Spotmatic @ Mildenhall

So, there we were at Mildenhall cycling rally, Max was rushing around in his bushmans hat trying to get the track in tip top condition for the races. I was sitting. I do that a lot at the moment. It's about all the energy have presently. Still, I did manage to raise the Spotmatic with the 35mm/2.8 to my eye now and again so I ended up with a few images on Foma 100/R09.

Jon had won the national 400m on grass, Joby, my nephew was 4th so not a bad for the team.

They beat Sumo Steve in one of the earlier rounds - which doesn't look much but S Steve had won this event before.

Now, on grass track, we are still a bit trad. with the racing started with a starters gun - and here are the twio boys who do the business. They have been doing the business for years.














Eve, my dear partner was racing too and here she stands out like a beacon in one of the sprint races.









The racing was fast and furious and I actually got up and then laid down to take this one as Joby leads his heat.

Playing with Franka

Since I found the 6x6 mask for the Franka Rolfix [I was given another with the mask snuggled inside] been meaning to put a roll through. FP4 was around in it went but it took me few months to get it through. anyway, now I remember why i put this one to one side - it scrathes the negs !!!
But still, I have cleaned it all up a bit and have three snaps to show for it. The FP4 was sloshed in R09.

Here's Guy, the derny mender who works in Angola at present and sorts the motor-pace bikes when he comes home. Couldn't work without him.

This is Dan - Yasumitsusan - with his chum Skooby . Fast bike racers the pair of them!

Then there's Flash Gordon - aka Alan Geldard, 1948 Olympic cycling bronze medallist and all round nice guy. Yasumitsusan's g'dad

T'mill comes alive

I was wandering back down the very steep little lane that serves my little house when I noticed, to my great surprise, that the mill in the valley seems to have come back to life. Since I have been there 6 years now and never once have I seen this, it got me worrying. Then up piped this fellow-me-lad who was mending the gutter on his even-older-than-mine cottage who tells me it's proabably kids setting a fire at the base of the chimney. Well, I suppose if they are going to do it anywhere it might as well be here!!!
It's a nice sight for a few moments to see the smoke drifting from the chimney - but I'm glad it's not every day
Snap taken with Spotmatic - Hanimar 28mm - APX400s

APX400s

This, I am informed, is surveillance film. But since I got it from Silverprint for next to nothing for a tin of 100' , it had to be worth a go. Trouble is, I just haven't had any luck with it despite sloshing it in Aculux2 [which I usually prefer] and FX-39 [which is another favourite]. Today, I tried Rodinal - or R09 [1-50] as this one is. I hadn't tried this combo before since I had read that it is terrible. The film had been exposed in a Minolta A5 rangefinder with a sharp Rokkor lens. Half the film went in this soup, the other half in ID11 [1+1].
As it happens, theR09 with APX400s isn't half bad while the Id11 is great. See for yourself - flickr - MiLady.

Too many variables

I acquired this 28mm Hanimar lens with M42 that fits on Pentax so I teamed up with the Spotmatic, loaded up with some Era 100 Chinese film I recently bought [cheaply; very cheaply actually] and shot away.
Not sure about this combination! Either the focus on the lens is off or the film is rubbish. [or of course, I'm a rubbish snapper] I suggest its the latter.
Anyway, here's a couple of snaps -from in and around my home :-) - from this combi, sloshed in ID11 [which i had never used before].
Next time, i shall try one new thing at a time !

And again..

..another couple of snaps from the Kiev 60. This time Hp5 @800 in R09.

When it's good.....

.. It's excellent. But most of the time it all goes wrong. I'm talking Kiev 60 and baically, and I paraphrase my chum here"they're hopeless". Well, I tuned up the muscles, lifted he huge camera into my bag and shot a roll in Bolton [of all places!]. Most were ruined by
1. film transport issues
2. a hole appearing in the shutter
3. me taking rubbish pictures..

apart from this one of Jon [Professional cyclist]. and the tother one is Aileen McGlynn MBE - Athens gold medallist
fp4/Rodinal.

Mathers

Bolton is not my first choice when it comes to going out for a nice cup of tea but I found myself there today and took the opportunity to visit Mathers to get some B&W chemicals. If you don't know, this is great place to get your Ilford film at VERY reasonable prices.
Eventually found this dinky little cafe where my chum Mr Norfolk and myself took little light refreshment. Somehow, the planned photos didn't materialise!

It's grim oop north

Down by t'canal near my little cottage is this scene. Grim eh?



So we took a ride over to my chum's bike shop and found Trevor building wheels in the basement.

Disappointed in Manc.

A sad day. Didn't get the house we had bid in for. So it looks like another trip to the Outer Hebrides will be have to be made to try and get another.
Never mind, a nice roll of HP5 souped in fx39 looked good after it came out of the Retinette 1a today - my, what a sharp little lens.

And here's anoher from the same lovely camera in the local DIY store - just like shops should be! If you look on my Flickr presence you can see an image called Iron Maiden. Twas taken in this shop! [APX400s-fx-39]

Thinking of Harris

Lichen

Flashing Record

So, I takes this lovely Record, wire up an old and small electronic flash and shoot away with TMY400. Flash directed at a reflector on the floor.

