35mm film
The tiny fishing hamlet of Penberth Cove lies at the foot of a wooded valley just to the east of Porthcurno. Fishing still remains part of Penberth but only to a few local families nows that still fish this cove and its Atlantic waters.
I spent a few hours one early spring morning capturing all that I saw. All images are shot on film. None of those pixels or photoshop here. Just real images
Camera’s: Asahi Pentax 6x7, Hasselblad 500 CM
Films: Kodak Ektar & Kodak Portra 160
I said goodbye to some loyal friends last week only to be replaced by a new one. I refer to my new second hand Leica M6 TTL. It was only a question of time before I bought myself a real quality 35mm film camera and for me, Leica had to be the only choice. Ive been using a host of average 35mm units for the last few years with good results but now with the arrival of my M6 its time to step up the game.
Well, it arrived this morning and all I can say was that it was a "man fizz" moment. Blokes know what I mean. Even opening the box does it for me. I already have a Q and a X2 but there's something very different and special about the M6. Clearly its a film unit but just picking it up says it all. Its solid, well build and very very evocative.
In addition to my M6 I grabbed myself a Leica Cooph rope strap The strap is a collaboration between Leica and Cooph. Two quality products now unite. Finally. A big thanks you to Ben over at the Leica store in Manchester for sorting all of this out. Cheers Ben....
At 15 years old, I had no concept of composition, subject matter, depth of field or any other aspects of photography. I just had this overwhelming urge to capture an image. I had no line manuals to refer to, tutorials or someone to speak to offer advice. I picked up my camera and released the shutter. The result of that in the first photograph I ever took. Armed with a basic Zenit E that cost me £20, a roll of ilford FP4, this is what I saw and captured.
On reflection, when I look back at the image I got the lighting and speed right. The lovely contrast that ilford films give is all there but clearly I had no conception of the art of composition. It would be decades on that I got round to picking up a camera again and ended up where I am today, making a living out of it.
There's a real positive to all this, I now spend a large proportion of my time shooting film again.