boss_kitty

Holiday!

So this is an odd film because I didn't take that many of the photos on it. It's the film I (or mainly Clemence) started on the last day of my lovely summer holiday in Brittany avec Emma (principalement) et la famille Chatel. It was really such a wonderful visit, I would love to come back. Anyway, after some mess around shots in the garden at home, took it up to Newcastle for a lovely stay with Ali and Dr B. Newcastle is such a pretty city, almost Victorian futuristic steampunk sci-fi with its many levels of roads and bridges "flying over" the buildings, dwarfing even the bigger ones. Anyhow, it was a lovely stay, with (as per Brittany) the loveliest hosts/companions. I am very lucky.

Taken on the Olympus Trip (hence focussing issues), and developed at home with Caffenol. Click the image for a large version, then use the "back" button/command to return here.

So, come with me now to the Arradon garden of la famille Chatel... It was very sunny so hard to get contrast right...

A (out of focus, great job me!) plate of Kouignettes (smaller Kouign-Amann). Various flavours (the bitter orange and dark chocolate one was probably my favourite though they were all great), bought in Vannes. Lovely, lovely. And possibly a very rude name unless I'm being teased.

Pensive me playing a board game that I liked a lot but can't remember the name of.

Koryn et moi

Emma

Clemence et Emma (deux fois)

These didn't scan in order, this was the first shot, just testing the film was wound on. View from "my" room.

SHANTI!! (Heart emoji)

Koryn, Clemence et Emma

Bernard et Emma (joyeux anniversaire Bernard)

Moi

Me in the garden (lawn mowed!!)

At Bitsy's Emporium of Awesome on my birthday. Not well levelled images by me.

The weird, but lovely multi-level structure of Newcastle near the quayside. I love this bit of the city.

Me 'n' Ali. Sigh! (The Sage in the background)

Millennium bridge and the Baltic Art Gallery

Me 'n' Dr B. Sigh!! Gazing at The Baltic.

View of the Tyne bridge from the Baltic

Dr B emerges from the Baltic, out of focus unfortunately.

Tyne bridge from Millennium bridge

Tyne bridge and the Sage from the quayside

Three indistinct images from inside the Baltic (2 of the infinity stairwell, one of a poster I liked, but at this point they could be anything)

Three photos in the Baltic cafe. Low strong sun so hard to get right. Ali's picture of me is particularly well executed. Sorry Emma for capturing you mid blink/eat.

The Baltic peeks between the buildings. This looked better in my head (in colour maybe, it all blends in monochrome). Shame.

Ali and Emma walking back to Fenham.

Impressive doorway by the bus stop to finish the film.

Fin.

Graffiti Bridge

Yes, yes, I'm running out of titles. A second test film for the Olympus Trip 35 used in the last post here. Additionally, got Keith to finish off the film and then tutorialised him through developing and scanning the film. A cool thing to do, I think we both enjoyed it, I did anyway. I really like the Trip, such a nice camera. Think I'll take it on holiday with me as it's perfect for that, hence the name. Keith developed these in caffenol. Click individual images for larger versions then use the browser back button to return here. They're mostly pics taken on a walk to the cinema and a walk around the "Bring the Paint" festival as it happened, though some others too. Enjoy!

Street photos around Leicester (old car RIP) ^

Images from around "Bring The Paint 2024" ^

And using the film up ^

Nice! Focus still hit or miss, but it's a cool camera for snaps.

