How to hold your camera in the USA

An excerpt from a manual about a Honeywell Spotmatic. This is an american rebadged brand of the Japanese Ashi Pentax Spotmatic.

How to hold your camera in the USSR

Excerpt from an instructional manual of a Zenit E

From Russia with love

It's xmas 2008 and I wasn't expecting a Russian made Zenit 3 SLR from 1960-62. Infact they found it too expensive to make so they only made it for a couple of years. The better made ones were sent for export or sorted out by the importer with better quality control. An interesting journey this camera has had. Individually stamped with the serial number of 62202303 where it was made in the Zenit factory in Krasnogorsk in the USSR and was purchased from the John Wells camera shop at Lowestoft in the United Kingdom in the seventies. My aunt using this camera to pass her photography exam with it.

It's a beautifully ugly camera that carries a certain charm about itself. Substantial and uses no batteries but feels reassuringly comfortable to use. Therefore it has no light meter built in. So you would have to use the Sunny 16 rule or a light meter. The very large viewfinder is very comfortable to use. It's like looking at a television screen inside. The mirror plate is worked by means of a length of string! You have to advance the film lever to operate this to be able to through the lens. It shuts down after every shot. It has shutter speeds from 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500 of a second and a bulb mode. The Helios 44 f2 58mm lens it carries is a Russian copy of a Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f/2 M42. So the optical quality is going to be of a very good pedigree. Other Zenit 3 also came fitted with an Industar 50mm/3.5 lens. On this camera they use a Leica M39 mount. So adapters exist as later in the sixties they started to make cameras with the more universal M42 screw mount. So a demand for Russian and communist bloc citizens wanting to use these lens on these later camera bodies was answered. Of course this then means you could also fit that adapter onto a M42 adapter to fit on a required film or digital SLR body. You could also use a reversing ring with a relevant camera mount to attach this lens backwards to make it a macro lens. A high quality macro lens in this case. So two possible potential avenues to explore in recycling old pieces of equipment.

Because I haven't a manual for this there were some issues to resolve. One of which I have resolved through a Google search. At first I couldn't see where you could rewind your film back after you had finished your film to unload it. Otherwise you would run the risk of ruining your film! Here you need to depress and turn clockwise to lock the ring around the shutter button. This enables the winding back of your finished roll of film. Like the relatively sized Halina 35x of the same time period the body has to be unlocked from the bottom to enable you to unload/load film. To unlock the rewind feature you need to turn anti clockwise fully then turn the top shutter so it pings back.

On the film rewind dial there are markings of film speeds going from 350 to 11. This in GOST (a pre-1987 arithmetic standard which was used in the former Soviet Union) . This translates to iso 400 to iso 12. There are three points marked on the outer rim. One black dot marks a circle with a dot in the middle (where the 180 is in the image) and the other two are red dots marking a sun symbol (shown) and a light bulb respectively. The function of is it acts as a visual remider for what film you are using and doesn't have any effect over the film exposure!



This week weather permitting I shall be discovering what this Soviet eye makes of the Suffolk area. This isn't an exercise about making images look old by using old equipment. It's about using affordable photographic equipment to make something new. It's about guerilla photography as a methodology. In these financial and environmental times it's more important and relevant as it ever was.

Banks in Need?

The financial crisis in a nut shell

Countryside by moonlight

I explore Fritton woods via

Gorleston
&
Bradwell
&
Browston
&
St Olaves

walking back via

Ashby
&
Somerleyton
&
Lound

Tesco C41 iso400

Tesco C41 iso400 own brand film. Another cheap and cheerful film I've been using. This is rebranded film from another manufacturer that Tesco have rebranded. Very good film it is to. Some might turn their noses up at it but it has it's uses as it works brilliantly. Though a word of caution where it says "For best results, please return your film to a Tesco store offering a processing service" they can give you imperfect development of negatives. which in my case was blotches on a couple of the pictures with dark contrast and night time shots. Nothing that you can't remove with the clone tool in Photoshop, but...

