Migrants selling handbags, jewellery and selfie sticks, Rambla del Mar, Barcelona. The writing roughly translates as: With kisses I understand But sometimes not The interrupted sleep Migration is not a crime (I would be interested if anyone can more accurately translate “la duermevelas”).
Still-life, from the Italian Alps. This was taken with Ilford Delta 400 processed in Ilfosol 3. It seems to be marginally sharper than HP5 but otherwise very similar – I think that a lot of the more subtle differences between films (particularly tonality and differences in grain) are lost after scanning and processing digitally. As an aside, you might have noticed that almost all the films we shoot now are from Ilford. Unfortunately, it is becoming harder to find good films at a reasonable price here in Spain. And online prices for […]
Some shots from a test roll of Ilford SFX200. This is a specialised black and white film with extended infrared sensitivity. The film is interesting in that it can be used to shoot fairly conventional images, while use of red and infrared filters can produce very exaggerated effects on sky and foliage. The above image was shot in daylight with a dark-red filter. The sky and foliage (both foreground and on the distant mountains) have come out very dark compared to the people and stoney path that they are sitting alongside. I […]
Tourists in Barcelona. The cell phone is everything these days…
People waiting for the sliding bridge on the Rambla del Mar, Barcelona.
After much trepidation, I finally processed a set of films at home – and surprisingly, they seem to have come out reasonably well. These were all taken using Ilford HP5+ and the Zeiss Sonnar lens (the softness in the first shot is from shooting the lens wide-open with a ND filter stack – not the processing!). I expected that the most difficult part would be loading the film in to the spiral and tank. This has to be done in complete dark, and I used a large bag rather […]
Abstract street photograph, taken while panning the camera by hand using Ilford HP5+ film. Although it was getting dark at the time, it still needed an ND filter to get a sufficiently long exposure for this picture. The next set of films will be processed at home. I think I am going to have a lot of abstract images from here on…
Scooters are to black and white film photography as cats are to the internet…
Panning hand-held low-light street photograph, taken outside of the Liceu, Barcelona. I took several shots like this, trying to get a balance between motion blur on the background with a reasonably sharp subject. I think this needs more practise, although film tends to discourage experimentation…
Iron cross and lake, commemorating those that died in the second world war. Something that European politicians today seem to have forgotten.
A short set of photographs of an abandoned town, a short-lived remnant of western north American gold rush. All except for two images were shot on HP5+ film, with the Zeiss Sonnar 50mm. The remaining images were taken with the Ricoh and processed in Lightroom to try to recreate the Sonnar “look” (in as much as 28mm and 50mm focal lengths can look the same). Aside from adding simulated grain, the Ricoh images needed much reduced overall clarity and contrast, and also a circular graduated clarity filter to further unsharpen the image away […]
The Las Vegas Strip. Zeiss ZM 1.5/50 with Ilford HP5+.
Ocean Beach, San Francisco. On a particularly cold and windy day… Finally catching up with the film scanning and post processing. It is somewhat ironic that the film images take much more time and effort in Photoshop than the digital images – largely thanks to patching up scanner dust and defects on the negatives.
A set of shots taken from flight TK79 on its northern route between Istanbul and San Francisco. These photographs were chosen to make a nice contrast with the previous post about the Grand Canyon. These shots were taken (somewhat obviously) from the plane window while half blinded by the incredible light reflected by this white landscape. These are of northern Canada – just slightly north of the Baffin Bay – on a sunny, and probably warmish day of spring, with the snow and ice pack starting to melt. The glaciers pouring out […]
Transient Eye 