Taking a Trip

So discovered an old Olympus Trip 35 that belonged to my ex-wife, which she said I could have. It wasn't functional at that point, the aperture blades were stuck so the camera couldn't function. A fun morning of cleaning and tinkering meant that it seemed to be working or at least the aperture blades did. Then realised I hadn't marked the lens position before stripping it down, so I had doubts it would produce anything viewable or in focus (more on my attempts to correct this later). Ran a test roll of Kentmere 400 b&w film through it, partly around the house, partly on a day out to London with Emma to see the Yoko Ono exhibition at Tate Modern (really good, just about worth the £22 entry, the exhibition that is). Developed this at home with caffenol. 16 minute dev time worked really well and pleased with these contrast wise (I like high contrast as an aesthetic) must remember that next time. As can be seen when enlarged, mixed results focus wise, and not in a way I can, currently, make sense of. Hmm. Some nice ones though. It's a lovely little camera for snaps and going on trips, hence the name. Really sits in the hand nicely. When it's good here, it's really good. Must try to find a way of recalibrating the focus. Anyway, enjoy, click individual shots for larger versions, then use back to return here. These are all over the place order wise. But that doesn't matter eh? Under each "section" (hah!) I've put comments alluding to the pictures above them to the next bit of text. Does that make sense? No one's reading this, so who cares? Me, obviously.

London, with Ron Mael :). Ironically, I was gutted on the day that I hadn't changed the focus from infinity to close up, so this should've been horribly out of focus. But it isn't. Hmmm. It is a lovely shot though.

Brutalist housing development between St Pancras and Tate Modern. Forgotten the name, like it though. I am very old and tired. Ok focus? As it should be. Why?

Russel Square tube station. Little dark, maybe I need to know the camera better to get better results light-wise. Is the focus a bit soft?

St Pancras. Nice in lit portions of the image. Little soft.

St Pancras roof. Very dark image, scanner blew it out trying to get some image from little on neg info. Might be salvageable if I had time/inclination to potch with the scanner settings (which I didn't this morning). Didn't even align it correctly, hence black band to right.

Tate Modern. Variable focus, at least soft though, nothing properly crisp when enlarged. The indoor one exacerbated by camera shake perhaps/perhaps not. Flat chin for the win though.

River landscapes. Again inconsistent focus. Is this user error or the lens?? So frustrating.

Street scenes in and around Covent Garden. It was getting dark, and there's camera shake on the one of the lights in the lovely old pub that I can't remember the name of. I am old and tired, and obviously forgetful. Focus is shocking to poor to just below average though. Weirdly ok on the sign top right of the picture immediately above... Aaaaaargh!!!

At home. Low light, is that poor focus or wobble as slow shutter?? Nice burn-in.

More indoor shots. Focus a bit soft? Might be lens, might be low light/slow shutter speed due to low light/hand shake. Nice glasses, me.

Phenomenal cat. Generally ok focussing, except where she moved, which frankly is her fault.

And to finish, hilariously, thought I'd do a variable focus test, having discovered there are three different threads on the lens barrel. So I thought I'd do one shot of the garden chairs for each focus setting (it's area focus so one person, two people, group and infinity are the 4 settings) for each thread. It took ages to locate the correct thread paths and mark them. I then realised that it doesn't matter which thread you use, as fully tightened will be the same for any and turning back a smidge (technical term) should mean the same result. So these were a total waste of time as well as being dull to look at. I think to recalibrate I need to do something like hold a ground glass plate behind the lens where the film would travel, and with the lens and aperture held open (I can do this), focus it on something like a lens calibrator card (is that what they're called?). Perhaps. Help!

Hep-Worth a Visit

No, you're struggling for post titles.

So, went with colleagues and friends Mand and Karen-Marie to Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It was a really lovely day, we managed to see about two thirds of the sculptures, but had a lovely time in really nice weather. I thought £9 was well worth it, although I understand this is a rise on previous admission fees. Anyway, as usual you can click individual pictures to see the full size version, then use back to return to this page to scroll to the next one. Enjoy!

(Pictures taken on a 1960s Practika TL-1, film is Kentmere 400 asa [could've used slower really] developed in the kitchen with caffenol, scanned [as is all this stuff] with a Canoscan 9000f scanner)

Kicking off with some sculptures by Erwin Wurm. Really liked the sense of whimsy. Well made too.

Mand hugs a tree. (Actually listens to it drinking)

Mand and Karen-Marie meet an Erwin Wurm creation.

The piece worth the price of admission (for me), Barbara Hepworth's "The Family of Man". I really loved, and love, this.

