Ok, getting very tardy with band photos now. These ones date from the 8th May, but I blame having too much fun at other gigs in the mean time :).
This was a bit of a strange one. Just a couple of songs performed just outside The Heavy Sounds shop in the middle of the West End Arcade in Nottingham. Don’t really know much about the band, except they’re a 2 piece consisting of guitar and drums, and that this event was to celebrate the launch of their debut 10″. Pretty good sounds, but I haven’t managed to get back down and pick up a copy, oops.
After this the bands just kept on coming as I traipsed up to The Old Angel for Wormrot, Unkind and a couple of others. Photos from that gig should be up pretty soon. Though I’m about to head out to Luxury Stranger and Screaming Banshee Aircrew, so I’m going to have even more to develop and process.
Canon EOS 3, Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 EX DG, Ilford HP5+ @ ISO 400, developed in DD-X, scanned on an Epson V500
Another evening back at Nottingham’s Old Angel, with the camera in tow. This time to catch Merciless Terror tearing up the stage. In fact, fast enough that I could barely focus, so not too many keepers out of the lot.
Hopefully there are some more Angel shot’s to come from Wormrot’s nottingham gig, but I’ve realised I’d shot them at ISO 800 and developed at ISO 1600, so we’ll have to see how they come out.
Some bits of Nottingham don’t seem to be fairing as well as others. In facts bits of the Lace market seem to be crumbling pretty rapidly. Bit of a shame really, some of the old buildings are lovely sandstone monstrosities. but it seems that the clubs (or their landlords) aren’t too bothered about keeping the exteriors in a decent condition. Quite like the batlike shape on this one, and the fact that is eating through the ‘pillars’ is nice too. Shame about the no parralel lines but i can’t quite afford a TS lens or a view camera just yet.
Canon EOS 3, Canon EF 50mm f/1.4, Ilford HP5+ @ ISO400, developed in DD-X, scanned on an Epson v500
Just to prove that sometimes it’s worth looking at the floor. Just a little bundle of feathers and twigs on the floor in front of the main doors to St Mary‘s church in the Lace market (apparently the oldest Christian foundation church in Nottingham). Think it would have looked slightly better with a slight deeper DOF, and I’m wondering whether I should have moved the twig behind it as well. Or would that count as having created the scene?
Canon EOS 3, Canon EF 50mm f/1.4, Ilford HP5+ @ ISO 400, developed in DD-X, scanned on an Epson V500
Well, one thing that probably won’t run out is the amount of graffiti in Nottingham to take pictures of. Though the quality of some it is probably debatable (my photos AND the graffiti :))
A nice stencilled piece of graffiti on one of the wall posts along Forest Road. I like the way the ivy’s creeping up the other side, showing 2 of Nottingham’s buildings biggest enemies (the others including idiot developers).
Slight increased the contrast in PP, but not by a huge amount.
Canon EOS 300, Canon EF 50mm 1.4, HP5+ @ ISO 400 scanned on Epson v500
So, the first trip out to see a band with the film camera in tow.
First up were Twilight’s Embrace. A local Nottingham band tagging themslves in the Dark Melodic Metal camp who’ve been around a while, but this was their first ever live performance. Judging from the performance and feedback from the decent sized crowd I think we’ll be seeing them again soon.
Not many pictures as the 300 appears to not like focusing in the gloom, grrrr.
Headliners for the night were Sorrow’s fall, hopefully there’ll be some pics of them up shortly.
All pictures taken on a Canon EOS 300, with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens on Ilford HP5+ pushed to 1600 ISO, developed in DD-X and scanned on an epson V500
I love the really shallow Depth of Focus I can get with 35mm film and the 50mm lens. Just lets you pick out the parts of the picture you really want to emphasise. Though going through some of the photos I do notice the EOS 300 does have a tendency to focus a little nearer than I’m wanting. I’m guessing in this case the contrast on the bricks was just too enticing for it :)
Canon EOS 300, Canon EF 50mm 1.4, Ilford HP5+, self developed with Ilford DD-X, scanned on Epson V500
So finally I’ve taken some photos with my new camera, developed them and then scanned them. Here’s the first:
Pretty happy with that. There’s definitely something satisfying about working with film. There’s the mystery about what’s actually on the film after you’ve taken the shot and the timing and skill in getting the film developed properly. It’s almost a bit of an anticlimax once it’s been scanned, just a little bit of levels and sharpening to get over the film->image artifacts and it’s all done.
Anyway, a little bit of Nottingham urban decay with a tagged switch box at the top of the Forest Recreation ground. Not the most original compositions but the bright white tag caught my eye nestling in the trees.
