I’m back!

Hi everyone.

I know I’ve not been regularly writing on my blog like I used to and I just wanted to let you all know that I’m ok.

At the beginning of 2020 I was hoping to have lots of film photography content for my blog this year, including getting to grips with using a large format camera and building my own darkroom but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be….

My photo content all looked promising at the beginning of the year when I visited Madrid and I was really happy with the black and white photos I had taken and blogged about at the time. Then COVID-19 struck in the UK around mid March.

I was fortunate enough to still find myself in full time employment and busier than ever with work which ended up taking up most of my time this year.

I’m also currently in the process of setting up a new online craft business which has taken up a lot of my spare time.

The darkroom space I had planned to kit out that my husband had at his work ended up being converted into a staff canteen as he had to review his work space to keep within the COVID-19 regulations, so I now need to look at a new space. I may even consider joining the Brighton Community Darkroom again next year because even if I only get there once a month, it’s still better than not developing any of my photos at all. I have really missed not using a darkroom this year!

I certainly haven’t taken as many photos this year like I would normally do and I’ve really missed going on photo walks and meeting up with other photographers.

I had originally planned pre-Covid to host an instant photo walk in Brighton in September but I’ve now postponed this for next year to review when hopefully the whole COVID situation would have improved and it’s safer for groups of people to meet up.

I was hoping to get some fun new photos for my photo blog when I went on holiday to Albufeira, Portugal back at the beginning of September.

My husband and I had originally planned to go to Greece but then saw the Islands being shut down and Portugal being put on the safe list so thought it would be better to go there.

We flew from Luton airport as we could easily park our car there. I was apprehensive about the airport and flight in view of the current COVID situation. However, it was nice and quiet at the airport and flying was actually quite relaxing and prompt with no delays.

When we arrived in Portugal, it was really hot! I had brought both my SX-70 Polaroid Camera and also my Leica M6 TTL, all loaded and ready to take some photos of my trip!

I was quite excited about finally getting somewhere new to take some photos, which wasn’t in my local area.

The locals were lovely and really happy to have the tourists back. They had only re-opened the beach about two weeks prior to us arriving.

They actually had more stricter rules than the UK in relation to COVID-19 and wearing masks, using hand sanitisers etc so it felt very safe out there.

During the first couple of days I didn’t take my camera’s out with me as I knew we’d be out in the sun most of the day and I was worried about the heat effecting them and their mechanics since they’re vintage cameras so I kept them inside the cool hotel room.

On Day 3 of our trip, we decided to go on a sunset jeep safari. It was a Thursday and the day that Boris Johnson would be announcing the countries that would no longer be classed as a safe zone which included Portugal being put back on the list. We were completely oblivious of this information whilst on the safari until we received a phone call from a friend who was meant to be coming to Portugal the following week.

If we had stayed in Portugal for the remainder of our holiday, it would have meant self-isolating for 14 days when back in the UK and due to both mine and my husband’s work commitments, we couldn’t do this.

We had a deadline of early hours Saturday to be back in the UK before we’d have to self-isolate.

On Thursday evening once we got back to our hotel, we booked a flight back to the UK for Friday afternoon. Thankfully, British Airways had put on some extra flights so we were able to get on one of those.

It was always going to be a risk going abroad, but all I can say is the three days we had there in the hot, glorious sunshine, were really lovely and just getting away after the best part of a year of hard slog with work, we really felt like we had been there much longer! We had some amazing fresh, local seafood meals alfresco, a nice walk around the local marina and loved seeing the old village in Albufeira.

I did manage to take one photo on my SX-70 with some SX-70 colour film from my hotel room balcony before we left:

Here are a couple I managed to take during the jeep safari on my Leica M6 TTL using Kodak Ektachrome E100 film:

The morning before we flew back to the UK, I managed to visit the local cemetery around the corner from where we were staying and take some photos with the same camera and film:

Here is the last photo taken at the end of our brief trip to Portugal (taken on my husband’s iPhone) coming out of Luton Airport with added face mask!

There is another reason this year why I have not had as much time for my photography as I would have liked and it’s quite exciting and hopefully going forward, there will be much more photos!

I’ll be blogging about my other exciting adventure I’ve managed to have around COVID-19 recently over the next few weeks!

Tenerife with my Leica M6 TTL and Kodak Ektachrome E100

Back in December I managed to get away for some winter sun to Tenerife.

I had previously liked using slide film in the Hasselblad 500 c/m so I was keen to see what it would be like in the Leica.

I had a roll of Kodak Ektachrome E100 in my film stash for a while that I had been saving and I knew the trip to Tenerife would be the perfect opportunity to finally use it.

I decided to use the film during a day excursion to La Gomera.

I took the photos using my 50mm Summicron lens and the photos were processed at my local lab using the E-6 process.

