4×5 back off the bench?

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how I’d been having problems with light leaks when using my 4×5 Chroma camera. When I posted on another forum about the difficulties I was encountering the guy who builds the Chroma range of cameras, Steve Lloyd, got in touch and offered to take a look at the camera. I gratefully accepted his offer and, about a week later, I received my camera back with the problem resolved. This was extremely kind of Steve as I bought the camera second-hand, so I didn’t have a warranty or anything. This is amazing service and the sort of good stuff that really should be praised.

Anyway, today was the first opportunity to give the camera a test. The weather looked bright but a fog began to appear just as I was setting out. Normally I really like foggy conditions, but some more brightness might have been preferable today. My intent was to walk to the local country park, shoot a couple of frames, and then get them developed at lunchtime, which I managed to achieve. The photos aren’t the best as I was rushing to get everything done before starting work, so the focus is slightly out against what I would have hoped for had I had the time to be more precise. This shot of the bench is in focus, but I would have liked the foreground gravel to be sharp too rather than the background grass, but getting the camera movements just right on large format takes time, and I had little today.

The good news is that there are no signs of any light leaks. Fair enough, it was a quite dimly lit morning, but I would still have expected to see efects on the negatives were the problem still occuring. I’ll try to get out in some brighter light and test it in those conditions too. Fingers crossed that it’s all ok now though. It’ll be nice to go out and use it properly and spend the time I need to do so.

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 14 February 2023.

A man on a bench looks out to sea (now in colour!)

A quick post today as I’ve spent the past few hours constructing a new computer desk for one of my sons (the new desk being necessitated by me breaking one of the castors off his old desk when moving it recently, so the whole enterprise is my fault). Anyway, the desk is now built and everything is plugged back in and working.

So, because I really just want to jump in the shower now, here’s another shot of a man on a bench sitting out to sea, almost identical in composition to the one I posted a few weeks ago, and taken within a minute or two of that picture, but this one was shot on Kodak Gold with my Olympus 35 RC.

The black and white version perhaps looks a little more calssy, but I think I like this one equally. It’s got that nice amber and teal(ish) thing going on with the sky and the bench.

Olympus 35 RC & Kodak Gold 200. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 20 June 2022

A man on a bench looks out to sea

I like this photo. It has a clean, minimal feel to it. The sky is clear of cloud (bar a couple of barely discenible whisps) and the lines of the horizon, fence, and bench add an element of structure. The man sits slightly off-centre, adding a small sense of discord to the picture.

I wonder what the man was thinking about as he sat there, looking out across the North Sea? When I see picture that I have taken such as this, I sometime wonder if I should have spent more time taking in the view myself, rather than trying to photograph it. I sometimes feel that I’m spending too much time trying to capture a moment to be enjoyed later when the reality is right there in front of me. But the camera, it draws me…

Yashicamat 124G & Fujifilm Acros. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 20 June 2022

Old weathered bench

There are a number of these benches dotted aroung the edge of the lakes at Rother Valley Country park. I’m unsure as to when they were installed, but they certainly look like they’ve seen their share of the elements. The park is almost 40 years old now, but I’m not sure if the benches have been there all that time.

I’ve photographed them before on previous occasions. The shot below was originally posted on here back in 2017.

First picture: Pentax P30T, Rikenon 50mm f/2 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 2 May 2020

Merry Christmas!

Whatever your beliefs may be, here’s wishing you and your loved ones health and happiness, and I hope you have a good day wherever you may be.

The residents who live across the road from this country phone box seem to decorate it on various occasions (on the times I’ve passed it), and I think it makes a suitably festive image for Christmas Day.

Merry Christmas!

Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 & Ilford XP2 (expired).

Taken on 19 December 2019

Looking out to sea

Looking out to sea seems to be an enduring calling to many people when visiting the coast, certainly in the UK, but also, I suspect, around the globe. Every seaside resort I’ve ever visited has benches and shelters along the promenade, along harbour walls, and atop cliffs and promontories, for the purpose of providing somewhere to rest while looking at the ocean beyond. Coin-operated telescopes provide the means of a close-up inspection, should something interesting be present on the water. There are car-parks designed in a such a way as to provide access to the view without leaving the comfort of the vehicle (and in the UK, given our tendency to inclement weather, this is perhaps wise).

I remember as a child visiting the beach with my grandparents in the rain. We would just sit in the car, eat sandwiches, drink pop or hot drinks from a thermos-flask, and watch the tide come in or retreat. If the weather was favourable, we’d get to venture onto the sand with our granddad, while grandma remained in the car, often with the aim of building a sandcastle that we could then subsequently watch be destroyed by the incoming waves while we sat back in the car. The castle fallen, and night beginning to fall, we’d return to the caravan for cocoa and bed.

There’s definitely a draw to looking at the sea, even on a calm day. Something about being at the edge of the world and imagining what might lie beyond some distant horizon (usually Denmark in our case, given the east coast of England was generally our destination of choice). Often times it’s older people who seem to do this the most. Perhaps the sea offers a glimpse of something else, something poignant, something nostalgic. Or maybe they just need a sit down more than the young.

Olympus 35RC & Eastman Double-X.

Taken on 13 September 2019

Frosty scenes

On a walk around the country park on a misty, frosty morning, the playground was deserted and quiet (apart from a couple of geese).

Olympus OM-1, Cimko 28mm f/2.8 & Kodak Portra 160.

Taken on 23 February 2018