And a couple more

 

 

 

Zone plate series

 

I’ve just been working through a series of pictures taken with a home made zoneplate. These all stemmed from an idea that using the soft focus and dispersed highlights would allow me to reduce the scene’s to a minimum. I have made some test prints and will set about final prints when i get some more matte paper.

Mike

 

In Leeds

Today I had a camera with me…

This is just to say…

Thanks Sue, I love you:)

Mike

How many cameras to carry?

Connected to the last post, I’ve noticed recently that I do not really like to carry lots of camera equipment when I’m out. In the past I’ve happily carried a couple of dslr’s and lenses to shoot a wedding, and would do so again if it were called for, but now Iprefer to have less options to confuse me. I was quite surprised that I didn’t even want to carry two rangefinders with colour and black and white film in them and just one lens on each, as it confused the way I was seeing. The real tension was between thinking in colour and in black and white at the same time, and this diluted my approach to both. To a lesser extent I have reacted to carrying more than one lens at once, although that is less problematic as I tend to carry a 35/50 normal and something else (which then stays in my pocket).

All of this would probably be fixed by more practice, but I have found that keeping the equipment simple helps when I am photographing.

An aside, is that it is not really the particular equipment that concerns me – I am happy to use a dslr, rangefinder or digicam – but a need to avoid confusing my seeing process by having too many alternatives at the time of photographing. This perhaps also gives a clue as to why to dslr’s are OK, because they basically do the same job.

Mike

Equipment tensions

After Olympus announced their new EP-2 only 5 months after the EP-1 there has been some comment on the rate of new camera releases around the net and it set me thinking about new purchases. Like every other man out there it seems, I’m always delighted to have the excuse to buy a new toy and I have lots of reasons that I should buy at least two at the moment. As much as I like the rangefinders they are not really the sort of camera that fits my pocket and gets taken to work – the Ricoh GX100 fitted that bill until my wife decided it was hers. Also, I would like a way to be free of scanning and so an M9 should clearly be on the purchase list(!).

But this time, when I started to think about the possiblities I found myself left with some real concerns. The Panasonic GF-1 and Oly’s both look like the right sort of thing, with their little prime lenses, to carry around all the time. But, in reality I don’t often get the chance to use a camera during my working day and usually I am working too hard to really get in the groove anyway. So they’re probably not really necessary. Also, I still sometimes like the small sensor aesthetic, with the huge depth of field and different way of drawing as well as the fact that a little Ricoh really is more pocketable.

The M9 is harder – it appears to be a very good camera, but I worry that it would stop me using film altogether. This might not be a bad thing, but there is something that I like about film, and for black and white especially. When I started thinking about why I would likely not shoot film after buuying an M9 there are a few reasons:

• The M9 would certainly offer more real world resolution than any colour film I scan and more colour fidelity. This could be good sometimes.
• Digital files look very different to film and sometimes that is more appropriate. Here for example I wanted a very clean file for the print I imagined.
• Convenience – there is no doubt that digital is always more convenient than scanning film, even where it is not the first choice.

The last of these reasons is the biggest drawback for me at the moment. I suspect that I would sucumb to the convenience of an M9 and, more importantly, that would stop me exploring a rich seam of photography that I’m currently enjoying very much. This is very closely related to the need to use any tool sufficiently to get to know it and what it can achieve, and this usually takes quite a lot of time. So I am concerned that adding more layers would not necessarily help at the moment.

The counter argument is that it would allow me to get more done or to do the same in less time, but whether there would be a comensurate improvement in quality is less clear. I suspect that one day I will buy one, or something similar, but at the moment I have concerns about whether that is really a good idea!

Mike

PS As a sad side note, Nigel Allen on OPF has been told that Nikon has discontinued manufacture of all film scanners. That is bad news for film and makes a strong case for a digital rangefinder. Without the ability to home scan at a suitable quality, the days of 35mm are surely numbered even less than before. All at a time when there are some wonderful emulsions available.

Eva

This is Eva, who died last night. Funny how we always thought that she would go before Crystal, but actually outlived her. Now she has died just a short while  later.

Home seems a quiet place, even though she had not been very active the last few months, and we will be revisiting all those snapshots to make a scrapbook to help the children remember her. Funny, I can remember the names of all the dogs we had as children and my father is the same. Even though we know they will pass thro9gh they find a place in our hearts by their devotion and simple pleasure at our company.

When Eva arrived, she quickly persuaded my wife to allow her to sleep on the floor of our bedroom -  a place previously forbidden to any dog:)

Mike

Cragside bulrushes

Stainburn Moor – Last Stand

I took the children and dog for a walk yesterday and on the way back took this photograph. This area of pine wood was felled/harvested a couple of years ago and so is now very open, with some remaining wooded areas to the sides. The lone tree, losing it’s leaves in the battle with the closing seasons, makes a last stand against the encroachment of the pines that wil remain green through winter’s death.

Mike