Life in 35mm

Bradford Classic 2010

2010-02-16T17:54:00.000Z

Looking forward to this event, I've already put in a request for an application form. It's one of the few remaining good things going on in Bradford, and for a weekend you almost don't care that Westfield have left us with a 2 acre hole in the middle of the city. Almost.

Here's a car that was there at the 08 and 09 events, a stunning blue Triumph TR6 - whose 6 cylinder engine puts out almost double the horsepower of my Spitfire's.

My New Car!

2010-01-05T23:53:00.003Z

Triumph Spitfire 1500, made in 1977:

Hasn't had much use since I bought it in autumn, but a subsequent hard top purchase has made it cozy and warm inside!

50mph, Baildon Moor

2009-05-03T00:38:00.007+01:00

This view at the time seemed a bit surreal - can't put my finger on why, and I'm sure this photo has no meaning whatsoever to anyone else. Maybe it was the interesting textures, maybe it was the isolated nature of the road, markings and signs in what was otherwise a bleak and desolate surrounding. Shame about the filter starting to vignette a little at the top corners.

The weather was getting worse, and by the time me and Niczy scaled the top of Baildon Moor, visibility was extremely poor for around 2 in the afternoon. It felt like somewhat of an achievement getting up there after a long walk but we didn't stay long, and quickly navigated our way down with a view to getting a well deserved pint at the pub around tea time. Good day out.

Bingley Through a Plastic Lens

2009-04-26T19:44:00.007+01:00

Okay its not 35mm or transparency film, just a fun diversion on medium format film with a cheap plastic chinese camera called a 'Holga'.

Holga's are great, theres no point trying to use any sort of technique with them so you just end up taking pictures for the pure fun of it. Throw conventional photography rules out the window. Every roll of film back comes with surprises, photos that otherwise may have been uninteresting suddenly become something altogether different in meaning.

Wipe Out Terrorism

2009-04-24T01:12:00.005+01:00

You get some wierd stuff in gift shops, but this printed toilet paper has to be one of the most unusual I've seen. It was somewhere in central Manhattan, and is a crude but funny way of fighting back at Bin Laden without force. Can't help but wonder what he'd make of it.

Who Wants a Cookie?

2009-04-07T02:10:00.003+01:00

I took this about 1 year ago and ever since still haven't been able to figure out what causes the green mist just above the horizon. Any ideas?

Send the correct answer in a SAE to me and I'll return it with a cookie. Or I might just eat the cookie.

Hazardous Work

2009-03-31T01:07:00.006+01:00

This image was harder to make than it shouldve been. There I was, in what I *thought* was an empty field, freezing my arse off messing with this camera and tripod, when I hear someone shouting "get out of there". It was only my trusty assistant, safe and warm in his car, telling me about a herd of cattle approaching. "Nah they're just cows, and they're nowhere near, no problem" I replied. Proceeding to make a few more shots, I then turned round to take another look at these cows, only to find they were actually a herd of bulls (the type of cows with big horns), slowly walking up to me, extremely close, and looking a tad angry.

I moved a little. They moved a little. I see what you're doing there bulls. Slowly, calmly, I grabbed the tripod, and then legged it as fast as I could, leaping over the barbed wire fence to safety - a close shave.

A bit disappointed afterwards, I didn't think I'd had time to get anything of use, but was later surprised to find most of the images had turned out fine.

Bingley, Summer 2008 at around 9.30pm

Donnington Park

2009-03-28T02:57:00.004Z

What a stunning collection they have in their museum - over 130 Formula 1 cars, the largest collection in the world as far as I'm aware. Pretty much every McLaren ever made before 1996, all the Williams Honda turbo cars, Mansell's championship winning FW14b, Damon Hill's championship winning FW18, his father Graham Hill's Lotus 49 with the super-high rear wing. Too many stunning cars to list.

The best part was how quiet the place is - the whole museum only had a couple of other people there that we passed. You had the whole place to yourself - no glaring supervisors, no crowds, no noise. You could go so close to these cars, you could touch them if you wanted (although im sure you're not supposed to), you could smell them. Incredible.

