One of the strangers I photographed in Manchester (well technically Salford with this one) yesterday.
ISO 12800
Salford Quays
Here are the photographs least affected by the reticulation, I still have another roll to finish so more to come.
Well I messed 2 of the three rolls from Amsterdam/Prague up… Lesson learnt - don’t change the temperature of the film to quickly unless you want to live with the effects of reticulation.
:)
Few photographs from the past week or so, first few are from around Salford Quays and a few of some knifes and forks… exciting.
Just got back form Amsterdam and Prague so will hopefully have some more work to post over the next few days as I develop it.
Progress Lane
Last Saturday I went out around Liverpool City Centre with a Linhof on my back in search of 4 willing models to photograph.
I set the camera up and went in search for the subjects. Even as I stood at the end of the road I still didn’t think I’d be able to actually ask but all 5 of the people asked agreed and were really cooperative.
It was also the first real time I had used a large format camera and I found it a lot different of a experience than other formats mainly because your not in complete synchronization with the composition having to focus and frame before you actually load the film meaning there is a 30second (I’m slow) difference from when you frame/focus to when you actually take the picture, and people move (See last picture, sorry Anne :) ) meaning the focus can be missed.
I’m more happy that I managed to convince strangers to follow me down an alleyway and let me photograph them :)
I’m going to be trying to do a lot more of this type of thing from now on, thanks to Marius (Picture 10) for letting me use his camera, supplying the film/chemicals and having the patience to spend 6 hours making these 6 pictures with me.
Work in Progress
Here are the first four images from my latest project work in progress documenting the construction work taking place around us. Keep an eye on my website for further additions to the series.
Quick update with some photograph’s from the past couple of weeks. The black and whites are shot at Heaton Park in Manchester through my Leica and the Colours are shot around Salford through my not so Leica £5 plastic panoramic camera.
I’ve been shooting a lot of film recently, around 3 rolls a week so will post more as they come. I’m also doing a bit of a mini project on the construction work around Manchester at the moment so I’ll post some images from that when it starts to take shape.
Also I’m on to number 2/12 of my portrait a month series. January’s was of Siobhan and is on my website if you haven’t already seen it and I’ll be starting February in the next few weeks.
Taken using my iPhone at Charleroi airport a couple of weeks ago.
First picture taken through the Leica, I shot it to finish a roll before it was sent off to cleaning.
Voigtlander Bessa R2
Leica 50mm 2.8 (gigidy)
Ilford HP5
It’s been a while since my last post so I’m starting with what feels like old news… So my mystery trip was to Brussels, Belgium; a typically beautiful European capital, with great sights, great rain and great beer (Kwak) (It’s not actually that nice) (cool glass though).
After having been back from the trip only a few days I had already planned and booked trips to Amsterdam and Prague for April (I like having trips to look forward too) so I’m well on my way for one of my “2012 goals”… yay, although at the same time there are 4 days of January left and I’m still 0/12 of the way through my model’a’month goal, but I’m hopeful.
Along with this post comes some of the the pictures I shot over my 3 days in Belgium from the grand total of 1 and half films of Ilfords finest canisters. I took only my Bessa / Jup8 combo, as usual lately which leads me on to my next historic piece of news that this was to be the much loathed loved Russians last trip as I am now the proud owner of a Leica. After months and months of complaining and googling I finally found a new travel companion in the shape of a 1961 Leica Elmar 50mm 2.8 in the no-adaptors-needed M mount that my Bessa was designed for. The lens itself is currently undergoing some extensive/expensive cleaning so that I can stop be a bad workman and blaming my tools.
I’ll likely add a Belgium section to my website in the next week or so with a few more pictures and post again soon with some Leica flavoured findings.
:)
2011
Photography wise I think 2011 was my most more successful yet, I think I’ve become a lot more compositionaly aware and have discovered countless new inspirations. I’ve have been working a lot more with film and I think it’s helped to improve my photography more than anything else. It has been a huge complement to my new found admiration for all things street and documentary based, you only have to look at my section 2 of my site which is almost all analog now to see the difference a year has made.
I visited two new countries Stockholm, Sweden in April and Amsterdam, Holland later on in September as well as seeing things a little closer to me that I’d never had a chance to visit such as Wales, The Peak District and The Lake District.
I also started working part time in a small printing studio, doing a lot of the graphic design there which isn’t exactly on track but is progress on jobs I’ve had previously. I moved to Manchester with my girlfriend and (finally) started University at the University of Bolton.
So now we are in 2012 and I have set myself a few goals, I don’t usually set myself goals or at least goals I tell people about, because I’m too much of a realist/pessimist to take them seriously but I’ve also never achieved my goals so this is what I’m going to spend my year aiming for:
1: Get published in some kind of publication. This is a pretty loose goal, I don’t have and specific plan in mind but I just want to finish the year having been seen outside the realms of the internet, friends, family and colleagues. I’ve been in magazines before but I want to be able to walk into Tesco, go to the magazine/news section and see my work.
2: Visit at least three new countries. My second passion is traveling, I start off this goal by traveling to a currently unknown location tomorrow (Surprise Christmas present from Siobhan) so I’m off to a good start already.
3: Do a portrait of a different person every month. That’s a total of 12 portraits of 12 people, sounds easy enough but the weeks soon pass and finding willing subjects along with idea’s is sometimes difficult when mixed with other commitments.
Thank you to the 12 225 people who viewed my site last year, the 1400 people who have liked my page on facebook and for anyone who came to the exhibition at CUC, Liverpool.