During the excursion, we were driven up into the mountains and here are some photos I took of the landscape:

We were then driven to a dense forest area in the mountains and I really liked the green moss that was growing on the trees so was keen to see how this would look in a slide photo:

I was really impressed with the vivid green detail the photo produced. I also took one more in the shade, which looks completely different and not as vivid:

For lunch, we visited a restaurant in the mountains and sampled some of the local food and wine. We were entertained by the restaurant staff doing a demonstration of their local language called Silbo Gomero (also known as El Silbo). It’s basically a whistled register of Spanish which is used by the inhabitants of La Gomera to communicate across the deep ravines and narrow valleys within the island. It was fun to watch.

Inside the restaurant was this really cool view point that I knew I had to take a photo of:

I then took some photos of the views from the restaurant:

Here is one of my husband admiring the views from the Restaurant:

Here are a couple of photos I took at another view point on the way back down the mountains:

La Gomera was a beautiful island to visit. If I was to go again, I would like to spend a bit more time around the local marina and square which looked really interesting but I only got to spend about an hour there since this excursion mainly focused on time spent up in the mountains.

I didn’t manage to use up all the film whilst on this excursion so took the final remainder photos from my balcony where I was staying on the mainland in Tenerife:

I really do love slide film, especially when processed under E-6. For me, the bright vivid colours are just amazing and I also love the feel of the photos. They remind me of a 70s holiday brochure.

Whilst I still have some other colour 35mm films to use in my film stash, going forward for the Leica M6, I think the Ektachrome E100 will most certainly be one of my go to films for colour photography from now on.

Leica M6 TTL and Kodak TMax 35mm Film

The next film I decided to try in my Leica with the 50mm Summicron Lens, was the Kodak TMax 400 black and white film as I knew I had achieved nice results from that film in the past with other cameras.

I decided to take a walk with my dog to St Ann’s Wells Gardens in Hove and try out the film there.

It’s a nice, quiet place to walk in winter time and I knew I still had to get to grips with getting used to using a Rangefinder camera again and improve on my focusing skills.

Here is one of Daisy I took using the camera and film:

Here is a small selection of photos I took whilst on this walk:

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I quite like the lighting effect of the way the sunlight is shining through on this one:

Whilst I suppose the next photo I’m about to show is under exposed, there is something about it I really like. I think it’s the dark contrast of the tree/plants against the grey sky which has come out in a striped texture on this negative. To me, it looks like a really old photo taken years ago. I also think it has a tropical feel about it:

Overall, it was nice to try out a black and white film in the camera which didn’t have too much contrast compared to the JCH film. I really liked the crisp details I got from the camera.

After this film I decided I wanted to try out an Ilford black and white film. I look forward to blogging next week with the results.

Using the Flash Shoe Accessory for My Olympus Pen FT

Several months ago I purchased a flash shoe accessory which was made specifically for the Olympus Pen FT.

When I initially fitted it onto the camera, I was really worried about it breaking the plastic around the viewfinder (there are many FT’s I’ve seen for sale with broken plastic on their viewfinders due to this particular accessory breaking them) so I was a bit reluctant to use it for a while….

Here is a close up of the viewfinder of the camera:

Here is a close up of the viewfinder with the flash shoe accessory attached:

However, the other week it was a miserable rainy day in Brighton and I desperately needed a photography fix! So I decided to carefully attach it to my camera and try it out at home by taking photos of my pets.

I had previously bought a Mirage 200 flash which I picked up for around £4 on eBay and it came with new batteries in it so that was a bonus! There was also the metal attachment with it in case I wanted to mount the camera on that instead of using the flash shoe accessory which means the flash sits to the side of the camera.

Here is the flash mounted on top of the camera:

I decided to use my 40mm 1:1.4 G.Zuiko Auto-S lens since I thought this would be good for portrait shots of my pets.

In my 35mm film stash, I had some Kodak Portra 160 colour film which, I decided to use for this project.

The Mirage 200 Flash provides an exposure table on the back of it which, suggested that I shoot at an aperture of f/16 if taking photos of around 1 metre (3 foot) away with a film ISO of 100, or it would be f/22 for ISO 200 film.

Since the lens I was using only goes up to f/16, I decided to shoot on that aperture.

I also had problems with the viewfinder being quite dark whilst shooting indoors so I really had to concentrate on getting the focusing right because it wasn’t very clear.

I ended up having to take photos of my pets over a couple of days since there was 72 shots to use up on the roll of film!

Once I got the film back, I was very pleased with the results! The film had exposed really well.

Here are a couple of photos of my dog, Daisy:

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Here is one of Daisy next to a cushion which I had printed up and made from a Polaroid photo I took of Brighton Bandstand:

Here are a couple of photos I took of my cats:

These final three photos of my cat, Mr Robinson, made me laugh. I can only think I perhaps wasn’t giving him any more treats for the day!