Shotgun Shooting

2009-03-21T00:57:00.004Z

I didn't even realise you could do this in the UK any more! Good fun though, and a great day to do it - clear and sunny. I'd never fired a gun before, so hitting all 3 clays on the first 3 tries was pretty cool!

its great how the spent cartridges fly out with the flick of a switch

York Road

2009-03-02T17:26:00.002Z

One of Gurb's favourite places in Leicester. Just an unassuming random street really, but it has a fair amount of character. Leicester is a cool city if you've never visited it, loads of shops, plenty of history and full of culture. On the random day I chose to visit Gurb, there happened to be some sort of Viking festival, and we found a small museum with exhibits such as dinosaur skeletons and ancient Egyptian treaures. Brilliant.

Cheeky Scamp

2009-01-26T19:28:00.000Z

Found this little hedgehog stealing our cat's biscuits in the porch!

Baker, Baines & Konu (aka Riff 17)

2009-01-11T23:41:00.000Z

What better way to spend a friday night - playing monopoly, and having enough red wine to muster the courage to record yourselves making music? Sensing a great opportunity to try out the new recording preamp and midi synth controller I'd got, we dabbled in the DIY studio until about 2am - successfully managing to piss off the next door neighbour with "arriba!" screams to spanish guitar. Bloody good fun.

John didn't feel comfortable drinking wine out of a tumbler...

Shame we didn't get round to using the electric - I keep intending to play it more but there's always something wrong with the guitar, cables or amp...

Art Imitates Art

2009-01-11T00:49:00.001Z

One thing I've encountered in photography is the sometimes thorny issue of whether it constitutes an art form. Some argue that a photographer can only capture what the world already provides, whereas some believe photography is a creative work and therefore deserves distinction as an art. I'm not sure yet where I stand on this issue, other than to say neither extreme is correct.

One thing that does interest me though is that photography sometimes imitates another art form, namely painting. Artifacts in the image or film stock such as shutter blur, bokeh, perspective distortion etc, that would normally be considered flaws can give a dreamy quality to an image, making it surreal enough to have people say "nah that's not real" or "you did that in photoshop, right?". I find this is more pronounced in film photography, but that's not to say it can't be done in digital. Most of my favourite photographs have at least one visible element of this.

Here are some totally unmanipulated slides I've taken that have had similar comments made about them:

Boiler Beach in Kincardine, on the Canadian shore of Lake Huron

Cow & Calf rocks, Ilkley moor, West Yorkshire

Tenerifé, las montañas cerca de El Castillo San Miguel

The last image illustrates how the 'imperfections' in Kodachrome film can render such a gorgeous texture to clouds. If only I could get every sunset photo to look something like this!

Colour Accuracy

2009-01-11T00:35:00.002Z

Is it really that important? I've gotta be honest I've probably spent a total of several hours meticulously correcting the colour balance of slide scans in photoshop, but an inaccurate colour palette on film can generate some really atmospheric images.

Take this coffee shop in New York for example - Velvia 100 is a daylight balanced film, so the tungsten lights rendered a yellow cast to the image. A blue correcting filter would've made the shutter speed too slow at the time, and a yellow image is better than no image, so I took it anyway. After correcting the cast in photoshop, the image no longer captured the mood, so the colour cast stays!

Times Square, shutter must have been 1/10th or slower

Coffee cups make great tripods!

Druids Altar

2008-06-13T01:57:00.000+01:00

This is high up in Bingley just on the outskirts of St.Ives that overlooks the entire town and surrounding area, a great place to sit and think about anything really. It was a pretty dull and overcast day when we first found it, but still definately worth it and the pictures came out surprisingly okay - if a little lacking in sharpness or depth of field as a result.

Although rain brings out depth and texture in rocks, it also creates a great way to get your jeans wet...

Lazy Days at Home and in Nottingham

2008-06-13T01:36:00.001+01:00

Even if it's a particuarly sunny day and there's loads of things to be getting on with, it can quite easily turn into a slow, lazy day. Sometimes you've just got to cave in and go for a cheeky pint! Photos taken both at home in Bingley and at Uni in Nottingham.

Lenses: EF 20mm f/2.8, EF 50mm f/1.8 II

Film: Fuji Velvia (50 asa)