Pig Sty Avenue

This Fred Parker is interesting.

This photo is yet another example of the perils of autofocus and the inadequacy of my D50's sensor at high iso. On the other hand, it gave me the idea of Tripoli as an incredibly noirish city. The Italian architecture and the fact that a lot of the men still wear suits as a matter of course. This idea has been growing for the last few weeks. I even dreamt about it last night. I got some advice about filters (don't) and film ( Fuji Neopan 1600 ) on th Flickr B&W film group. There's actually a group for Fuji Neopan, and some of the results there are just what I'm after. This photo , for example, is precisely the quality I want, that I can't get from a dslr without paying over a thousand quid for a new camera. Couple of thousand for an M8 - before you even buy a lens. Whereas: ten rolls of neopan, Russian rangefinder plus a couple of lenses, dev tank, chemicals, film scanner... less than £250 the lot. Not bad, eh? The cost of a dirty weekend rather tha...

This site looks as if it might have useful technical info, though I haven't had a chance to check it out yet.

On Saturday I went with my mate Dan to the gallery on 7th November St. There was an exhibition by Landa Ruweha, called Letter by Letter with the theme of Arabic letters, in paper and pastels on glass. I really liked them, and chatted to the artist about the framing and the lighting. What appealed to me was the three-d nature of some of the pieces, and the way shadows would fall behind them, moving with the day if they were in the sun - it would make them into a small installation if properly placed. Dan wasn't so impressed, and felt that Landa's remarks about people who gave them a cursory glance was intended for him. She also told me that Libyans had been puzzled, seeing Arabic calligraphy as something that should be treated traditionally. I wish I'd had a bit of surplus cash, and I would have got one. But English teachers with a small child and photography habits can rarely splash out spontaneously on original works of art, regrettably. Still, it was nice to talk. ...

workmen , originally uploaded by Pin Shy Avenue . The trouble is with digital, you get lazy and, unconsciously perhaps, expect the technology to do the work. I'm trying to get back to basics, ready for using more film when, inshallah, I get my hands on my Russian rangefinder. So I've started to regard the D50 more as a learning tool. Actually, the flexibility of digital, the fact that it records all of your settings, is great for that. This photo is a good example of a good photo spoilt by not thinking carefully about the light. (Actually, I did think about it, but I could hardly haul these blokes 50 yards away to where it was better). Light, light, light. In photography, everything comes second to it. Maybe that's the difference between a snapshot and a photograph, and why people throw "snapshot" around as an insult on Flickr. A photograph needs to be thought about. And the thing you most need to think about is of course the light: especially in the ...

25th May. Should be a holiday in Jarrow. Or maybe not. Better keep it with a good book and maybe a quiet glass or two indoors. Bede would have approved.

Goodbye, Humph.

Sadalit has asked me to mention that her husband's band's name is Trash Frog, and I am pleased to do so. Trash Frog. And you can hear the song about women's hatred of their bottoms here. This is how going viral starts, you know. Very good. What a blogging day it's been. Obscure British cameras, guerrilla gardening, and now women's arses. I don't where it's all going to end. I do know where it's all going to end for Jargonfish , on this blog anyway. Today. It was a mere irritation. The links it provided were uninteresting. The whole thing was pointless. And finally, on the subject of obscure British cameras, in particular, the Periflex. You could get one on eBay, but it would cost upwards of £300, about the same as you'd pay for a Leica III. So I'll pass on that.

20080303 - Why Does Every Woman Hate Her Ass? , originally uploaded by sadalit . Why indeed? The photo was posted to support the photographer/model's husband's band - you can hear their song here . Good luck to them. The woman who asks you "Does my bum look big in this?" is usually, in my experience a female friend of several years standing. She's only asking me because none of her gay friends are available. Best to err on the side of honesty if you're unsure and say, "Your arse is massive no matter what you wear". Come to think of it, I don't seem to have so many female friends as I once did. I wonder why?

This is an excellent article. As De Lillo almost said in Running Dog , "You start out as an urban guerrilla, and you end up throwing seeds at patches of waste ground." Indeed. But I do like the idea of seedbombs. Peace, man. Here's a link to the video which shows how they do it.

