Just a cheap plastic camera, just some double exposure, just my impatience.
This is the 2nd roll of film, I’ve put through my dad’s old 1986 Chinon CP-7m. The first was one was a bit of bust, because I was just messing about, and the pictures came out so overexposed I thought the camera might actually be broken. This time, to eliminate “user error”, I kept it safely in “P” mode and got some not too shabby results. It’s a brick of a thing to carry around, but I think I’ll be using it more from now on. Film on this occasion was my favourite Kodak 400 Gold. Slightly grainy, but safer in the changeable light conditions in London, I feel. Damn, I love the winter sun.
Recently I was late meeting a friend for a social appointment. We were going to attend some free drop-in music improv events, but we had missed one by the time I arrived. I explained that I had dawdled on the way there, trying to take a picture with an old bellows camera someone had given me some 15 years ago. He seemed annoyed (rightly so, I guess). And I had to accept that the light being “just so” and “I’m experimenting with” was a poor excuse for lateness.
Anyone who’s walked anywhere in the/a city with me will have experienced me lagging behind, stopping to read notes on lamp posts, or to stare up at the sky or down at the curb at some non-obvious thing. Or to take pictures of random things like abandoned paper cups or dirty phone booths. I’ve had “we need to put a leash on you” and “you’re like a toddler wandering off” said to me. I’ve missed trains and busses (so many trains), because I stopped to look at or photograph something..
On behalf of my fellow dawdlers. And daydream wanderers, sorry, I guess. I don’t know how to explain what the world looks like to me. Or how the camera only half captures it.
But this is the picture that made me late. Taken with a rusty, dusty, 1951 Kershaw Eight-20 King Penguin using Ilford HP5 film.
Results from recent experimenting with a new toy cam I acquired recently. Very basic plastic camera called “split cam”. I bought mine at the Photographer’s Gallery in London for £7, but I’ve seen them go for as much as £30 on “gifts” sites. Don’t be a dummy and pay £30. I was too impatient to fill a whole roll before developing. I’m pretty pleased with the initial results. Let me know what you guys think. Do more?
Double exposure with Harrow camera. August 2018.
Mobile shot.
Stood a lonely tree. Tabernas desert, Almeria, Spain. April, 2018
My first time travelling to this region of Spain. I really liked the landscape. Dry and harsh, but beautiful.
my first time visiting this city. spent a morning walking around it.
I looked up and saw this above me, waiting for the lights to change in Eindhoven. I don’t merely exist. I live.
I don’t like crowds, but I like people watching; how we interact, and what silly things we do, and faces we pull. These are some pictures from my recent trip to the Netherlands.