Bessa!

Mixed results from the first roll. I got a lot of partial-double exposures but that may well have been my own fault. Have to see how things go with roll No.2! Still, very nice to see how the lens performs and it's a joy to use, need to shoot more to learn the way the light meter works.

undeveloped film = time capsule

Apparently I chucked four rolls of finished film into my box of unused film, I picked one up thinking I had some portra left and then found the others in there as well! They're of the flat in Bristol and, judging from the carnival and the weather in them, it must have been about a year ago I shot them.

It has been really lovely to find all these. I think the majority, if not all of them, were shot with the Olympus Trip. I was very aware of winter last year, partially because I was out in it a lot, cycling, walking, waiting for buses and trains. I have a feeling I will be less-so this year, it has (so far) not been as cold and because I haven't been cycling nearly as much.

I haven't blogged in a little while as I've been working a lot and haven't done any more interesting shoots, there are a few in the early planning stages which should happen in the next few weeks and I also have a new friend. She comes in the form of a Voigtländer Bessa R with a 35mm f/2.5 and she's beautiful. One roll of film in there at the moment but it's taking a while to get through it with no real objectives and not very much time (or light at this time of year!).

So I have proven, once again, that I have no self-control when it comes to spending money on cameras. I have wanted a pretty little rangefinder (with a meter, my Zorki 4K is also very pretty but not so practical on that front) for years so I managed to justify it. With any luck I'll finish a roll and get it developed fairly quickly so I can get an idea of what the lens is like! I have a Jupiter 8 50mm f/2 and a collapsable 50mm f/3.5 which I would also like to test and see what kind of results they produce. Lots of fun ahead. And I still need some models to keep learning with my EOS kit and lighting! So much to do....

GOALS!!

This is going to be a personal post and may be, for some, boring because of this fact. You have been warned.

Olympus Trip 35

These are some old shots I put together and posted to some friends. There's a nearly-finished roll in my Oly Trip right now. It's always so exciting waiting to see what comes back.

Today was a good day.

I met some absolutely lovely people and got to play with cameras outside in the GORGEOUS sunshine all afternoon.

This is the lovely Tasha McCoy and you get an idea of how fantastic the weather was for this shoot today. It was great to work with someone as enthusiastic as Sidney and it was nice to feel like I'm getting more to grips with video on an SLR as well. I've watched his other videos online and I can't wait to see what he does with the footage, it's going to fantastic.

We shot some 'behind-the-scenes' type stuff as well which he says's he'll blog about and I'll be sure to link to it when he does (though I'm not looking forward to seeing my face on that part, I belong BEHIND the camera!).

The vaguely interesting things....

...that happen when you take your camera everywhere. I'm trying to do this more. Hoping it will help me be a bit quicker on reaction times. I regularly see photographs and 'take' them in my mind when I should make more of an effort to carry a camera and USE it.

The Outlet Village in Swindon isn't exactly exciting when you've seen it a hundred times but I decided to make use of an opportunity to get out of the house and challenge myself to FIND something interesting while we were out.

Tomorrow will be more interesting. I'm assisting Sidney Diongzon on a music video shoot which I'm very much looking forward to. I'm betting I will learn rather a lot since I've only really attempted video a handful of times.

More light....

So I visited my friend who very kindly offered to model for me so I can continue learning and getting to grips with lighting. There wasn't much structure to shooting, no planning at all in fact, and the whole thing ended sooner than I would have liked thanks to a gust of wind and the breaking of my £5 hot shoe/pc sync adaptor...

Alas, I cannot afford some nice radio flash triggers like Pocket Wizards, that would be nice but isn't at the top of my priorities at the moment. Greg actually studies engineering and was able to fix this in a matter of minutes, just needs sticking back together and it'll be ready to go again.

So this was all just messing around and 'what happens if I move the flash here?' and 'if I turn the power up and the aperture down?' etc. etc. I'm learning, it's still a little frustrating as not much is very intuitive yet but that will come with time. Just going to have to practice and bully as many friends as I can into helping out.

This was a lovely location and we were going to carry on to find more but just after this the flash took its tumble. Next time I'm going to bring something to weigh the stand down with, missed out on more shooting time because of that!

More practicing...

I've been reading through lots of articles on Strobist trying to get my head around balancing flash and ambient light and I think I'm actually understanding it! I am still lacking models which makes the whole process take a little longer (setting up tripod, cable release, etc. etc. the 60D's screen is an absolute blessing for this stuff.) but I am hopefully going to do some portraits of a friend this week so that will be good. Give me a chance to play around with shooting angles way more easily.

Window on the right, umbrella-ed strobe directly on left (my room is small and has a sloping ceiling so I imagine there was a fair bit bouncing off of that to account for the softness and wrap) at 16/1 zoomed out to 24mm. I think my exposure was ISO100 and a 50th at f/2.8? Something like that.

Can't wait to have a proper shoot and really get to grips with all this. Practice, practice, practice.

action, camera, LIGHT

So, some fun new toys arrived over the past two days...

Manfrotto 5001B Nano Stand, Lastolite 80cm 2in1 umbrella and tilthead adaptor with a coldshoe, a 5m sync lead and a hotshoe/PC sync adaptor for the little Jessops flash I got back when I got the 60D.


I have lots of learning to do with this. I can sort of visualise what I want but getting the light to do what I'm imagining takes a bit of time. I need some victims models so I don't have to keep putting myself infront of the camera! Did that every day for a year and I have to say I'm in want of a break from it now.


In the mean time....

London Times

I like...

Early nights and late mornings

Late nights and early mornings

Bike rides in the sun and the rain and the snow

Bike rides in the early morning

Bike rides late at night

Sleeping with no clothes on

Reading a book that makes you forget where you are

Sleeping bundled up in joggers and a hoodie

Taking photos of trees and leaves

Taking photos of myself at my most vulnerable

Taking photos of myself at my strongest

Repetition

Repetition

Repetition

Doing something for the first time in my life

Planning things

Spontaneity

Lists.

Building things.

My dad and our next door neighbour have been building a shed between the two houses. 'Shed' doesn't really do it justice. When I think of a shed I think of a flimsy wooden structure rotting away at the bottom of a garden. This thing has a proper roof and joists and everything. It's serious business.

My cat has been enjoying hunting on/crawling through/hiding in the tarp that was covering the shed before they started putting the roof on.

My dad suspected there was a mouse in the garage. This has been confirmed by Dylan who spent most of the morning sat by the fridge waiting for it to come out.

I hope this weather holds out for a while longer. I am finally off the medication that I was reacting so badly to and have a couple of weeks to build up my strength again before I start getting more work! I need to get back on my bike ASAP. I miss it and I don't want to miss the gorgeous changes the trees around the cycle path go through in Autumn.