Focal 100 35mm film & Minolta X-700

 

This is another of those films that I shot earlier in the year (March/April) and then promptly forgot about when we went into lockdown!  I picked the roll up from the lab on the 1st Dec.

I have featured this film before; Focal 100 35mm film.  The Focal name is a K-Mart brand.  Their 35mm film is rebranded ANSCO (manufactured New York) and Ferrania (Italian) films.  The Focal stock that I have expired in 2005 but have been frozen for the majority of their life.

The lens I used is a Minolta MD 50mm f1.7.

Some of these were taken whilst we were on a few days away in the Coffs Harbour area in March before the lockdown really took hold.  We explored a little of the area and found some small rural towns that I would love to re-visit and explore even further now that a lot of local travel restrictions have been lifted.

The other photos, were taken in the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie area, whilst we were walking the dogs, before the stricter lockdown laws came into place.  

I was a little disappointed with this roll; usually the Focal 100 has turned out great.  From a roll of 24 I only had 9 successful (my assessment!) exposures.  Some exposures turned out a little grainier than previous rolls and it appeared my focus was out slightly slightly for some although, I am wondering if that could have been a scanning issue maybe.  I have another Focal roll loaded into an Emi K 35mm Rangefinder camera for some walk around shots so I'll see how they turn out; perhaps, even though the film has been frozen, it is approaching it's ultimate use by date.  We'll see.

I have a couple of days off now and will be dropping off a Fomapan Classic B&W film in for dev and scanning.  My last Fuji Acros 100 (original!) 120 roll is still sitting in a Bronica ETRSi awaiting for me to take it out.  There was a slight mishap with this film and it's possible I have lost a few exposures but time will tell.  

I hope you have all been well given the reality of this year.

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General Store - Nana Glen, NSW, Australia

Community Hall - Nana Glen, NSW, Australia

General Store - Glenreagh, NSW, Australia

Surfing - Crescent Head, NSW, Australia

Watching the Surfers - Crescent Head, NSW, Australia

The Stairs of Pain - Merewether, NSW, Australia

Watching the Surfers - Merewether, NSW, Australia

The Ocean Baths - Merewether, NSW, Australia

Lunchtime for Seagulls - Warners Bay on Lake Macquarie, NSW, Australia

Bronica ETRSi & Fuji Velvia 50 Medium Format Film

 

It took forever (it seemed) to get through this roll of film and get it off to the lab.

I'd loaded it on New Years Day and it only took an outing over a couple of days to complete but, it sat for ages on my desk until I finally posted it off for developing and scanning.  

Newcastle does not have a lab here that does the E6 processing for slide film and I have to post it to Sydney.  This is not an ideal situation as postage both ways costs me about AU$26.  Add this onto the cost of development and scanning and I am looking at about AU$50 for the total cost.

I don't want to let the cost put me off using the film.  If I were a photographer with a  business, this would not be a problem; the cost of the postage, developing and scanning would be paid for by a client.  However, for a hobby photographer, this cost can be a real block in the scheme of things sometimes. 

I console myself with the thought that the film was gifted to me and so that was a saving in the initial stages but, costs can still be daunting for slide film.

I like to use slide film because of the low grain and the vivid colours; more so than negative film.  In saying that, slide film is also 'fussy' in that it doesn't have the latitude that negative film has for correct exposure.  Camera settings usually have to be pretty spot on when shooting on slide film.  It makes it a bit of a challenge.  I actually used a free light meter app on my iPhone to obtain exposure settings for these photos.  As you can see, It works pretty well!

This particular roll was gifted to me and is about 14 years past its expiry date.  It has been kept in the freezer which is a great way to store film if you have bulk as it keeps it as fresh as the day it was purchased.

The Bronica ETRSi is a camera I love to work with.  It took me a little while to get used to the waist level viewer though and every time I go out with it I have to re-acquaint myself with the perspective that the viewer provides.  Lens used was a Zenzanon EII 75mm f2.8.  Lovely lens and I most certainly love to get my hands on more lenses and accessories for the Bronica!

These photos taken at Catherine Hill Bay, just south of Newcastle.  The jetty there used to be used for coal loading onto ships.  It is now abandoned and part of it was burned out from bushfires back in 2013.  From there we went to Belmont on Lake Macquarie where there are always sailboats on the Lake (and, of course, Seagulls!)

It was a cloudy, overcast sort of day but still very happy with the colour representation and the 

sharpness of this film.

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Signal Box and disused Rail Track - Neath, New South Wales

 

This disused Signal Box is on the Cessnock Road at Neath in the Hunter Valley.

When the Neath Colliery was opened in 1907, the branch line was built to freight the coal.  I believe this branch line came off the Cessnock Line which was a private line operated by South Maitland Railways.  The Railway did carry passengers and merchandise for the new mining townships but was mostly used to transport coal from numerous collieries in the South Maitland area.  The Neath branch line opened in 1908.  When the mine closed in December 1984, the line was still in use until the Coal Washery was closed in April 1988.