OTBW lens

On The Band Wagon lens is made from a med format lens fixed via gaffer tape and makeshift bellows. Using v old kodak 5302 fine grained film [asa3] and developed in Ilford Warmtone !
All snaps taken within 4 feet of front door!

And here is OTBW next to my Cuban Bucannero 'camera' for size :-) .

A stroll with Marshall

Every now and again, my friend Marshall and I, who, like myself is a cycle racing coach, take off to a local cafe for a chatette about photography and associated areas. An interesting if rambling conversation ensues [Marshall is 100% didgital, I am moving rapidly backwards now using glass plates from time to time] and we drink coffee and nibble, delicately in my case, cakes.
This weeks jaunt was no exception with a short drive to a village that has always intrigued me since it still has a Socialist Workers club.
Coffee duly supped, we took off for a short stroll along the river to a place where we decided to sit a while and I took the opportunity to snap Marshall with my Agfa record/Tmax400. nice sharp lens it has too.
Not long after we took off along the adjacent canal where some boatmen were doing things interesting with an old barge. Here is the boat rope man - again on the Agfa. Both Marshall and myself coming away somewhat encvious at the boatmans semingly idyllic life. We went home.

Record of the Agfa

Day two using this lovely camera. I'm beginning to like this beast despite fouling up the loading of the film onto the developing reel resulting in awful development.
this is out over Marsden way.

Zorki

Not sure about this camera - kindly sent to me from Sweden. It keeps coming up with light-leaks despite being covered with gaffer tape. Still, loaded with APX400s the lens seems ok. Here, some kids on a school day out cool down in the river at Uppermill.
This image of my chum Mondo has lovely tones.

Boat on the Record

Agfa Record

A very good chum of mine in the USofA kindly sent this little gem to me but I really have not had the time or energy to get to know it. Today, I was out for a light stroll on the local canal with Mondo, my long-time friend and I took the camera with me. Apparently, I had already loaded it with some Delta 400 that was sent my way on a recent trip to the Ilford factory.
Since I don't have a metric rangefinder, it was a bit of guessimating on the focussing. Still, wide open at f4 this wasn't too bad - even if I have not quite got used to the parrallex issues yet.
Sloshed in Aculux2. Scanned in RGB.

This other snap was on the same roll. Probably a bit smaller on the aperture front - the steps down to my abode. I shall be getting to know this gem a bit better soon with results like these.

Rubber bands and gaffer tape

Since I have an old FKD plate camera, I have to have lots of rubber bands to keep the film holder in place - just. Gaffer tape is to help sort the light leaks. Anyway, I stuck this old 4in Ross enlarger lens on the front yesterday and took a snap of this little fella using a 9x12 back and 100asa film.
Nice.

Agfa - again

since Agfa went down the pan, plenty of the old film has been making it's way onto the market. I bought a roll of 400s from Silverprint at a knock-down price and gave it a whirl in the Minolta 7000 before it got dropped and the lens broke !
Anyway, sloshed around in fx39 this stuff is well ok - especially for the price.
Here's Ellen, a tandem racer after a hot and sweaty race.

Contact Printing

For a while now I have been playing with contact printing and POP [printing out paper]. I love this paper but, since I was given a bunch of old paper, I thought it would be fun to give that a try too. This is an image taken on the Kowa 6mm onChristmas morning in Somerset, scanned then tweaked and re-neg'd on OHP stuff. Then contact printed on Gevaert paper [Gevatone k28 grade 2] I used PQ universal developer. A nice result I think !

Colour

A little bit of colour from the recent championships. Minolta 7000 and cheap 400asa film.


Plus a snap from a house we went to look at with a view to buying - it looked great outside !

Welwyn

Sometimes you have to go to Welwyn. We went because the National Masters track cycling champs were there. And my partner Eve won two medals. Here seen starting her pursuit in which she won a silver medal;
Taken with the old Voigtlander folding RF - Bessa 1. Acros FX39

Eve's snap

Nice image here taken on a k1000 and Foma 100 in R09.

Snap

I took some snaps with some very cheap generic 35mm roll film in the Spotmatic while were on holiday. I like this one.
Bus stop on Scalpay.

Holiday Home

This was where we stayed on the Isle of Harris.
Voigtlander Perkeo 1 FP4 r09 Stand development

After the Hols

The bit that can get a little tiresome for me is developing the negs after a great holiday. On the other hand, it is exciting to see wha one has got. Trouble is for me that i can get a bit careless when I develop a few rolls in a day and then I get bad results. So, I finshed the day of developing with a spot of stand development for some FP4 which seems to like this treatment. Did it is R09 1:180 for about 1hr 45 mins with a little agitation to begin with and one iversion when I remembered at 1 hour - ish!
meanwhile, here is a snap taken with the KOWA 6MM on Delta 100 in FX39. Sharp!
And another from the Voigtlander Bessa1 folder. Dela100/FX39.

The last one is FP4 with the stand development taken with the Voigtlander Perkeo 1