Pig Sty Avenue

IF I was going to try Polaroid, I'd start by looking here and here .  I'm only thinking about it because I bought  5 Philips Flashbars by mistake, and they apparently go with the Polaroids that us SX70 film.  But it's a whole world of its own, and a bit hipsterish, too. And the battery is in the film pack, ffs.  Does that power the flash, too?  I can't find out.   I do like the idea of a narrative in 10 photos, put like a cartoon strip, in a frame...

I've got a roll of Efke 127, and another of HP5 120 to dev.  I'm out of mixed chemicals, though, so I need to make some up, and this is a note whilst I remember: Fixer24 ID11/D76  (+ a pinch of bromide)

Michael Raso made me a contact, or maybe I first made him one, three years ago.  In all that time, I never had a look at his website .  Criminal, or maybe just an illustration of the way Flickr doesn't really facilitate sideways referencing.  Anyways, I'm making up for it now, and when I get time I'll have a good old ratch around there, and listen to the podcasts .

  Untitled-2 , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . The flash that goes with the KBR will only work with a Kodak - I think they got into standard PC fittings some time later in the 60s. One of its big advantages is that it takes two ordinary C batteries, which you can buy at any supermarket or garage. On the downside, it takes No. 5 GE bulbs, which are less available than some others. I've got only two bulbs, but I decided to put a roll of Efke in, and give one of them a go during a break from another morning slaving over a hot laptop... Bingo! The usual flash-test photo, in a mirror, left me with bright green retina shadow, the shape of the reflector: one hell of a flash. I've got some craic from the Flickr Flashbulbs group, here . The upshot of the advice being, best to use a tripod and a quick B setting, (B = "Bulb", see?) So, knowing that it works, I went in search of more bulbs, and found someone in the States selling a Kodak flashgun, with a...

Always on the lookout for any kind of 127 film, I bought a couple of odd rolls from the early 60s on eBay.  One of them is from Gratispool . They were a company that developed and printed your film by mail order, and sent you a "free" roll with the prints.  According to the craic on photomemorabilia, they shifted to Verichrome at some point in the early 60s, but previously gave out orthochromatic film.  There's nothing on the box or roll to say this, but apparently the clue is in the backing paper, with yellow for Verichrome, and red for the orthochromatic.  My roll has red backing paper, which is interesting. I'll shoot it with the Reflex, and it's B setting - because I intend to overexpose more than somewhat.  And then I'll dev it in the formula I used before , ID11 with a pinch of bromide to combat the likely fogging.  I've got a flashgun for the KBR which I've not tried yet, but only a couple of bulbs.  The instructions with the film say to rat...

More on this later .

As I begin at last to break free of the drivel that is Flickr, I've resuscitated my APUG and Tumblr accounts. I also stumbled onto Fomapan's site just now, (cut out the middleman). I'll put them on the sidebar later. I had a lot to blog about, but exhausted by a weekend of flat-hunting in Glasgow and ready to hit the hay. Briefly though, as notes to self:  I read on Flickr tonight (it's still good for some things), that Efke's going out of business . Which is bloody bad news. They're the only European manufacturer of 127, so far as I know. I'll have to look across the water, it seems.  Anyway, I need to look for C41 127 - that's a whole 'nother story.

It was almost exactly three years ago that I was buying a tetenal kit whilst wondering about the eventual possibility of getting wet prints... I just developed a roll of Portra tonight - photos I took in March in San Francisco, ffs, and also happened to have a quick google for public darkroom facilities in Glasgow.  There's  Street Level Photoworks .  Fingers crossed, we'll be moved to Dennistoun and only a 20 minute walk from Trongate in a few weeks, and I can at last get away from the masturbatory not-quite-photography world of the internet, and just use digital media as a form of elaborate contact sheet.  Proper prints, framed and on a wall.  Bye-bye, pixels.

San Francisco on Portra March 2012 3 , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . This is one snap from a roll of Portra I took with the Agfa Isolette II on a work-trip to San Francisco back in March. They're all awful . It's a salutary lesson to stop taking opportunistic snapshots. I've put them on Flickr as a reminder of that. Another thing I've learned is that Portra would be gorgeous film properly used. AND, whilst a bit of dust is ok in lo-fi quasi early 60s shots, can even be part of the aesthetic, it's no bloody good if you're trying to do something conventionally beautiful, like a regular portrait. So I need to address the dust issue (drying the negs in a length of plastic drainpipe, perhaps?) before I start taking print-worthy pics. Finally, for more-or-less conventional portraits, the Agfa isn't really going to cut the mustard - it doesn't sit comfortably on the tripod because of its door, for one thing. So back on eBay it will go, as ...

Link for reference.

Untitled-1 , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . Out of focus, (because the focal length of the Ilford Sporti is more than five feet). The Fomapan is just right for flashbulbs. Bits of dust are fine. She was videoing me on the phone, but decided to hold it to her face like a camera. This is it, this is the style.

I was trawling eBay, looking for cheap(er) 127 film, hoping to pay something less than the standard fiver a roll for Efke, say . I had some luck with various out-of-date films, (of which more later), but best of all was someone auctioning an Ilford Sprite, and throwing in a couple of rolls of Efke for good measure. Result.  I got the two rolls (exp Sept 2013, forsooth), plus a camera for about seven quid. Film and camera arrived this morning. The Sprite is a dinky wee thing : nice shape and feel, minimalist settings, (fixed speed and focus, two apertures). I couldn't resist it, I bunged in a roll of the Efke and snapped all 12 exposures in the garden.  Should get that dev'd and scanned in the next week or so. Here's something from 1963, taken with a Sprite . There are photos taken recently with them, but that photo illustrates what it can do. Almost Holga-like, the sharp central area, with gentle vignetting around the edges. Lovely. Just what I'm wanting for...

Developed the first roll of Fomapan tonight - pics here tomorrow if I get time to scan them.  I used 1+50 Rodinal, 8 minutes @ 22C .  That was a test roll in the Ilford Sporti shot a couple of months ago, to see if it was synching with the flashgun - and from the negs, it has. Fomapan has a nice look to it - good contrast, low grain, - but I'm not sure if it's quite the look I want.  More information from the manufacturers here .  I actually only read that after I developed the roll, as usual, and didn't follow it to the letter - no distilled water in my processing, and the rinse was only five minutes or so after each stage, with my customary drop of washing up liquid.  Anyways, whatever else it is, it's cheap .

                                        e                     Gawd bless 'em.  A group of very clever lassies.  Never mind the private-jets-against-climate-change people who've gotten onto the bandwagon, or the fact that when you get hold of this on The Guardian website you first have to listen to a cringing commercial for some pay-as-you go baloney. The whole thing, from cathedral to trial to "penal colony" (whatever the foot-of-our-stairs that involves; nice touch of Kafka, though, eh?) is a work of art. And don't let this Russian madness let us lose sight of the fact that the UK is currently governed by a set of neoliberal greedy bloody fruitcakes, either, mind.

dinner , originally uploaded by Beaulawrence . This is just the look I've been visualising. And it's one of those things that makes so much sense when it's put right under your nose: Shanghai GP3. I used a couple of rolls, ( in Shanghai, as it happens), and it was hopeless in a Holga for street , cruelly underexposed. But this is perfect. It's the flashbulb that does it. I could get something very similar with a roll of Shanghai, the Ilford Sporti, and of course a flashbulb.