A strange view!

I've been doing a lot of sun based photos lately and I thought I would leave two pots for some solargraphs down at my parents in the hope of capturing a different view, so I placed them way back, April 5th to be exact, one at the front of the house and the other at the back. The back was a familiar view as it had once been my bedroom and was now the guest room so I new where the arc of the sun would go over the gardens.

Now my idea of capturing a sun arc should have been relatively easy but of course I didn't count on having parents around that fiddle, clean and of course open windows! It's the opening of the window with the pot attached that has thrown me and to some degree the image I was hoping for. So hear they are anyway and despite a lot of movement they have captured something!

The pot at the front of the house overlooks the road and I can only think that it is busy enough to have created the light trails as well as the suns arc, it's not what I expected tho and I think I need to work out the image more but its certainly interesting and quite a different colour!

Instants with Fuji

During my week at HESFES I did many different types of photography from solargraphs, pinholes to medium format and Instants using a Holgaback which now takes Fuji film. I tend to carry a small Muji notebook with me now so that I can do transfers instantly and also have somewhere to store my prints as I carry on with what I'm doing.

These are a few of the images I made and the transfers, I was having a lot of problems with my back falling off and of course light leaks and instant film don't always go but I do happen to like the ones I got by accident, lots more tape is obviously needed for this now as the crappy Holga springs have had their day!

Messing with Lumen prints

While you all wait an inordinate lentgh of time for me to post again, I have been busy or not busy at festivals, while at the last one images from which I will post one day (being realisitc here) I was mulling over what my next workshop at the reserve would be as it was booked for the first morning after returning from HESFES.

So I decided upon something easier on the organisation and got the kit ready for some Lumen prints which would hopefully give results that all would enjoy and with not a great deal of effort. So the tiny little toilet on the reserve was blacked out in preparation for the fixing of the images once they were thoroughly cooked by the sun that morning. The first batch the paper was wet to help pull out some of the colour from petals and then they were sandwiched between glass like a contact print. The results were great and the children and adults loved the images. The usual organic matter was placed on the BW Ilford photo paper for varying times but all at least 50 mins to one hour, when I say usual I meant flowers but one did include a partially desicated frog which came up with a nice result.

The only fix I had was the Ilford rapid fix which unfortunately did not do the prints much justice and in some of them I cold see the colour being leeched out, a shame a some of the flowers had bled and the colour was picked up by the BW paper. I did think at the time that there needed to be another solution. After finishing the pieces that had been made by the children and showing them the prcess in the darkroom. I decided to lay out more for myself these I would take home and leave for as long as possible, they did in the end get exposed for aprox. eight and a half hours before fixing I thought I would try scanning them as I do the solargraphs, the colour is always retained on them when I do it so I figured it would work the same way, luckily it did and these were much better but I still needed to fix. Ammonium Thiosulphate was in the Rapid fix and having done a bit of research I discovered that Hypo was what I needed, Sodium Thiosulphate by it's chemical name and I should then use hypo check to make sure it's still doing it's job!

Mr Cads saved the day and I got both for my next workshop. The images here are some of those done with the children and also some are my later experiments on dry paper for 8+ hours.

For further info and really beautiful images visit the late Jerry Burchfield's site, stunning images and such a loss to the alternative print processing world.

Hop Farm Music Festival

Well, I have been experimenting with my last aqcuisition and decided to take it along to the Hop Farm Music festival in Paddock Wood Kent last weekend. I have some of the results back and I thought I'd share. I think the intersting thing here is the fact that my 360Spinner is obviously capable of doing at least 37o+ degrees in one spin, now wether that will stress the rubber band is another thing but I like the overlap!

I also like the fact that you can manually spin the thing and that provides for a lot more experimentation, (Something I have yet to scan) so the best thing was the fact that I could put my hane up in the air and be sure that I would capture everything and there was a lot of 'everything' around me. I have no idea what the capacity of the space was but the crowd was a lot bigger than i had expected for this fest.

The line up was described as the best of the summer so far... no doubt true, the Highlights were certainly Mumford and Sons: Seasick Steve: Laura Marling: Magic Numbers and Johnny Flynn with Ray Davies and of course the legendery Bob Dylan, sadly I feel his performance was pushing the limits of his abilities now and the crowd were certainly good at singing, thank goodness as the songs were difficult to distinguish when they were not. Unfortunately i missed the whole of Pete Doherty's set as I was queueing for a beer! for over an hour!! Foy Vance who opened the fest was good, I hadn't heard of him but he got everyone warmed up ok.