Fujicolour C200

I've been using Fujicolour C200 recently. Still have to get a couple of rolls developed and it's an iso200 C41 process film. Another supermarket find of 5 rolls for seven pounds there of. Capable of vibrant colours outdoors for such a cheap and cheerful film. I'm on the lookout for a film scanner is this is a necessity in the long run. Bypassing the need and expense of having prints and scanning from those by just having the negatives developed. Which should pay for it self in a very short while. In times like these that's a bonus as I'm doing this all on buttons.

Building up endurance

I had to drop some work off at Martham. So I decide to walk back home from there. I've walked longer distances whilst living in London. So 12 miles and then some more to get home. An excuse to take some landscapes. I certainly got more out of it this way. Something I wish to do again because I think it works as a methodolgy even in winter. it forces you to look harder at the landscape around you. I only took 12 shots along the way. So how's that for discipline! My arm aches this morning after carrying my tripod! Remember to carry the minimum amount of equipment for this so you can just think about composing your shots. Should've taken my DSLR I would've taken some more night shots. Though I would still be there if that was the case.

This weeks episode of Gurrilla photography

I spend the UK out of recession with a 49mm UV filter from Jessops for 95 pence......

Find a Kodak one use film camera. Was toying with the idea of opening it and using the film but thought not. The film has expired in october 2005 so that should be interesting as a project.

Tesco box of 5 rolls of own brand 24 exposure iso 400 C41 film has gone up to so I had the bag of Fuji Colour iso 200 instead in ASDA. Interestingly Boots do a pack of own brand iso 200 C41 36 exposures I think for the same amount. I shall do a test at some point in near future. All these own films are rebranded from another manufacturer.

...and now the sun has come out on this wet day so I can take some images.

Digital

Lets get killed
Originally uploaded by -{The Broken Camera}-

A montage of digital images

insects in paint.
light waves captured in a digital sensor.
light released from the monitor.
chemicals released in the nervous system.

Analog

Earwax
Originally uploaded by -{The Broken Camera}-

Inspired by using some shots I had taken with the Pentax I made this montage. Was pleased scanning images this analogue camera had made. Didn't take much processing to get this in this state. Which is normally the case with working with digital.

The Broken Camera

A face lift and fitting in with my alias at Flickr. Even though the address for this blog is always the same. Born out of necessity after breaking the shutter on my DSLR the SLR featured above is a Pentax P30t which is far from broken. The next thing I have to sort out on this path is a film scanner for digitising negatives. The cost and quality of developing film is variable. I have had some problems with getting my negatives developed at high street outlets which have damaged the actual negative. Leaving blemish s on the prints as well. At the moment I am scanning from the prints. But just getting the negatives developed on their own is more economically viable. I haven't abandoned digital far from it. Just wanting to experiment in blending the two sides together.

The Empire

The Empire
Originally uploaded by -{The Broken Camera}-

It has seen a hundred years of change since constructed in 1908. Of hair styles, music and thought. As theatre, cinema and night club.

With the previous post about Woolworths prehaps the comforting thought is in the number ten and the multiples there of.

The Great Yarmouth Flickr meet

Last sunday amidst the snow fall several local members of Flickr met to discuss all things photography and life. So known by our Flickr login names which is myself as The Broken Camera , Clockworknoggin, WiccySunrise, Oleymoley, StutakesPhotos and SaltyDogJacko we met up in the Pub on the Prom on Great Yarmouth seafront. Sparkfish only got as far as the race course because it was blowing a white one and Sheryl1 couldn't come because of the bad weather. It took some an hour to drive from Lowestoft to Gt Yarmouth. As for me certainly worth walking into town for although the pavements were icy.
So after much coffee and a few pics by some later. It looks as if we're going to meet up sometime next year when the weather and light is better and do a photoshoot some in the locality. Oleymoley brought in his late father in laws Kodak camera. A fantastic piece of equipment that goes upto f45. It says it's a pocket camera but that's for deep pockets!

We'd had discussed the philosophy of of why we took pictures, the fine art of constructive criticism, our cameras, photos, Flickr itself......
Then the weather turned better further along in the afternoon so we all went our seperate ways until next time we logged in and uploaded some more photos.
So the moral of this tale is that the internet is strongest as a social structure when it replicates social interaction with people in the real life through the art of making images.

death on the high street

death on the high street
Originally uploaded by -{The Broken Camera}-

I took this on Sunday morning in the midst of the snow flurry. A couple going in said to the Woolworths employee standing outside "the a man taking photographs..." Well that's usually what happens with cameras. Cameras don't take pictures people do.

