MorseBlog

Last September I made a couple of posts about using my Fuji G617 panoramic camera for intimate landscapes. Part of this was to try and defeat the summer photography blues. I got some rather good results.  Now I am facing another photography drought and Spring has arrived, and I have never really known what to do with Spring photography. Indeed, Spring and Summer are the worst seasons for me. Fall has color, Winter has forms, and both have frost and fog. Right now, we are at peak bluebell season. I find photographing flowers generally unsatisfying, and bluebells are a bit of a cliche even though they are amazing to walk amongst this time of year. Don't get me wrong they really are spectacular, but I really haven't gotten an image of them that makes me say 'wow'.  And so, I find myself out on a brilliant and cool spring morning that quickly warmed as the sun rose. The bluebells are spectacular right now in Monk's wood and are accompanied by Wood Anemones, Celandines, ...

My wife got me a Lomograflok film back for my birthday. It took a while to arrive but it got here today. My first impression is it is a quality product. Once you find the online manual (through a QOR code) getting it working is quick and simple. (Loading AA batteries for the ejection mechanism and a film pack.) I made a few test prints in my living room with my dog Mollie as the subject.  For those not familiar with this system it is a large format 4x5 film back that takes Instax Wide instant film that works much like old Polaroids but this film is from FujiFilm. Instax film and cameras are popular so fresh film is readily available. The Wide format gives roughly a 6x9cm image. The film is available in both color and black and white. The packs are 10 sheets per pack and sell for about £14 per pack. LomoGraflok Filmback Instax film (both types) is nominally ISO 800 film. The Lomograflok system comes in two parts. The first is a simple plastic frame for composing and focusing the im...

I was out again last week at Woodwalton Fen in the early morning as there was a forecast of some fog. I wasn’t disappointed as I walked in the pre-dawn darkness. I stopped in the middle of the reserve where a bench is located by a small pond. I sat and sipped coffee and ate my breakfast while I waited for the light to come up. When the light and color saturated I picked up my equipment and walked on.  I headed down a track I last travelled last summer along a line of oak trees. This lead to a little used trail and I found my first photo. Three interesting shaped trees in the mist. I setup first with my 150mm lens but needed the 90mm lens to capture it. This lens does not get much use. It is difficult to see the image on the ground glass because of the way the light disperses.  I was using my SINAR Zoom film back exclusively today and had loaded a roll of Fuji Provia 100. My limited experience with shooting in mist in fog has me favoring Fuji Astia and Provia. I find that Fuji ...

Last year I was watching a Steve O'nions' video where he used a Horsman 6x12 roll filmback on his Intrepid 4x5. I had picked up years ago an old 6x9 MPP filmback that I have used on the Intrepid I have. I am a sucker for the panoramic format (I really enjoy shooting a Fuji G617.) so when I saw the 6x12 I thought that might be something I could use.  With rollfilm backs on a 4x5 the inevitable question why not just crop the 4x5 image? The usual response is economics. 120 film is cheaper than the 4x5 equivalent. Processing is easier to find as well and more affordable.  I researched 6x12 backs and stumbled across the SINAR film backs and the Zoom model in particular. These backs fit like a sheet film holder and so do not require the ground glass to be removed for each image. The Zoom model allows one to shoot a variety of formats on the same roll of film. This means 6x12, 6x9, 6x8, 6x6, and 6x4.5. I am a sucker for versatility and fortunately at the time I found one for sale fo...

I was looking forward to this morning for the last couple of days. The gale that has been blowing winds is finally done and a high pressure was due to park itself over the area. Finally we would have the first frost of the year (extremely late historically) and perhaps some fog. So I scraped the windshield (windscreen) and bundled myself into the care at 5:30am. The sky was deep blue with just a rim of orange on the eastern horizon. Venus was up as was the moon along with a couple of wisps of cloud. It was dead still.  It didn't feel that cold when I got out of the car. There was frost but the sense was it was barely freezing and hadn't been that cold for very long. I had been vacillating about where to go amongst my 3 local choices. I settled on Woodwalton Fen on the theory that with lots of water about the place perhaps that would improve chances of fog. On the way I didn't see any signs of fog patches so probably any choice was bound to disappoint on that front.  I pulle...

Introduction One problem with cameras that shoot 6x9 negatives come when you find your enlarger is only 6x6. I like my Fuji GSW 690 with a 65mm lens on a wide negative. I do have a 4x5 enlarger but it is so large it sits on the top floor and is inconvenient to use. In the past I have printed 6x9 negatives on my 6x6 enlarger and indeed have printed 6x17 as well. The strategy is two-fold. 1) Crop a smaller (say 6x6) portion from the larger negative, make a diptych or triptych or more with multiple images.  Today I start with two images from a pre-lockdown holiday in North Wales. I will print these on Ilford MG Art 300 paper that is quickly becoming my current favorite paper. The first image was straight-forward because of the way I composed the photo in camera as I didn’t really intend to use the full negative. I wanted to make this image in the style if Michael Kenna. Below is this first image.  Scanned full negative I cropped to the upper 2/3 of the image. It is quite a h...

Two years ago I picked up 'The Beast' a Durst Laborator 54 Universal Camera 4x5 enlarger at the very satisfying price of free. I have installed it up in the top floor and have gotten some good use out of it but not often. I don't shoot a lot of 4x5 and print it less frequently. Recently however I have printed my 4x5 Gladiolas negative on it. I have also had my Fuji GSW 690 camera whose 6x9 negative does not fit my original Meopta enlarger as it can only handle up to 6x6 negatives and an old MPP 6x9 rollfilm holder for my Intrepid 4x5 MkIII. This experience has reminded me that I am missing some key components from the enlarger. Namely I need a 4x5 and a 6x9 mask. I have a 6x8, 35mm masks that came with it. Previously I found I could suspend a 4x5 negative in the negative holder but it is rather tenuous and difficult to place it in the right position. I also learned in my last round of printing that light leaks around the negative and can produce noticeable glare on t...