FILM Photographer of the Year 2019 - Discussion

Last day for voting. It's very close at the top so every vote counts!
 
Guys & Girls,

just wanted to say I have thoroughly enjoyed entering the last ten months of the FPOTY competition, the standard from other entrants has been extremely high and I decided to enter to try and strengthen the 'creative' side of my photography. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants fun and a challenge.

Unfortunately due to health & time issues I am going to be unable to continue with the competition; more and more of my time is now just spent in my garage which I converted into a small home studio and feel that just continually entering studio type shots is rather repetitive.

Suffering from IBS & Diverticulitis getting out and about is a bit 'hit and miss' at the moment, I will still be voting etc and wish everyone all the best.

I would especially like to thank @Carl Hall for organising the 2018 competition and @Mrs Snap for her excellent organisation of this year.

Take care,

Fras.
 
Sad to hear that Fraser. Life's thrown us a bit of a curve ball over the last couple of weeks so I feel for you. Hope things improve and if you do decide to get out to Marbury or Delamere, let me know... Got to look after yourself. Also, you're owed 1 print for this months win, so don't let it slide!

Take care,
Ian.
 
Really sorry to hear about your health issues Fraser, and I can only hope that the time issues mean you are gainfully employed in your studio. I've really been enjoying your photos, especially your recent ones since you went all Rollei on us! The great thing about FPOTY is that you have the list of topics in advance, so please keep it in mind and shoot whatever and whenever you can, even if it's on a pocket compact that's always with you, rather than a fully planned MF shot.

Pleased to hear you'll still be contributing around the site though.(y)

All the best, Peter
 
Just to echo what @FishyFish said, your photos are always of an excellent standard and I will miss your contributions to FPOTY, take care and an wishing you well. I'm sure you would be welcome to jump in on any month for which you have a relevant photo.
 
Fraser, really sorry to hear about your health problems, and like everyone, I hope thing improve for you soon. Like the others, I've really enjoyed your shots, and hope to see more of them, whether in FPOTY or otherwise.
 
Fraser, really sorry to hear about your health issues and I wish you a speedy recovery.
I hope you continue to share your excellent photographs with us and that we’ll see your entries again in the FPOTY when your health improves.
 
I'll echo everyone else and say that I've always enjoyed your images Fraser, and think they are of the highest quality. I hope that you're able to take it easy whilst your health improves, and then come back and wow us all again with some more FPOTY entries.
 
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You're more than welcome Peter. Not only do I get to give the printer a workout, I enjoy seeing the results roll off. They're not C-Type prints but they're still pretty nice.
 
I had the day off for my birthday yesterday and wend to a small woodland wildlife park. They had a few animals and a woodland walk etc, and it was fun. Today I decided to look the list of themes for the year to refresh my memory and get a head start on future months, and I noticed that we've got "wood", "garden" and "animals" coming up. Should have read the list before I visited :LOL: Needless to say the list is written down on a post it note in my wallet now!
 
I had the day off for my birthday yesterday and wend to a small woodland wildlife park. They had a few animals and a woodland walk etc, and it was fun. Today I decided to look the list of themes for the year to refresh my memory and get a head start on future months, and I noticed that we've got "wood", "garden" and "animals" coming up. Should have read the list before I visited :LOL: Needless to say the list is written down on a post it note in my wallet now!
Ah well now Carl, if you only had a cameraphone you could have taken a photo of the list. ;)
 
I had the day off for my birthday yesterday and wend to a small woodland wildlife park. They had a few animals and a woodland walk etc, and it was fun. Today I decided to look the list of themes for the year to refresh my memory and get a head start on future months, and I noticed that we've got "wood", "garden" and "animals" coming up. Should have read the list before I visited :LOL: Needless to say the list is written down on a post it note in my wallet now!
Happy Birthday for yesterday Carl, sounds like a great way to spend your birthday.
 
I'm sorry to hear you've been having some health troubles, Fraser. I can fully understand your photography taking a bit of a back seat until you're feeling better, after all, it's supposed to be an enjoyable hobby and not a compulsory task. So take things easy, enjoy your cameras whenever you're feeling up to it (including that lovely Rolleiflex you've just bought, which can only be described as a thing of beauty... in fact, it's so nice, just sitting looking at it would make me feel as happy as using it! :)) and get yourself right. Badger's orders! (y)
 
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I'm sorry to hear you've been having some health troubles, Fraser. I can fully understand your photography taking a bit of a back seat until you're feeling better, after all, it's supposed to be an enjoyable hobby and not a compulsory task. So take things easy, enjoy your cameras whenever you're feeling up to it (including that lovely Rolleiflex you've just bought, which can only be described as a thing of beauty... in fact, it's so nice just sitting looking at it would be as good as using it! :)) and get yourself right. Badger's orders! (y)

We need to be organising a north west day out Julian? As long as I know about it in advance I can stop eating for 24hrs then I'm usually OK :)
 
