Well i finally got around to developing the first roll from my new Bessa today.. What a bloody disaster.
For the first time ever i had trouble loading the film onto the spools. It kept getting stuck, and would crease and bunch up.. I started to loose patience so decided to chop the film randomly in half and load the rest of the negatives on the other spool. By that time i was thinking about chucking the whole film out. I wasnt in the best of moods. But i eventually stopped having a sook and put the Fujifilm Acros in Rodinal at 1+50 for 14 minutes. It turned out ok i think, not perfect though. Temperature was about 16 degrees which probably didnt help.

I went back to the Opera House again. I know its touristy, but i think its one of the more interesting structures in Sydney. I really likes it’s angles and curves and scale. Its very unique. I’m going to keep going back there trying to shoot some non touristy compositions.
Oh, and i had the 35mm on for all (except the last) of these shots.

Here’s a few more taken in the city:

Now this last shot was taken with a Russian Jupiter 8, 50mm f/2 lens from 1962. I only took a couple test shots with it, but wow im impressed. I’m really surprised how nice it looks wide open at f/2. It has really nice bokeh and bit of a natural “glow”. I think it’ll take a little while to get used to it, as it can render some areas a little bit too grey. But i’m going to keep practicing to get the best out of it. It’s by far the most unique looking lens i have. Oh and it cost me nothing which is extra nice
I’ll be using it with some colour film also.

Have been stuck inside doing assignments all weekend, but managed to find one distraction i couldnt resist.
I stumbled on some old negatives of mine when i went to Europe with my family years ago. I was in year 10 or 11 at the time, and just started a photography class at school. The only real reason i did the class was because we had to choose an art subject and i didnt want to have to draw or paint… Yeah, um, i dont know how i’ve ended up studying graphic design now..
But anyway, the class quickly became my favourite and i would borrow a camera from school every weekend. When my parents told me we were going overseas to visit relatives i immediately thought about photo opportunities, so i arranged to borrow a camera from school.
These were the days when i didnt care about what camera or lens i was using, i dont think i ever actually knew, i’d just pick up whatever was available and loaded it with film. That was another thing, film, i couldnt care less what it was. I’d just load canisters with whatever was in the bulk loader at the time and try to squeeze 40 shots worth of film on them
I quite like the thought of not worrying about the camera im holding or the film in it. It’s almost a more “honest” way of taking photos. Not stripping quality back for the sake of getting a “lomo” look, or going out of your way to use a manual camera to have “full control”. It was purely about capturing an image. Finding the shot with whatever you have in your hands.
It all sounds nice until i remember a few things. The lens i did use for alot of shots was the biggest piece of shit. The left side was out of focus compared to the right so closeup images suffered pretty bad. The film advance lever wouldnt always engage too, so i’d get overlapped images, or just weird spacing in between shots on the film. Then i remembered how i use to put the negatives in the holders when they were still wet. Some shots that would of been half decent are now covered in dust that has dried to the wet negative..
I like to remember a more “romantic” view of taking pictures when i was younger, but i think it’d be hard to completely go back to the way i used to do things.
I’d like to think i enjoy the entire photography process more, as opposed to just the shots themselves.
Well, thats how i justify the money i spend on cameras atleast…

Here are some of the shots that werent covered in dust. This set was taken in Italy. I quite like them even if they arent perfect. It also helps to have something interesting to take a photo of too.

Well, that’s a bit dramatic actually..
The other week i got some Fuji Neopan SS (100iso) as it was super cheap, and i’d never heard too much about it. Felt like trying something different. I decided to shoot a test roll this wee as i couldn’t really wait to use it on something special, i just wanted to see what it’d look like. I was half way through the roll when i noticed something wrong. My camera was set at 400 ISO =/
I initially got annoyed with myself, but then thought it’d be a good opportunity to try and push process the film a little (i’d never tried it before). So i shot the rest of the roll and started looking for some recommended development times. To my astonishment there were hardly any… Well, there were dev times for 100ISO, but nothing for 400.. I started looking at times for other developers but found hardly any info at all.. Thinks weren’t looking good.
After hours of searching i thought i’d just give it a go making an “educated guess”… Actually, it was more of a plain old “guess”.
Somehow, it worked. As you’d imagine i was pretty happy about it all. Actually, it produced some of the nicer results i’d got.
Here they are. Fuji Neopan SS developed in Rodinal at 1+50 @ 21C for 18 minutes, pushed to 400 ISO.

