the law, tues 10th feb 2009

Not the band (thankfully), the place - or at least various views from it. This is the last of the catch-up sets, and the oldest - there's still snow lying in most of these! Taken using the Canon EOS 3000 body I bought off eBay for about £3 + postage on the basis that it allows a little more flexibility than the EOS 3000, though with no instruction manual I haven't got far.

[Photos] The Law

zorki 4k test shots

Ok, I'll admit that this is probably the least interesting of the lot. I bought a Zorki 4k, a Soviet-era Leica copy 35mm rangefinder camera, on a forum I frequent. As the camera arrived during my night shifts I've not had a chance to try it out in the wider world, instead making do with wandering round the flat to test it out before bed.

There's no flash fitted on the Zorki, so it performs best in strong light. Some of the shots look really nice and sharp to me, but I don't think that comes across in the scans. Quite looking forward to getting some good weather again to try it out properly.

[Photos] Zorki 4k Test Shots

assorted action sampler shots, 2003-2009

I've previously mentioned that I have occasionally dabbled with a Holga. At the same time I bought that, I also bought an Action Sampler (mines is the see-through one). The Action Sampler is pretty much a toy, it's got four lenses that expose at 0.22 second intervals into the same frame on 35mm film, with no practical means of focusing. There's not a great deal more to it than that!

The film I finally developed today is the same one that came with the camera and has been in it since late 2003, with the last few shots taken in sunny Dundee yesterday. There were one or two surprises on there, along with a fair few shots that just hadn't really come out at all. I'm not entirely sure what some of them ever were, but was amused enough by the colours to include them. I'm quite pleased with the bright colours in yesterdays shots, it was a high ISO film (800), so it's picked up the sunny day well.

[Photos] Assorted Action Sampler Shots

sky rat

From yesterday's trip to Broughty Ferry beach. I found a second hand Tamron 55-200mm lens for £37 and wanted to try it out. It's manual focus only on the D40x, but I'm happy to adjust the focus myself. There's a strange mark in the top right-hand corner of each photo (edited out above) that I need to get to the bottom of. I have a suspicion it's on the sensor itself, as it appears on photos taken with both lenses.

Broughty Ferry Beach (II)

holga photos on flickr

In my final year at school I saw a segment on BBC Breakfast News about Lomography, and was instantly fascinated. A couple of years later, after getting internet access, I stumbled accross it again and got the DCA Shop to order in a Holga for me, one of the cheaper cameras on offer - certainly cheaper than a proper Lomo. I've only ever shot a few of rolls of film on it, as 120 format film isn't easy to get processed - Jessops can still do it, but it has to be sent away and takes around a fortnight. Part of the appeal is not knowing what you're going to get until the photos come back - for a start the casing is prone to light leakage, though this can creat interesting effects. Overall, I've found the results to be best when used on a clear, sunny, day.

I've had a Flickr account for a while, but never used it as I find Picasa easy to use, especially with the uploader. For a change, I've put these photos on Flickr as a set which you can view here. View other Holga photos here.