St Ives - through my eyes

St Ives - One would say quintessentially Cornish, picture postcard views and one of the singular most popular seaside towns in the UK. Its colourful, great out of season and very photogenic. But as photographer like most, often see what others don’t. Tourists will continue to take those typical St ives seaside shots we all see and love, but personally, I prefer to see a different side to it whilst at the same time, seeing different views.
Enclosed are just a few of what I see……

I tend to search out colours, use different film formats and a selection of film stocks to mix it all up.

A cliff top view here overlooking Porthmeor beach before the crowds arrive and the emptiness disappears. i often find that the morning light delivers the best light, thats always providing the clouds stay away

At low tide, St Ives offers free food for all. I refer to Cornish muscles if your a seafood lover. Remember though, go safe and be careful of the rocks and watch the tides etc. Im certainly not going to tell you where I harvest mine from, but wherever it is, I get the biggest muscles time after time.
There is a saying that you should never harvest muscles in the months with an “r” in them. Ive never found that an issue

They’ll always be somewhere to point your camera in St Ives and there’s always a different view, if you look for it. Colour will always stand out here, even in the off seasons. St Ives will always remain popular with tourist and locals alike. I’ll continue to look for more ways to shoot more content here - but always at first light and when the place is empty

Camera & film stocks used :
Pentax 6x7, Hassy 500 cm & Konica Hexar. Portra 400vc expired, expired ultramax 400 & Kodak Gold 120

Shooting Kodak Vision 250 3 D

For those of you who are uncertain as to what Kodak Vision 3 is, its a 35mm colour negative film originally made for motion pictures. The film's standard development process is ECN2 and Im told it can also be processed using the C-41 process. Double check that. I chose to go down the ECN2 route which is more costly one and you’ll need to search out someone in the UK who does specialist processing. I used Nik & Trick ( www.ntphotoworks.com), excellent service I might add. You’ll need to wait a little longer than the standard 2/3 days turn around time on this stock though. Factor in say 2/3 weeks to get your shots back.

So, the first set of images here are from the first roll I shot. I had no real subject matter in mind at the time other than to just roll off the film at whatever

Camera: Konica Hexar

Roll 2
On this occasion, i looked for more variety and colour to further test this stock and I found subjects that it suits, and perhaps others that it doesn’t. For me, the portrait shot below is fine in its composition but I can see yellow and slight green ish tones to it.
Given I know the subject well, the skin tones and studio walls colours, are not correct.

Further evidence of those yellow and green ish tones are highlighted here when I shot this image in low light conditions. The film was shot at stock and the light reading was fine, its just Vision3 that gives it these tones especially in low light

So, is it a stock Id shoot again? Hell yes! I like the fact that Vision3 for me seems to offer colours and tones that other stocks don’t as such. It’s never going to be one of my top 5 stocks but I will continue to shoot it

Please note: All of the images contained within this post and other posts, and on my site are free from Photoshop, Lightroom and presets. All my imaging is real

I came back - Automotive

After shooting automotive content over a number of years for several automotive publications and media outlets, I gave it all up. It just became too easy and I got fed up with the mags cropping my imaging, paying me when they wanted too and some of the owners of that automotive content telling me how good their rides were.

However, more recently Ive become re interested in that area of photography due to the premium quality and varied volume of content I now find myself shooting again. This time it’s different, no more of that digital rubbish as I now only shoot film.

Sadly, print based media only takes digital content as they are after that pin sharp pixel crap that we as a nation have been programmed to believe it’s best. Here’s the thing though and this is directed to those blinkered magazine editors of the world, medium format film can be super sharp too and being film, it brings something that digi never will, a real texture and organic quality and lovely grain. Stick that in your digital pipe and smoke it.

Please note: All of the images contained within this post and other posts, and on my site are free from Photoshop, Lightroom and presets. All my imaging is real

Kodak Professional Portra 160NC review

Here’s a Kodak film stock that I only came across recently and being a lover of Portra in general, I simply had to try it.
I shoot a lot of Portra both on 35mm and medium format but I wanted to try NC on my 6x7 first, just to gauge it on a large negative fit. By the way, this roll of NC expired back in 1998.
I first picked a solid colour subject matter to see how it stood up. You’ll notice here that there is four blues, the double doors, the side shutter, the sea and the sky. All different shades of blue. To my eyes, there’s not colour separation at all and NC has performed really well given the fact that its over 20 years old

The next image was shot early doors just as the sun was coming up positioned slightly behind me. I picked this frame as I thought it would best represent a series of colours for a decent Portra test. Again, I think the film stood up really well the colours to me are classic Portra, perhaps more 160 than 400

I think it’s important to note here that I don’t use Photoshop, Lightroom or filters. I still struggle to understand that if you’re shooting film, you take all that time to compose the shot, get your light levels, shutter speed etc, you then take that image and change it, add and manipulate the hell out of it. If you shot it wrong in the first place, go back and do it again or learn from your mistakes.

