No free time

It occured to me i haven't posted for a long time on this blog, this is purely down to lack of time.
I am in the process of stting up a high street studio. i shall hopfully have time to post my progress at some point.

Spartus "35 F" Model 400

The film used was ilford fp4 processed in ilfords cheapest chemicals ... badly as usual

Olympus Trip 35

The Olympus trip began production in 1967 and ran until 1984. According to Olympus, they sold 10 million of this model in that 17 year period and very few changes were made to it's design! I guess if it aint broke, dont fix it! It really shows how much the world has changed in the last 25 years. Nowadays, cameras have a production run of usually less than a year! This could be put down to a technology moving on a lot quicker but personally I think this is a load of pap! The truth is, it's consumerism, we are bombarded with "new and improved technologies" that make us want to buy the latest thing! The fuji f30 compact digital camera is one of the best cameras of recent times but because it was 'only' 6mp it only lasted a year or so (including the f31fd - basically the same camera with "face detection"). It has been a few years since the f30 came out and even now manufactuers are struggling to beat it for image quality... what a barmy world we live in!
Anyway, enough of the ranting and back to the trip 35.
It's a very simple camera to use, it has a fixed 40mm 2.8 lens with a four position zone focus system. The lens is surrounded by a silenium light meter that, on mine at least, is as accurate as is needed for day to day snaps. It has user selectable iso ratings from 25-400 - allowing a small amount of manual control over exposure if you are that way inclined. It also has an adjustable aperture, single pin hot shoe and sync socket for flash use. Thats the lot! Put the camera on A on the aperture setting and set it to the little red zone focus setting and in good day light with 100-400 iso film it will do the rest, only stopping you from taking a photo when there isnt enough light.

This is my Trip 35
All of these images were taken on ilford hp5 400iso. The first four were taken using a Nikon sb-20 flash.

The Box Brownie

The box brownie was first introduced in 1900 and was widely recognised as bringing photography to the masses. Because of its relatively low cost and ease of use, it was the first camera that took photography out of the hands of the trained photographer and into the hands of everyone else. The result of this was the idea of snapshot photography, anyone could now take a photo of anything! The 1900 brownie is the first incarnation of the camera phone (just without the phone bit)


This is my Box Brownie


As can be seen in this photo it is a No.2 Brownie, model f. Although I have no idea about the exact date this particular one was made, from the patent information it's easy enough to guess that this camera is approximately 80 years old.


This image shows just how simple these things are! The metal lever toward the bottom left is the shutter. For instant shooting the lever in the top right stays in the lowered position. When the shutter is flicked either up or down it pushes on the spring which in turn rotates the round disk. The jelly bean shaped cut out in the disk allows light to travel through it, then through the lens behind, and for what I am guessing to be a 50th of a second, exposes the 120 film within the camera. If the lever in the top right is pulled upward the shutter will stay open once the lever is flicked until it is flicked a second time. The lever top center when pulled up, changes the camera between its 3 apertures which I understand to be f.16 f.22 and f.32. The top left hand corner is the two view finders for portrait and landscape.



My particular camera isn't in the best condition, but for its age I'm very happy with it considering I paid £1 for it off of ebay! The little mirror in the portrait vf had come away and was rattling around in the front of the camera. Unfortunatly half of it had smashed into little bits but there was one large bit thatIi managed to glue back in place. Its fair to say its not the clearest of views through either vf, infact you can barely make out anything, just fuzzy shapes, but that just adds to the fun!

This is the first film I have put through it and without really thinking I put an ilford HP5 400 iso roll in, not perhaps the most sensible choice considering that in the days of this camera most film was either 25 or 50 iso. I also perhaps rather stupidly hadn't noticed when I shot the film that I could change the aperture, so shot all day with the largest one. After realising my mistake I decided it best to develop the film for less time than required for 400 iso hp5. The results were fairly over exposed and low in contrast. I then couldnt find the 120 film loader for my scanner so just had to place them on the flat bed and hope for the best. They weren't held flat in the scanner which has, i think, added to the bluryness of the images. It has though also meant that I have been able to scan the whole image right to the edge of the neg and this has framed the images nicely! Also lets face it, if you are going to use a camera from the 20's you aren't likely on the road to perfection!
These photos have been run through lightroom to bring back a bit of contrast, but are otherwise as the scanner scanned them.

This first shot is what you get if you leave the shutter open when you put the film in. Using any new (or very old) camera is a learning curve, I wont make that mistake again! (although i do think it is quite a nice image, and it does make you wonder in the 109 years since the "snap shot" camera first came about how many photos like this have been taken!!)


My house.


Some of the works they are doing down toward diglis.


Slightly wonky shot of the old keepers cottage(?) down at diglis. One of the only truly pretty buildings left down there in the mass of souless architecture that is there these days.


Old dear with stick walking down by the river.


This one I like as I think it's pretty difficult to date.


Older folks getting up off a bench as I pointed my camera at them.


And finally my good buddy Mr. Deacon on his ice cream bike. Damn good bit of mint choc chip available at remarkably good price!!


£1 for the camera £4.99 for the film a few pence on chemicals and a bloody lovely ice cream (Deaks you can buy me a pint or a free icecream for this advertising) a damn good way to spend a friday afternoon!

Also a quick thank you to James and Hannah for providing me with the impetus to get this camera out and run a film through it!

Sun Set / Sun Rise Kenya

Sun Set (ish) over the Maasai Mara. The bird in the tree is an eagle. Please Scroll down for my images of the people and animals of kenya

Sun Rise over the Maasai Mara

Photo of the Locals in Kenya

These first four images were taken at the The Akambaa Handicrafts Cooperative Society in Mombasa. A factory of sorts where all of the workers (aparently) belong to a single tribe. They are all tecnically self empolyed, carving work to be sold through the on site shop as well as being sold to other shops all over the country and even exported internationally. Some of the workers carve and some finish the carving with polish and animal bone.




As i was taking this photo, the people in the next hut starting calling out "Obama, Obama, Obama". Locally to the factory there is a road that has beeen named obama road.


The following three photos were taken whilst walking around Mombasa city.

Photos of the Wildlife in Kenya

Here are some of the shots from my recent trip to Kenya
There are many more to follow, they are just taking a little time to get through!!

Lake Nakuru


Maasai Mara


Maasai Mara


Maasai Mara


Maasai Mara


Masai Mara

Masai Mara


Lake Nakuru


Lake Nakuru


Lake Nakuru


Lake Nakuru


Lake Nukuru


Lake Nakuru


David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust