February's Roll of Agfa Vista

Month two.

February 2020.

Agfa Vista 200 aka Pountdland film.

It's May, we're well into lockdown, my house is full of screaming kids, barking dogs and a wife intent  on decorating every room in the house all in.......NOW!

When I used to develop my own film, it always took me a while to get round to doing it, now I get it shop developed but it still takes me ages to scan and digitise the negatives.
Month's after shooting February's roll I'm trying to find time to share the images with the world.

Armed with a roll of Agfa Vista, the trusty Poundland film, of which I've still got a few rolls left in the freezer and my £10 Canon EOS 600 SLR let February begin.

One Sunday afternoon we decided to all jump in the car and take the dogs for a walk around The Walks in Kings Lynn. A perfect way to tire out a toddler and a perfect excuse to record some memories on film for me.

The day was a golden and warm one for winter; great weather for a 2 year old to explore his surroundings.

Using my trusty 24-105L zoom lens made following Charlie around on his travels a breeze.

It's not a lens I use much, typically only for newspaper work but when it does good it does really good.

You can't take a child to a park without going to the park.

And sometimes I get things wrong.
Faced with this backlight, with the sun behind Laura I dialled in some over exposure to combat it but it seems it wasn't enough.

With either a light leak or seriously blown out highlights right at the top of the frame.

My next trip out was meeting up with Jasmine & Lee in Shouldham Warren.

When I'd got the 'proper' shot's of them celebrating valentines together I pulled out my film camera attached to my 24-70L lens and shot a few frames.

Shot wide open I missed focus on the last frame but the film aesthetics are still lovely!

Another month, more growing up, Florence tried food for the 1st time.
Why not document the moment.

And Charlie wanted to steal the limelight as always.

One miserable day outside, Charlie & I were stuck in doors watching Bing, probably, when I looked outside and it was snowing.

Quick!

Charlie grab your wellies.

We only went as far as the driveway but Charlie had a great time experiencing snow for the 1st time.

Whereas, I've never liked the cold white stuff, I was happy to go back in the warm.

So that was February's roll and February's fun.

A few mishaps but that's what it's all about. When you can't check a shot on the back of a camera you have to wait and see what you've got and it's sometimes it's what you've missed.

I've still got a handful of Agfa Vista left in the freezer and I'm looking forward to shooting it again.

I've now got to get my arse in gear and scan March.

See you next month.

1 roll of film a month, how hard can it be!?

New years resolutions, does anyone stick to them?

I don't know if I ever have before?

But then I can't think of any that I've set before this one.

Shooting a roll of film each month isn't just a new years resolution it's a personal project, something for me to enjoy, something to not worry about, if the shots come out they come out, if the film camera breaks half way through the roll then #*^% it! That's already happened by the way.

I've got a freezer drawer full of film that I've collected over the years. Some of it is the famous AgfaVista aka Poundland film that is no more, some is black and white film long expired and among others are multi packs that stared me in the face in Holbeach Tescos a few years back and I just had to have it.

A mixture of 35mm and 120 medium format, all sitting in the cold and dark all waiting to be pulled out, defrosted and loaded up. All waiting for it's time of glory.

So yeah a roll each month, it shouldn't be too difficult. I just need to get back in the habit of carrying a camera with me where ever I go, something I haven't done for a while, apart from my iPhone, after all the best camera is the one that you have with you!

I need to get back in the habit of just shooting a few frames of things that catch my eye. Something I've not done for a long time. We live in the digital age, information and data is filling up our computers, phones and the internet every minute of the day. Why take pictures of things that aren't going to make me any money..........Why?

For the love!

Seriously, as I sit and type this blog in March I've already had 3 months of this project and on occasion I've gone for a walk and have literally shot pictures of puddles and the sun shining through shapes on the street. Walking along with camera in hand, tunes on in my headphones and a massive smile. I hadn't forgot but it really has felt like I'd forgot how much I love photography!

So back in January I shot my 1st roll, a roll of Kodak BW400CN film, loaded up in my £10 Canon EOS600 SLR.

Actually back in September I shot my 1st roll, that roll above, before I forgot about it and then really kicked my arse in to gear to carry on in January.

So in September I shot 9 frames of this 12/2006 expired black and white, colour negative, film at Richard & Lydia's wedding at The Ffolkes in Kings Lynn, Norfolk.

I remember being excited to pull the camera out and snap away whilst I was shooting their newlywed portraits in the early evening light.

It was literally heavy work as I had 3 cameras hanging off my harness; my 5d3 with 85mm, my X-pro 2 with 23mm and finally my EOS 600 with my 24-70mm, all waiting for their moment.

Then the EOS600 got packed away again, it was taken to weddings afterwards but it was either too cold or too wet to mess about with 'another' camera whilst my couple stood waiting.

