I do like Panoramic Photographs - Part 5

This blog post comprises 3 6x17 pinhole photos taken using the RSS 6x17 camera. I took these photos in Swansea of an old bridge that used to be over the road but was moved to the cycle path. 

Slip Bridge

I do like the RSS camera. It's a bit of a faff to load but does give great results.

I do like Panoramic Photographs - Part 4

 In this final in the series of panoramic photograph blog posts, I have some panoramic photographs made on the Reality So Subtle (RSS) 6x17 pinhole camera.

Reality So Subtle

The RSS 6x17 make 4 photographs on a single roll of 120 film. The negatives are big. The camera is a bit of a bugger to load though as it has a curved plane for the film.

Still while the struggle may be real, the results are great!

How can I be a creative photographer?

I'm sure that at some point most photographers have wondered how to be more creative in their photography. I suppose that it depends on your definition of creative and to a larger extent your photographic vision. If you are looking to take a photograph that is different from the blob of work that is out there, something that isn't the same record shot made by countless people on their 'phones, then creativity can help. But creativity comes from within the individual and is quite personal I think. It does come back to your personal vision of the finished photograph.  What is your intent?

A good way to be inspired in your creativity is to look at what others have done. Here are a few things that I have done lately, although I am by no means the most creative person around.

• Redscale film
• Magnifying Glass macro lens
• Pushing film

The photographs shown here were taken using black and white film, using the second technique, shown above.  I used a magnifying glass as a pseudo macro lens for a Holga. Now it's not Macro on the scale of taking a photo of a flys eye but it does allow you to get closer than any normal Holga lens will allow (normally 1 meter). Then you can find light, texture and delight in the most unexpected places. 

Here I have taken a photo of the carving on the top of a gravestone. The photo really brings out the texture of the carved stone without needing to be pin sharp.

Carving on gravestone

This photo I have taken a close up shot of a carved fairy that someone had left on a grave. This one uses the light on an interesting ( to me) way.

Fairy sat on a grave

If you are devoid of inspiration the everyday can sometimes be worth exploring. Here we have the bark of a tree in natural directional light. 

Tree bark

Finally a picture of a leaf. This was not intended to be an accurate record of the leaf but have enough detail to feel leafy. The back lighting allows the internal structure of the leaf to be visible.

A leaf

I may enlarge on this topic of "creativity" in future blogs.

I do like Panoramic Photographs - Part 3

 In this , the third blog post in this series, we start with a vertorama. What is a vertorama I hear you ask? Well maybe a dictionary definition will help.

Vertorama

The rest of these photographs are regular panoramic format and once again shot on the Horizon Kompact camera from Lomography

Vertorama - taken in Hayle

Panorama - taken in Hayle

Panorama - taken in Hayle, Godrevy Point

Panorama - taken in Hayle, Godrevy Point

I do like Panoramic Photographs - Part 2

Here are another 4 panoramic photographs taken using the Horizon Kompact camera. This time while I was on holiday in Cornwall. The horizon Kompact camera is great fun to shoot and very easy to use, being a single aperture and shutter speed.

These photos were taken in Charlestown and St Ives.

Charlestown

St Ives

St Ives

St Ives

I do like Panoramic Photographs - Part 1

I have a camera that was made for Lomography called the Horizon Kompact. It is a camera that takes a panoramic format photograph on 35mm film.  The lens is a swing design and is very wide, you need to remember to keep your fingers out of the way.

Horizon Kompact

These four photographs were taken earlier this year, in the spring. I was on my way to have Sunday Lunch with my Mum and I diverted through Chew Magna and Stanton Drew, which is where these photos were taken.

Holga 645 Mode

Back in the day the Holga was supplied as the Holga 120S. The glass lens version was called a Woca 120. This was all before the factory stopped production.  Interestingly when I ordered my Holga, a boxed Holga 120S arrived from Hong Kong. The Holga 120S only came with a 645 mask and the selector on the camera back was glued in place for 16 photos on 120 film. 

Later I bought a Holga 120 GN, the successor to the Woca 120. The 120 GN has a glass lens but came with a 6x6 mask and a 645 mask. Also the selector on the back was free to move. It's rare that anyone uses 645 as most people use the 6x6 mask and shoot 12 pictures on the film.

All that history is a long winded way of getting to the point of this post, which is to shoot my Holga in 645 mode.

I shot a roll of Kentmere Pan 100 film.

I enjoyed the format and its definitely an option in future. 

All the fun of the fair

In Mumbles, near Swansea there is a Big Wheel. I visited with my Holga and decided to take a few snaps.

Mumbles Big Wheel

It seems quite a popular addition to the area behind the pier.

I do like the Mumbles area of Swansea, it has some nice bars, chip shops, various artisan shops a lovely walk along the coast.

Visit Mumbles

Enjoy the Holga Pics!

 

The last frame on a roll

Easter 2025, I'd invited my Mum over for a few days and I was still living in Wales. To pass the time, I'd take my Mum for day trips.  One day we went to the Brecon Mountain Railway.

