Pig Sty Avenue

FED2 Industar 61 Dockhead St , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . Another test roll on the FED2, which established that the Industar 61 lens works fine - I was wondering if some fault with the lens, coupling with the rangefinder, perhaps, was causing the apparent focusing problems with the FED4. I'm trying to find a 35mm camera that I can use all the time, my main go-anywhere do-anything sort of camera. The Holga's great fun, but I need something more precise. The FED4 is the main candidate because of its light meter and flash synch, but that roll of 1970s Efke came out blurred - maybe that was the film. So I need another test roll in that camera. And/or I might take the FED2 to bits, see what's wrong with the synch, and paint the curtains thoroughly. The wee lugs for fitting a strap are another big advantage of the 2 over the 4 - I don't like those easy open cases. And I can live without a light meter. I've bought a 40.5 - 52mm filter adaptor o...

Swimming is the latest craze in our house, with the baths only five minutes away, and The Bairn being mad for it.  So we take turns each, one looking after her in the paddling pool, the other off to the big pool to do lengths.  Herself's a really good swimmer.  I didn't think I was, but, actually, I'm lanes ahead of most of the other blokes there, with their sedate breaststrokes.  See, I can't do more than half a length with the breaststroke, but find the crawl much easier.  My legs are all wrong though, which is why I've included this gif.  I might go mad and get a hat and goggles.  In the past, one or two lengths was enough for me, but I'm up to ten now.  Maybe if I got to thirty in an hour, I'd be getting somewhere.  It's got to be better than sitting at this feckin laptop.

We listened to this tonight .  How splendid.  I can't consciously recall reading it before, but must have, if it's in lots of anthologies.  It felt familiar. It's reminiscent of another poem I love, Graves Here Live Your Life Out! : Window-gazing, at one time or another In the course of travel, you must have startled at Some coign of true felicity. “Stay!” it beckoned, “Here live your life out!” If you were simple-hearted The village rose, perhaps, from a broad stream Lined with alders and gold-flowering flags— Hills, mills, hay-fields, orchards—and, plain to see, The very house behind its mulberry-tree Stood, by a miracle, untenanted! Alas, you could not alight, found yourself jolted Viciously on. Public conveyances Are not amenable to casual halts Except in sternly drawn emergencies— Bandits, floods, landslides, earthquakes or the like— Nor could you muster resolution enough To shout “This is emergency, let me out!” Rushing to grasp their brakes;...

Herself 1 , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue .

Holga XPRO 3rd Roll 12 , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . To finish the roll. Best one on it. In fact, best photo I've taken in ages.

In Sainsbury's last night they had packets of rosemary cuttings (can you call them a sprig when they aren't tied together?) which had reached their sell-by and were going for 10p.  So I bought two.   The were about 7" long.  I trimmed off the bottom 3" or so of leaves and put them in a glass of water overnight.   And then this morning I dipped them in hormone and put them each in wee pots with 50/50 cactus compost and vermiculite, and then put them in the propagator.  According to PFAF , they should root in about three weeks.  There are a dozen cuttings, and I'll be pleased if half of them root.  The only concern is that they are quite woody.  We shall see.  And a search on google scholar unearthed this gem: Cypresse Garlands are of great account at Funeralls amongst the gentiler sort, but Rosemary and Bayes are used by the Commons both at Funeralls and Weddings. They are all plants which fade not a good while after they are gath...

DIY XPRO 2nd Roll 1 , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue .

That's the first roll through the new FED4.  I'm not impressed.  Nothing is what you'd call sharp.  Mind you, I can't complain, I got the Industar61 lens with the camera for £5.50 the pair.  So I will probably need another lens, maybe a Jupiter8.  I could kick myself now for selling both of those lenses, and all their bloody filters, a few months ago.  Binary thinking, that was.  However, one lives and learns. I've got an Industar26 on the FED2 - I'll maybe try that on the next roll I'm putting through the FED4, which is Agfa E6, which I got from Oli.  I'm going to use that to take a set of portraits indoors.  Maybe half and half with the two lenses would be a good idea.  It's part of a new approach I'm toying with: shoot a roll of film on a given subject, and dev it straightaway.  I've got loads of film.  And the processing works out at about 65p now.

I need to check this out , when I get time. 

Holga 12 16 Mask Blunder 9 , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . I think that this was the first roll with the Holga. I'd bought a roll of Fuji Reala from a proper wee camera shop in Durham. I think this predated the decision to get the Tetenal kit, so I was for getting it developed at Snappy Snaps, (although that never happened). It was when I got towards the end of the roll, I realised I was on the wrong numbering system - I had the wee sliding door at the window set for the 16 frame mask, whereas it had the usual 12 (6x6cm) one in. So there are some wonderfully weird overlapping exposures, like these. Cool, eh? And this is nice film, if I was doing something straight. The backlog of film is nearly all dev'd now - just one roll of E6 to go. And then I've got a drawer full of film, both 35mm and 120. I've got the technicalities of this thing about nailed down now. Time to get out more.