This is an image that came about from playing around in the early morning light on Dep's Beach. This beach is between Petrel Cove and Kings Beach. I was on a poodlewalk with Kayla at the time:
It's another macro image building on this beginning.
Unfortunately for me the photo session ended abruptly as Kayla grabbed the seaweed when I wasn't looking, ran off with it and then tore it to pieces.
Another behind the camera photo of an early morning still life photoshoot near Petrel Cove:
This open studio set up had been previously scoped with my digital camera. I scoped a number of different locations to see which worked the best. I plan to do a 5x4 photoshoot with the baby Sinar F2 late this afternoon if the conditions remain overcast.
I am back to playing around with making still life photos in an open air studio situated amongst the coast rocks during our poodlewalks:
I have several locations along a particular walk, but this series depends on finding some good, fresh seaweed whilst on the walk. It doesn't happen often.
Whilst on my poodlewalks I sometimes set up an open air studio amongst the coastal granite, and I then play around with bits of seaweed and flotsam to construct a simple still life.
This is a recent example of such staging:
On this occasion I was attracted by the colours and the texture of the seaweed. The image worked better with the seaweed wet rather than dry.
If the image works then I reshoot with my film cameras. This rarely happens. One occasion when it did.
A new studio camera:
It is a Sinar F2, which I purchased from Alex Gard in Hobart, Tasmania. It came with a Rodenstock 150m Sironar-N lens plus a Schneider-Kreuznack Super Angulon 75m lens and a wide angle bellows. Though the camera doesn't look that great, it is perfectly functional, and it will do the simple studio work that I have planned. I have no plans to take it out into the field as its sole use is as a studio camera.
It's my studio camera now, because the Schneider 300m Symmar lens which had been the Sinar P 8x10 has gone to the Cambo 8x10 for the silo project to give me the additional image circle to correct the movement problems that I am having with the 240 Symmar. The latter's image circle is okay for landscape but not so for silo architecture. That means that I currently have no lens to use with the Sinar P.
The Sinar F2 is an economical, and simple start into the Sinar system. 'System' here means that the camera can be later converted into a Sinar p2, and if it does, then, then the components of the Sinar f2 can continue to be used as practical accessories within the Sinar modular system.
I've been going through the archives looking for material for the website's various galleries and I came across some studio based work:
I had ignored this body of work because I couldn't develop it. I didn't know how to. Technically it wasn't very good and that discouraged me, especially when I saw the quality studio work on the internet done with high end DSLR cameras.
But I do like the way film can flip things--makes them odder or wilder.
I made some pictures in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens using tranny film (Fuji Velvia) earlier in the year. It was part of the Atkins Technicolour's 2014 Summer School Film Challenge. I was only able to attend the film challenge workshop due to other commitments.
It was a 40-45 degree day in high summer and we were to make our photos between 9.30am --12.30 pm. The roll was processed by Atkins and we then selected one picture from the shoot. This was then scanned by Atkins, lightly post-processed by the photographer, then printed by Atkins for an upcoming exhibition.
My pictures of bamboo strands in the Botanic Gardens was hit and miss, and some of the pictures were badly underexposed. I've just scanned the two rolls that I exposed back then. I've quickly converted one of the badly underexposed pictures to black and white using Silver Efex Pro 2 to see if it is possible to save them:
This picture of leaf litter was next to a strand of bamboo under some trees that provided some deep, open shade and this allowed me to avoid the summer glare. I gathered bits and pieces of leaf litter and some colourful flowers to form a "still life".
The heat wave continues in Adelaide.
I'm doing more work in the studio--at the moment it is black and white shots of a clove of Russsian garlic. I'm decided to use up the expired Ilford FP4 125 ASA film, which came with the Rolleiflex 6006 system that I acquired a year ago.
This is a rose from the garden at Solway Cresent. It was taken in 2011 with Fujichrome Provia 100F using a Cambo studio stand.
I spent yesteday scanning 5x7 colour negatives on the flatbed Epson V700 scanner without much success. The negatives were scanned without a film holder, as no film 5x7 film holders came with the scanner. I used the film area guide and they have a strong blue cast. I couldn't restore the colour with the Epson software. It did not work at all.
Unfortunately for me there are no 5x7 film holders made for the scanner. They only go up to 5x4. I am converting some of the scanned negatives to black and white but I will have to invest in a flexible 5x7 film holder from betterscanning.
I can see why people make the shift to digital.
During the high summer in South Australia it is difficult to take photographs.It is very hot and without the the cloud cover there is a very limited time at dawn and dusk to take photographs.
I don't fancy walking across rocks in the dark carrying large format equipment to have it all set up before dawn. Usually I have a location in mind and I wait for some cloud cover to soften the very bright sunlight.
In the meantime I make use of the studio. It's a simple set up: tabletop, window light, closeup rings on a Rolleiflex 6006 , exposures of around 2-4 seconds, a 120 roll of Fujichrome Provia 100F and some fruit and vegetables, such as this avocado.