That said, I got up this morning and took the short walk down to the local school to vote. I took these photos as I wandered home.
The game ended in a draw - 0:0. That's one reason I don't like soccer.... nothing happens....
I walked from home to my office today, a distance of about 6km. No hills and fairly easy walk though it was fiercely hot for most of the way - no shade and reflective ground.But the wind was at my back and I feel good for the walk.
ON the way I saw what I thought was a small snake on the road. I picked it up so it would not be run over. It was certainly excitable - leaping around throwing its body into arches so only 2 or 3 points touched the ground at a time. I thought it was a golden crown snake or something similar - a harmless small elapid.
Examining it I noticed not only that its vent was about 1/4 of the way along its body, but also that it had tiny external ear-holes. It was not a snake at all - it was a legless lizard or pygopod. Unlike snakes they have an external ear aperture.
I found him a nice place under some bushes, with plenty of leaf litter and let him go.
Before I left home I debated whether to take a camera. I didn't. Bad decision. Got a phone camera shot of him but it's blurry.
On another note - I did take my iPod, but only listened to half a song. It was so nice walking and just listening to the sounds around me. I find I use my iPod very rarely these days...
Here is where I walked - http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2406686#
I took Nikhi's picture out on our front porch using existing light. The light was failing and I had to spend a long time focussing on the very dim ground glass of the old camera. Depth of field is very limited with these cameras - which lends a special character to portraiture, but makes setting up the shot difficult. Nikhi was very patient but as the series of photos shows, it was a trial for her I'm sure. The final image is a full scan of the negative - with edges visible.
I shot Kim's portrait indoors. He was reading contentedly so the situation was ideal. "Just sit there", I said. The light was even dimmer indoors and I had a lot of difficulty focussing. I pulled out an old maggy-lamp to give some more light, and rigged up a reflector to cut the shadows a bit. That gave me an extra couple of stops. In the end it was an 8 second exposure. Got a little motion blur but it's only noticeable in larger sizes. The final image is a crop.
Kali, Nikhi's bearded dragon, watched on with interest. Helen took the colour photos.
Difficulties I have with 8x10 are mostly related to focussing. The ground glass on this camera is dim, and in low light my eyes are really struggling to tell what is blurry and what is sharp.
sadly i did not notice this on the ground glass when i was setting up the picture, probably because there was so much wind i could barely hang onto my darkcloth.
the solution? for now, a drastic crop... which i think looks good anyway. in the long term though i need a lens designed for 8x10 film. until then i'll try to avoid large movements.
Posted via email from jayavant's posterous
polaroid no longer manufactures it's large format instant films. in fact polaroid no longer manufactures any instant films. apparently they are still marketing some of their consumer films, such as pola 600, but they have engaged another company to make it.
thanks to my friend sam, i today obtained an unused and only slightly out of date pack of polaroid 56. this consists of 20 single 4x5 inch sheets of sepia film. one of the sheets is visible to the left of this shot, standing behind my old polaroid 545 film holder - which i had almost consigned to the museum shelf. this could be its last hurrah...
watch for some polaroid sepia images soon.
my legs are aching from unaccustomed exercise but I console myself that I got this picture for my pains. sometimes we have to suffer for our art.
taken on a little cove in noosa national park after a 4 hour drive then a 6km walk over sand in hot humid conditions, carrying a heavy 4x5 camera and tripod. i want to go back with the 8x10… and maybe a welsh mountain pony.
on flickr
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