14 days of Photography

My Assistant - Photograph by Tim Irving

I've just looked at my diary and the next two weeks are totally blank. I didn't actually need my diary to tell me this news, I already knew, but it makes a good start to this post.

I'm house sitting for a dog, a cat, and myself. My wife Lyn is visiting South East Asia and I'm home alone with a list of reminders, top of the list is "No home improvements". This suits me because when things go wrong with an improvement, when it becomes the opposite of improvement, I like to have someone to share the responsibility with.

An empty diary doesn't mean I have nothing to do, far from it. I have regular chores, packing photographs and taking photographs of the cameras I sell. In fact an empty diary is my cue to take more photographs with the hope that one or two may be sellers. 

So I busy myself in the belief that no effort goes un-rewarded. Today I'm considering the practicalities of getting some photographs that I want, and making a list of how and where they can be made over the next 14 days. A small sample of the subjects on my list includes:

Wrestling
Ice Skating
Canoeing
The London skyline from south of the river
A portrait of a monkey

There's more than 20 subjects and each one will need research and planning. Getting information to organise a photograph is ridiculously difficult and I can spend hours on the telephone. Then there's the weather to consider, rain today, fine tomorrow, rain Wednesday etc. I'll keep you posted.

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The photograph above of my assistant, is from a 127 camera loaded with 35mm film. I have a few very nice 127 cameras that I wanted to use, and although you can still buy 127 film it's more fun to roll your own. Rolling film on to old spools is a little like making your own Yorkshire Puddings, in that it's not difficult to do, but the explanation can be tedious. If anyone is interested in rolling film, let me know and I'll write the instructions fir you.

The lens on the 127 camera isn't of the highest quality, plus the film isn't held flat in the camera, and this combination creates a lovely soft focus, as you can see above. I think it looks similar to a pinhole image, but it's a lot easier to use than a pinhole camera. I've just loaded the camera again for my adventures over the next 14 days.

Back soon.