Ian's 52 for 2021

Looking down
Polaroids do have a certain look to them. What I really like is the name and date written on it. That really does give the retro feel.
 
Week 27: Indigenous

Praise the lord for a telephoto lens!


Week 27: Indigenous by Ian, on Flickr

Nothing special this week. This time of year is always a lull for me photographically and there's not a lot happening and with not much in the way of sunshine to let me break out the IR film I get uninspired quickly. However we have just put a bird table up and are enjoying the garden visitors. Mostly young sparrows, but we've seen a coal tit, blue tit and goldfinches on there as well as the usual blackbird and of course the woody, who we have affectionately named "Gigantor" (minor MST3K reference)

I also have the very handy Tamron 28-300 which is not only a great quality lens, but has IS allowing long focal length shots with slower shutter speed. Film was Acros II which has an ISO of 100. I was at the bottom end of "acceptable sharpness" with this, but I'm happy enough. Did get some better digital shots with the Fuji, but I still find myself gravitating to film.
 
Indigenous
The pigeon stands out well against the oof background.
Watching the bird feeder can be a serious distraction.
 
Nice capture and echo the comment that it works well in mono.
They tend to get shot at around here and there was an injured one in my garden a couple of days ago... I think the cat might need to go to SpecSavers!
217448692_10159274852846494_6696167311119576945_n.jpg
 
Week 28: Plant

Needed to finish off the roll after a socially distanced get-together on Saturday night with a couple of neighbours. This silver birch was found growing in our guttering in the spring after we got married. I decided to plant it out and it's now 15 years old. Quite a symbolic part of the garden that we both enjoy. With the limited focal length (50mm FF equiv) I wanted to pick out the bark. I quite like it for the sentimentality although many people would probably say "why did you take that?"

Rolleiflex Automat, HP5 at 400 in DD-X


Week 28: Plant by Ian, on Flickr
 
A good image, with an even better back story. I like the way the paint overspill on the fence panel mirrors the markings on the bark.
 
Nice shot - works a tree(t) :)
 
Looking down
It's great to see the increased use of instant cameras to capture memories. Hopefully it will help nurture the next age of creatives

Indigenous
A great shot with nice DOF, did you have investigate any tighter crops or portrait format, the feeder being sliced is to me a bit distracting.

Plant(s)
Great to see something thrive even after its initial life was not conducive towards good health, there will always be photos that you have an emotional attachment to, more so when it's printed, something I should do more of.
 
StuartPearson said:
A great shot with nice DOF, did you have investigate any tighter crops or portrait format, the feeder being sliced is to me a bit distracting.
Click to expand...
I was at 300mm sadly so couldn't get closer without moving which (and I'm no nature photographer) would have resulted in it flying away I suspect. I did try quite a few different orientations, but this was the best image of the bird. Completely agree about the feeder and something to pay attention to next time...
 
"Why did you take that" :)

It's a success for me because It has a good story to it which certainly adds to the image.... and there is great texture in the bark.
 
I really like the texture of the bark in that shot, it’s the sort of image that works really well in b&w. Great story behind it as well and great work on keeping up to date whilst using film :)
 
Week 29: Dominating

With almost the entire week spent either on conference calls or back and forth over that bloody bridge it's been a very dry spell for my photography. So I am shoehorning in a frame that's "dominated" by a car my wife was flying past. Only just finished the roll yesterday so whilst the photo was taken in time, the developing wasn't.

Part of my [long term] "passengers" project to document the journey back and forth to my father-in-law's who has been unwell for months after spending a year doing the same for my mother-in-law who had cancer.


Week 29: Dominating by Ian, on Flickr

The journey to Cronton from Northwich takes us over the new Millenium(?) bridge at Runcorn (£2/pop) and I've been trying to get a decent shot for a while now. With the thought of Dominating in my head I was going for the "domination" of overtaking other drivers and trying to get a shot that wasn't just a blurry car. In this instance, I was after the big cooling towers as a "stationary" point of interest and out of all the images I've tried, this one works quite well with the bikes on the roof providing some interest to break up the otherwise flat & grey sky.

Taken on the Canon F-1n with Maco Eagle surveillance camera film - because it's cheap and I can go through it quick to experiment with different things. Dev in Diafine.

(Don't worry about comments this week (or next) as I have no time to reciprocate sensibly at the moment)
 
Dominating
An interesting shot. Really like the motion blur. Without your description, I'm not too sure how long it would have taken me to work out the image.
 
Agree with Dominic above it definitely needs a description I do like that hint of the factory which kind of dominates the picture also in a weird way
 
Good work Ian, it does need the description but that's no bad thing.
Sometimes, a little context is required. Your project sounds interesting, what is your intention with it? A book or?
 
blakester said:
Good work Ian, it does need the description but that's no bad thing.
Sometimes, a little context is required. Your project sounds interesting, what is your intention with it? A book or?
Click to expand...

