filmphotography

Published!

Documentary, Project

Some time ago I started my first photography project. This was centered around a vinyl record pressing works in West London called The Vinyl Factory. 

This historic place had been the former EMI pressing works and while a shadow of it’s heyday, still holds a major place in the music industry.

Having taken some images there, I was granted permission to shoot what turned out to be a large number of frames all on film, mostly black and white. This would eventually be put into a book.

In the meantime, some of the images ended up on a vinyl industry blog, and through that came an enquiry to publish some of them in an article in a German tech magazine called Turn On.

These arrived in the post today having been printed and circulated to over 250,000 readers.

Images In Print
Images IN Print

The Meterman

Cameras, Documentary

I use a camera shop in Luton, Bedfordshire England. It happens to be an Olympus service centre, useful when you have a collection of Olympus cameras.

The following images however were not taken with an Olympus camera. I happened to have my antique shop camera with me. The Voigtlander CLR.

Having parked up, I went to the meter to pay, next to it was this chap called Darren. At the point these images were made he had been on the streets for 11 months.

He works the meter, not just asking for loose change but offering advice on the most effective ticket to buy, especially if the ticket takes you into the free periods.

I guess if gives him a sense of worth and value, offering assistance in return for come loose change. He seemed very proud, so I asked for some photos.

Here is a selection of the results.

First Photo Project

Cameras, Documentary, Uncategorized

So having found a great shooting camera in the 35SP I needed a project. A new customer of mine for my day job was a very interesting factory. Based in the former EMI record pressing works, The Vinyl Factory is an independent vinyl record pressing plant, record label and all round creative hub.

I showed the MD my growing portfolio, and was granted access to start shooting. To begin with just the machines, but this soon started to grow into a major project. What started as an essay, had morphed into a book project and has continued to dominate my photography equipment purchases and thinking since, and still does till publish date.

For now, here are a few samples from the first roll of Ilford HP5 through the 35SP at the factory.

Since these pictures were taken in March 2017, I have returned at least four more times for whole days, building trust with the workers to shoot more documentary style work, that hopefully with build into a solid portfolio and printed book.

The Vinyl Factory
The Vinyl Factory
The Vinyl Factory
The Vinyl Factory
The Vinyl Factory
The Vinyl Factory
The Vinyl Factory

Another Camera?!

Aviation, Cameras, Uncategorized

By this time I am almost completely I love with the rangefinder camera concept. They are small, light (ish) fast to shoot and seem to have very good lenses.

The 35RC is a great little camera, but I thought I needed more!

A Leica was out of the question, so digging around on the internet (there’s another hour gone) I settled on the 35 SP (Spot Program) Apparently the only rangefinder camera of the era to include Spot Metering, and has a seven element 42 mm f1.7 lens!

All this technical prowess really is worth the hype, its a great camera, takes sharp images and works in lower light, either fully automatic or manual mode using EV numbers, a little fiddly, but it does work.

Most of the shooting I have done has been in Auto.

Here is a few from the first roll of Ilford FP4. I went on to use this camera to start my Vinyl Factory project and a holiday trip to Teneriefe. More on both of those later.

Anne
Steve

Olympus Trip 35 – Legendary Camera

Cameras, Uncategorized

I suppose at this point I have to do a ‘gear’ post. As this was the camera that started my film renaissance it seems right to share this.

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Olympus Trip 35

The Olympus Trip is a simple fully automatic camera, no batteries required. Which is great. It has a hot shoe for a flash which I have never used.  It has a great 40mm D Zuiko lens, a simple focus system (four distances, no rangefinder) and two shutter speeds, of which you have no control. All you can do is set the film speed, advance the film, set the focus distance and shoot. This is ‘zone focus’ at its simplest. If the light is too low or two high it will lock the shutter. Simple. Quite liberating really. My example must be nearly 40 years old, and still works perfectly. They are still cheap to buy. Last time I looked they were going for about £10.00 more if you want a fancy custom one with coloured vinyl covering. If you want to see what film can do for your photography, try one of these. Great fun.

 

Building on success

Uncategorized

So spurred on by the success of the Trip 35 shots at home and feeling the need to do something more challenging I decided that some real world docu-street photography was required. There are literally hundreds of people talking about street photography at the moment so I won’t elaborate on this genre here at the moment, check out those that do it more than me. It is a personal challenge. Taking pictures in a public place of buildings or objects is one thing but of people, unknown to you, on purpose, can make you feel very uncomfortable. So, a few from a trip into town with work, few local shots and more stuff at home to see what results I would get seemed in order.

Flying Day

Aviation, Uncategorized

I had a fairly productive time with the Olympus Trip that day, before the family shots I had been asked to accompany my son-in-law on a trial flying lesson. Perfect opportunity to try it out. Here are the best ones from that trip.

Henlow Flying Club
Scott
Henlow Flying Club

Where It All Started (again)

Uncategorized

Read my about page to get a bit of background on this site and this post, but this is the picture set that made me fall in love with film again. Family photos of my granddaughter, grandson and my step-daughter with them both. nothing more, but the light in them I thought was wonderful. I was hooked. Ilford FP4 in an Olympus Trip 35. The one of my grandson was actually taken by my granddaughter!

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