Box Cameras, ghosts and zines

So it a month since I posted and I said I was going to post more often, well that hasn't worked.

I wouldn't mind if I haven't been up to anything but I have, I've been out near enough weekend shooting something, two weekends shooting ghost signs and one on a photowalk with londoncamerproject.

I think the biggest issue, is actually shooting film.  I presently have 3 cameras all with various degrees of film partly used in them and as that mean I have nothing to show, and with this being a photography blog images are a big part of it.

I managed to finish one roll from the box camera and again instead of 8 shots I only got 7 and from the 7 only 2 were any good, as again I keep forgetting to adjust the lens distance scale but as its a year long project I might remember to change it by the end of the year.

Alley, Coronet Super Flash, Fomapan 200

Portrait

As you can see from the second image I forget to change the focus, which is annoying as I think this would of been a good image.

The ghost signs project is coming along really well and so far I have around 35 images, which is more than enough for a zine but every time, I go out I find new favourites and want to add them to it, at this rate the zine could end up being over 100 pages. I will need to trim this down, as I was only think of about 28 pages or maybe I will have to produce a volume II.

I haven't posted any thing from the ghost signs (other than the one image in the previous post) as I want to keep them fresh and hopefully if the zine works out, people will only see them for the first time there.

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.

Odds & Sods

I haven't been up to much over the last couple of months but in the last couple of week's I've started getting out and photographing again.

The first thing to happen was that the Kodak 2238 project, I was part of had a zine printed for all the photographers taking part, I think in total there was 30 people involved and we each got to have 2 images in the final zine.  I call it a zine but to be honest its more like a book, it is perfect bound and has around 56 pages.

Kodak 2238 Project

Through October we have had the Extinction Rebellion going on in London and I managed to get along to Trafalgar Square and capture some images of the protesters.

The Red Brigade in black & white 

One of the film podcasts I listen to is the Sunny 16 podcast and over the last few months, the hosts have been doing assignments, and encourage listenersto join in, the last one was to photograph Day into Night and I thought I would have a go at this one.

I decide that for me, the easiest way for me to achieve this was to take a series of images over a set time (a bit like a time lapse) and then blend them in photoshop.  I decided that the best palce to get this shot was from the Southbank looking back across to the City of London, with its high rise building and hopefully the lights from the building. 

I worked out what time sunset would be and thought I would start shooting about an hour before that and take an image around every 20 minutes or so and shot for about 3 hours to cover a good period from before sunset until dark.

Things started out well until the rains arrived 2 hours into the shoot, although I didn't get as many images as iI would of liked, I did get enough to produce something that worked out O.K.

I sent the final image into the sunny 16 podcast and it got a good response from the hosts, if you'd like to listen it is on Episode 176

Day into Night

Paris

Film for Paris

Last week I was in Paris and above is the film I took with me, along with 5 cameras!

Olympus OM10 with 28 & 50 mm lens
Canon 500n and 28-90 mm lens
Lomography Sprocket Rocket
Olympus XA3
Instax Square

This may look like a lot of film but I shot all but 3 rolls of black & white while we were in Paris.

There's not really much to say, as it was a family holiday, so I'll just leave some images from the week below.

Instax Square

Instax Square

Odette

Moulin Rouge