So the other night at the Photographic Club to which I belong we had a 'still life and macro' night. Not usually my thing but always a chance to learn so at the last minute I grabbed the 'Blad and a tripod and headed out. It was a good night. There were a few table-top light boxes - some home-made - and some people had brought food to snap. Food as the theme for this months competition is...drum roll...food! Now mostly it was bright, colourful fruit that had been brought - kiwi, oranges, raspberries, strawberries and even some M&Ms (do they qualify as fruit? Or even food?). Not really the sort of subject matter that looks good on HP5+, to be honest. But one lady had brought a basket of eggs. Nice. I had to sharpen me elbows to edge past all the digital peeps (who seem to have loads of gear, flashguns, zoom lenses and everything) in order to get me 'Blad pointed vaguely in the direction of the subject but I got a couple of shots. Nothing too special - all handheld at some silly low shutter speed but there you go. I had, as usual, low expectations. I wasn't, as usual, disappointed. In the darkroom I wound the DeVere up nearly as high as it can go (which is pretty high, by the way) and zoomed in for a tight composition on Ilford Cooltone paper:
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| Eggs on HP5+ via the 'Blad. Ilford Cooltone paper. |
Now there are quite a few 'beginners' in the club so I mustn't be too harsh but the following anecdote raises more than a few questions, I think. I had my Sekonic meter with me but just to make conversation I asked someone who already had a camera all set up to give me a meter reading at 400asa. It was clear from both this person and a second person who stepped in to help that neither had a clear understanding of what I was after. I know I'm old school and all that but doesn't anyone want to understand what's going on behind the 'P' mode in these DSLRs? I dunno...maybe it's not important these days with all this automation about. No, heck, it is important. I know it is. At least I think I do...
Ahhh... here we go again! I rather waste a whole roll of FP4+ by wrong exposure rather than just refusing to at least have an idea about what's going on inside those cameras. It's actually pretty straight forward as well, as even I can figure out what happens if you open up the lens one aperture or even tighten in one step on the shutter dial. It's not the most advanced maths anyway and would be very nice to know something about, even for someone owning the most advanced camera ever.
ReplyDeleteI really like your egg-print by the way :) Got some lovely light in there, and the blacks somehow really hit me in the face. I think that means it's as good as it gets :)
Indeed, Roy - there's aperture, shutter speed and ISO/ASA. Can't be that hard? But then again, why are so many of my shots poorly exposed lol...
DeleteThanks for the comments about the egg-print. Not much you can do with eggs (apart from boil, scramble, poach, fry, y'know how it goes) but as I said this was one from the Photo Club the other night. Stupidly I entered it into the 'Food' competition on Monday night. There were 6 B&W prints submitted (it's a small club) and the top 5 go through to the Northern Ireland Photographic Association competition where entries from all the NI clubs are judged. The judge decided that my masterpiece was...wait for it...drum roll...the 6th best B&W print! His only comment about it was 'I wonder what's there?' as he pointed to the border at the bottom of the print. Yeh, that's right - he was more concerned with what wasn't in the print rather than what was in it. Judges, eh? So I got to do the walk of shame and remove my print from the display board and take it home. Good job I don't take it too seriously!
Ahhh... I see, Michael. So it's back to the old discussion about where should a snap really end?! This way you could've used the widest lens in the world and still have missing bits fallen over the edge of the print anyway. Yeah, judges... sure! :))
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