Another one of my first film images, processed by boots (and scanned by them).
A really quick snap in the Museum Gardens in York while I waited for some friends to catch up. Not the greatest exposure, was still getting the hang of the meter on the new camera (24 hours old at this point), so there’s not much detail in the snowy areas. Should really have dropped the exposure down a bit to compensate. Or had some filters to hand. That’s something else to read up on and learn.
That said I do like the composition. Shame I’ll have to wait till next year to have a chance to try it again.
So having bought a film camera, the obvious next step was to start processing my own film.
First up was some research. Rummaging around on the Internet provided some very useful video:
Due to how easy it was to get hold of I decided to use Ilford films and chemicals. This came in handy as Ilford have a huge range of helpful documents on their website, this step by step guide being particularly useful – http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/200629163442455.pdf
After enjoying last year’s event my girlfriend and I decided that we”d head up to York again this year for the Viking festival. The festival runs over the entire week, but due to work we only went up for a long weekend (Friday to Sunday).
Friday we went for a poke around the Trader’s tent. Always fun this with lots of traders travelling quite some distance to show there wares. A lot of it is specialist re-enactor equipment (period buttons or needles?), but there’s also a good range of jewelery and other items that appeal to everyone (we got a nice drinking bowl, and I was (as always) tempted by a sword or spear for the wall).
We also went to 2 lectures held in the Council hall (very nicely decorated, lovely carved wood panels and everything. Just a shame that York councillors seem to be shorter than me, the back rests did nothing). The first was on the Scar Viking Boat Burial presented by Anne Brundle of the Orkney Museum. This was a fascinating description of a dig on an accidentally found viking boat burial. Anne was a marvellous speaker, making the talk very informative and passionate with plenty of humour injected. Some of the pictures just increased my wishes to vist Orkney at some point.
Next up was Barry Ager of the British Museum talking about the Vale of York Hoard (Pictures). We were lucky enough to have seen the Hoard at the Yorkshire Museum when we came up for the festival in 2009. This was a much drier factual talk (not that Anne’s wasn’t full of facts) but still interesting to hear the possible history of the individual pieces.
The rest of Saturday was taken up by dinner and a couple of pints in the Last Drop Inn
On Saturday we went to watch the re-enactors in the Museum park and also watch an impressive Birds of Prey display (all the more impressive due to the small area they shoehorned it into, though thankfully they’d stopped the archery during the display). Had a poke around the Minster and paid the extra to go down into the Undercroft. Very impressive down there, nicely laid out to show the growth/change in the building over the years. And a good use of the space created by the shoring up of the foundations. Followed by more mooching around the trader’s tent.
Also spent the weekend playing around with the new camera, they seem to have come out alright. Though with the standard Boots processing comment.
So I took the plunge and decided to let Boots process my first 2 rolls of black and white film. Luckily I’d gone with Ilford’s XP2 Super, so they could do that. Also paid the extra couple of quid to have them scanned onto a CD, and these are the results. Other than putting the watermarks on with an ImageMagick script these are ‘as they come’:
A little still life of our windowsill at home. I love the sharpness of the spots on the pig. Would have like a little more contrast on the crystals, but don’t think Boots could really do that.
I just love the sharpness of the feathers on this vulture. And the detail in the handler’s hair is impressive as well. That would have taken a reasonable amount of faffing in Photoshop or Bibble normally.
I’ve always liked black and white portraits, and it’s nice to see that I can make them now. The lighting looks really smooth and nice with just a little bit of fill from the laptop screen. But there’s still plenty of detail in the hair and the jumper. And the reduced DoF with the larger 35mm frame lets her break free from the background. And having a pretty model for a girlfriend helps :).
So I think the bug has definitely bitten. Just ordered 5 more roles of HP5+, and now seriously looking into some processing kit of my own. I’m at least going to process my own negatives and then investigate getting them printed.
Well, I’ve decided to take the plunge and now own my first film camera since a 10 year old me broke his little 126 point and shoot.
While walking around York at the weekend I came across a little stall in Newgate Market selling secondhand film bodys. Had a pretty good chat with the owner, had a play with some Canon bodies and a drool over a nice Mamiya and then gave in and got the wallet out. So I’m now the proud owner of a Canon EOS 300, for which I paid the bargain price of £40.
Luckily there was a camera shop just round the corner so I aquired some Ilford XP2 to have a play with and I’d bought the DSLR with me so I had a 50mm lens to play with.
So there’s about 48 shots of badly exposed portraits, blurry vikings and highlight blown metals sat in 2 film tubs needing developing. Just need to find somewhere in Nottingham to drop them off.
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