I had heard earlier in the week that the Woolworths Group PLC was in financial difficulties. So wanted a shot of this place for old times sake. We all have memories of "Woolies". Certainly of this shop in Great Yarmouth as a child collected many sets of Airfix figures and other items such as sweets. Actually just typing this gave me a flashback to those times of the early seventies. But that's the problem as a brand it seems to hold more as memories of "pick and mix" rather than actually spending any cash there. I used the passport photo booth about twenty years ago and that's it. If they are selling things off cheap I was wondering if they have any rolls of film going cheap?

I know it's abit of an institution here in the UK but the original Woolworths is an American concept was born out of a period of the 19th century that is far removed from today. Time and cultural patterns have changed. It would be worth investigating how much advance the internet has made from high street commerce. Not that is everything but there is a change in the air of how we use the center of urban areas. Much to ponder but an evolution rather than complete change.

It was on the news last week that shops might just get through winter but it's Easter that is make or brake for some. Yes it is indeed a death on the high street.

Film is far from dead

"After several years of 'double-digit decline', Kodak tells us that certain black & white films are bucking the downward trend in demand among professional photographers in Western Europe and the US."

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/Kodak_Film_is_far_from_dead_news_271594.html

The use of second hand affordable "old" technology is much cheaper than brand new digital cameras. But this doesn't mean I've turned into a film snob. For me this is as much out of nessecity as the aesthetics of film photography.

Arts For All conferance

On Friday I attended the Arts For All conference in Norwich.

Lowestoft at night

Spent this morning taking night time exposures around Lowestoft. Some interesting images and I didn't get to try all the locations I wanted to try. Covered some of the same areas I'd done previously in the day time. But this time I was using my DSLR with a tripod. Awesome lit night is all I can say. On the banks of Lake Lothingland at 3 am spent sometime in conversation talking to a group of people who were interested in what I was doing there. I suppose I did look abit out of place. Good shots though there and elsewhere. Funny thing was I could hear something raise to the surface a couple of times which to me sounded like a cross between a seal or a diver as it came to the surface. That, the generator in the distance and the water was the only thing that broke the silence.

This time took sixty odd pics with room to experiment. Not all of them really long exposures but at 30 seconds maximum in Manual mode rather than in Aperture priority or especially bulb mode which I'm found of using. Which worked out alright all in all.

Next time a flask of coffee and some sandwiches for refreshments with all that walking involved.

Structures

Structures
Originally uploaded by -{The Broken Camera}-

Patterns of Entities

Desaturated colour in Photoshop. Some great colours are captured in the original negative but I liked the shapes so hence this as monotone.

Exploring with the Pentax P30t and the lens that came with it. Pleased to say it all works. Got my film developed from what I took on the Sunday and Monday. The supense was killing me. Like the anticipation of sex on a first date. So I'm pleased to say the good majority are keepers. Even the Somerleyton sunset hand held at F3.5 @ 1 sec exposure with it's Orton effect is usable. That's special as I'm really surprised how that came out hand held The combination of good breathing technique and the light meter really worked well! Should remember to take it out with my £10 50mm f1.7 prime next time. Which is abit faster in low light. Don't take too much out just the barest minmum. Spent most of Monday evening and Tuesday scanning them in and retouching. Still more to do. The lens is good and took sometime to get used to it in feel. Being slightly more telephoto at 28-80mm rather than my 18-55mm lens which I'm more used to. Especially at the wide angle. As with all zooms it appears to work best in the mid range and gives you.

I've done it again

Amazing what you can find in Oxfam. I had previously seen an Olympus OM10 the other month in the window of the Norwich shop. So imagine my suprise to find a Pentax P30t in there this time. No I haven't gone mad or in a one man effort to spend my way out of a recession. Just a backup to my digital SLR that can share all my lens between each other. Which to me makes sense as it also came with a Pentax A 28-80 zoom f3.5-4.5 lens. This late 80's /early 90's photo equipment still works and is in pristine condition. Far from obsolete at all I say.

