My first roll of Velvia - but mistakes were made......

I shot this roll of film the same way as I shoot most rolls of film. Dropped into my Hassy and reeled off the 12 shots. Once Id shot it, I sent it off to the guys at Ag Photolab and then got a message from them to say the roll I sent was a roll of E6 slide film, not a roll of C41 I so often send them. Opps....
The film in question was Fujichrome Velvia 50. This roll, like all my other rolls of film that Im currently shooting was expired. I don't often make adjustments with expired film unless I feel I need to do so. I like to see what age has done to the film, if anything. Anyhow, the Velvia box speed for this roll was ISO50, but then, I notice my second mistake. I take all my light reading through my M6 and set the Leica's ISO dail accordingly to which film Im using. However, half way through shooting this roll, I discovered I'd set it to 150, yet another mistake by me and given that error it would now seem that my final results will be pretty well under exposed. What an idiot !! I always check the details of what film Im loading into my camera to ensure its the correct choice for me with regards the subject matter thats I'll be shooting that day but on this occasion Id clearly had one of those moments and forgotten the basic's. It certainly wont happen again

Today, the negatives's came back. Were they under exposed? Not in the slightest. In fact, for me, all 12 are on the money. Outstanding on the colour front which is great for me and in addition to that, there pin sharp - Ive just found a new love, shooting  Fujichrome Velvia 50.

Expired part two - Different tones

I chose a roll of Fujichrome Velvia Daylight for the next stage of my project. The roll expired back in 2007. Storage details, no idea other than its been in my fridge since I bought it on Ebay. Other on line sales platforms are available. 
So, how didi it turned out? Well, the first image as you can see has a blackcurrant/purple tone to it but that didn't follow through with the rest of the film. The sky had a different tone too it as well, not the normal colour I see from our Cornish skies. 

This image was shot just a few hours later. The Cornish blue skies are evident here. There's some evidence of that blackcurrant/purple tone again in the lower corner of the shot but if Im honest, the Velvia is still working well given its 10 years out of date and I don't have the storage history on it. Maybe it was keep cool all this time.... a bonus

The third image Ive selected from the roll is sweet and vivid. This is the type of colour I get from up todate film in my Leica. Nothing lacking here in terms of colour. 

To summarise then. There is some evidence of a some colour tone issues at the beginning of the roll but thats about it. In terms of how I shot it. I ran it at box speed, ISO 50. 

 

M6 "man fizz"

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....
 

We all start somewhere

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.

expired Impossible project

I bought a multiple pack of assorted film from those lovely peeps at Impossible the other day which included a pack of expired black and white SX 70 film. Production date was 12/16 so it had only expired super recently. You can get some great results from expired film and if Im honest I did get one or two with it. All of the images below were shot during the day with clear cornish skies and the lighten/darken control on the camera ramped up to its darkest setting.