It'll be a zine. A collection of images taken as a passenger with the focus on subject movement (esp the way my wife drives) Shameless (TP) Plug.

I think the thinking(!) behind it is that when it's presented as part of the collection it might all make a bit more sense.

That's the plan anyway :)
 
That's a great shot. It captures the movement and the tips of the cooling towers give it great context.
 
Sheer bloody mindedness keeping me going at the moment...

Both images from the same roll of film which is the only roll I've taken in the last 10 days...

Week 30: Credit Crunch II
My first outing with the camera last week to do some street photography. Very much need to get back into it as I was woefully out of practise. However seeing these shops in our local town centre reminded me of a "credit crunch" project I did back in 2007 (I think). This was followed by a ridiculous one way system revamp around the town that made the traffic ten times worse to the point where people just avoided the place. Then COVID came along.



Week 31: Hands
Massive shoehorn here and I don't care :) This was the last frame of the roll that was hand rolled and thus I had a bit of exposed film that was used to attach it to the leader. It's a shame really. I was helping out at our village show on Saturday and was trying to get a hands shot of the judges handling the things... Sadly I don't know what I was thinking with a 28mm lens.


Week 31: Hands - Shoehorn Edition by Ian, on Flickr

I always seem to go through a photographic lull in the summer. I find I shoot quite a bit of colour too so doing a 52 on film at this point is getting pretty difficult. Woe is me etc etc... Took 3 1sts in the photographic section though - 2 of which were on film!
 
Last edited:
I really like the mood of the deserted precinct shot.. The flat sky and the tones in the foreground add to the bleakness.

Hands has an old local newspaper shot feel to it. So many images of local events of varying types always have a basketball hoop in the background. It tells a very ordinary, daily story.
 
Hands would make more sense if you cropped the person on the left out of the frame he’s a bit distracting.
the other shot certainly shows the state of many high streets/shopping precincts these days.
 
What a desolate looking shopping centre. B&W really fits the subject.

Since you hand rolled the film and you were giving a hand at the local show, I'm sure this is not too much of a shoehorn. Especially since he is handling the onions, whilst the onlooker has his hands on his hips. I hand it to you - you've met the brief! :ROFLMAO:

Congratulations on your three 1st positions! Excellent!
 
Dominating
I had to click through to Flickr for the full screen view, this image has so many facets that convey exactly what you were looking for. The main shape looks a bit like a bullet train speeding past.

Snapper's Choice
I'm seeing a stronger image cropping from the right to remove the market type stall.

Hands
Personally I like the end of the film you inadvertently managed to achieve as it shows the craft.
 
Thankyou for your comments folks. Hoping normal commenting duties should resume next week...

Week 32: Fur.

Had to be a cat shot for me. It's easy and I'm always trying to get a good pic of the cats on the kitchen floor because the light pours through from the front door to give a really nice low lighting effect and (sometimes) a striking shadow.


Week 32: Fur by Ian, on Flickr

I think Crow works better because he's black. Metered off the kitchen floor before taking because... well.... black cat... He's very difficult to photograph to be sure. Shot at f/1.5 which is the "wide open" aperture on the CZ Sonnar which allegedly has focus shift so I needed to "rock" forwards about an inch once I thought I had it. It's worked lovely and will go into my "cat-on-the-kitchen-floor" collection.

I think an off-centre subject might have worked better and the collar is a bit distracting but all in all, I think it's worked well.
 
Last edited:
Lovely looking kitty :)
 
Fur
It's a really good cat shot, I don't mind the collar (it looks a bit like he's holding a French fry in his mouth). I like the dof too.
 
Nice shot of the cat he looking at you like he wants something,
“cat on the kitchen floor collection“ that’s interesting.
 
Right. You lucky lucky people. You may have thought it was a click-bait link that brought you here, but this is really actually what I thought would be a good idea for the theme.

2 shots left on the roll. Had a shower think about what I could do for clean. Thought of this. Straight out of the shower. Very clean.

In all seriousness, it makes me smile. A stupid selfie with strategically placed hand cream squisher-things. I also learned how to pixelate in Photoshop. One of the things I never thought I'd need to learn. If I can't laugh at myself, what can I laugh at?

@Cobra has a lot to answer for. Let's hope the next theme is a little easier :) [Also tagged in case this is NSFW in mod eyes]

If you are offended by this, please speak to the aforementioned mod who's fault it is. Thank God TP doesn't allow commenting on the beauty (or lack thereof) of the model.
Edit - I have added a spoiler tag so people can still visit the thread without getting a shock...

2021-08-21-hp5at3200-k4b-10-Edit.jpg
 
Last edited:
A great, fun, take on the theme, looks good in mono and i'm not offended either. Nicely done
 
Lose the towel, what are you, a wimp?!!! :):):)
 
We've had far more nudity than this before ;)
I really like that. It's a great take on the current selfie shots that you see everywhere, with the model and phone reflected in the mirror.
Doing it with an old film camera is such a fun take on it (y)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top