Strange the roads we travel. Especially in our minds and on the Internet. Perhaps it's because I've been nearly ten weeks in a Libyan bungalow with no-one to say, as I begin to enlarge on an obscure subject, "Oh aye, very good, but I'm trying to watch Taggart". So this strange road has led from a curiosity about Leicas, to an interest in Russian rangefinders, to the realisation that it was all about M39, and then to the discovery that there was a British M39 mount camera manufactured in the Midlands in the 1950s . Though it's a rather peculiar SLR, not a rangefinder. The Periflex would perhaps not perhaps be your first choice for street photography. You use its wee periscope to focus, and have to take it out again before you click the shutter. AND, there are obviously "issues" with the sprocketless film advance, as you can see from the only photos tagged Periflex on Flickr that aren't camera porn. Mind you, you can see why the I-take-pho...

Periflex 35mm camera , originally uploaded by loonboy2 . More to follow.

...is perhaps the best way of framing my latest fascination.

My Flickrpal Lawrie did this for my birthday, and I've just found it tonight. (I'm so out of the loop these days that I've only just found out that Flickr does videos now). Brilliant, eh? It got a unanisave in DMU , too. THAT takes some doing. Thanks again, Lawrie. You're a pal. I'll visit Australia one day for the sole purpose of buying you a beer for this.

We're reworking now the placement test I spent the end of last year doing. It's a bit odd, coming back now to work I did in the spare room at home, during the Tyneside winter, as I sit at my desk in Tripoli. However, at last I have access to the internet here, and have decided to go back to the test's original source, the Common European Framework. Googling, I came across this article from the Grauniad in 2004 . In it, North comments that the six CEF levels "are not the product of acquisitional hierarchies from second language acquisition (SLA) research." Indeed they are not, because, "Unfortunately SLA research has so far only produced a partial, contradictory glimpse of what an acquisitional hierarchy might look like." This is where we are going to. When we understand the order in which language is learned, we can teach it accordingly. It's late in the day, but I might shift my SLA research to this area for the paper I have to produce before Au...

"Let no man turn aside, ever so slightly, from the broad path of honour, on the plausible pretence that he is justified by the goodness of his end. All good ends can be worked out by good means. Those that cannot, are bad; and may be counted so at once, and left alone." Indeed. I brought this novel out from England, it was one of the two or three Dickens novels that I haven't read yet. It took me weeks to get really started on it, but eventually I could hardly bear to put it down. I read in the Introduction that Dickens said he would never again write weekly instalment novels, preferring the scope that monthlies would give him. You can see why that would be easier on the writer, but weekly instalments must have been great fun for the readers - you can picture whole families sitting around the kitchen, listening to this week's episode, and then discussing it afterwards, and maybe arguing who should be allowed first to take it away to re-read it... So it's no s...

He's without doubt the hardest working player on the park for Newcastle just now. But it looks as if they're making some serious cut backs in the wages for next season. That article tells a story, though - football followers abroad, in Nigeria no doubt and certainly in Libya, don't see Newcastle as a team worth following - not unreasonably. I've no time for plutocrats, of course. But it should be the case that someone like Ashley , surely, wants Newcastle to be successful, get a higher profile, and sell masses of replica shirts around the world. To do that, we need to be in the top four. Going on his past performance in flogging football tops, Ashley is no numpty at that business. Let us hope so. I hereby predict, in a typical Newcastle supporter's triumph of hope over experience, a remarkable couple of seasons ahead of us. Keane had a crinkly mouth on Sunday. Let's hope it's Alex Ferguson that we give one to this time next year. And let's giv...

I'll just have mine now please , if that's ok, officer? Anyone who doesn't want theirs? Anyone...? Oh, thanks, well, if it's going to waste...

