That didn't take long!

17 days into the new year and I have already bought my first bit of  'new' equipment, although it is an oldie.

There was a post over on Facebook about a new project starting and running for a year, I have tried year long projects before, a 365 which lasted about 10 days before I ran out of ideas and a 52 week project which lasted a couple of month but again ran out of steam.

I like to make my images mean sometime to me,  not just random shots of things like 'what I had for dinner'

Anyway back on the subject, this project this to shoot a minimum of one roll of film a month, starting on the 1st February. The difference is that its to be shot on a Box Camera but not having a box camera I needed to get on Ebay and buy one,  I also know nothing about box cameras and assumed they all took 120 film, this isn't true.

Not only is there is 120, but 620 and 127; 620 and 127 can still be got but are really expensive because of the way they are produced. So I was on the lookout for a 120 camera and again not knowing whats what, I went for a camera I liked the look of.

Coronet Super-Flash

I eventually bought a Coronet Super-Flash that takes 120 and again I thought that box camera all shot in 2 1/4 square format, again not true, this camera shoots 6x9 negatives so nice and big but this mean that you only get 8 shots per roll, which is fine with me, I think I can shoot 8 shoots in a month.

The camera is pretty basic, a shutter sped of around 1/40-1/60 + bulb, and a zone focus switch of either 1m-3m or 3m-infinity, it also has a built-in yellow filter which I guess is for very bright days and works like a ND filter.

I ran a roll of Fomapan 200 through it to make sure everything was working O.K. and it was, no light leaks and the film advances O.k although the  roll at the end was a little 'fat' and I thought is may allow light in but it didn't.

6x9 negative 

There is a dedicated Instagram account for the images shot by the group, which I think totals 22 members and can be seen at @projectboxcamera 

New year, new projects

So we are already into the new year and I have been thinking about the possibly of starting a new project and resurrecting an old one.

The old one is one I started last year but never really got to grips with how to go about it.  The idea was to photograph London streets after dark, this idea isn't new I have seen it done before but just wanted to have a go for myself.

So I have made start on it again and see how far I get this time.

London, After Dark

The Second project has to do with Ghost Signs, these are hand painted signs that have been preserved on the side of buildings for an extended period of time and have begun to fade.  Its strange how these signs seem to be all over the place but I've hardly noticed.

Ghost Sign, Old Vs New

With both these projects I would ideally like to turn them into a limited zine run.