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.