Brecon Mountain Railway

Taken on Kentmere Pan 100 film

I took several rolls of film with me and my Chroma Camera Six:9 camera, configured for 6x9 shooting. The final roll was left unfinished with a single frame left. After my Mum went home the single, unexposed frame needed to be shot so that I could develop the roll.  So I went down to New Dock in Llanelli, leaned over the bridge and took this final shot, which, as it turned out, was a bit of a banger!

 Kentmere Pan 100

Single Holga Photo - 5

This Holga Photo was taken in Brittany France on one of my forays over there.  I like the photograph because it exudes calm. It was a bit of a misty day and the day was starting slowly. I remember that we, the lady wife and I, went for a drive.  We ended up stopping at this destination, I've not recorded where though, for a cup of coffee and I loaded the Holga and took some snaps.  This one was the best of the roll, in my opinion.

Two yachts at rest

Single Holga Photo - 4

Holga Photo number four is a colour photograph taken near my home in Somerset. 

A Holga will struggle to focus down as closely as was required for this image. I carry a magnifying glass in my bag. You can focus the magnifying glass by looking through it and when you are happy, keep the magnifying glass still, and move the Holga so that the lens touches the magnifying glass.  An that way you have a close up adapter for the Holga. Framing can b a bit hit and miss, but in this case a hit.

This was taken in Autumn and the leaf had fallen and lodged in the cleft between two branches.

Single Holga Photo - 3

This Holga photo was taken in Swansea Marina on a cold, early spring day. I was experimenting with using the bulb setting on the Holga.  This frame was the one from the roll that stood out, most of the rest were a blurry mess. This one is still blurry but is at least recognisable for what it is. I like this shot because the rope holes and opening on the bow form a kind of surprised face.

Single Holga Photo - 2

Taken on the Holga in Bathurst Basin, a triangular dock area to the east of Spike Island. You can see the general Hospital building to the right.

I love the dappled light under the trees. I think the Holga has handled the scene well.

This is an area of Bristol that I know well and I still enjoy visiting, especially with a Holga.

Walking along the dock at Bathurst Basin

Single Holga Photo - 1

One of the things that I love about the Holga camera is it's ability to surprise you. This photo has such a painterly feel to it. I remember when I took it not feeling very hopeful about the frame. However with the Holga camera you need to keep shooting, even if you are not feeling great about the roll.

When I processed the film and looked at the negatives this one jumped out.

The photograph was taken in Pill, near Bristol.  The name "Pill" comes from the Welsh word Pîl which denotes a tidal inlet or harbour. My maternal Grandparents lived in Pill until the 1980s, when they moved to South Gloucestershire.

My Mums cousin operated the Pill Ferry from Pill to Shirehampton when I was a kid. His name was Robert. These boats reminded me of those days.

Pill Ferry

Two boats resting until they are needed again.

The Festival of Wood - Westonbirt Arboretum - 2003

The Westonbirt Festival of Wood was held during the 2000s until 2011, when it changed into the Festival of the Tree. I attended in 2003 and took the family Canon Sure Shot TeleMax camera loaded with a roll of Ilford HP5 Plus.

Westonbirt Arboretum

I thought that the negatives had been lost to time as house moves took place over the years that followed.  

However recently I opened a box that had been sealed when I moved house last year and I found some negatives all filed in sleeves but not in a file.  Some negatives from my trip to Egypt and some from Tunisia.  In the middle of the negatives and filed between a set of Egypt negatives and a set of Tunisia negatives, were the set of black and white negatives from the Festival of Wood. Half of them in the Sharm El Sheikh negative file sheet and half in the Hammamet sheet. quite why I did this is a mystery now.

Sharm El Sheikh

Hammamet, Tunisia

These are significant because they are a document of me getting into black and white photography and using the family compact camera. I'd forgotten about the day out and that I'd bought a roll of HP5 Plus from the local camera shop.  The negatives have a numbered sticker at one end and so I must have got the camera shop to process the film. So these are really first steps for me. I've rescanned the negatives and cropped some of them, the pictures aren't half bad, considering they were taken on a compact camera.

2020 - Pandemic Photography

It seems like it never really happened now. 2020, the year that Boris Johnson asked everyone in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to stay at home in order to mitigate the spread of Covid-19. During the period where we all stayed at home, I found myself getting a bit bored. I'm sure I wasn't the only one.

Anyhow, I had some adapters that would allow 35mm film to be shot in a medium format camera. Sprocket hole photography.  There was an article that I found where you had to create a leader for your 35mm film from a scrap length of 120 backing paper.  Then you wouldn't loose any frames when the film was loaded.

Like so. This allows the takeup spool to be standard 120. Once the film is exposed you have to unload in a dark bag and wind the film back into the 35mm canister.

I loaded a roll of Fomapan 100 into a 6x7 medium format camera and during my time outside, shot these while observing social distancing (remember that?).

I'd forgotten all about these negatives until I came across them in an envelope recently.

The first frame thanks the NHS. Funny how we all did that when we thought we were going to die isn't it? (Bit of politics as Ben Elton might have said).