William Turnbull's "Ancestral Figure". Arthurian and aggressive, and lovely.

"Sitting" by Sophie Ryder. Or "Titsy Bunny" as it is in my head. It has stuck with me since we returned so maybe I like this more than I thought.

A distant view of the IOU Soundwave Collider (with composition by Jason Singh). Like the juxtaposition of metal and wood, tree and sculpture, "old" and "new"?

An exercise in focus bracketing. First image focusses between K-M and Mand, the second on K-M, the third on Mand. They were looking at and pondering on Leiko Ikemura's "Usagi Kannon II".

(Just visible) Mirrored ball on lower lake shore (it's Lucy and Jorge Ortega's "Gazing Ball 2018")

Willow near lower lake. Lovely.

Discussion in lovely peaceful surroundings.

Jørgen Haugen Sørensen's "Supplement til Titlens Afskaffelse". Ominous, I think.

Gavin Turk's "Oeuvre (Verdigris)". Lovely and is perfect in this spot.

"Is that a real cow stranded in the lake or a sculpture?" (It was having a drink and was real and fine)

Henry Moore's "Large Two Forms" lurks...

Cascade

Damian Hirst's "The Virgin Mother"

Hirst's "Charity"

Hirst's "Myth"

A view over the valley.

Moore's "Large Two Forms"

Heading home.

"He's bought her, ironic by that sculpture". Anonymous quote :)

Very pleased with these as lovely memories of a lovely day.

Failure Rate

Been not doing much photo-wise for a long while, but experimented with some long exposure stuff, which I then caffenol-ed in the kitchen sink. Almost total failure I'm afraid (probably a battery issue, maybe shutter), but there was a ghost of an image right at the very start, could it be a goody?? Yep, totally worth it. Hopefully I'll have some more pics soon and new posts (not from this experiment though, unfortunately, as there weren't any more, do you not read? Although I may repeat it in the future).

Spoooooooooky

Car Crash TV

I took the Octomat (Google it) to Llangollen when spending a weekend there last month. It's an incredibly finicky camera. Not only is the wind on mechanism (and shutter cocking clockwork system) hugely plasticy, fragile looking/feeling and ineffective, but the camera needs perfect conditions (good light particularly) to get conventionally acceptable results. Luckily I was after something different, which in many ways I got. For reasons, I have found that the film has to be removed from the metal film cartridge before loading (so complete darkness). I put some shitty Kentmere 400asa film in (to try to make up for October light in North Wales). Unfortunately the indifferent mylar backing plastic quality used by Kentmere meant the camera chewed through the sprocket holes after 27 shots of a 36 frame film. But no big loss as I was just wasting shots to get it finished, unloaded and developed by then. A mixed bag these but I might be able to do something with them. Home developed them in caffenol. Unfortunately they got light fogged just prior to developing which means they are often a train wreck, or often the leak is the interest here. Serendipity. I like that. Click for bigger versions why dontcha. Captions refer to the pictures immediately above them.

I really love this. the original photo is really underexposed (the weather was dreadful), the scanner was working its arse off to get even this. It's ghostly and I think what I was after (if only I'd known it going in).

More

I think this is a light leak onto a blank frame (very underexposed at best). Spooky,

Ditto likewise

Yeah, this is the shiiiiittt

This is also the shiiiittt

(Chef's kiss)

Again, magnifique (I'm being serious btw, my plan is to blow these up to render them more unrecognisable, I really like these so far)

I think this might be the last of "what I was after".

Yeah. This is completely wiped by the light, only some reflections of the sprocket holes remaining (these are on the negative). Like.

A normal picture. For the Octomat.

Oooo I dunno though like this too.

Cute. Sean in some Autumn sushine.

Sean surveys the newly repainted garden furniture.

More Sean action. Heart emoji, she's so great.

Yet still more Sean, I'm just getting the film finished here.

Yep

I like this. No idea what we have here but it's creeeeeeepy.

Flaaaaaaahs on a graaaaaaave.

