L☥fe with Jordy Photography: May 2019

Wednesday 29 May 2019

Bronica ETRSi and 35MM N Film Back

You may recall that I wrote in an earlier article (Jan 2019) about some difficulties I was having with a 35mm N Film Back on my Bronica ETRSi. Long story short, it appears the steps I took back then was the correct work around in getting the film back to work. I suspect that the culprit is the dark slide because each time I removed the dark slide, the film would not wind on. I think something inside the film back was not resetting when the dark slide was removed.

Now I know how to work around using the 35mm film back, and the small amount of hassle it presented, I am wondering if I will actually use the 35mm back at all! I mean, is there an advantage to using a 35mm film on a Medium Format camera? I am thinking that the only advantage is if a photographer had only one camera and wanted to swap different films back and forth. Maybe some time in the future I might revisit the 35mm N film back but for now, I will leave the shooting of 35mm film to those cameras suited for it!

So, by the time I had experimented with the 35mm film back, taking it off and putting it back on again, I did actually get about 12 good shots out of a roll of 24. I used a Focal 100 colour film (K-Mart Brand which had expired). I miscounted the number of exposures left on the film and overwound it slightly. That resulted in the film becoming loose inside the cartridge so that I could not rewind it. That lead to another problem in that I had to take the film back to my Lab and have them remove the film from the back in the Dark Room. Shoutout to Marianne from Pro Am Colour Laboratories in Newcastle for looking after me in that respect!

Shot with a Zenzanon Eii 75mm f2.8 prime lens.

Thursday 9 May 2019

AGFA Photo APX 100 - Monochrome Magic!

I'd thrown a roll of AGFA APX 100 into my bag as a spare. I'd seemed to be shooting a lot of colour recently so I thought that when the colour roll finished, it would be nice to shoot some Black & White.

So happy that I made that decision! The colour film ran out at a family get together and I was happy to load the Black & White.

The AGFA APX is a 100 ISO film. Note that AGFA do not make this film. AGFA withdrew from photography film making in 2004 after over 100 years of making film chemicals and photographic paper as well as film. There is a story that there were reels and reels of unused AGFA film kept frozen by the company when it went out of the market. The story goes that Ferrania, an Italian company, bought that frozen film and packaged it as AGFAPhoto. Ferrania went bust in 2009 and these days, all film marked AGFAPhoto are produced by FujiFilm in Japan for Lupus Imaging Media. There is also another story that todays AGFA APX 100 is a re-branded Kentmere 100 (which is produced by Ilford). I don't know where these stories come from but it is nice to see the AGFA name still appearing on film.

So, I bought this film because it was one that I had not used. I don't really have 'favourite films' that I prefer to use; I like to get all different types and give them a try!

The results from this film were very pleasing. The tonal range (shades of grey in B&W film) was very good, depicting what otherwise would have been different colours in a colour film. There was no real blowouts of brightness and there was detail to be found in the shadows; displayed wonderful exposure latitude. Usually I have to adjust the contrast a little when I get B&W back from the Lab but there was no adjusting required for this film.

The photos are sharp with a lovely fine grain which makes it a good film for enlargements.

Photos taken with a Minolta XD-7 using a Minolta MD 28-70,, f3.5 zoom

Thursday 2 May 2019

Newcastle Wanderings

I really enjoy just wandering about with a camera, taking photos of things that catch my eye.

Great opportunity to do this last week when the car was in for a service.

I took the car into Hamilton to be serviced, time frame was about 4 hours give or take. I hadn't been up Hunter Street Newcastle properly for a couple of years; it has been sort of off limits whilst they were building the new tram lines and upgrading roads for our yearly Supercar race. That is all completed now and I hadn't had a good opportunity to see what all the fuss was about. The Interchange was only a short walk from the car dealership at Hamilton and I thought I would go into town and ride the Tram to check it out.

$2.80 for a one way trip (can't get a return - gotta buy another ticket for the trip back!) from the interchange at Wickham to Nobbys Beach. Good thing is you can get off at any stop along the way. This is what I did, I rode the Tram, getting off at each stop and wandered around in the vicinity. I really enjoyed it! The Tram is very popular and, dare I say, I noted quite a few new businesses opened up on Hunter Street and it also seemed that there were more people on Hunter Street than I have seen for a while.

I took the Canon 600D with the Canon EF 50mm f1.8. The 50mm EF lens on a cropped sensor camera is the 35mm equivalent to 80mm focal distance. I took the 50mm because it is nice and sharp and I can get a nice shallow depth of field if I need to. It also makes me more aware of the shot because it is not as versatile as a zoom lens and I have to pay more attention to the framing of a subject.

Not sure, but, I think that these 'planter boxes' are made from the
remnants of the heavy rail line that used to run into Newcastle.

Random window I saw as I wandered along Hunter Street.

The Blue Door Cafe in the old Bennett and Wood building cnr of Hunter Street and Wheeler Place.
Bennet and Wood, a firm established by Charles W. Bennett and Charles R. Wood in 1882 in Sydney
were the original manufacturers of Speedwell Bicycles. As Motorcars and Motorcycles became available
Bennett and Wood entered the Motor Trade. They built and sold the Speedwell bicycle and the Speedwell
and Acme motorcycles. The Speedwell motorcycle was built in the early 1900s.

Civic Theatre in Wheeler Place, Newcastle. Beautiful building!

Habesha - Ethopian Restaurant in King Street, Newcastle.

Civic Theatre - Wheeler Place, Newcastle. I have become a lover of a Film Noir look for my
Black and White photography of late. Lovely crisp contrasty look with dark vignette!

Blue Door Cafe - Wheeler Place, Newcastle. The old Newcastle Council Offices
in the background. That building has apparently been sold to a
developer who wants to turn it into a 5 Star Hotel.
Very unusual architectural design!

Fred Ash LTD may have been established in 1855 but this building was built
in 1904-5. It was designed by F. B. Menkens. It was built as a warehouse
for Frederick Ash. It appears to have served as a retail showroom
with office and storage space on upper floors.
Frederick Ash used this building to sell hardware and store building materials
with workshops and packing rooms behind.

Balance Collective. I just liked the look of this with the word
'Balance' above the entrance.

I'm sure it's just a coincidence that the sign for Second Hand Goods
store sits just below that of one of Newcastles brothels!

The architectural look of this building and it's gradual decay seemed to be further degraded by being boarded
up and having a cheap mural painted on the shop front. this speaks to me of a once grand building that has
seen better years. I couldn't find anything that told me about the history of this building. On the far right is a
renovated 'section' of this building. The Terrace Cocktail bar looks really great inside. To the left,what
appears to be the 'centre' of this terraced building, was a shop called Emmas Soup, a bridal and boutique
shop which has since relocated.
Many shopfronts closed down with the building of the new tram lines up and down Hunter Street.
Access to local businesses was a non event while that was occurring and sent quite a few Hunter Street
businesses to the wall, never to open again.

The upper facade of what was 'Emmas Soup' a Bridal and Boutique shop (larger
photo above). Not sure when this was built but the logo 'Advance Australia'
reminds me of an advertising slogan that referred to community mindedness
from the mid 1980's.

In fact, although the phrase ‘Advance Australia’ is known as the title of the
Australian national anthem, it is often forgotten that the phrase had a life
as a slogan and as a coat of arms extending well into the early years of the
colony.

I love to capture reflections of the side of glass buildings.

Fred Ash building in colour this time.

Newcastle City Hall has been undergoing renovations for the past
couple of years. The clock tower was the first piece to be completed.
The building is coming along very nicely and is looking so clean and
new!