Visual presentation

I put the term Concrete Poetry into Google . From that I came along this link on Wikipedia about Digital Poetry. From that page is this quote:

"Whether a work is poetry or visual art or music or programming is sometimes not clear, but we expect an intense engagement with language in poetical works."

The synthesis of words, images and sound innit....

Science in a Suitcase

Science in a Suitcase
Originally uploaded by -{The Broken Camera}-

Science in a Suitcase street performers setting up at the Out there Festival in Great Yarmouth. I've known Ian (on the left facing away from camera) since college in the 80's. Which was another period after school of using film cameras and darkroom techniques.
Really like the quality of this camera which is a Halina 35x.
The figures at the back have a an almost painterly quality when I've zoomed in from the original scans. I like the cameras 45mm prime lens gives. Some interesting things going on here that I like.

It works!

Well the camera works!! 24 exposures I took yesterday came out alright. Took £4.25 to develop at the local supermarket with a one hour wait. The cheapest film I can get my hands on is iso 400. It has to be because at this stage I don't know if this camara is going to work and give me blank images! So running that at iso 200 in the camera which is the slowest film speed it can use. You can alter the speed of a film (iso) by using a technique called push processing and pull processing to increase (pushing) or decrease (pulling) the speed of film and therefore the exposure you capture in the camera. Though you have to compensate for this in the developing of a film by saying how much you've changed this by. Other wise they will just develop for the setting of the film so it could be under or over exposed if you don't mention it.
So I had to pull this film...
The slowest film speed setting in this camera is 200 and that would mean it would be underexposed as they develop the film as if it's used at iso 400. So to make it make this work within the Sunny 16 rule I exposed it by a larger aperture to correct this. So instead of using it at f/5.6 on a heavily overcast day with no shadows I used it at f/4 so I could hand it in and make sure it was correctly developed without any fuss.

In the frame

Points of view

Differing points of view for camera shots. My favourite was the Dutch Angle.

A pointer

Film making at BBC Voices. Heritage Lottery Fund Young Roots participants making a film. They're investigating HLF funded projects in the Norwich area in these films. Which will be used on the HLF website and shown on the screen in. We've been helping the young people make they're films.

HALINA 35X

"The Halina 35x is a masterpiece of design, in that it looks like an expensive camera....In 1959, the Halina 35x cost £7 13s. 3d." http://www.marriottworld.com/pieces/pieces34.htm#35x

Found this 35mm viewfinder camera in a charity shop for a fiver. Yes for five UK pounds in all it's luxurious metal shininess. I'll be using the Sunny 16 rule as there's obviously no built in light meter. Not that I can afford to use film extensively as I do with digital. Just another outlet in my creative philosphy. So it's all buffed up and looking nice but will road test with a roll of film this week to really know if it's still useable.

The specs for the technical minded people are

* Type: viewfinder camera
* Year of launch: 1959
* Films: 35mm
* Lens: 1:3.5 / 45mm Halina Anastigmat
* Shutter: speeds 1/25-1/200 sec and Bulb mode.
* Aperture: 1:3.5-1:16

Peter Hughes

Videoed the poet Peter Hughes today at the Pleasurance exhibition. He was reading from his book The Sardine Tree. Some of which you can see we projected onto him. A very visually orientated wordsmith.
Check out his webpage http://oystercatcherpress.com/phbio.html

King Leary

King Leary
Originally uploaded by -{The Broken Camera}-

Don Rout 1929-1992 painter, beach performer, exponent of mail art and poet.
The first layer is of the room at the Pleasurance exhibition of Don Routs work. The location of his 1988 Lowestoft beach performance is the second layer.

The title comes from Will Goodmans ( www.phantasmagraph.co.uk/ ) video of the beach performance.

pleasurance poetry reading

pleasurance poetry reading
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

Filmed a poetry reading yesterday at the pleasurance exhibition. Reading were Rupert Mallin, Lisa D'Onofrio, Jim Jepps and Gerald Nason.

Bridget Heriz sculptures

Bridget Heriz sculptures
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

Bridget Heriz sculptures at the Pleasurance exhibition.