Right, that's it. My birthday was yesterday, and I'm going to leave off eBay for a spell... There's a Fed 2 on its way, like I said, from the Ukraine to Hebburn. But I got a bit worried when the seller said it would take 15 to 25 days to arrive, that it might come after the end of my approaching holiday, perhaps, I envisaged, on the very morning that I was flying back... And so this morning, I bought another Fed 2, from a UK seller, buy-it-now. Yes, I know, now I'm going to have two identical cameras... But it was 6AM and I wasn't thinking straight... I AM thinking as straight as I ever will now, though, and that's why I'm promising to stay away from eBay. I've now got TWO Fed 2s, and an Industar 61; the second Fed 2 comes with its kit lens, an Industar 26, which apparently is no great shakes. However, I suppose I've got a Fed 2 for, spare parts, and a bog standard lens... Maybe I could swap them? Or put them back on eBay? I was looking fo...

...during the summer, and we work from 7.30 to 2.30. So I'll miss the first twenty minutes or so...

Thank God for blogging. I mean, usually when a bloke gets a hold of an idea he can run it by his near relatives or perhaps his mates in the pub. They won't really be listening, of course, but that's not the point. But out here, there's no one to blither on to about Russian rangefinders and lumps in my ID-11. Well, I could, I suppose, blither on to the people I work with, but there are only a handful of us still, working together and sharing a wee compound: I really don't want to push my luck. And so it's to Pig Sty Avenue I turn to think out loud, safe in the knowledge that only the photographic anoraks won't have hit the back button several lines ago. Tonight I went back to that film developer who I accused of stiffing me recently. I am pleased to say I have to take that back: they'd charged me for prints, too, by mistake, and without me saying anything gave me four dinars change back tonight. Nice. But my good humour soon evaporated when I went to...

Of course, I knew this sort of thing went on. And don't get me wrong, I'm no prude, and would be the first to admit that a well-designed camera has a certain visual appeal. But when you use Flickr to investigate the kind of photos you might be able to take with the camera you're thinking of bidding for on eBay, you get overwhelmed by it . It's not far short of tragic. Maybe it's even a metaphor for the circularity of postmodern life. Or something.

A fulvous babbler , at the college. I wasn’t expecting to do any bird photography, and had the 50mm lens on, so that’s not a good photo. But it confirms the ID, eh? There were four of them, silent, moving around in some bushes. You've got to love the genus name, though, eh? It'd be a good adjective for a few people I know. The turdoide bastards.

This photo I took last night illustrates perfectly why I need a film camera. The D50 just can’t handle low light, and I don’t want to be spending a four figure sum on a camera which can when I can get one for the price of a round of drinks. My Fed 2 is now en-route from The Ukraine, inshallah, (and coincidentally, the President of that country is in Libya , visiting the Colonel). I’m also bidding on eBay for an Industar-61 which is an amazing lens, being a standard 50mm prime, yet focusing down to less than a couple of inches. Also, as a back up, I’m looking at a Zorki and a Jupiter 8 which come as a job lot. I’ll be able to get these on my approaching holiday back home. I was out last night in Tripoli with my pal Dan, and in discussion of a fantasy film, set here, scripted by Graham Greene, directed by Tarantino and starring Peter Lorre, I wondered whether it should be contemporary or historical. Dan thought contemporary, but with a noir look. That got me to thinking about...

Last night I went to the hold-light-look film developer near Dahra , and the cheeky bastard charged me 5 Dinars - last time it was only 1. Well, that's him off my list. If I need any more colour developing, I'll go to the gentle looking guy with the questionable female visitors . (I don't understand the short-term thinking which makes some one greedy and decide to rip-off a foreigner - I mean, it's not like the twat had a monopoly on film development in Tripoli). Anyhow, whilst I was in Dahra, I was looking at some of the dozens of shops there which sell computer peripherals. There were plenty of scanners available. I found one that would scan 35mm, though not 120. I didn't find either of the two I shortlisted in this post . I'm not ready to buy one yet, but think that I could probably get a 35mm/120 neg scanner in due course. I won the auction for a Fed 2, and that should be waiting for me when I get home for a holiday next month. Now I'm looking o...

NEWCASTLE United made it three wins on the spin for the first time this season as the front three of Oba Martins, Michael Owen and Mark Viduka all got their name on the scoresheet. From the Official NUFC sites report. Now, I can really believe we've turned that bloody corner.

