliged by buying and wearing a wonderful green knit from Akaroa on our third day in NZ, I guess that will come out pretty amazinglier and stuff.