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Photography

The Feds are Coming! FED 5b Street Images III

Noir-style street photograph in Barcelona. Shot using a FED 5b and Delta 100 film.
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Another high-contrast contra-luz shot from the FED 5b. I am really happy with the way that these have come out – for a 20 euro camera that is 35 years old it is capable of some amazing images, and it is also quite pleasant to shoot with thanks to the quirky-but-solid construction and quiet-but-satisfying shutter. Another bonus is that people seem to react less to the sight of the camera, possibly because it does not look even vaguely professional. This film was the first that I have  completely taken without a meter, using just the sunny […]

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Photography

The Feds are Coming! FED 5b Street Images II

Cyclist in the Ciutat Vella, Barcelona. Shot with FED 5b on Ilford Delta 100.
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Shooting fast moving subjects wit the FED 5b. Rapid focusing with the Industar 61 lens is quite hard. The viewfinder on the FED is tiny, and it is easy to miss a focus error when working quickly. Even zone-focus is slow as the focusing ring has a very long movement, and there is no way to tell where the focus is set without looking at the lens (there is no ‘tab’ or similar found on some Leica mount lenses). The trick used here was just to preset the focus and wait for the subject to […]

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Photography

The Feds are Coming! FED 5b Street Images I

Film based Street Photography in the Ciutat Vella, Barcelona. Shot with FED 5b on Ilford Delta 100.
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  The first of four posts with images shot with the (now repaired) FED 5b. These were all taken in or around the Ciutat Vella, early in the morning. Barcelona’s streets are fantastic for these contra-luz style images at this time of year, thanks to a combination of the low sun and the just-washed cobbled streets. This was shot with the FED and Ilford Delta 100. I shot almost all of this sequence with the lens at f11-f16, using zone focus (which is not hard at these f-stops!) and guestimates for […]

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Equipment

FED 5b: Vintage Soviet Rangefinder

FED 5b Soviet Rangfinder - Front View
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  This is a short look at the FED 5b rangefinder camera. We found this one at a flea market in Barcelona, for the price of two reels of film. With some care, these cameras can be just as usable today as when they were first made 35 years ago. The Ukrainian built FED 5b was a very basic all-mechanical design, evolved over many years from a copy of an early Leica design. It uses the older Leica M39 lens mount and lacks modern frivolities such as a built-in light-meter. In form and function it is not […]

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Abstract

Abstract II

Abstracted skyscraper (Bibliothèque nationale de France) architecture, Paris. Photoshop composite of a black-and-white film image.
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Another abstract, aiming to construct in a contradiction (I am trying very hard not to call it a supposition) that recalls both direct and inverse characteristics from the previous post. And a slightly more airy view. Leica M7 with ZM 1.5/50 on Ilford HP5+, processed in Photoshop by merging two images.

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Abstract

Abstract

Abstracted bridge architecture, Paris. Photoshop composite of a black-and-white film image.
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Trying something slightly different, with some architectural images shot on film and then modified in Photoshop. All of the grainy reality of film, only without the reality… The first of the set is an old cliché, but fun nonetheless.

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Architecture

Bibliothèque nationale de France

Bibliothèque nationale de France, shot on Ilford HP5+.
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Amazing wooden decking and some very sharp towers. The architecture is fascinating as it somehow gives the impression of an immense open space, while hiding large sections of the library under your feet. As an aside, maintaining all the wood here in Paris’ notoriously damp climate must be challenging. Shot with the M7 and 50mm on Ilford HP5+ 35mm film and processed in HC110 1+63 (“H”) for 8:30 at 24c. The Zeiss C-Sonnar is a great general purpose lens, but it has a bit too much distortion for these kind of straight-line […]

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Architecture

Bridge

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  The Passerelle Simone-de-Beauvoir, Paris. The same bridge as the lead photo in the previous post, but taken facing in the opposite direction, and using a film camera rather than a phone. Not withstanding compositional differences, whether or not the film images are better or worse than their phone equivalents is really a matter of taste – all that you can really say is that they are different. I started shooting film last year to help make the photographic process more deliberate and considered, and to a certain extent I […]

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Photography

Heaven Sent

Look up- flare bound building.
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Building with Flare, Paris. And a time traveling title from the future. The image quality from the phone camera is not all bad. Here, the limited dynamic range and the tendency of the lens to flare badly (at least compared to any other camera I have) are exploited to vainly try to add some interest to an otherwise humdrum architectural image. Unlike with film, WYSIWYG making it easier to work around the (massive) limitations of the phone camera’s sensor – which has very limited dynamic range.

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Photography

State of Decay

Market Stall, Paris
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The sofa of reasonable comfort at the Marché aux puces de la Porte de Vanves, Paris. An interesting flea market with a nice random collection of unusual and reasonably priced kick-knacks. We came away with some strangely warped records, some metal stamps and a bakelite camera (which if I can find some 620 spools may yet get to shoot again…).

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Photography

The Pyramids of Mars

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I really really debated as to whether or not to include an explicit photograph of the tower in this series – but the chance to legitimately use the title was too good to pass up :-) It is very hard to figure out any way whatsoever to take an original photograph of the Eiffel Tower that has not been made a million times over – including this one. However, I was taken by the repetition of the basic shape of the tower from within its own structure – seen here looking up […]

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Photography

The Crusade

Candles under a bridge, with Notra Dame in the background.
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Tourist snap of Notre Dame de Paris. I was disappointed that the buttresses on the cathedral didn’t actually fly. There are a few more pictures from inside the cathedral after the break – although not great, it was surprising how well the phone managed with the dark interior.

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