April 2016 – mikecassellphoto

During my recent visit to the Photography Show in March 2016 i decided to splash out on a brand new camera……sod the expense I had earnt it, so with no holding back i took the plunge and brought a new Konstructor camera from the nice people on the Lomography stand. Also visited the Ilford stand to splash out on few rolls of Ilford FP4 35mm film, well no good having the camera if I haven’t got a film to use in it.

So on a rainy weekend, out it came and I started to put it together. The manual reckons between 1 hour to 2 hours to build, 2 hours is closer to the mark, if you tried to do it in 1 hour, there is a chance that you could miss some important steps and screw it up.

Camera now built and loaded with film, time to find something to take picture off. I knew of a landmark just outside Warwick, and old windmill with easy access.

I enjoyed walking around and using the camera, did take some used to, there are only a few setting, either times at 1/60th or bulb mode, and a basic focusing ring. Fixed aperture at f10. It made a nice change from having a multitude of settings. Fixed lens was not an issue as I tend to use a 50mm or 90mm lens on my Canon.

Film exposed, and with developing tanks long since departed, it was off to the local lab to have the film developed and scanned onto CD, and then the wait to see if I had captured anything at all…..and surprise, i had.

So with CD in hand off to the computer and edit in Silver Efex, using the Antique Plate II setting. Kept quite simple really, no cropping no other edits.

Not all good and not all bad. Very much a learning curve.

So with another film already in the camera, time to head off again and keep on learning.

Though it was about time that we had a long weekend a way, so after much debate and thought, we choose to go to Bath. It had been quite a while since we last visited, at least 15 years.

So only armed with the two camera off we trotted around Bath.

The weather was not on our side, but still we trooped on. Got some decent shots on the phone and used Snapseed to enhance these. I have included them in the blog.

However, got a an issue with the Olympus, the card it uses is an xD card, and guess what, all of my card readers do to take that format, and the USB socket is not a standard size, so a bit of research to do to get the images off. Looking at them on the LCD display on the back of the camera they look OK, so maybe for another blog.

Had a walk around the abbey at night, even though no tripod, i think the night time shot came out OK. Used one of the drama settings in Snapseed to bring it out and lift it.

Inside the Abbey there was display of glass baubles with messages on, so had been smashed on the floor to add to the display.

So the next day the weather was better so we headed of to Prior Park, about a 30 minute walk outside of the city centre. This is a National Trust property, no house to go in but the parkland is open for visitors. Well worth the visit, and the final few images for this blog, until i get the images of the Olympus.

Enjoy.

Month: April 2016

A new camera in the bag

A Long Weekend in Bath