We need to be organising a north west day out Julian? As long as I know about it in advance I can stop eating for 24hrs then I'm usually OK :)
Too right, once the weather gets a bit better we'll have to sort something out. It's pretty cold and grotty at the moment; I know this as I've been out in it every day for the last week, which doesn't seem to be doing my sciatica much good! :banghead: The Smallwood vintage rally (second bank holiday in May) seems to have become a regular(ish) meeting-up event for the local F&C team - we tend to look at the weather forecast and pick the best of the 3 days when most of us are available. It's usually even warm enough by then to entice @srichards out of her winter hibernation! ;) So perhaps pencil that into your diary and we'll see if the weather plays ball nearer the time. (y)
 
I had the day off for my birthday yesterday and wend to a small woodland wildlife park. They had a few animals and a woodland walk etc, and it was fun. Today I decided to look the list of themes for the year to refresh my memory and get a head start on future months, and I noticed that we've got "wood", "garden" and "animals" coming up. Should have read the list before I visited :LOL: Needless to say the list is written down on a post it note in my wallet now!
Happy (belated) birthday Carl, hope you had a lovely time. (y)

However, as a point of order, the topic was 'Animal' rather than the plural. I may not have time to enter this year, but that doesn't prevent me from indulging in some part-time scrutineering! :giggle: ;)
 
Happy (belated) birthday Carl, hope you had a lovely time. (y)

Cheers Mr B!.

However, as a point of order, the topic was 'Animal' rather than the plural. I may not have time to enter this year, but that doesn't prevent me from indulging in some part-time scrutineering! :giggle: ;)

I hopefully got a photo of a single animal. It was just stood next to another one :naughty:
 
Now my entry for Faces is not meant to be a political one, so hopefully no-one gets upset about it. I was in a local antique and salvage place looking for old cameras as suggested by my optician, and I just couldn't resist this when I saw it.
 
Hmm, why would your optician think that looking for old cameras would help your eyes? :LOL:
 
Hmm, why would your optician think that looking for old cameras would help your eyes? :LOL:
Ah well, I was there to get a proper pair of specs for focusing my Yashicamat. I had been tested and had a pair of readers made, but they were in focus at about 8 inches for reading, rather than looking down on the screen. She clearly hadn't a clue about the TLR even though I had taken it in to show what I was needing the specs for, but helpfully told me about this yard where she had seen a "box of old cameras". I picked up the revised pair yesterday which seem to be OK, but I'll not know until I run a film through it and see whether or not they're in focus.
 
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I cannot understand how a professional person did not understand the simple concept of a TLR, what is the world coming to...o_O:LOL:
 
I am thinking about the night shots coming up shortly, and wondering about metering and maybe giving the film a bit more exposure. I'm not intending to go to reciprocity failure times, but I do feel out of my comfort zone here. Thoughts gratefully received. :thinking:
 
I am thinking about the night shots coming up shortly, and wondering about metering and maybe giving the film a bit more exposure. I'm not intending to go to reciprocity failure times, but I do feel out of my comfort zone here. Thoughts gratefully received. :thinking:

You could go down the Delta / Tmax 3200 route and shoot handheld at normal shutter speeds (assuming your subject is not really dark). Or, you could always take some night-time shots using flash. :)

If I don't use the above methods, my plan is to take a test shot on a digital camera and then match the settings on film. If the exposure is going to be more than a second, then I think I'll have to compensate for reciprocity though, so will make sure I know what the extra exposure duration will be for whatever film I'm using.

I've not done any long-exposure night photography on film, so could be talking cr*p though. :D
 
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I am thinking about the night shots coming up shortly, and wondering about metering and maybe giving the film a bit more exposure. I'm not intending to go to reciprocity failure times, but I do feel out of my comfort zone here. Thoughts gratefully received. :thinking:

With static night shots it's easy with a more modern camera e.g. Canon T90 or A1 that you can see the exposure readings in the viewfinder, but most non AF cameras are crap as although they can work out the exposure on semi auto or auto they are useless for manual as you can't see the readings in the viewfinder...an example of uselessness is my Ricoh KR10 super as on the shutter speed dial it goes down to 16 secs erm but you'll need a separate exposure meter to know how many secs to set it as the KR10 only goes down to 1 sec in the viewfinder which is still useless and you can't even see that in very low light :rolleyes:
So no decent exposure meter or very old camera then all you can do is bracket and wouldn't worry about colour film not handling up to 8 secs e.g. a church that is lit up could only be about 8 secs at most at f4 and iso 200. Pubs and shop windows are quite bright and you might be able to see a reading in the viewfinder.
 
My plan is to take quite a long exposure shot for the night shot. I'll take a test shot on a digital camera (still haven't got round to getting a light meter lol) to get the base exposure, and then correct for reciprocity using film. My thinking is that a longer exposure is harder to get wrong because the reciprocity pushes the times so far apart. For example with FP4+ a metered 30 second shot becomes 73 seconds, but a 60 second shot is 174. If I take a 30 second metered shot then I know as long as I'm between 73 seconds and 174 seconds actual exposure, I won't have overexposed it much at all!

@Kevin Allan wrote about the new Ilford reciprocity on his website, which I found helpful-
https://filmphotography.blog/2017/09/24/ilford-fp4-updated-reciprocity-information/

Of course, I could well be wrong, and I'll learn a harsh lesson by developing a blank roll of film back after standing out in the cold for hours :oops: :$
 
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