Bronica ETRSi
January 5th, 2006 § Leave a Comment
I’ve got a new camera – a Bronica ETRSi. Its another analogue, medium-format camera, but single lens, instead of my Mamiya twin lens. The set-up I’ve got (second-hand) includes the ETRSi body, a 70mm lens, AE Prism Finder, Speed Grip and 120 and Polaroid backs. The speed grip and AE finder means that it operates like a large, slightly more cumbersome 35mm SLR, so hopefully I’ll be able to shoot more with this than the Mamiya, which needs a separate light meter. At the moment, i’m just playing around and getting used to handling it, and having a lot of fun with the Polariod back. I’ll put up some pictures soon, but in the meantime, here’s one I took today of fellow brighton resident (and ace blogger) Anthony Mayfield)
Photos from Ars Electronica 2005 – 3
January 3rd, 2006 § Leave a Comment
Photos from Ars Electronica – 2
January 3rd, 2006 § Leave a Comment
Photos from Ars Electronica 2005
January 3rd, 2006 § Leave a Comment
I took my medium format camera to Ars Electronica last year, to keep up my sporadic series of photos of people from the art/tech community. Here’s eight that I thought good enough to show. They were all taken in the Brucknerhaus, the main venue for the Ars Electronica conference, which has a fantastic panoramic window facing onto the Danube. On one of my last evenings at the festival, there was a fantastic golden sunlight coming through the windows, so I grabbed a few friends and acquaintances and persuaded them to stand for a minute or so whilst I fumbled with light meters and such. Thanks to those who had the patience…
Nina Czegledy
NB: Nina is one of the most delightful and interesting people i’ve ever met – a real inspiration
Blickling Hall
August 29th, 2005 § 1 Comment
Photos from Blickling Hall, Norfolk
Tree Trunk at Blickling Hall
Blickling Hall
Hedges at Blickling Hall
OpenTech 2005
August 26th, 2005 § Leave a Comment
I took my medium format camera to OpenTech this year, as part of my on-going project to take photos of cutting edge geeks with trailing edge technology (see also ETCON 2003, Evolution 2003 and New Media Art at the Tate).
The light wasn’t great at the venue – there wasn’t much natural light, so I used a spot in the main lecture theatre where there was a slightly angled soft spot overhead. This, and a high contrast film, has given the pictures a more dramatic contrast, but it meant that some of the pictures look a bit too shady for my liking, especially in the eyes. It also gives a great level of modelling on the skin, which I like a lot, but i’m not sure my subjects all will… I might have to invest in a softbox or go really pro and get a ringflash.
Here’s some of my favourites. You can see more over at my Flickr site.
Fenway Park
October 23rd, 2004 § 1 Comment
As Megnut (had) said – would you fucking believe it?
I’m a huge Boston Red Sox fan, despite being born and bred in England. Its a long story, but I started playing Baseball the same time that Channel 4 in the UK showed the ’86 WS, with the Sox and the Mets. I chose the Sox, wept at Bill Buckner, and was destined to join the Nation for the rest of my days…
Beyond what anyone dared hope, the Sox overturned a 3-0 Yankees lead in the best-of-seven ALCS finals to win 4-3 and go to the World Series for the first time since 1986, and to give them a chance for their first WS win since 1918.
Is it finally time to lift the curse?
In celebration, i’ve posted up some pictures I took at Fenway Park in 2002. I shot them using a 3200 film, for maximum contrast and grain. Here are my favourites, with more at my flickr site.
West Pier panoramic pin-holes
October 2nd, 2004 § Leave a Comment
Pin-hole Brighton
August 10th, 2004 § 3 Comments
The other weekend I took some pinhole camera pictures of Brighton beach using my zeroimage pinhole camera. I have the Zero 6×9 multiformat deluxe edition – it takes medium format film, and has simple wooden shutters allowing you a choice of formats, from portrait, 6×6, 6×9 and panoramic. Its very easy to set up and use, and the film I’m experimenting with (Kodak 400NC and Kodak Portra 400BW) are extremelt tolerant. I’ve been bracketing between 1-4 sec exposures, and the differences are marginal. The pinhole has an fstop of around f215, so you can take a reading for any fstop and exposure time, then use a wheel on the back of the camera to judge the reading for f215.
As there is no viewfinder, i’m still getting used to the range of the pinhole, so that I can imagine the picture i’m taking better. I’m still not really there, hence the large amounts of pebbles in these pictures!
