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HODMADOD PHOTOGRAPHY

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Tag Archives: narrowboat

No such thing as bad weather?

17 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by David Ruddle in Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

black and white, canal, churchyard, micro4/3, narrowboat, Olympus, photography, Prime lens, towpath, winter

Read the magazines or photo books and they all say that there’s no such thing as bad weather. Yes, everyone loves a sunny day or better still the golden hour at sunrise and sunset but, they say, even if the sun is not shining there are plenty of photo opportunities.

They then go on to show stormy seas with thunder clouds looming or mist hanging trapped between mountain ranges giving superb images.

What they seem to be less inclined to do is show what to do when the weather is really against the photographer which is what we have had for the past few days. Solid cloud. 17% grey. Horizon to horizon. It makes for totally flat images, especially here in middle England where I have neither seas or mountain ranges to make an interesting photograph.

Anyway I thought I’d challenge myself and see what I could do in the circumstances. A church yard seemed appropriate, and a muddy towpath.

Did I succeed in making a master piece? Don’t think so but I’m reasonably pleased that there are a couple of passable images. Converting to B & W was the only way of making them acceptable. Taken on my Olympus OM-D EM5 with 14mm Lumix f2.5

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Struggling to avoid a severe attack of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome)

30 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by David Ruddle in Uncategorized

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film photography, iphone, iphoneography, micro4/3, narrowboat, photography

For one reason and another my photography seemed to lapse over the summer and I did very little. I’ve sold all my film gear having decided that I would struggle to deal with the processing side if, as we plan, we go to live on our narrowboat for a few years and I just couldn’t seem to find the enthusiasm for taking photos. However this year saw us stranded at home for various reasons and to fill the hours I joined a local camera group. Not really a camera club but just a collection of peope who want to improve their photography and this rather retriggered my interest in taking pictures again. But of course with that came the desire to buy new equipment. But what? What did I need? Really nothing. What did I want? Loads!

I started off my new found enthusiasm by taking some macro shots with my micro 4/3 camera and a set of extension tubes but very quickly decided I needed (no wanted!) a dedicated macro lens. Which one? Extensive searching and I decided on the Olympus 60mm f2.8 But before committing myself I came to the conclusion that really I needed a better tripod to enable me to get lower and into different angles. So back to the research and I decided the one for me was a Benro Goplus Travel but then I thought, hang on, I’ve already got 2 tripods, one of which is a light weight travel tripod where I can attach the camera to the bottom of the centre column to get closer to the ground so do I really need a new one? No, not really; so, shelve that idea. Ok so got to buy something! How about a focusing rail? Make it so much easier for my macro shots. But hey, hang on. I’ve managed quite well without one so why bother?

OK, so how about another lens? Yes definitely need one. The only one I have for the M4/3 is the 14-42mm kit lens so whats available? Well there was the 60mm Macro lens I was keen on before my thoughts on other acquisitions. But no, no point, I’m coping perfectly well with the extension tubes. Ok. So a telephoto lens then? Yes, I could then do super wildlife photographs and win Wildlife Photographer of the year! So what length telephoto lens? 45 -150 to extend the range of my existing lens or 150-300 to really get up close? They have the equivilent range of 90-300 and 300-600 on full frame so at the long end would need a tripod. So am I going to be willing to tote my bag and tripod whenever I go for a walk or do I need to keep things simple?

It was at this point that I thought I ought to go back to using my iphone and see what results I could get from that so I splashed out a couple of quid on a new app -“Pureshot” – which gave me as much manual control, as the phone could offer with a very simple interface and off I went trying it out. I posted a few examples on an earlier blog and was fast becoming addicted to using it instead of my camera. Ah, so I can still spend money, I can buy additional lens, wide angle, fisheye and macro to fit on the front. But hey hang on. The lens on the iphone is pretty wide angle anyway (something like a 32mm equivilent I believe), I’ve never particularly liked fisheye photographs and I have a panarama facility on the camera/ software anyway for really wide angle and I have the extension tubes on my camera for macro, so no dont need those.

So here I am still desperate to buy something but unable to really justify anything. I know a prime lens of some description would give me better image quality than my kit lens but who would notice it except for me? I know a telephoto lens would enable me to take more scenes but do I want to carry all the gear? I know a new tripod would be more convenient but what do I do with the other two? etc etc

So, I think I’ve talked myslef out of my GAS. Until I next start to surf the net and find someone talking about a must have piece of kit.

How have you all dealt with this obsession?

