Thursday 19 September 2013

Special guest appearance at Torana Fest 2013, Newcastle, Australia


My overseas followers will probably ask themselves,'what is a Torana?'.  Well, the Torana was a car that was manufactured in Australia by General Motors - Holden - the Australian subsidiary of General Motors. Various models were built in the period 1967-80. The name 'Torana' apparently comes from an Australian Aboriginal word that means 'to fly'  -  and that is exactly what a lot of them did!

The photographs that I wanted to present here though, are not of a Torana!  At the Torana Fest, there was a special appearance of an old racing warhorse.  A 1953 Holden 48/215 also known as a Holden FX.  These cars were the first to be introduced to Australia as Australias' own cars.  This car has been mechanically re-conditioned but is basically in original condition as it was when it raced in the first ever Australian Touring Car Championship in 1960 at Gnoo Blas circuit just outside of Orange in New South Wales.

At that race the driver was Des West.  He came 11th outright and 8th in class.  He perhaps would have made better time if he had not stopped to help out a fellow driver who was trapped in his car after a crash.

To read more about this car and its current owner follow this link

If you would like to see more photos from the Torana Fest please visit my Facebook page and check out some icons of Australian Motoring History!  If you visit, please like my page there because then you can keep up with all of my other photography subjects!

Hope you have all been well.

Jordy






Wednesday 4 September 2013

Pentax A3 Film Photography - #2


I usually prefer a black and white film.  I can't quite put my finger on why.  I think it is the soft tones and contrast that appeal to me so much.  This time though, I wanted to try something different and so I put a Fuji C200 colour film through the Pentax.  

Of the 36 exposures, these are the ones that have been most successful.  There were a couple that just straight didn't work out and there were those culled on the Lightroom floor because I just wasn't happy with the composition.

The problems with some of those that didn't work out were caused by a couple of reasons.  For the Darby Street safari, I was using a Pentax SMC-A 70-210 zoom.  The lens is quite heavy and, it seems, I have been spoiled by the image stabilization that comes with my Canon lenses; my hands aren't as steady as they used to be!  

The other thing is my eyesight!  I now wear glasses and the Pentax does not have an adjustable diopter so that I can take my glasses off to use the manual split focus system.  It is ok if I wear my glasses but I really need to have an eyecup so that I can rest my glasses lens against the soft rubber which should keep out some of the reflected light that hits my glasses which makes the focussing difficult.

So that is about the extent of it; I had some shake and slight focus problems with a few, but the majority turned out fine and here is the best of those.  

I think I will have to curb my enthusiasm at times; having a film in the camera is sometimes like a kid with a dollar in the lolly shop! 

The photos for this blog entry were taken in Darby Street, Newcastle and 1 at Caves Beach, which is just south of Newcastle in Australia.  The cat in the photos is a very friendly fellow, and I am lead to believe his name is 'Rabbit' !  I caught him sitting on the sidewalk meowing at the passersby who would stop to give him a scratch behind the ears, which he thoroughly enjoyed!

It was about 8.30am, and the street was just starting to come alive.  Darby Street has some lovely sidewalk dining and there were a few people out & about for breakfast.  The smells of bacon and coffee were everywhere.....mmmmmmm....

I lined up to get a photo of a bloke walking down the street, obviously on his way to work, he was having one of those wide open 'not quite with it just yet' yawns.  After I got that image I lined up on the next when I heard someone ask, 'What are you up to?'  I turned around and found my friend Dan walking toward me; he was the one who had been doing all the yawning and I hadn't recognized him with his hat on in the half shadow of the sidewalk! (Hope you enjoy the photo Dan!  Ha ha...)

Anyway, that's it for me this time. I have to plan my next safari; I have a colour film in the Voigtlander!

I hope you are all well and that life is good!

Jordy











Catching up.

 Well it has been a couple of months since I posted a Blog article.   I don't have any Project or roll of film in particular to share wi...