Tuesday, 18 August 2009

Analogue Masters



I came across a great blog the other day whilst browsing around in some Flickr forums. It's called Analogue Masters and in its own words it's a "...showcase corner on the web for all things analogue." Given my love of vinyl, old cameras, cardigans and Victorian novels it could almost have been written entirely with an old duffer like me in mind. There is also a corresponding Flickr group of the same name full of great shots (despite all the ones I've dumped in there!).

Sunday, 16 August 2009

Further fotomentalism


I was lucky enough to be given some rolls of redscale film from my girlfriend for my birthday. Put simply, it's normal 35mmm film but you shoot through the wrong side of the film. For some clever scientific reason to do with the chemicals in the film's emulsion it gives your photos a strong red or yellow cast depending to some extent on whether they're over or underexposed. I don't really understand it, but what I do know is that it makes a great effect. It's a very forgiving film as even the most boring scenes become dramatic and apocalyptic with burning red skies!



Clouds seem to benefit especially well, or you can use it in a more graphic way like with these blinds below:



It's all good fun, I'm going to try a lot more portraits with the next redscale roll just to see how they come out. I probably ought to try the film in a couple of different cameras as well. There's some great examples on Flickr from a lady in Bristol which better demonstrate it's possibilities: Trapac's Redscale set.

I also took my TLR out for some night-time photography which was pretty successful considering I don't have a flash. Foolishly I decided I couldn't be bothered to carry my tripod which did limit my options a bit as it meant I had to be able to rest the camera on a railing or the ground. It's all a learning curve though I guess, I'm keen to try some more low-light work though as I really like the slighty spooky atmosphere it creates. As usual all the shots are up on my Flickr pages...