A Black and White summer

04 Tuesday Aug 2015

Posted by David Ruddle in Uncategorized

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black and white, bristol, kennet and avon, micro4/3, narrowboat, point and shoot

Here’s just a quick few photos of some of the shots from this summer. I am more tending towards black and white now having been using film as extensively as I could over the last 18 months or so but all these were shot on digital, some on my point and shoot camera others on my main mirrorless DSLR

P1050044 P1050081 P1050295 P1050328 P1050394a P1050421 P1050449 P1050467 P1050534 P1050541

Resolving to do better

11 Sunday May 2014

Posted by David Ruddle in Uncategorized

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120, film, film photography, folding camera, hodmadod, Kodak, Kodak pocket junior, medium format, narrowboat

How long is it since I posted here? I just can’t believe how the time goes.

We are currently away on our narrowboat and have been since 21st March. I’m on my 7th roll of film but as I haven’t brought either my developing kit or my scanner with me I cant show you anything at the moment but here’s just a few random mussings.

Just before we came away my local photographic shop unfortunately closed down. It was a double blow as its another small independant that is no more and also Phil stocked film and developing chemicals etc so it was an easy place to go and buy what I needed. However in his closing down sale I cleared him out of all his remaining stock of film, both 120 and 35mm. Which was probably a bit silly as I’ve pretty well decided to concentrate just on medium format and I havent brought my Zorki 35mm with me on the boat. Most of the film is FP4 or Pan F neither of which I have used recently so I’m giving the FP4 a go in the Bronica and the Pan F I’ve loaded into my Father in laws old Kodak bellows prewar camera. Given that its a 6 x 9 negative the resolution should be great and it might tempt me to use the camera more often. I’m giving it every chance of quality by mounting it on a tripod no matter what shutter speed I’m using (although given thats its only f6.3 fully open and the Pan F is only ISO 50 they tend to be long anyway) so it will be interesting to see the results.

We will be back home at the beginning of June for a couple of weeks so I hope I’ll have a chance to develop all the films then and I’ll certainly post a selection here.

The other major news I have at the moment is that I’m coming out of retirement to shoot a wedding next month and I’m really looking forward to it. It will be shot on digital but I’ll take my Bronica and Zorki with me so if I get the chance will try a few shots with those.

Latest film results

10 Friday May 2013

Posted by David Ruddle in Uncategorized

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black and white, Bronica, film, folding camera, Kodak pocket junior, medium format, narrowboat

Sorry its been a while since my last post. We have been away on our narrowboat. For those of you not familiar with a UK narrowboat here’s a photo of ours (digital I’m afraid!)

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This short trip was a prelude to our summer away and I had planned to use it to experiment with my various film cameras to try to decide which I would use on a regular basis and whether I could justify taking them all. As you can imagine space is at a premium and I have my alloted cupboard space!

I took my Bronica and accessories, the old Kodak pocket Junior and my Franka Solida. They were loaded with Ilford Delta 400 HP5 and FP4 plus the spare back on the Bronica had Ektar 100 colour print film in.

The weather was atrocious. We were away for a month and didn’t even bother to leave the marina for the first two weeks as it was so cold and worse from a narrowboat point of view, very windy. We eventually got out for a couple of weeks but the options for experimenting with the camera were somewhat limited but I did manage to shoot a film of B & W in the Bronica and in the Kodak.

We got back home last weekend and I’ve developed the films to mixed results. I’m disappointed in what I got out of the Kodak. It appears that there is a light leak in the bellows and this is showing on a majority of the negatives. I had thought I’d found the hole and patched it up before I went but either the patch failed or more have appeared. It’s hardly surprising given the age of the camera and the fast that its been in store for some 30 year’s unused. I could try again but think I’ll just concentrate on the other two. The Bronica is a super camera and I have a telephoto lens and an extension tube for macro work so it’s quite an all round system and I’ll use the Franka as a point and shoot as its so small when folded I can carry it all the time.

Here’s a selection of photos from the Bronica all shot on or near the Leicester Arm of the Grand Union Canal. They are all straight out of the camera apart from the sepia toning and vignette on the steps – I’m afraid I haven’t even taken out the dust spots from the scanning!

Do ask if you have any queries.

Bronica_May13_Delta400_001 Bronica_May13_Delta400_002 Bronica_May13_Delta400_003 Bronica_May13_Delta400_006 Bronica_May13_Delta400_009 Bronica_May13_Delta400_012 Bronica_May13_Delta400_014 Bronica_May13_Delta400_015

Recent Posts

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  • No such thing as bad weather?
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  • Caught out by the snow and an early new years resolution

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