I dont know what happened with this shot, but thought it looked kind of interesting anyway..

Just some shots from the other day. Tried some 400 ISO HP5 out this time, i quite like it. Developed in Rodinal 1+50 for 11 mins. The damn flare killed the second shot, should of expected it though. The shot with the flowers was taken with an old red filter i was testing out. Oh, and check out my ghost photo at the bottom :p

OMG A GHOST! :p

found an old red filter in one of my camera bags today and thoguht i’d try it out with the remainign film in the camera. For a while now i’ve been wondering what differences it can make to black and white photography, i decided to shoot two identical shots to see the difference with and without the filter (i was looking for ways to finish the roll off, haha)
I have to say i was quite surprised by the boost in contrast it gives. I never imagined it’d be that much.
The example shots below probably didnt have the best subject matter or setting to see the full advantage of a red filter but i took some photos afterwards that really benefited from it (will post them later).
I think a red filter will be living on my camera most of the time now.

Ok, i’ve been cutting back on my camera collecting, but this little gem was going very cheap so i had to buy it. I mean, for less than $20 you cant really go wrong.
Its a Canonet 19 from the mid to early 60’s. Sort of a beefed version of an Olympus trip bit with a faster 45mm f/1.9 lens and manual control. Oh and a funky bottom film advance lever too. I wasnt too confident on the condition as it was really cheap (they’re not worth a great amount anyway), but i was plesantly surprised when i received it today. Aperture and shutter are all working, and even auto mode seems to be going good which means the light meter is ok. Cosmetically its in top condition too. It also came with its original eveready case and yellow filter which look great. But what is even cooler is its original box. I think it looks great with the fancy “Canonet” typeface, and canon logo with colour design etc.
I have a little time off soon, so will put a roll through it and see the results. It looks as though someone changed the light seals not too long ago, so im quietly confident that it’ll work.
Heres a shot of it below. I didnt take it in my light box as i couldnt be bothered setting it up. I just put it infront of a window on white cardboard and put some white paper behind it. You obviously cant get the same lighting control you would with a proper light box, but this is a decent quick/temporary solution.

Scanned some more shots today. APX400 in Rodinal at 1:50 for 28 minutes. Its all a learning experience for me so i’m quite pleased with how they turned out. Also, i couldn’t find any suggested times suitable, so i kind of had to make my own up.
The thing i’ve noticed lately with film is that shallow depth of field shots looks wonderful. Especially with some nice grain, it has such a unique aesthetic that i really love. In the future i’m going to try and take advantage of that more.

Last month, for a bit of fun, i shot a roll of cheap film over the space of a week with my Mju:II. I kept the camera in my car and in my pocket most of the time just taking pictures of things that looked interesting. Theres nothing revolutionary about this concept, and i’ve been carrying cameras around with me for quite some time now. But there seemed something different this time. The fact that the camera only offered a limited amount of options to the user. No manual settings, no zoom, an auto focus, auto everything pretty much. Every other camera i own has manual settings, so i wasn’t sure how far i’d get with this automatic plastic fantastic Olympus. Also, i’d never used the camera before so thought it’d be a good opportunity to test it out.
To say i was happy with the results is an understatement. This little camera has now shot up the list of my current favourites. The lens is sharp, and i think the photos it produces (looking at the prints) has a distinct look. Its also very compact and strong. I was walking over rocks covered in moss once and managed to slip over (im normally not that clumsy). The camera was in my right hand, which took the full weight of my body when i fell over on the rocks. The camera survived with just one scratch, alot better than me who managed to be bleeding from my arms and back =/ . The camera had this roll of film in it too, so i was worried at one point that the back may of opened, or somethign cracked letting light in, but everything was completely fine. I finished shooting the roll that day.
Photos were taken in the Sydney CDB and suburbs, quite often driving to or from things. Theres a night shot in Circular Quay where i just put the camera on a fence and let it select its own shutter speed which turned out perfect. Theres some other night ones where i turned on spot metering and turned the flash off.
Here are some shots.

This is my postcard shot! (aka, pretty average photo trying to fit as many landmarks in as possible…)