Erosion of the eye

Erosion of the eye
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

Nightmares

Breathe

Breathe
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

...Long you live and high you fly...

parent and child

parent and child
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

The autumn equinox yesterday and I found this sign. A sign for pedestrians in a local underpass.

samaritans

samaritans
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

A lone figure walks through the subway towards me.

Infinite charge

Infinite charge
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

Order-disorder

Mare Germanicum

Mare Germanicum
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

What used to be the triple junction between three continental tectonic plates in the early Paleozoic Era.

A statistic is both meaning less but means something

There were 5,694 uploaded images in the last minute on Flickr and these were the most poplar tags used for images. The larger the type face the more popular they are used.

africa
amsterdam

animals
architecture
art
august
australia
baby
band
barcelona
beach
berlin
bird
birthday
black
blackandwhite
blue
boston
bw
california
cameraphone
camping
canada
canon
car
cat
chicago
china
christmas
church
city
clouds
color
concert
cute
dance
day
de
dog
england
europe
family
festival
film
florida
flower
flowers
food
france
friends
fun
garden
geotagged
germany
girl
girls
graffiti
green
halloween
hawaii
hiking
holiday
home
honeymoon
house
india
ireland
island
italia
italy
japan
july
june
kids
la
lake
landscape
light
live
london
macro
may
me
mexico
mountain
mountains
museum
music
nature
new
newyork
newyorkcity
night
nikon
nyc
ocean
paris
park
party
people
photo
photography
photos
portrait
red
river
rock
rome
san
sanfrancisco
scotland
sea
seattle
show
sky
snow
spain
spring
street
summer
sun
sunset
taiwan
texas
thailand
tokyo
toronto
tour
travel
tree
trees
trip
uk
urban
usa
vacation
vancouver
washington
water
wedding
white
winter
yellow
york
zoo

How the dead have fallen

How the dead have fallen
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

A place called Gariannonum

Originally a Roman fort but has been used by everybody since they left these shores. Certainly a favourite with painters and in recent times photographers.

Taxus baccata

Taxus baccata
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

Taxus baccata

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Yew
My late father must have planted these in the 1950's hence they're so mature. They take such a long time to grow. My grandfather planted a hedge in the 1920's and that is very mature and acts as a good wind break. Indeed relatively younger single specimens can be very special when left to their own devices to grow to maturity. As indeed conifers can be.

ghosts

ghosts
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

A particle or a wave?

Experiments with a home filter. In this case cloth.

The tower

The tower
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

Seen from a far and now much closer through the grass.

In the park in b&w 3

In the park in b&w 3
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

In the park today in b&w

In the park in b&w 2

In the park in b&w 2
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

In the park today in b&w

In the park in b&w 1

In the park in b&w 1
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

In the park today in b&w

John Kiki paints

John Kiki paints
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

John Kiki
www.targetfollow-arts.co.uk/artists_info.php?id=36

Took this in his studio earlier this week. Some of the paints he uses in his mixed media work.

Manifestations of time and space

Manifestations of time and space
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

"...for us physicists believe the separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one."
Albert Einstein

Another moment from last week

Drama performance at Jubilee Hall Aldburgh
No not me but a drama group performing!

A moment from last week

More evaluation for the soundscape and this time at Norwich Castle.

Infinity

Infinity
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

without end

eternal setting sun

eternal setting sun
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

A timeless state of change.

Love of a void

Love of a void
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

The film noir of an August seaside town

Light projected onto clouds

Light projected onto clouds
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

Light and shadows from a Ferris wheel play with clouds.

Hand held shot from last night. Was really pleased to get this. Using curves in Photoshop to bring out the detail more.

The perception of time

The perception of time
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

The movement of time both in and out of focus.

Further beyond the wall of sleep

Further beyond the wall of sleep
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

Ipswich at night

Beyond the wall of sleep

Beyond the wall of sleep
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

Ipswich at night

The thing that should not be

The thing that should not be
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

A silent portal to the unknown

Insomnia in the after life.

Dark Entries

Dark Entries
Originally uploaded by Mark Sargeant

The malevolence of water vapour