First 35mm prints...

Here are some of my first 35mm prints.  Unfortunately, only a couple came out OK.  Most of the prints turned out very dark which I think might be due to the developer we used (Kodak) - hopefully its not the camera at fault. Hopefully I'm also coming to the end of another film - just hoping I loaded it right, otherwise I'll have done a lot of snapping for nothing!

                                       

My Mamiya

My Mamiya, its tripod and my exposure meter - few pictures of me using them...

  

A new beginning...continued

So I returned to my new mentor after a weekend of almost constant snapping.  I had 2 issues concerning the photos I was taking - the first being the aperture settings.  Before I started using the Olympus Pen 35mm, the various settings were set for me in a way that would hopefully cope for general conditions.  Secondly, I didn't want to simply click away at anything that looked mildly interesting as I knew that my new 'master' would inspect the quality of my compositions.

Once inside his magnificent house, the true scale of his talent became apparent.  Beautiful sculptures and photo prints lined the walls of the modern style building.  It was like I was in a sanctuary or gallery of his finest work - certainly a good inspiration for me.  I sat down and began to talk when it became apparent that he had another surprise for me.  From the corner of the room, he pulled out a medium format Mamiya 645J, with tripod attached and said that I should really have this, but only if I was serious about learning.  Of course I accepted the gift with eager eyes and a wide mouth...I couldn't believe my luck.  As well as this, he gave me a light meter and loaded a film into the Mamiya.  We then went through all the features of the camera and wound the first exposure into place - more on this later.

Another visit to his dark room and we were about to develop my first film.  We studied the various apparatus and chemicals that we would use, and I was sure to write it all down before it flew completely over my head.  Luckily, my girlfriend was there with us (bit of a squeeze in his rather petite garden shed!) and she is also interested in this format.  Cutting a rather long story short, we applied the developer to the film, then the stop and finally the fix before we rinsed the film and then hung it to dry.  Almost like Boots, I returned a few hours later to see my results for the first time.  I had totally forgotten the feeling of having your film developed.  From the composition of the photo, to the 'click', to the development and the waiting in between, it really creates a great sense of anticipation.

 -- I think this is the feeling that I'm hooked on! --

Using his magnifying glass, we both inspected the negatives.  I thought, in all, they looked quiet good, but he was slightly concerned about the under exposure (not enough light) on some of them.  Unfortunately, we didn't have time to print the photos, but this was something I could do on my return to England.  So all I had to do now was take my first ever medium format photo.  This meant setting up the composition then using my 'new' light meter to determine the aperture and shutter speed that I would need.  I decided to take a photo of the family in front of our holiday home - a rather traditional picture that our family hasn't taken for a long time.  Hopefully, I will develop that film soon and post the results up here - fingers crossed!  As for my 35mm photos, they have been developed and scanned....

There's always a part 3...

So here is the final installment of some digital photos I took with an Olympus E520.  Once again, I'm finding it so difficult to put even 3 pictures side-by-side and certainly can't do multiple rows - any tips from you guys would be very welcome!  Maybe I should just keep them in this format?

A collection of digital photos...part 2

Ok...after 30 minutes of trying to put photos side-by-side, I'm admitting defeat and putting another post - well aware that this one will appear on my blog above the 'first' collection of photos.  If anyone can help me or knows how to upload a gallery of photos, let me know!  Here are some more.  At least in this format they appear to be a little larger than if I was to load them side-by-side.

A collection of digital photos

Here is a small collection of black and white photos that I have taken using the Olympus digital SLR which I think came out alright.  I want to compare these with some of my 35mm film results and then eventually with my medium format film photos from my Mamiya.  So here goes...

Park life...

Using my girlfriend's DSLR with a standard monotone setting…woodland and water was the topic on this occasion – not that I choose topics, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.  A walk through one of Sheffield’s popular parks gave a perfect opportunity to take a few pics with my girlfriends beloved DSLR.

A new black and white beginning...

How it started...

After a visit to my families holiday home and a dig around the attic, I came  across my great-grandmothers Olympus 35mm wind-up.  As a bit of a fan of the retro look and feel, I was instantly eager to learn more...starting with how to open the back cover to see if there was a film inside!  Although there are very few buttons on the camera itself, I took a totally noobish approach to this 'new' toy...however, I finally got there and released the back casing to reveal.....(anticipation...)...nothing! However, it was clean inside, and nothing was rattling or seemed broken.  I obviously would know if anything was broken, but to my novice eye, it all looked tip top.  I then realised that our next door neighbour, a close friend of the family, was seriously into his photography and might even have a spare film for me....fingers crossed at this stage!

Little did I know how successful crossing my fingers proved to be...

As I met the neighbour I instantly realised that he knew exactly what he was talking about and more than that - he really wanted to share this knowledge of his.  Firstly he gave me a book which fully explained the 'in's and out's' of photography and then demonstrated a lot of this knowledge in a short lecture-type talk...I was learning lots and if I was ever in doubt of his passion then a quick glance around his wonderful house revealed a mirriad of beautiful photos, all in black and white and totally awe inspiring.

The dark room...

We both had a look in his dark room where he showed me all his chemicals, enlargers, films and processers...I was beginning to get lost, it was a fun world to be lost in, but lost all the same.  He gave me a chilled film for my little 35mm, inserted it into the camera, wound it up and then told me that it was a 72 exposure so I had a lot of clicking to do...all with one rule to bare in mind...

--- "look, then click" ---

This was an idea more than a rule and one that he thought was very important for me to grasp.  A couple of days past and I returned to my new master...