Tag: hove cemetery

My first roll of film on my Hasselblad 500 C/M Camera

From my previous blog I explained that the Camera Museum in London provided me with a free roll of film when I purchased my Hasselblad camera from them.

The film they provided me with was the Ilford Delta 400 black and white film, which I had never used before.

I also explained in my previous blog that I didn’t have time to try out the camera in London and had to wait until I got back home to Brighton.

I was keen to try out the camera asap so the first photo I took was of one of my cats in my living room:

I balanced the camera on a foot stool to take this image and I was still getting used to the focusing screen so it’s the corner of the blanket which is really in focus. However, I still quite like the image and the way the corner of the blanket is nice and crisp. The exposure could be improved since my cat is really dark in this image.

The actual negative itself is marked and I’m not sure if that was because it was my first time loading film into the camera and perhaps I accidentally marked the beginning of the negative whilst loading since the rest of the negatives are absolutely fine.

I decided for the remainder of the film that I would go to Hove Cemetery since it’s nice and quiet there, which meant I could really concentrate and focus on how to use the Hasselblad.

I personally think it’s essential to use an external light meter when using the Hasselblad and I used one for most of the photos I took. I’m going to blog about the light meter I used separately.

When I took the camera outside and started to use it, I was extremely impressed by the bright viewfinder:

I’ve personally never owned a camera with an amazing viewfinder like this before. I also felt it really helped me in composing my shots.

Here are the photos I took:

This was the first time I had used an external light meter and I was extremely impressed with the results from using one.

I scanned all my images using an Epson V600 scanner and I didn’t have to ‘tweak’ any of the photos for the exposure.

For my first roll, I’m very happy with the results. I handheld the camera when taking the photos rather than using a tripod and I’m impressed with how crisp the images are. The lens is amazing.

I found the camera really easy to hold and use. It still felt fairly light to me and with the strap it just felt like I had a handbag over my shoulder.

I am so happy I purchased this camera, I definitely have no regrets and I’m really excited about shooting some more images with it. I can’t wait!

Lomography Fisheye No. 2 35mm Camera and LomoChrome Purple XR 100-400 Film

I’ve owned a Lomography Fisheye No. 2 camera for several months but hadn’t felt the need to blog about it until now.

The main reason was because I also have a circular lens for my Pentax K1000 which I always thought would give me better control of my shots due to it being an SLR.

Also, when I first tried out the Fisheye No. 2 camera I wasn’t overly happy with the results. I now realise it was probably due to me trying to be too sensible with the camera. I had taken some shots locally around where I live to test it out and I had used a normal colour film. Both of which I felt did not do the circular style photos any justice and they ended up looking really boring and dull.

What also hadn’t helped was that I had let the handy plastic lens cap with a strap which was attached to the camera just merrily dangle at the bottom of the camera when taking my shots and I didn’t realise whilst shooting that it would end up in a majority of my photographs like the one below:

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Can you see it? The white circular thing that my dog and cat are looking at. I was most annoyed at myself for not realising this at the time of shooting but I guess I just didn’t see it in the viewfinder when I was taking the photos.

After being somewhat underwhelmed with the photos and knowing I had a circular lens for my Pentax K1000 I considered giving this camera away. Thankfully my husband intervened and talked me into keeping the camera (I think partly because he thought the actual camera looked really cool with the black and silver chrome design).

The camera remained on my shelf back in it’s original packaging for a few months, then one morning after feeling guilty about having a camera just sitting there not being used, I thought to myself, why don’t I load it with some LomoChrome Purple 35mm film and try again?

I promptly removed the lens cap and strap from the camera and popped to the local cemetery as I knew the purple film would work well there.

This time when I got my roll of film developed, I wasn’t disappointed. I was extremely impressed with the results! Here are a couple of shots I took:

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What I really love about this camera is how easy it is to take multiple exposures! If I was to attempt that on my Pentax K1000 it really isn’t as simple as a push of a button like it is on this camera.

I had great fun experimenting with the multiple exposure option and here are some of the results:

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I now finally understand this camera and it was really fun to use especially when using a fun film such as the LomoChrome Purple. I was also really impressed with the multiple exposure shots and will definitely be experimenting more with these.

The other great thing is that it’s fairly light so I can carry it around easily in my bag when out and about taking photos.

I’m going to try using the camera at night time next since it has a built in flash so I’ll be interested to see the results.

On a final note, I’d also like to mention that the ‘Fisheye Rumble in the Pond’ book by Lomography is a fun read. I had bought this book around the same time I purchased the camera as it gives some tips on how to shoot with the camera.