If you're not a photography geek, hit the back button NOW!


British Museum 6

The day I took this photo at the British Museum, (on the original Ilford Sporti), I'd called into a cafe which appeared to be staffed entirely by Chinese people - which was the theme that day because I was visiting the Museum with 56 Chinese students. It was a remarkable cafe, they had a second hand camera shop in the front, and the cafe was out the back with wi-fi and a bookcase full of phonetics and phonology books. I went in because I was running short on film. They didn't have any HP5+, but the man gave me a roll of Tmax 100; he wouldn't take any money, and said something about it coming from China, (he had a strong accent, and I was so taken aback by getting a free roll of film, in London, that I wasn't really listening.

Anyway, when I got the Ilford Sporti 6, I put the Tmax through it. I dev'd it this afternoon and there seems to be some problem with the shutter; and it hasn't synched with the flash, which is why I got it. I got the original Sporti back out of the drawer and put a roll of HP5+ in it. The Sporti 6 just never felt right anyway - there's something reassuringly 1950s and solid about the older Sporti. The 6 is a 120 camera trying to be a low-rent slr, and it's not pulling it off very well. One knows where one stands with an original Sporti.

And what a bastard that Tmax was to get onto the spool of the developer. Herself had popped out to see her Mam, and The Bairn was playing, so there I am in the darkroom lobby press, trying to get this fucking incredibly springy film onto the spool, and of course the phone rings, and the Bairn's trying to find out where I am, and I'm trying to explain to a three year old that I'm in the cupboard and she mustn't come in and... What larks, eh?

I'm busy working until the middle of this month, and then things slow down a bit. So I'll do the garden, and some decorating, and sort out all of my 35mm gear - the Leica, the 40.5mm lenses and filters, the bulk film winder, even the half a dozen rolls of film I've got. It's all going on eBay, and I'm going 100% 120.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leech or flatworm? Ants and Swiss Chard

Image
For the 2nd time in a week or so, (1st time regarding dwarf beans ), I'm following Alys Fowler's advice, this time with regard to Swiss chard .  Long story short, after midsummer plants which often bolt if planted in spring will resist the impulse to do so, probably because of shortening days; (I say shortening, but in Glasgow, in July, we're still getting 18 hours of daylight).   I got a packet of Bright Lights , at a good price, (another reason to wait until July before sowing, lots of bargains, I've noticed). But where to sow them? Most of the 2nd bed is under a tarpaulin, but it wasn't quite big enough to cover the whole bed, so the last 5ft or so went under a sheet of plastic, (in the background of the photo in this post, here .) Transparent plastic was a foolish idea, weeds were growing underneath it, so I covered most of it with sheets of metal from the old shed. I decided to leave the tarp, but use the area beneath the plastic for the chard. Who-ah there...
Read more

"Chevy Chase. Fuck ever happen to him?"

Image
As Paulie Walnuts said in The Sopranos. It got me thinking. As it happens, he's been working steadily , but you can see what Paulie means. It's like that with film and television actors: you don't see them in anything for a year or two, and you wonder if they're dead or perhaps on a lengthy charlie and booze session. Or maybe doing proper acting on the stage? Only appearing on the telly gives them meaning to us. That video with Paul Simon was on one of the cable music channels the other day. It always makes me smile. As for Paulie and the rest of the crew, the clock's ticking. Of course, America already knows how things finish, but we don't. My mate Ian was telling me about a friend of his, visiting the States a few weeks ago, flicking through the channels in his hotel bedroom, he hit on a repeat of THE final episode, just beginning. What a quandry! He watched it, as it goes, but kept shtum when he came home.
Read more

How many pallets can you fit in the back of a Fiat 500?

Image
At least 1. Maybe I could have got 3 altogether, at a pinch. Also 200+ gorse seeds, which have begun to look in danger of damping off, so I'm thinking they'll be better off at the allotment in the fresh air. I'm worried about slugs, snails and woodpigeons, though, so I put them in a wheelbarrow, covered with a net. Also this morning, planted a row of beetroot detroit.
Read more