Again, the colours here for a well expired film look really good and they are as I saw them. Clearly previous storage on his roll has been good or at least been kept away from heat etc.
On balance then, If i can get hold of some more of this stock, I certainly would. Its clearly Portra both on the quality and the colour front.

Please note: Other views and opinions are available but these are mine. Cheers….

Penberth Cove - The tiny fishing hamlet

The tiny fishing hamlet of Penberth Cove lies at the foot of a wooded valley just to the east of Porthcurno. Fishing still remains part of Penberth but only to a few local families nows that still fish this cove and its Atlantic waters.

I spent a few hours one early spring morning capturing all that I saw. All images are shot on film. None of those pixels or photoshop here. Just real images

Camera’s: Asahi Pentax 6x7, Hasselblad 500 CM
Films: Kodak Ektar & Kodak Portra 160

Portra 400 VC - Another first

I’m a big lover of Portra as a film stock both on 35mm and Medium Format, so it was only question of time before I tried 400VC. The “VC” as you are all no doubt aware of stands for “Vivid Colour”. A brief history on this will tell you this film stock was around until 2011 when production stopped. The rolls I picked up on a on line auction web site were expired back in 2007. Shooting expired stock can be a bit of a gamble but i like that risk.

Images enclosed are shot on my Hasselblad 500 CM and my Pentax 6x7. No push, no pull, no over, no under, no one stop, two stop, Lightroom or Photoshop, just straight out of the box

Ive chosen a variety of colours and subjects to see how a 2007 rolls handles the colour. There are a little grainy but Portra’s never been a fine grain stock anyway. Would I say they were vivid. Certainly not by todays standards but the colours are there with little or no real separation to speak off.

The Asahi Pentax 6x7 - a search for the right one

When I first decided to enter the world of medium format film, camera choice for me was key. I did find what I was looking for and I certainly made the right choice with the Hasselblad 500 CM. However, in the back of my mind at that time of that selection, the 6x7 did feature as a preferred choice but it was dismissed quite early on.

Moving forward a couple of years, I started to go through that phase like Im sure a lot of other photographers do where we begin to think about adding another camera to my collection. Do I really need one? will it improve my work?, nope, so why did I need the Pentax? If Im honest, Ive always loved the sear brutal look of the 6x7 and their retro design. What other camera has a wooden handle that size strapped to the side of it. I ask you.

So, I set about looking into all of the MF Pentax models, the Asahi 6x7, the Honeywell 6x7 ( its essentially the same as the Pentax 6x7, only marketed specifically to the USA) the 6x7 MLU (mirror lock up) the 67 and finally the 67ii. All very attractive in their own right but the Asahi for me was the most attractive in its design. A little further research into that model and it turned out that the MLU version was the more reliable one to have. Now, being the worst technical photographer in the world, I needed some help in the first instance and a big thank you to my on line technical guru, Gareth, for his impartial advice. His choice different to mine so I then set about finding the right one - what a quest!!

After searching the usual on line avenues of enquiries, it soon became quite apparent that the Japanese market was the best option for me as the UK’s examples were very average and extremely limited in supply. If you are in the market for a 6x7, or should I say a really good example of a 6x7, then Japan is the place to look. Not only that but after speaking direct to a few Japanese Pentax retailers, their very knowledgeable on all of the Pentax models.

My search took me a number of weeks as I couldn’t find a camera with a lens as a package that fitted the bill. Either the camera’s body was not a mint example, thats what I was after, or the lens with the camera had haze, fogging or mould etc.
That then meant the only option for me was to spend a little more money and buy separately. After some further searching I found a mint body, and it really is, the lens was next. Servicing was also super important for me when required and I managed to find a UK based Pentax experienced engineer who gave me some solid advice on which lens to get in his experience, thank you Parmath.. The 105mm lens so Im told is one of the best lenses ever made, but the SMC version is the one to have. Parmeth lost me a little on the technical reasons why but he takes them apart and has decades of experience working on them so his help was invaluable.

Finally, I managed to track down a truly excellent 105mm SMC lens so I now have the complete package. Now, if Im looking to buy another decent camera at any point, there’s always a certain number of prerequisite that I like to take into consideration.
In the event of me selling or moving on any of my kit at a later date, how attractive to a potential purchaser will my camera be. So buying the best example I possible can for the right money is key. Secondly, the more attractive and desirable models will be the ones to have so I take that into consideration too.

To summarise then. Ive now got what I set out to buy, a cracking example of a Asahi Pentax 6x7. Yes, I did pay a little more money by buying separate but I got what I wanted. Will it make me a better photographer, certainly not. I have to put my knowledge and shooting skills into it first and then see if it might produce another element to my work. The larger 6x7 negative will certainly do something to the viewing aspect of the images I produce and perhaps I’ll take that into consideration when shooting with the Asahi. Off to the gym now to build up those guns so I can lift this beast, hell!!