I would definitely use the lower ISO Portra film again for taking indoor photos as I really liked the colours.

Due to my fear of chipping the plastic viewfinder on the camera, I cannot see me using the flash attachment on a regular basis but it’s good to know I’ve got it for when I do need to take some indoor shots using this camera and I’ll just have to be extra careful when mounting the flash.

Olympus Pen FT Half Frame Camera

I first discovered this camera when I was reading the Tokyo Camera Style book by John Sypal.

I initially fell in love with the design of the camera but was also very intrigued when I discovered on the internet that it’s a half frame camera.

Half frame camera’s were popular before I was born so I wasn’t sure what this type of camera was.

After further research I discovered that a half frame camera uses twice as many frames at half the normal frame width on a 35mm negative to an ordinary film camera. For instance, if I loaded this camera with a 36 exposure film, I would be able to get 72 images instead of 36. This was because developing pictures back in the 1950s/60s was quite expensive so this was a great way to get twice as many photos developed for the same price. As development of photos got cheaper in subsequent years, the half frame camera became less popular.

I found this highly fascinating and immediately knew I would love to add a half frame camera to my collection.

After further research I found lots of half frame cameras had been released into the market over the years. Initially Olympus had released the Olympus Pen F camera and some of these camera’s have a cool F design on the front of the camera (like the lens cap design in my picture) but these didn’t include a self timer. Olympus also released other types of half frame camera’s as well as these Pen SLR camera’s.

I also discovered that Canon released a half frame version too. In the end I decided that the Olympus Pen FT was the camera I really wanted to own and use. The main reason being that it had a self-timer.

Unfortunately my local second hand camera shops didn’t have any in stock and although they’re not rare, they are not as readily available as perhaps an Olympus Trip 35 and they also come at a higher price tag.

I’d already decided that I was willing to pay more for a nicer condition one as I prefer to have my cameras in great condition, especially if I’m going to use them regularly.

Initially I found that most of these cameras are available for sale on eBay but are mainly for sale in Japan. Ideally I wanted to purchase mine from a UK seller so knew I had to be patient as they are few and far between.

After several months of searching and checking in with my local second hand camera shops to see if they miraculously had one come into their shop I finally found the one I wanted on Etsy.

I bought it from a gentleman in Scotland who is a professional photographer and refurbishes vintage camera’s as a hobby. He mainly finds his vintage camera’s in charity shops and he told me a lot of them are a complete write off and beyond repair but every now and again, he’ll find a camera in amazing condition or which he’s able to easily repair and cosmetically it’s in great condition.

This camera was one he had discovered in immaculate condition and only needed some slight refurbishment. He had personally owned the camera for over a year but found due to other photography commitments, it wasn’t getting the use it truly deserved so reluctantly he decided to sell it.

The camera came with it’s original leather case and the Zuiko 40mm f1.4 lens. The Olympus Pen FT camera was in production from 1966 to 1972 and what I loved even more was that the camera came with the original receipt which showed that it was purchased on 11th June 1972 and written on the receipt was the serial number of the camera and the serial number of the lens which matched my camera and lens.

The shutter speeds on this camera are B/1 to 1/500 and it has a unique rotating disc design that syncs with the flash at all speeds. The aperture is from f1.4 to f16. It has a light meter reading in the viewfinder which is numbered with a needle rather than a needle which you aim to point to the centre which I found unusual but was easy to understand. Basically the needle in the viewfinder will point to a number (ranging from 0 – 7) and you’ll match the number on front of the lens to make sure you get the right exposure. You can adjust the shutter speed to change this number if you need to.

I certainly wasn’t disappointed when I received and started using this camera. It’s an SLR and has interchangeable lenses. I also loved the half frame viewfinder and how I had to think a bit differently when shooting an image in comparison to taking pictures with a normal camera.

It’s a much smaller camera in comparison to my Pentax K1000 so I can literally pop it into my handbag which is great.

Here are some photos I’ve taken using the 40mm lens. I took the film for development to my local film development shop called Colourstream in Brighton. They told me they could only develop the film on a normal frame width which means that there would be two photos on the frame with a black border. They also informed me that the exposure would be a compromise between the two images rather than each individual one.

I was keen to get my first film developed asap so was happy for them to develop the film this way and was interested to see how two photos would turn out printed together.

Here are some of the results which I shot on a Kodak Colour Plus 200 (36 exposure) film:

I also experimented using the self-timer which was great fun. However, one of my friends who is a photographer and has a lot of knowledge on vintage camera’s since informed me that I was taking a great risk in using the self-timer option as vintage camera’s are notorious for having the mechanics of the camera break on you if you use this because they are old and fragile. I therefore haven’t risked using it anymore but below is an image on the left where I used the self-timer: