Pig Sty Avenue

"Sturdy" it is.  Rock solid, more like. Blimey.  To paraphrase Tom Waits, "It's the only tripod you will ever need!"  Three spirit levels. Splendid bit of kit. Big, mind.  You wouldn't want to take it on a hike.  And it certainly won't fit on the back of the camera bag.  I'll need to get a strap or something.  I've started now on one version of the 9to5 project.  The idea is to get photos from the workplace.  So I'm going to do two complementary sets, one from the Shanghai office, the other from my desk here at home.  The idea is to have a fixed vantage point, but to photograph throughout the day, so there'll be changing light, slight changes in the desk objects etc.  And the Shanghai version will be more dynamic, of course. 

The last bit of essential kit is in the post.  A Manfrotto ART 075, with a 029 three way head .  "Sturdy" is a word that comes up when you google it.  Which it wants to be, the F weighs .86kg , so it must be 1.2 or 1.3 with the lens and finder...  When it arrives, tomorrow, Inshallah, it'll be quite a moment.  When I was giving up most weekends to study for the MA, I had it in mind that if it helped me to step off the casual teaching merry-go-round and get a steady job, I'd get a decent camera and the gear to go with it.  Of course, conceptions change.  Back in 2007, I was dreaming of a D3 .  And then there was the flirtation with Leica.  And then it all clicked into place: collectible pro gear .  Which might as well be Nikon, (as that was my first SLR, back in the day).  And Manfrotto is so much classier than the chimper's favourite, Slik.  Voila.  Meanwhile, I've put the time in, learning to use all kinds of cheap ol...

Here .  And a bit craic. Thirty bob a pop, and no postage. 

Ça marche! It might be overexposing just a tad - the Newton Ellis guy said the adjustment to the meter, (a diode to adjust for the shift from mercury to alkaline batteries) could leave it maybe a 1/4 stop out, and that's probably about right. And the 3+ diopter compensates just like reading glasses, so I can get the focus right: actually, it's a bit difficult adjusting to TTL focusing after using a rangefinder for a while, but I'm getting there.  So, it's all good . I got the test roll developed at Tesco, cheap, (£1.79) but there's more dust and strange marks than if I'd dev'd it at home. Also, the Kodak ColorPlus gives lots of grain, and the colours are bit off, so it's not great for portraits, (though my mate Cliff pointed me in the direction of this collection by Åsa Sjöström which looks as if it could have been taken with ColorPlus, it works for "grainy and grimy", and that might be what you want for a particular aesthetic). And...

The manual's here. And the batteries are V625U.

The F came back from Newton Ellis this morning.  I had to take some time out from the work I'm doing to check it out.  Nice and clean, in and out, (tiniest bit of dust on the mirror).  Best of all, the meter is functioning coherently, (though I'll see for sure when I get the test roll - Kodak ColorPlus 200 - developed).  So I've come over all vintage Nikon again.  I'm looking at getting, eventually, the full set of original Nikon filters .  But now I've to get back to my work, even though my feet and fingers are itching to get out and finish the test roll. 

Back in the day, I used to love to listen to Irish folk music in Carlisle's pubs.  The musicians were all friends or friends-of-friends.  The bowram fella, an accordionist, couple of whistle players, a fiddler.  Others would come and go.  The fiddler could sing a mean rendition of Carrickfergus, but it was mostly jigs, reels and polkas: there was no one who could sing a whole repertoire of songs.  It was the same when we all went to a festival in Girvan.  Loose assemblages of musicians could knock out tunes like nobody's business, but singers were thin on the ground.  Last night we went to the House of Jazz and Blues on Fuzhou Lu, and I realised I could never belt the Blues out like the singer.  But then I remembered Carlisle and Girvan, and that I could hold my own in the bar with Carrickfergus or She Moved Through the Fair or Paddy's Sicknote . I just need to get a bigger repertoire of Irish songs , find a singerless band in Glasgow, and, vo...