Ian's 52 for 2021

Tall
Grain shmain. It's funny how grain is seen as more acceptable in black and white.
It fits the theme well, I reckon it would have worked without the trees too. If you just used the national speed limit sign, the lamp post and the telegraph pole, you'd have short, tall and taller.
 
A stark image for tall Ian, it's certainly on theme. I find the sky a little too bright but it does help with the story telling of the scene so I'm a bit torn on that.
 
Tall - well composed, personally think it would be more effective cropped to move the post nearer the top corner. Having the sky above seems to make it look smaller as it's not the dominant element
 
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It's tall, taller than the lamppost, but not very clear.

I know grainy B&W film is fine art.
 
Your rocker sidekick - fuzzy or not, it's a great shot and worth far more t 6/10 for me!

I'm less of a fan of your tall shot - the contrast is a bit too much for me - but the grain is rather nice... Might have to try pushing some of my film!
 
The word that springs to mind is drear... and it certainly captures that feeling so, to me, it works well.
 
Thanks again everyone for your comments.

I toyed with colour this week as I now have 2 rolls ready to go off for development. If they'd gone this morning they may have been back by Thursday but I didn't want to rush it and risk it. Maybe later in the year when I'm a bit more confident of the content.


This week I've been testing a developer called Diafine which (supposedly) allows you to shoot film at whatever ISO you want. Doesn't care about water temperature, lasts forever, and as long as you avoid certain T-grain films (thanks @Boots ) it gives pretty nice results. A great all round developer and really handy when you're not sure what to expose or develop your film for because it's the same rules for everything.

In this case, it was Eastman 5222 aka Double-X which is a black & white cinematic film stock. I love it for the feel it gives to an image but it's not very cheap. Base ISO is 250 which with the weather we're having at the moment is very optimistic. The roll was shot from 500-1000 ISO and the resulting (lack of) grain I think looks really nice.

This is an insect hotel. Very cool, but full of wasps in the summer.

Week 5: Insect Hotel
by Ian, on Flickr

Edit to add: With hindsight this would have made a good "fill the frame", but the camera isn't good at close focus and with a 28mm lens it wasn't going to happen. Curse you hindsight!!
 
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Having just zoomed on the screen, that would have made an excellent "fill the frame", but as is, it's a very good image. An excellent demonstration of Diafine.
 
Insect Hotel

Gritty image and I admire your tenacity to film use. I gave it up many years ago when a decent alternative to dusty negatives and sweaty darkrooms came along. I do miss my camera though, a Nikon FM2n, the only modern digital equivalent (ish) is a Leica Monochrome but at anywhere between five thousand and seven thousand pounds (and upward), that's a bit of a novelty.

Just as an aside, just in case you didn't know, insect hotels should be cleaned or replaced every year to get rid of disease and parasites. The longer this isn't done, the fewer insects will use it until they are exclusively used by woodlice (not an insect but a crustacean).
 
I seem to have missed your thread up until now. I'm really impressed that you are taking proper photos with film! Definitely a more expensive hobby with this AND printing them :) It seems like an extra challenge to me.

Fruit: love your strawberry!

Dirty: I like both compositions and I prefer the first uncropped as it gives the boots context.

Rock/Stone: that's a cool dude :ROFLMAO: I love all the accessories, and nicely captured with lots of detail.

Your tall picture does have a retro feel to it, which I guess is due to the grain. Does look like a typical grey British day.

The insect hotel looks rather plush and there's lots of detail again.

I'm enjoying these snippets of info about the developing. Probably strangely, it hadn't occurred to me that the 'developer' made a difference. I was thinking it was all about the film, although I had realised you could dodge and burn. I only developed a negative once and that was from an x-ray, so I am very ignorant when it comes to these things.
 
You have to be pleased with that result, never heard of Diafine before sounds interesting, its definitely worked with this.

very nice image and well processed
 
Just as an aside, just in case you didn't know, insect hotels should be cleaned or replaced every year to get rid of disease and parasites. The longer this isn't done, the fewer insects will use it until they are exclusively used by woodlice (not an insect but a crustacean).