Well, I did it. Now I've got a developed roll of Ilford HP5+. It looks as if I've got 7 or 8 decentish exposures out of the 12 - which isn't bad. Not having all twelve is due to the winder and shutter being a bit temperamental on the Kodak 66 III, and to cutting off the first one with the scissors when I was loading it on. Wish I had a neg scanner so as I could have a better look at them and post them. I don't know whether to try to get them scanned in Tripoli tomorrow, or wait until I get a film scanner. The main thing is, the development is actually really straight forward. I was careful with the times, but slapdash with the temperatures in the absence of a thermometer. And I cut that first exposure off, somehow. AND I was mortified thinking for a minute or two that I'd loaded the backing paper and left the film sitting out when I put the light back on. But all was well. Not bad for a first go. Maybe I will wait until I get a film scanner, and get a Fe...

There's nowhere truly light proof in this bungalow during the day, but at night with the shutter down, and if I put something over the little red light on the air conditioning unit, well then it's dark in the bedroom. I've made up the chemicals I bought in Newcastle, but there was my first blunder - I didn't read the instructions properly on the developer - you're supposed to mix the packets A and B separately at 40C, and then put them together, whereas I just bunged them both in a plastic litre water bottle and filled it up with tap water... So know I've put the bottle into warm water in behopes it'll break down the powder which has coagulated at the bottom of the bottle. What a numpty. I've also been familiarising myself with the developing tank, getting advice from the diybw group on Flickr . And I've been re-reading the chromogenic site again. I've got a scrap of dead 120 film to practise on in the dark later, and a half finished roll o...

I've fitted this widget to The Avenue, - give it a go. At first blush I'm not too impressed - it picks out high frequency words, and links them to places which bear no relevance to what I've been blogging about. For example, yesterday's post about Fed 2s, it highlights "links", "home" and "lost". The first takes you to blogger links, (bloggers writing about bloggers is at best sad, at worst incestuous). It improves with "home": the first couple of links I'm thinking wtf? but the third is all about Newcastle's home game against reading on Saturday... So, it's getting smart. Hmm. And then I click on lost and it takes me to all sorts of places which, strangely, I'd never heard of but might be interested in... So it might be A Good Thing. Give it a week or two.

This Matt Denton has some good craic about Fed 2s . Most of the links in it are dead, but not his tutorial on how to disassemble and regrease an Industar lens. And this site by Stephen Rothery is a mine of information. I'm going to be home for a holiday in a few weeks, and, inshallah, I'll have a Fed 2 and a Jupiter or Industar lens waiting for me - there's loads of them on eBay. Funny how things happened: the Chinon went tits up, and I lost my interest in Leicas all in the space of a day or so. The daft things you do when there are no pubs to go to, eh?

we got here at 7am to see you , originally uploaded by i am klaus . Click on the photo to see more from the strangely alluring world of Klaus.

fed2bw , originally uploaded by etienne the upsetter . This was taken with a Fed 2, and an Industar 26m lens . Another reason for getting a Russian rangefinder rather than a Leica: wouldn't one naturally tend to be a bit precious with a camera and lens costing altogether £500 to £600? What I'm saying is, I want to get out and use the thing, not leave it at home as an ornament.

All of those double exposures I was getting on the Chinon were, I worked out today, due to a faulty winder. I sacrificed a film to watch how it wound on with the back open. After about 20 exposures the roll sticks. Then it moves, but soon sticks again. It's simply not reliable. It's a pity because The Old Man bought that camera new in the 70s, and it's like a member of the family. So, as I can't afford a Leica - just yet - I'm going to get a Fed 2 off eBay, and probably a Jupiter 8 lens to go with it. A tenth or twentieth of the price of a Leica, and they can take good photos . And they're fun. And cool.

bakers.jpg , originally uploaded by shveckle . I love the way the man's sitting with his cigarette and the taxi and everything. One day, I'll go to New York and take a photo like this.

I just realised it's my birthday in a couple of weeks. I'm going to put in for one of these . Or maybe one of these . Maybe an M3 , and a 50mm Summmicron M lens . The whole lot would be considerably less than the cost of, say, a D80, and would take (arguably) better photos. It would certainly be cooler. (I'm currently working with a bloke who has a D80, and let's just say, he's not the epitomie of cool). Hello? Is anyone who's likely to buy me a present reading this? Hell-o-o?!