One camera - one month: 2014

Monday 22 September 2014

Minolta Dynax SPxi - Fungi - September

My theme for September is Fungi and the camera I have chosen to use is my my mother's Minolta Dynax SPxi which I have just inherited (so this is a test of the camera as well). Autumn is a good time for fungi - you can find them all year round but mushrooms/toadstools are mostly visible at this time of year.

There are many more fungi apart from the mushrooms/toadstools that most people think of when they hear/see the word fungi and I have tried to include other forms here. Three pictures are of lichens - these are a composite organism consisting of a fungus and an alga living together in harmony (technically, in mutualistic symbiosis) - which are extremely interesting in their own right. I might do a monthly topic on just lichens later in the year.

Parmelia sulcata

Cladonia species

Xanthoria parietina

Bracket fungus on a birch tree

Mushroom from the fridge

Underside of a slice of mushroom

Friday 29 August 2014

Zorki 4 - Harvest - August

This month's camera is my Zorki 4 (made by KMZ) and the topic of the month is Harvest. In Lincolnshire, the harvest is mainly the wheat harvest but not exclusively so. We usually grow rape (over some time since), sugar beet (not yet), barley, oats, flax and, in the south of the county, a large variety of vegetables. Having said that, most of these photographs are of the wheat harvest but I have included a few photographs of other crops, but not being harvested.

I have tried to use the camera to good effect. My Zorki 4 only has the standard Jupiter 8 50mm lens so I cannot do wide vistas or home in on a hill side. Most of these photographs use the hyperfocal distance of the lens giving maximum depth of field and obviating the need to focus each shot. Some are close-ups (beans, straw bale, wheat ear) for which I am dependant on the rangefinder for the correct focus of the lens. I was intending to capture barley and oat ears as well, but my 24 exposure film ran out too soon.

If wheat is caught within a day of being harvested, the straw and stubble are both a glorious golden yellow. This quickly fades to a dull brown. I have stuck to the fresh item although the colour can be rejuvenated using Gimp or Photoshop.

The harvest is a major event in Lincolnshire. Everyone is affected, if only by the dust and large number of slow agricultural vehicles on the roads. The end of the harvest is signalled by the ploughing of the fields - ready for the farm cycle to start again.

All the photographs were taken in the Lincolnshire Wolds. I have not labelled any of them - I am hoping that the subjects will be obvious.

Sunday 27 July 2014

Exa Ia and Ikonta 35 - Boats - July

I see a lot of boats - the Witham in Lincoln city centre generally has a number of narrow boats moored along its banks and the Brayford has more narrow boats as well as the Barge restaurant and other pleasure craft.

Bestbeloved's interest in birds takes us to many harbours and estuaries where there are generally a variety of boats.

For some reason, decrepitude makes for good pictures and with any luck I shall find some mouldering hulks in an accessible position. Ideally, I should like to return to Mull and renew my acquaintance with Girl Claire, Pannonia and Elsie May but our budget is not going to allow for that this year.

Because I see a lot of boats and I have good energy levels at the moment I am going to use two cameras and two rolls of film this month. First is a folder from the 1940s (previously used for the churches topic in May this year) - my Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 35 - a 35mm viewfinder camera with a normal lens. Second is my Ihagee Exa Ia - an SLR camera with a Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm lens - still a 'normal' lens for 35mm photography but I also have a 2x converter giving me a 100mm option. As this is a totally manual camera I need to remember to increase exposure by two stops when using the converter. What I particularly like about the Exa Ia is the interchangable viewfinder - I have a choice of conventional eye-level finder or a waist-level finder. I find that using the waist-level finder has a major (positive) effect on how I compose the pictures. Incidentally, I am using my Zeiss Ikon Ikophot exposure meter to determine the correct exposures for this month's project. The two rolls of film will be Agfa Vista+, 200 ISO.

The Ikonta 35 pictures.

This camera is working fine. The only problem I had was at the end of the roll when I wound on and tore the sprocket holes on the last frame. I never use the frame counter and generally get 25 or 26 exposures on a 24 exposure roll.

The first picture is from the creek at Saltfleetby when the tide was completely out. These are pleasure craft.

Saltfleetby, Lincolnshire.

These next pictures are taken on the shingle beach at Cley-next-the-Sea in North Norfolk. These are small working boats - mostly used to set the lobster pots seen in the first picture. The registration numbers tell us the boats are either registered in King's Lynn (LN) or Great Yarmouth (YH)

The next few are taken on Burnham Overy Staithes in North Norfolk. This is a popular place for mooring pleasure craft - I don't think there are any working boats there at all.

While we were in North Norfolk, we stayed in a B&B in Wells-next-the-Sea on the Norfolk coats. These were taken in and around the harbour. The east end of the harbour is for working boats and the west end for pleasure craft. Between the two is the Albatross, a sailing boat which is a floating restaurant.

Albatross restaurant

The last few of the Ikonta 35 pictures are from Brancaster Staithes (The word 'staith' is a Norse or Viking word for a landing place - a relic of the time when this was a part of the Danelaw). Again, these are basically pleasure craft.

Brancaster Staithes

Next are the pictures taken with my Ihagee Exa Ia. This has a strange shutter which is actually the reflex mirror. it has a fault that results in the small black triangle in the top of many of these pictures. There was also an occasional problem with spacing of frames - clearly visible below. These are taken at the same locations as above with the addition of Lincoln