Tag: tree

Hi-Matic!

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Been a while since I’ve done one of these…

Last year I accidentally bought a Minolta Hi-Matic F (it came with a light meter I wanted, so that’s my excuse!) and put a roll of film through it. I wasn’t sure what to expect from it and actually forgot about the film until a couple of weeks ago, when I developed it.

Now, there’s a tangent here. I’ve been fed up with using my scanner (a canoscan 8800f) to digitize my negatives. It’s slow and I’d rarely get the quality of images I was after. My brother suggested digitizing with a copy stand and my Z6 (I also used an 18mm extension tube). I already had a light board and the 35mm negative carrier / mask from my Kaiser enlarger was just what I needed.

The copy stand was cheap, and it shows in the mount bending, with the weight of the camera. Live and learn, but at the time I wasn’t even sure if this method would give me the images I was after. Well… it did.

Two people tending a war memorial.
Tending:
Minolta Hi-Matic – Ilford Delta 400 @ 400 in DD-X 1+4 for 8 mins

I left the number window on the negative carrier open, for easy reference, and along with the slight bowing caused by the bending copy stand, I felt it gave a somewhat whimsical and interesting to the photos. Therefore, I’ve decided to not crop the images from this film, and may do the same for future films.

Domineering Tree:
Minolta Hi-Matic – Ilford Delta 400 @ 400 in DD-X 1+4 for 8 mins

As for the Hi-Matic F itself, I enjoyed using it and it’s my first rangefinder camera. I did however find, that it was quicker and easier to guess the focus, dial it in and quickly shoot. Trying to focus just slowed the process down.

Perambulating:
Minolta Hi-Matic – Ilford Delta 400 @ 400 in DD-X 1+4 for 8 mins

When I bought it, I had been looking for something light and relatively wide, to try my hand at more street photography. It really has filled this niche for me and I’ll be taking it out and about more. My one caveat is that it chomps batteries and you can’t actually turn it “off”. While you can’t get the original batteries (as far as I can tell) you can double up LR44 batteries and it will work, though it may be worth taking them out when not in use.

Booster Queue:
Minolta Hi-Matic – Ilford Delta 400 @ 400 in DD-X 1+4 for 8 mins

If you can pick one up for cheap, I’d really recommend getting one. Also, I’m converted to digitizing film with my camera 🙂

A lockdown plan, for the expulsion of boredom.

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Now I’ve started scanning film, I’m having trouble stopping. The other day I found out a file of old negatives in my darkroom, shot mostly with my old Mamyia C330 on 120 Tri-X. I’d forgotten they existed, so it was a nice surprise. I’m now in the process of scanning and editing them. This should keep me busy for the most of lockdown, at any rate!

Here are a few so far, all of which were shot in 2008:

Old man at the bottom of the steps.

I like this old tree, it has plenty of character. It’s at the bottom of the steps, up to Mnt. Joy. 2008.

Mamiya C330, 80mm lense,
Kodak Tri-X 400,
Xtol 1+1, 8 minutes with 4 minute pre-soak,
Canoscan 8800f and Vuescan x64,
Edited in Exposure X5.
Steps… lots of bloody steps.

These are the side steps up to Mnt. Joy. 2008.

Mamiya C330, 80mm lense,
Kodak Tri-X 400,
Xtol 1+1, 8 minutes with 4 minute pre-soak,
Canoscan 8800f and Vuescan x64,
Edited in Exposure X5.
Parkhurst Trees 1

Mamiya C330, 80mm lense,
Kodak Tri-X 400,
Xtol 1+1, 8 minutes with 4 minute pre-soak,
Canoscan 8800f and Vuescan x64,
Edited (barely) in Exposure X5.

Also, today’s film scanning music is provided by The Black Keys 🙂

Back in the saddle again…

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So, it’s been a while since I wrote a blog post. I hit a bit of a rut and wasn’t taking many photos. Even now, I’ve not been in my darkroom for ages. But still, I’ve finally started taking more photos and I’ve started another 365 project, which is pushing me a bit. It turns out I was missing the need to take photos every day. It gets the old creative juices flowing!

Skimia Japonica
Primrose Flower
Some berries, sliced with the Edge 35 Optic.
The centre of a gerbera
A slice of autumn, with the Edge 35 Optic.
A glowing rose
The stigma of a hemerocallis, or day lilly.
And finally, a hairy little spider.

Captures Of The Week (Or There Abouts!)

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So, I’m still playing about with my Raynox 250 on my Tamron 90mm Macro Lense. While I’ve been doing a fair bit of macro work, I’ve also been swapping in the lensbaby as the mood takes me. Still love the edge 35 optic 🙂

Peeking through the bokeh…
Just the centre of a flower
Hebe flowers
The carcase of a dead ladybird.
A dead fly. This was very small and quite difficult to shoot hand-held.
Some flowers, shot on paper, using the light from a window and tweaked quite a bit in Exposure X4.5

Captures Of The Day (18/05/19) – or the tale of the forgotten battery…

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So, I forgot to take my camera battery with me today, leaving me with just my phone camera. I’ve only ever used it for snap shots, so didn’t really know how it performed. It’s fine out wide. As soon as you focus up close you find it’s all digital zoom. Very disappointing as I wanted to do some macro photography. Even more disappointing was that the macro shots I did take looked good on the screen, but crap when I put them on the computer. I guess you win some, you lose some.

View through a tire swing.
Sweeping Flowers. False colour added in Exposure X4.5
Flowers given a red-cyanotype look.
Given a infra-red look in Exposure X4.5
A good use for an old bath

Captures of the day (23/4/19)

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Pink blossom

These are a few shots taken today, at or near Lake Community Gardens.

A tree

Again, I’ve been using the Edge 35 Optic in a Lensbaby Composer, with mixed success.

A seed head

The software I use for managing and editing photos is called Exposure X4.5. I’m still tied into lightroom for my past photos, but I prefer Exposure for it’s ease of use and power. I also use GIMP or Photoshop when the need arises.

A rusty gas lantern (I think)
I love a bit of rust!