So I have some 360 Spinner images here for you, more pics on the way with my Diana and the LCAinstax but first I am heading back down to a field adjacent to the Hop Farm to go to another week long festival, HESFES, this is going to be rammed with music, workshops and conferences so I shall be busy making images all week and hopefully putting my feet up and listening to some good music.

Impressions on the Spinner!

This is the first roll that I have taken with the new lomography 360 Spinner, the film is Expired Fuji Superia 400ASA and I shall tell you the settings as I go. I like the camera, the idea and the potential I think it could go far, in fact I know it will travel with me as soon as it's tested properly.

I used the 400 asa as this is the optimum film suggested. The weather conditions weren't brilliant, it was five in the afternoon and a dull even light was over our back garden. It still looked bright enough for a 400ASA !and would be in any other camera but the majority of my shots are seriously underexposed except for the ones were I hand turned slowly... obviously letting in much more light. So onwards and upwards as they say and let's see if the next roll improves somewhat!

Ok in reverse order! image 6 Sunny Setting Hand turned the cam whilst it rested on the table, much better exposure!

Image 5 Sunny Setting hand turned the camwhile standing not a full 360, the white band is where I paused.

Image 4 Sunny Setting full pull and spin shot of peonies, in there somewhere! this was adjusted in PS as it was way too dark see below

Image 4 Sunny Setting full pull and spin shot of peonies, in there somewhere! this was far too dark and adjusted as above.

Image 3 Cloudy setting full pull and spin of Peonies and rest of garden, don't know where the cast came from but hey these are test shots!

Image 3 Cloudy setting full pull and spin of Peonies and rest of garden, the cast is not funny or the lack of image!

Image 2 Cloudy setting hand held full pull and spin, oh dear look at me agh! this has again been adjusted

Image 2 Cloudy setting hand held full pull and spin, too dark yuck!

Image 1 Sunny Setting full pull and hand held, the first shot what a disappointment, this has been pulled form the gloom in PS.

Image 1 Sunny Setting full pull and hand held, the first shot... what a disappointment. I'm hoping it was just that I underestimated the overcast qualities of our English Summer! Maybe that's why it was tested here!

A Pull A Twist and a new Star(t)

What happens when you become distracted do you forget to do the things that are important to you or do you think about them every minute of the day but because you have left them for an inordinate length of time it becomes harder and harder to face them.

Breaking the cycle of inactivity

I haven't been inactive, quite the opposite but sometimes it's just not right to make an entry. Last night I was one of many enjoying the hospitality of Lomo at the London store and checking out their new offspring...needless to say you should be seeing the results of that soon enough! I have always loved panoramas and constructed them with pinholes, Horizons or Holgas so imagine my delight at the thought of an even longer panoramic view than has ever been, without messing with the old PS, this is going to be fun to experiment with. The Spinner 360 is a curious looking thing, I was quite surprised at the speed at which it turned, it feels good to hold, it's quite light but then it didn't have film in. I would say it is most defenitly a toy camera and has a strong resemblance to a periscope. The level is a good idea and I really just need to get some film in it and show you!

Disappointment!

It seems May is going to be the month for indescision and maybe disappointment. I have too much to do and something has got to give, I didn't expect that it would be my blog. A serious lack of inspiration has been making it's mark felt on many a contribution this month. I just haven't felt willing to send in anything to the Art of Waiting project that I'm doing, willing is probably too strong a word I should maybe say able. Commitments have been so many this month, what with all the birthdays(not finished yet!) for the kids and family that any spare time to do 'stuff' is well out of the metaphorical window.

...And now I have just remembered that I haven't brought in this months batch of Solargraphs, a few days late, which is not a problem but only as long as I remember to bring them in tomorrow!

Jeff will have to wait patiently and hopefully not be disappointed when he does receive my contributions for April and May!

On a more positive note I now have work on show in two different parts of the world, India for the jury's pick at the Goa-Cap exhibit and USA for the Curious Camera(the latter being projected I believe). It would seem that sometimes the right themes are found and they strike a note with others.