Cross (start track 1 of the album "Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath now)

More cross.

Fin.

Nick Cave Dolls

Yeah the title is more about the vox-pop intro on said song "what a face! Is this an album cover? This is a weird one" or something like that anyway. You'll be pleased there's 100% less nudity in this post. Went on a walk along the canal (in early March 2022). My plan was to take selfies facing the sun so I would be a black void which I would then re-expose by swinging the camera around in front of some street lights. Quite like the result. They do look like an album cover, and it killed an afternoon and an evening doing something outside (also gave my neighbours something to laugh at me for [again] as I was dashing in and out the house, waving the camera around, then dashing back in to wind it on. I expect the padded wagon is on its way). Shot on the trusty Holga with Ilford HP5 film, developed in the kitchen using caffenol (see posts passim). Yeah. I like them. They're "good".

Nice start (also these are a memorial to THAT beard)

This was a couple I passed while walking and asked to stop so I could get this shot. Nice. They looked very worried...

"I wonder if it'll work the other way round?" No, not really

Must've left the lens cap on. Classic Holga error :)

Again seeing if it worked not facing the sun for black-out. No evidence of light trails either.

The last 2 frames kind of overlapped.

That's yer lot. I like them anyway.

Scream

Slightly different post as the first half of this film was shot by Viraaj on a walk to Abbey Park (my pictures from which are here). He also caffenol developed them in my kitchen with me as the responsible adult (pfft). They were shot on that weird monocular "binocular looking" Fuji camera my dad found a couple of years ago. It works (this is the first film I've devoped from it)! Viraaj's half are nicely composed, really nicely contrasty good pics. I finished the film off pissing about in the garden. They are and aren't what I wanted. They contain nudity (me) so be warned before you scroll down too far, you won't be able to unsee it. Anyway process was cathartic for me which was the point, not necessarily to produce much of note, more to express how I'm feeling right now, but think one or two turned out OK. Here goes.

Viraaj first.

That's a lovely one eh? ^

Like this a lot too ^

Tolerating. He does take great pictures of Sean. ^

Love this one ^

And now on to mine...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good start ^

Like this ^

My favourite of mine ^

Like this ^

Needles and Pin(hole)s

So these were taken around Leicester's cultural quarter with Sammy and EricaAmerica on World pinhole day (25-04-21, and let's not get into the ridiculousness of a council designating an area a 'cultural quarter', I think it's well meant if artificial). More pleased with them than I was these pics taken a few days later. The light was better (sunny, cold and windy on this day as opposed to cloudy, wet and cold on the others) and they just look more like I was envisioning them looking. Unsure what I'm going to do with them, though will probably offer the lens flare one to the world pinhole day website (and it has been accepted here). As usual click individual pictures for larger views, then use back to return to the preview sizes.

Inauspicious start there

Graffiti opposite the Phoenix (roughly)

Garage (working) opposite the Phoenix

Churchyard near the Curve

Nightclub building opposite Curve

Churchyard again (we did a few laps)

Sammy and EricaAmerica

Building opposite the Hindu temple up from Curve etc

Like this one. Hindu temple (I think) with lens flare near Curve

The old Odeon building (now Athena) and Curve

25 second exposure inside the gents' toilets at The Exchange bar (what phrasing there). Not what I wanted but worth a go (again with the phrasing)

Pinned Note

Pinhole cameras. Like the first cameras, eh? So the Diana I have at my house converts to a pinhole, so have been using it as one for a while. These were taken last Monday (3rd). It was dull and rainy. Not ideal in retrospect but they came out even if all the ones that were not stabilised are pisspoor. The first and last ones were on solid surfaces rather than handheld (first one on a bridge, last on the table at home to finish the film off). Have another pinhole film from pinhole day a week or so before which I haven't developed yet (plus a colour one that'll have to wait), hopefully more light will give more interest. Click individual pics for full horror.

This was a very long exposure (1 minute). Needed way more... But blur would've been worse...

See what I mean? How disappointing.