The lens is a bit glarey into the sun but still quite good. I was up near the main fank where I have not been for a while and as you can see twas still a bit damp.
Is this a fair rendering of ther neg? No idea but that's the one you are getting.
Designed by some geezer in the council some decades back I'm fairly reliably told these bus stops could withstand a nuclear winter. Maybe when we humans have made the earth totally unlivable for ourselves as we seem to be doing, this will be one of the few things left standing . The building higher up is one of the two brutalist and well used church buildings in the village.
The 20mm lens does have its uses.
Not sure I use the 20mm lens very well. It's a canon on a AE-1 that was gifted to me. It all performs well it's just that I don't work too well with it. This was from a morning stroll in the village and snapped on Fomapan 400 @ 200 sloshed in Rodinal [1;39].
Ah yes, the highland games events at the Gala day. looks like it might have been at Carloway show. All sorts of goings on at these occasions - as well as the veg growing, the baking and the animal [cow, sheeps] show there various flinging events. this was probably for the flinging of the hay bale of some such.
My fav was the all comers high jump. Sadly covid saw many of these dwinding galas off.
This was a holga image.
You may well have seen this before but since I like the snap so much it gets another showing.
Of course it is my pal William from a few years back. It's a paper darkroom print from a paper neg. I used an old soviet fkd camera - all gaffer tape and elastic bands - with a shutter which consisted of an air activated [i blew into a rubber tube] barn-door type thing that barely missed Bill's nose as it opened. Great fun. The shallow depth of field was caused by the close-up lens I'd taped in the camera without any other lens in front of it. Don't know why I didn't do this more often!
I still have a pile of glass plates in odd sizes and a few decades out of date, I used to use them occasionally even though they are a right pain to use.
This is an old snap on a very old glass plate of a local monument. It worked albeit poorly.
There are people still manufacturing glass plates for photography. I shan't be buying any.
Back when I had a one old Voigtlander 6x9 rangefinder camera as my only medium format i snapped this in Bridlington. I was impressed by these sort of snaps back then.
Not the worlds best shot but a lovely snap of Eve racing a criterium with our great friend Vic Posse who is a tad unwell at the moment. We wish him all the very best for his recovery.
Back in the the day the racing club we ran promoted quite a few tandem races both on the track and on road circuits like here. Great fun but I did rather have my fingers crossed at time - tandem crashes are not fun. Having said that we never had one during all the promotions thank goodness.
Did I tell you we play bowls? That's lawn bowls only at this time of year the lawns up here are less than ideal at this time of year so we play indoors. Here at the clubhouse where there are short mats top play on. I might add the bit of vinyl across the mats is taken off before we play.
Eve played here on Saturday and did well by all accounts - and Wednesday coming plays in the triples champs. I meanwhile will support Eve from the dentists chair,
There are bigger mats at the sports centre and elsewhere but they all have different "characteristics" [ie the floors are not all flat].
Just an update. Eve is still very much here even if she doesn't appear on the blog very often. I do have to get permission to use the snaps.
As I write Eve is in the shed on her bike on the turbo [static bike thing] so i can quickly post this one.
Now, I have found this snap below taken with the wonderful but fragile KOWA 6 camera I used for a few years. From a trip to Belgium a few years back.
Neither Toots or I are interested in football. However, the gates of Stormoway club are rather nice so we stopped to snap them up. Toots and I use d*g*tal for these strolls but I did have a this Minolta 505si / foma 400 with me as well.
I might even go to watch the football here or at Back football ground one day - the season starts in April I am told by the kind man who offered to show me around the above place the other day.
I have only been to football matches a few times. Bristol Rovers, Man City [free ticket] and some game in Chile. The spectators are great but get bored with the game - mainly consisting of falling over in the men's game it seems.
I've been going out for photo 'walks' recently with Toots my pal from the island. When I say walk, I mean stroll as neither of us are butchers dogs these days. And somehow we always seem to end up in a cafe - this time the wonderful Hub in Stormoway where Toots had a calorie free cake. I managed to leave without paying - but I can now inform you that has been rectified.
Back to the present or at least a week ago when the snow layed hereabouts or at least wass just melting and Keith wanted a walkies.
I was using Fomapan400 with Rodinal 1:25 because people says one shouldn't.
Pinochet in Chile back in the day. Had a lovely trip apart from a few bit of shooting, military lock downs and curfews and this b*****d in his car on Avenue O'Higgins. Someone had tried to kill him hence the goons around his car. Maybe this is where Sunak got his idea from.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Guscott from my home town was at the velodrome to ride this here old bike for a tv programme - I can't remember which one. Anyway, Mr Guscott, who is a most delightful chap like Sir Chris, took the bike onto the velodrome car-park to have more room to ride.
I took a lot of snaps during my time working at the velodrome in between the cycling, the TV stuff that happened there and the cups of tea. I might add here that I do have a Blue Peter badge from this time as Sir Chris has !
I rather like minolta cameras. The A3 I used to snap up this architectural masterpiece is from 1955. It is a simple rangefinder camera with a half decent lens and it is rather nice to use - albeit tis a bit weighty.
In past years Minolta 505si has been my Minolta of choice since they work, are cheap and light, have all the bells and whistles one needs and a selection of cheapish lenses to use on it. But I like trying to use a proper old camera where one has to meter the light and focus the focussing bit.
Meanwhile back in my then home of Mossley a quick mooch around in the woods found this relic of days past.
I seem to have snapped up a nun in a shoppe - although for the life of me I cannot remember the occasion. Maybe it was on the mainland when we went over to collect the red car. Maybe in the inevitable cafe.
The Ensign FulYue I had at one time was a nice little camera.
Took it to work one day and snapped up the walls and bike racks. It's not like this now as the place has been enlarged with offices and a BMX track. looks like the sun shone down there from time to time.
We played bowls.
My team won - no thanks to my efforts.
Developed some polapan-f film that I had shot in the Minolta A3 too. This is one of them and I like it
Veripan film or something like that in a Brownie camera.
Oh yes, we lived near manc you see back then. Worked there too. Me in the Velodrome as cycle cooach and whathaveyou and Eve in the blood service. Such sophistication in those days including this outdoor skating rink. I seem to recall spending time and money at Jem Kline's Real Camera Co. too.
Before were saved from the ravages of English life we lived in a smallish town in Lancs. The studio where artist Chris Cyprus produces his work was near this old railway line, now path that ran along the valley - along with a canal and river.
I rather liked living just there in that old mill town. The house we had was old with thick stone walls and stone slate roof. The hills round about were rather steep so here was a nice place for an evening stroll or car-free pedal.
At the time I was fascinated by really old cameras in cluding an old Brownie 2a which incidentally I still have. Loaded with modern film the camera is surprisingly good. I really don't know why i bothered with anything else.