One final note if I may. If you’re looking to get a service done on a 6x7 and your based in the UK, look no further than Asahi Photo. Ask for Peter. He offer excellent advice and is able to service all of the 6x7’s

Some data for you guys that might be helpful if you’re looking at grabbing one:

• Asahi Pentax 6×7 – the original model, launched in 1969 (first generation)

• Asahi Pentax 6×7 (MLU) – with a mirror lock-up mechanism, launched in 1976 (second generation)

• Pentax 67 – with minor cosmetic changes, launched in 1990 (third generation)

• Pentax 67II – the fourth generation model, launched in 1999

Please note: Other views and opinions are available but these are mine…

My first roll of Portra 160 on the Hassy

Im a firm believer that if you shoot film on a regular basis, you should work your way through most film stocks that are out there. Im a bit colour lover and favour certain films but Id never tried Portra 160 until a few week ago. I was keen to save this roll until I found a certain subject matter which I thought might lend itself to well to Portra’s vivid colour and tones. So a recent trip to Croatia seems a perfect choice.

A photographer that I often speak on film related stuff reckoned i should over exposed Portra 160 by a few stops. I’d say that his work has a very neutral look to it and suits his style of photography really well. For me, I do what I always do, shoot it straight, no tweeks and very standard ish. Ive never bothered with the over under exposed option or that push and pull process stuff when developing. I just shoot film out of the box.

So, enclosed are a selection of shots I managed to grab. See what you think. Im happy with them. Would I shoot Portra 160 again. I guess so but it doesn’t rock my boat enough to go nuts with it. Photography is all about choice and what best suit your needs and requirements given the kit you’ve got and the film stock you shoot with.

Please note: No photoshop, lightroom or presets were used or will ever be used in the making of my images. All the shots you see are straight out of the box. Real photography you might say

Ektar - I wish I'd discovered it earlier

I came across some friends work recently and loved how the film he used delivered great colour and fine grain. It was clear from the images I saw that this wasn’t a film stock Id seen or comes across before. The film stock in question was Kodaks Ektar 35. Now, vivid colour is something I love to shoot and incorporate into my work so it was time to try a roll out myself. The results, well, Im super chuffed with them. There are all what I expected and more.

Now as you can see from the images above, the colour is punchy and vivid and the grain is super fine. Its a film that lends itself to bold colours and detail. When shooting my first roll of Ektar, I made sure I targeted bold colourful subjects to get the best out of it. At the same time, I thought Id try a few other options such as portrait and interiors. As you see, Ektar also offers some nice rich tones too and delivers on that front as well.

To summerize then. Is it a film that Im going to be using on a regular basis? Hell, yes… Its also a film id be keen to try out on Medium Format. Given how good it is and the right subject matters and light, I feel pretty sure it will deliver on all counts. Watch this space

going fully expired- Part one

Ive only just realised that over the last few months, Ive been shooting nothing other than expired film. Now there's nothing wrong with that as the results you can get from expired stock can often be as good as up to date film. So, with that in mind I have now decided to shoot only expired film. I currently have 40 plus rolls in the fridge dating from 1992 to 2012. With regards to their previous storage conditions which can be key, I can only go on the info I was given (fridge stored) at the time when I bought them on line. Thats part of the gamble you take when shooting expired film....

 Fujicolor Reala 100
Fuji NPS 120 film ISO160
Fuji chrome Velvia RVP120
Fujicolor Pro 400H
 Fujicolor NPH 400
 Fujifilm Superia x-tra 400
Kodak Tmax 400

Enclosed are the first few images for this project (part one) which were shot on on Hasselblad 500C/M. All of these were shot at standard box speed with no adjustments

Kodak Porta 160

Kodak Ektar 160

Kodak Ektar

Kodak Porta 160

ten years on - Konica's VX200

Im never really sure how expired film is going to turn out especially if its purchased from a third party. You've no real idea under what conditions its was ever stored in, could of been in the fridge all these year, but very unlikely, perhaps it was stored somewhere warm or just cast aside and found in the back of a draw years later. Most of the stuff Ive bought recently has come from either Ebay or car boat sales so there's no real historical data on it. So, with that in mind and given how old this roll was, I would of normally set an expired 200 asa roll of film to say 400 asa but this time I decided to run at 120 asa. Why not!  Shooting expired film is all about playing around with it to see what kind of results you get. Anyhow, enclosed are a few images from a roll of Konica's VX 200 which expired back in 2008. I shot it on my M6 under varied light conditions, subject matters both inside and out which clearly has given me some mixed results.
The first image here is a couple of light leaks whilst loading. I love the abstract colour here....