Back to January and I committed to doing this, I started to carry the camera around on dog walks, family trips and sometimes just around the house.

This is where this project gets really boring and it looks like your being subjected to my family album.

I'm sorry OK but when you've got kids it's easy to finish a roll of 24 exposures on bath time, play time and bed time.

Sorry, not sorry!

Shooting with an ISO 400 film at ISO 100 makes things a little interesting when shooing in doors. It's wide open aperture or nothing.

Shooting moving children with a wide open aperture on a camera that only has a centre focus point, now that's a challenge.

And on top of that, pressing the shutter when that moving child has their eyes open, sometimes you catch a funny 'drunken' expression!

The film; Kodak BW400CN 14 years out of date, shot at ISO 100, it did great.
I love it!
It's got that film softness and grain and all the imperfections of shooting expired film on a camera made 31 years ago.

I can't wait to develop February's roll.

I'll see you soon.

Don't let images collect virtual dust.

There is a real problem with film for me. Its my usual problem but it seems to really affect my film pursuits.

Time.

That whole magic, 'you don't know what your going to get', thing for me turns into 'you won't ever know what your going to get until you develop the film that's sitting wasting away in the fridge and then collecting dust waiting to be scanned'.

The saying then continues with 'and once you've scanned them, you need to import them into Lightroom and then finally do something with the images that have taken months to materialise'.

I don't see that phrase being famous and used on posters, t-shirts etc. But I'm  sure i can't be the only person in the world who loses images in their ever expanding Lightroom catalogue. I don't lose them their well named and tagged, its more forget. I've got lots of images that i have forgotten about; whole days, whole holidays that i have never shared and have definitely not printed.

All on my lonely hard drive waiting for one big failure to happen and poof........they're gone.


So to get back on track I'm going to start with the remaining shots from a roll of Truprint 35mm.

The box speed was ISO 400 but an unknown expiration date made me think shooting at ISO 100 would be a good idea....it was.

In a previous blog post I'm sure i said how much i liked the vivid colours that i got from this roll. I continue to apart from one shot where the horrible red skin colour is just too overpowering but its important to share a failure now and then;

But now thinking about this guy might of the beetroot persuasion???

For subjects such as a local funfair the vivd colours are very fitting.

What you looking at!? 

The House on the Hill

Kings Lynn Street Art

A little Macro photography with the Tamron 90mm F2.8

 So I'm really going to try and sort my blogging out and really start to share some of the photos that have been collecting virtual dust in my Lightroom catalogue.

Stay tuned.

And i do apologise for the random image content this time. I just really like the colours from this roll.

Truprint Portraits

Occasionally I get given film and cameras.

I love it.

One of the many Kodak Brownies I've been given sits proud in my living room. It makes a great ornament.

This post is about a roll of Truprint 35mm film that was a welcomed gift from an ex work colleague.

Its been stored in my fridge for a year. Im not sure how it was stored previously; likely a kitchen drawer.

I have know idea of the expiry date but I'm guessing it would be in the 90's or the early 00's. It was labelled up as ISO 400 but because I was unsure of the life but also sure it was well beyond I shot it at ISO 100. Besides I sometimes feel that my film images can be a bit under exposed so at ISO 100 I could even be over exposing by a stop....win win!

I loaded it up the last week of March into my Canon EOS 600 SLR and headed out with Laura around Kings Lynn with a Tamron 90mm f2.8 attached. 

Plenty of available light on this bright and fresh day.

All images f/3.5.

Colours!!!

The day after we went for a walk around Sandringham woods.

All images f/4

I wish I had more of this film. Its scanned really well (since this roll I've improved my scans so these images could be better), the colours are really vibrant and all the images have come out really warm.

Urbex and fire

As a child I loved playing with fire, I even have a nice scar on the back of my right hand from when hot plastic dripped on it while playing with fire with a friend at the age of about 10. I told my mum I had fell over, she didn't believe me considering I smelt like cooked meat and my skin had clearly been badly burnt. I actually forget the scar is there and now as I approach 30 years old it is barely visible.

You already know that I like exploring abandoned buildings.

Why not combine fire and urbex.

And by that I don't mean ive started a career as an arsonist.

No, I mean playing with fire artistically and then checking that all the sparks and molten pieces of metal have been extinguished before leaving the site. Before starting we also did a recce of the area and made sure there was nothing around that was at risk.

It was a great experience and some great shots have come from this night with my friend Stuart.

For this shoot I used a Canon 5Dmkiii and 24-70 lens. All shots were taken between f/13 and f/18 and were 30 second exposures at ISO 200.

Stuart and I have already said that we now need to find the next location for urbex and (a little bit of controlled) fire.