Thanks for that Martin. I'll be sure to pass it on to the maintainers of the common land it's on. It's a bit of a community project, so possible they don't know.


I was thinking it was all about the film

It is to a certain degree. Like putting a different sensor in your camera every time you go out. I do find digital images to be quite soul-less and very "samey". Was spending a lot of time in PP software trying to make something different. Now I just shoot a different film. I get far more satisfaction and enjoyment from my hobby now.
 
Nicely taken photo of the Insect hotel with lots for the eye to look around inside it, it seems to be leaning slightly to to the right
 
Love the textures in your film shots. It does seem to have a bit of a lean and the top is slightly cropped off but otherwise a nicely detailed shot.
 
Nicely taken photo of the Insect hotel with lots for the eye to look around inside it, it seems to be leaning slightly to to the right
Love the textures in your film shots. It does seem to have a bit of a lean and the top is slightly cropped off but otherwise a nicely detailed shot.


It's wonky manufacture I swear. (point taken!)

Also good point about the top. Rookie mistake. :(
 
Insect hotel ... all very clean and well detailed.

We've got one near us, probably hasn't been cleaned in years, bits stuck to the mesh.
 
The shapes and contrast in the hotel itself work really well, crisp detail too. I'd have been tempted to avoid the structure clipping the top of the frame, but I'm weird like that.
 
Snappers choice

I agree with you, a fill the frame would have be a good choice.
But you have to use the cards you've been dealt with (or chosen in your case) as they say.
Lots of lovely textures, shapes and patterns.
 
A bit behind with comments I'm afraid!

Tall: A typical scene that we're all familiar with. Works well for me.
Snapper's: I love this well built insect hotel. It may look even better closer up.
 
Good work Ian, not a lot to add as it's been said above (y)
Film certainly brings a little something different to the table it must be said.
 
Film certainly brings a little something different to the table it must be said.

Mwah ha ha.. My evil plan to convert people from the sanitised perfection and sterile look of digital, to a crusty unreliable analogue process begins now :)
 
Week 6: Pair

I knew what I wanted to do when the theme was announced, so this morning, I got cracking on the kitchen counter. This is the contact sheet as it illustrates what I was trying to do. (not in order as they were scanned backwards-ish)

2021-02-13-ilfordhp5at1600-eos1v.jpg

My main problem here was "rushing". All the egg shots were pretty bad mainly because of the very thin depth of field. No amount of aperture was going to help with that as I was so close, and I don't know the first thing about focus stacking. I suspect that's something that's better for digital too! Most of them were taken focussing as close as was physically possible which meant a crop later as I wanted the Fill The Frame technique this week too. Frame 19 was the closest to what I was looking for, but the imperfection in the egg would have been a ton of work to clone out.

So I really ended up picking the shot I did because nothing else worked really well. And to be fair, I like it quite a bit. And it's a frame filled :)


Week 6: Pair
by Ian, on Flickr

Got a nice photo of Tom too :)

2021-02-13-hp5at1600-eos1v-04.jpg
 
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I like the contact sheet Ian, shows your thought processes.
I can guess what you were intending with the set up with the eggs, kudos to you for showing us what worked and what perhaps didn't, all part of the learning process eh?
I like your chosen image for the abstract nature of it. Good work.
 
Oh, I think 19 or 21 would have worked. You could have cropped if you were worried Ps or LR skills were not enough to get rid of the blemish.

Cheeky!

But the one you went with is good too. I like images where things almost, but not quite, touch. I feel there should be a term for such images - Proximal?
 
Snappers Choice
Before I saw your edit, the first thing that came to mind was editing it to fill the frame. I really appreciate your dedication in using only film and look forward to your next adventures

Pair
Personally think you chose the best one from the contact sheet, I have a vintage Kodak 620 junior that I've always message to run a film through, I will definitely try it this year, though it will be commercially developed.
 
I guess you were aiming for a pair of cheeks but still you ended up with a pleasing abstract that works for the theme.
 
Pair
I like it (them). Good light, shadows and composition. I also like the little gap between the eggs.
And who wouldn't like a pussycat shot.
 
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