Author: Christian

How to fuel your GAS – A buying guide for second hand cameras

How to fuel your GAS – A buying guide for second hand cameras

Reading Time: 10 minutes I have come to accept that I have GAS and I cannot control it. GAS? Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I had to put this in because it is the oldest puerile joke among photographers, but now it is out of the way I will get on 

Families, Flu and Extreme Photography – Part 2

Families, Flu and Extreme Photography – Part 2

Reading Time: 5 minutes Welcome back to my crazy holiday in Wales. By Saturday, the snow had really set in. These are my adventures from that point onwards. Saturday On Saturday morning, we all decided to get the bus into Betws-y-Coed, so that Nain (the Welsh word for Nana) 

Nuclear Implosion

Nuclear Implosion

Reading Time: 5 minutes There has been a bit of a buzz recently about this new film produced by Adox. This promises ‘Imploding Colours, Bursting Reds and Toxic Grain’. I have read that it was in fact a dud batch with one of the layers incorrectly coats. It is 

Families, Flu, and Extreme Photography – Part 1

Families, Flu, and Extreme Photography – Part 1

Reading Time: 7 minutes I have recently got back from my first family holiday since my son was born, staying in a lovely cottage managed by my mother in the village of Cwm Penmacho in rural Conwy. This little village lies at the head of the Machno Valley, about 

The Cost of My Work

The Cost of My Work

Reading Time: 4 minutes …I could price this picture as follows:

Canon EOS 1000D – £399 – I think this was about the price when the model stopped being the current one, obviously it is replaced with the 1100D now…
Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 – £550 – this is what i paid for my copy.
Jessops afd-360c – £79 – got of lightly here, the flashgun is quite a cheap one.
Kood UV filter – £10 – again, very light. I tend to use a cheap filter for protection in clubs as they get covered in smoke and crap very fast.
Batteries – £1.99 – for the flash, from Aldi.
Taxis to and from the venue – £11
Refreshments while working – £20 – beer basically. ok, I might be stretching it a bit now…

Total: £1070.99

I wonder what the girl on the left (who did download this and put it on her page) would say to receiving the bill?

A Few Questions…

A Few Questions…

Reading Time: 4 minutes I am a bit bored, and my ‘blog needs feeding. So, just for the bants (as they say) here are a few photo related questions… What got you into Photography? I had always liked taking snapshots as a child, though at that point I had 

Barclaycard Promotional Compact

Barclaycard Promotional Compact

Reading Time: 2 minutes This is a small  compact viewfinder camera. It has no branding other than the Barclaycard Logo, though I assume it will be a rebrand of something else. It has a sliding lens cover, a flash, and a closeup control for shots between 0.6 and 1.2m which moves the lens away from the film plane (acting like a very simple extension tube).

Streaks of Light

Streaks of Light

Reading Time: 4 minutes …I have been discussing this work with another photographer, Andreas Andrews, who also uses light trails and long exposures in his work, though often in his case with a very steady set up so that the background is rendered sharp and the trails very clean.  I think that both styles have their appeal – there is a definite calm to clean straight trails, but sometimes the atmosphere of a place is better rendered with some chaos and confusion…

Holga 135BC

Holga 135BC

Reading Time: 4 minutes This is a version of the classic Holga re-made for 35mm film. It has a smaller squarer body, with what looks like the original lens mount on the front, which has been relabelled with a focal length of 47mm – this has been commented on a few times, but seems to be accepted that this is the correct focal length – I would guess the meniscus lens differs inside the mount. The BC in the name stands for “Black Corners”, a reference to the vignetting evident on the images it produces.

Mending my Ricoh 500G

Mending my Ricoh 500G

Reading Time: 4 minutes I recently got hold of a little Ricoh 500G from the local car-boot sale. The shutter and lens were all in good nick, but there was a crack to the viewfinder covering, and when I opened it I was met by sticky black pile of 

The Demise of Jessops

The Demise of Jessops

Reading Time: 3 minutes …when I paid, the spotty adolescent fool working there tried making conversation about prime lenses, getting it all wrong and thus showing his ignorance, and then aggressively tried to sell me extended cover based on incorrect ‘knowledge’ he had about my current insurance policy. Which of course now may have been useless anyway.

So what this collapse basically means for me is I have lost (most likely) the protection of the Sale of Goods Act over my purchase…

Abstract Impressionism – Part one: Motion

Abstract Impressionism – Part one: Motion

Reading Time: 5 minutes Inspired by a recent article on Digital Photography School I would also like to present some ideas for shooting beautiful impressionist images. Often in photography we strive to create realistic images, which are super-sharp and capturing what the eye actually sees. Of course, what the