The Station consisted of a pair of 70m platforms around the main lines.  There were 2 lines on this branch however one was lifted shortly after the closure in 1988.  The Signal Box was used as a staff exchange location up until 1996.

It has gone the way of a lot of abandoned places now; windows smashed and the odd graffiti painted on walls.

While I was out that way, I stopped and took a photo of a lagoon that I pass on the way to my daughters house.  Love the reflections off the still water and intend to return out there for some more!

Photos are © Life with Jordy Photography

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Sunset Silhouettes

 

A couple of weeks ago we took the dogs for a walk along the foreshore of Warners Bay and down to Speers Point on Lake Macquarie.  It was unusually warm for the time of year and there were quite a few people gathered in the park there enjoying the cool breeze off the Lake.

As the Sun set, it cast this beautiful golden colour over everything and was reflected off the water too.  

I shot these using the spot meter on my Canon 90D and metered off the people.  The light of the Sunset behind them blew out the exposure and the people became darker.  A little adjustment in Lightroom saw them become silhouetted against that brilliant Sunset colour.

We had intended on getting some takeaway and sit down after our walk to enjoy the cool lakeside.  However, as we started to get settled we were dive bombed by mozzies and the wind started to pick up across the Lake.  We decided we would grab some Kebabs and head on home.  By the time we reached the car about 100 metres away, the Sunset had been replaced by very angry clouds and the wind had picked up  considerably.  I had to hold the car door open as we put the dogs in because the wind was slamming it shut and just as Kim & I got into the car the rain came pelting down in heavy squalls driven by the wind.  The storm front brought a cool change with it and the temperature dropped by about 10° C in a short space of time.

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Out and about - Fuji Colour Superia 800

 

My photography has really taken a hit lately.  Covid lockdown hasn't helped but, I have also been busy painting!  Nothing arty farty but walls!  My son and his wife recently brought a house and it really needed a change of colour.  So, before they moved in, we helped out with painting inside the house and, once that was done, we helped them move.  Then, a week or so later, my daughter also brought a house and I was back with brush and roller in each hand!  Still not finished that one yet!

So, back in June when I was really chomping at the bit to get out with a camera, I went through the film in the freezer and found an expired Fuji Colour Superia 800.  Something I had not used before.  I loaded the film into Minolta X-700  and promised myself that I would take the camera everywhere with me and at least record what was around me.  These are nothing really exciting but they did take the edge off my photography withdrawal symptoms.  I used a Minolta MD 50mm f1.7 lens.

I didn't have any real expectations from this film.  I had never used it before and had not reviewed it on line (like I do with some) so as to get a benchmark for my outcome.   When I viewed the final outcome I had mixed feelings about colour.  It seemed to me to be a bit dullish although I note that this film is featured as a 'high speed daylight balance' film.  Maybe that was the problem; most of the shots were taken on overcast days.  As you can see below, the two photos below that have some element of sunshine in them have a better colour representation I think.  The film is also featured to having a fine grain structure and high degree of sharpness but I was disappointed with the high level of shadow grain in these photos.  That possibly has to do with the age of the film so maybe next time (if I have another roll of this in the freezer) I will overexpose 1/3 to 1 EV to see if that gives a more pleasing result.  

I decided, when I saw the initial outcome with the grain, that I would do some digital touchups to try and improve on that.  I have the Nik Collection plug-ins that I use in Lightroom and I use the Dfine programme to control noise for my digital work.  I gave it a try (only slight adjustment though; for some reason I don't like to use Digital Software to tweak my film photos.  It doesn't seem right!) and it did improve them somewhat.

These photos cover a bad weather experience down on Newcastle Beach.  Low pressure weather system and gale force winds produced a huge on shore swell and the waves were spectacular!  The weather had been bad for about 10 days and our Schnoodle puppies, Daisy and Archie and our daughters dog, Rocky, went wild when we finally got them out for a run.  Mind you they had a great time playing in the mud and were filthy at the end of it all.  A couple of the others are just random shots taken on the way to and from work.  

So, here they are.

Before I go, I must admit to an accidental travesty.  In March, I had loaded my last original Fuji Acros 100 Medium Format film into my Bronica ETRSi.  I forgot that I had done that.  Two weeks ago, because it was getting a bit warmer, I thought that I should get a roll of Fuji NPH 400 so I could go out and get some Sunrise and Sunset photos with the Bronica.  Horror of horrors, I opened the film back and there was the Acros 100!  I quickly closed it up again!  I don't think that quick flash of light would have ruined the whole roll and so I wound the film on through 2 exposures so hopefully it would take me to an unexposed area on the roll.  It had to happen to that last roll of original Acros100....

Hope you're all staying well as are we.

Photos are Copyright © Life with Jordy Photography

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