Category Archives: travel

Traveling with a Pentax P30 in Lanzarote

Still Life - an empty bottle tells a story by 35mm_photographs
Just got back from a week in Lanzarote with the whole family.

Tías in Lanzarote is a town and borough situated in the southwest of the island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, Spain. It has several great bars and restaurants, supermarkets and shops that cater for the British ex-pat community that has grown up there and is southeast of the main highway which links it to Arrecife (the island capital) which is only ten to fifteen minutes away.

The image above was taken using a Pentax SLR film camera:

The Pentax P30 uses manual focus lenses with the K-mount bayonet fitting. At about 510 grams, the camera is lightweight, with shutter speeds from 1/1000 of a second to 1 second. The automatic mode on this film camera chooses the best shutter speed and aperture setting to give the novice photographer (me) the best possible chance of taking a good photo. It also has a semi-automatic mode as well, which chooses most of the settings but allows for more creativity. There is also a totally manual setting for the brave.

Using old film stock in a Pentax P30

The beauty of using 35mm film cameras and film is not knowing what you have taken a picture of straight away – the final image is a process of design, skill and chance. The chance element is the big buzz … Continue reading ?

Breakfast on the Orient Express – ruined in the darkroom

As I  have previously mentioned, I haven’t used a 35mm camera for years. I took my old, trusty Pentax K1000 with me to Venice on the Orient Express and took some black and white shots of the train…. The images below are of breakfast on the Orient Express, which is served to passengers in their cabins.

I  processed the film in the darkroom at West Buckland School. I’d remembered most of the processing guidelines I’d learnt in the 1970s and I had a foolproof instruction sheet, with timings for the Ilford HP5 (400 asa) etc. – nothing could go wrong.

Half way through processing the film I noticed a chink of light coming in from below the door – the film was ruined but here are a couple more photographs that might be interesting?

Travel – 35mm images go wrong in Venice

View to St Marks Square

This gallery contains 4 photos.

I haven’t used a 35mm camera for years. I recently decided to take my old Pentax K1000 with me to Venice. I took some great black and white shots from our hotel window, looking out over the Grand Canal towards … Continue reading ?

Travel – 35mm images go wrong in Venice

I haven’t used a 35mm camera for years. I recently decided to take my old Pentax K1000 with me to Venice. I took some great black and white shots from our hotel window, looking out over the Grand Canal towards St Marks Square.

I got the film back to the UK and processed it in the darkroom at West Buckland School. I’d remembered all the processing guidelines I’d learnt in the 1970s and I had an instruction sheet with timings for the Ilford HP5 (400 asa) etc. – nothing could go wrong.

Half way through processing the film I noticed a chink of light coming in from below the door – the film was ruined but the results were interesting – maybe?

The images above are taken from a bedroom window of Palazzo Vendramin

Palazzo Vendramin is a 15th-century residence linked to the Hotel Cipriani through an ancient courtyard and a passageway lined with flowers. It houses 16 suites and rooms with sweeping vistas over the gardens and across to St Mark’s Square.

Traveling with René Lalique

I have never really been fond of artworks that are made in glass – I’m not a craft type of person but…

I suppose there are some artists who successfully worked with glass, maybe René Lalique is one of them?

Lalique Art Deco glasswork on the Orient Express

The image above was taken on The Orient Express

Dining Car 4141 named ‘Côte d’Azur’ was built in 1929 as a first class Pullman and was decorated by René Lalique who in the 1920s became famous for his Art Deco glass work. He was also responsible for the glass and elegant coloured columns which filled the dining room and “grand salon” of the SS Normandie and the interior fittings, cross, screens, reredos and font of St. Matthew’s Church at Millbrook in Jersey – referred to as “Lalique’s Glass Church”.

Contemporary Art Sale I am actually sinking deeper and deeper into poverty so if you can help me keep a roof over my head please make an offer for this painting here. La Belle et La Bête Original painting by Peter Bright . … Continue reading ?

Nasher Sculpture Garden – Venice – The Peggy Guggenheim Collection

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, in Venice. Peggy Guggenheim, a former wife of artist Max Ernst, purchased this building in 1949. Although sometimes mistaken for a modern designed building, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni is an 18th century palace designed by the Venetian architect Lorenzo Boschetti.

The palazzo was Peggy Guggenheim’s home for thirty years and was opened as a gallery in April 1980 after her death in 1979. The garden in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni is now called the Nasher Sculpture Garden, which has a varied collection of objects. There is some interesting stuff in this intimate space but…

Three Standing Figures, 1953

Bronze, 73.2 x 68 x 29 cm, including base

Henry Moore

I have always associated Henry Moore as being a sculptor who created ‘blobby’ organic forms that have weight and feminine curves.

This spiky bronze has derivative influences varying from African art and to the Surrealist sculpture of Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti. If you get close to the sculpture there are redeeming features but the static poses of the figures and the clumsy references to an eclectic range of styles really exposes the failures of this piece – not a great sculpture – if you compare it to the Giacometti that stands nearby…