Category Archives: Photography

I have begun painting again

“Reflections Ilfracombe Harbour Jubilee Day 2012”

The composition of this painting is based on a Union Jack and is a combination of screen printing and painting.

The reflections in the harbour in Ilfracombe always amaze me – the dirty sea water mixed with the vivid colours of the reflected boats, the bobbing flotsam and jetsam, the sunlight and oil spills.

My current preoccupation at the moment with 35mm film photography as taught me to look at things again – capturing the odd moment or peculiar juxtaposition.

Ilfracombe Harbour

The photograph above of Ilfracombe harbour was taken with a Pentax Spotmatic 500, a classic 35mm camera in June 2012.

Lens flare and a slightly over cooked vintage feel, scratches, dust, and fibre strands – 35mm film is far more fun than digital.

Pentax Spotmatic – SP500

I have just bought and received via eBay a Pentax SP500 camera. I  put a new battery into it and the internal light meter worked straight away. Unlike the Pentax K1000 you need to switch the light meter on using … Continue reading ?

Self Portrait of the Artist

A self portrait is a representation of an artist, drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by the artist.

The photograph above was taken with a 35mm Pentax SLR in 1974 and manipulated in the darkroom in Stourbridge College of Art and Design. This reminds me of the simple pleasures I had messing about with making images – it is a shame I have become cynical.

Although self-portraits have been made by artists since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid 15th century that artists can be frequently identified depicting themselves as either the main subject, or as important characters in their work.

In many respects the image below follows in the tradition of those early painters – I am seen as a reflection, just visible and confined within the architectural composition, a modern conceit of self importance.

In the famous Arnolfini Portrait (1434) Jan van Eyck is probably one of two figures glimpsed in a mirror. This painting may have inspired Diego Velázquez to depict himself in full view as the painter creating Las Meninas (1656). The placing of a self depiction within a larger composition of the rich, the famous and the kingly is a way of elevating your role from craftsman to celebrity – nothing changes really.

Reflection
This image was taken in Lanzarote in August 2012 using a Pentax P30, 35mm film camera, which uses manual focus lenses with the K-mount bayonet fitting. The lens used to take this photograph was a Rikenon 1:2 50mm, which was originally off a Richo KR-10 (super). At about 510 grams, the camera is easy to carry and handle and has 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, giving the novice photographer a better chance of taking a good photograph. 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.

The film used was Fujicolor C200, a budget-priced film (expire date April 2014) processed by Jessops in Barnstaple. The negatives were scanned using an Ion Pics 2 SD.

Using old film stock in a Pentax P30

Expat web design services – Lanzarote
Are you an English speaking web site owner or a Spanish speaking business who require a website written and optimised for UK clients? …

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 ?

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 for me and by throwing using out of date film (13 years) into the mix makes photography suddenly more interesting.

Fly Spider Nasturtium by 35mm_photographs

Taken using a Pentax P30 35mm camera using ‘old stock’ (March 2000) Agfacolor HDC 200. July 2012.

The Pentax P30 is an SLR and uses manual focus lenses with the K-mount bayonet fitting. I shot a roll of film on an old Pentax P30. The results were not as satisfying as those taken with the Pentax SP500. … Continue reading

Agfacolor was the name of a series of color film products made by Agfa of Germany. The first Agfacolor, introduced in 1932, was a film-based version of their Agfa-Farbenplatte (Agfa color plate) a “screen plate” product similar to the French Autochrome.

After World War II, the Agfacolor brand was applied to several varieties of color negative film for still photography.

HDC plus 200 was a fine general-purpose film, with decent colour saturation, fine grain and sharp.

Agfacolor. (2012, May 13). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:32, July 21, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Agfacolor&oldid=492411945

This is not art and never will be

Photography is not Art!

Fine art photography is suppose to be created with the vision of an artist. Fine art photography is the opposite of photojournalism or holiday snapping – which provides a visual account for either news or family events. Commercial photography is used to advertise products or services.

The series of images above were taken with a Pentax SP1000, Pentax SP500 and a Pentax K1000. The coloured ones were taken in July 2012 using Fujicolor C200, a budget-priced film (expire date April 2014) processed by Jessops in Barnstaple. The negatives were scanned using an Ion Pics 2 SD.

Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. was established in 1934 with the aim of being the first Japanese producer of photographic films…

The black-and-white images were taken using  HP5 plus (HP5+ for short).

Another gallery that contains 4 photos of a nearby location.

These images taken of Woolacombe were done using  a Pentax SP1000 35mm camera. This camera was my father’s, who bought it from new in the 1970s. All Pentax Spotmatics (SP) use the M42 screw-thread lens mount. The lenses are focused … Continue reading ?