Today, I noticed a number of tweets under the #SaveTetenal hashtag, which was new to me. The linked article contains a video in which the narrator states that Tetenal had declared bancruptcy. That’s not quite accurate. The term bankcruptcy suggests that the firm has collapsed. I am no accountant, but from what I hear, Tetenal has gone into administration in October 2018 with a view to keeping the company commercially viable. The German term used Continue reading “Some thoughts on Tetenal’s Crisis and their C-41 Kit”
Pushing out of my comfort zone
On Twitter, @_JasonAvery challenged my camera. Well, not only mine specifically, but he through down the gauntlet with the #camerachallenge: 1. push an ilford film by two stops or more 2. move out of your comfort zone.
Pushing ilford films by two stops is the easy part. I’ve done that before. I would do it again, and decided to push Ilford Delta 3200 to ISO 12800 –that’s exactly two stops and rather fast for film.
The bit about the comfort zone is harder to interpret. Did the challenge want me to be less comfortable during the process itself? I hope not. Or did ‘subject matter out of my comfort zone’ simply mean shooting stuff I don’t normally shoot? This approach Continue reading “Pushing out of my comfort zone”
Goldline Presto N – Reflections on October’s #ShittyCameraChallenge
Following on from the two crappy cameras at the last #ShittyCameraChallenge, I moved on to a fixed focus point and shoot for the October edition. The Goldline Presto N is a point and shoot with built in flash, fixed focus, fixed shutter speed and fixed aperture.
In fact, it very much works like the disposable cameras currently on sale: along with the overall primitive set-up, the flash fires whenever the shutter is pressed.
Unlike in the case of disposable cameras, the battery can be removed and an ordinary film cartridge has to be inserted. The shutter Continue reading “Goldline Presto N – Reflections on October’s #ShittyCameraChallenge”
A Sleeping Giant
I largely missed the Giant Spectacular this weekend and all I took was a rather noisy, blurry shot of a sleeping Giant at the Albert dock.
I had not planned to see the procession. In fact, I wasn’t keen on the commuter chaos at all but Continue reading “A Sleeping Giant”
Two Crappy Cameras
I have been reminiscing about this summer’s #shittycamerachallenge as the next one is due to begin. During the previous one, I used an old, beat up, Agfa Silette which I had picked up in a charity shop for £5. Not a shitty camera as such: it is simple, a fully manual view finder camera, with an f3.5 Apotar 45mm lens. This particular example though had been through a lot.
Somewhat uncharacteristically for Continue reading “Two Crappy Cameras”
Basic Colour Filters
Recently, I stumbled across a youtube clip discussing five photography gadgets the vlogger regretted buying. Three of these were obviously or plausibly useless but no. 5 was taken by ‘basic colour filters’ which apparently suck because you can create the effect as easily in photoshop. The reference was clearly to basic colour filters (an orange filter was shown as an example), not more subtle colour correction filters.
I was puzzled initially, Continue reading “Basic Colour Filters”
Trolling Comrade Yezhov
Petapixel recently published a piece on Soviet image doctoring, obviously prior to Photoshop. Early efforts, it says, were based on scratching and repainting negatives. Well, they may have been, but the infamous work done on the removal of Yezhov is praised as neat. With this in mind, I am wondering how modern tools would do by comparison.
I unleashed my limited post-processing skills on Photoshop, Serif’s Affinity and Continue reading “Trolling Comrade Yezhov”
In the beginning …
… was an Instamatic -I don’t remember exactly which one, but even I am too young to have started with a Brownie. Anyway, I still have one of the first rolls from this camera and hence one of my first photos. This seems like a fitting subject for a first post:
This is a shot of my kindergarten’s sand pit, and important place for me at the time, taken from a first floor window. Note the two old car seats in the background: the grown-ups were happy for us to play on them. Something tells me they would be considered an unacceptable safety hazard today.