Charlie's Worldtrippy
Posted on August 17, 2009
I caved under shiny gadget pressure and bought a couple of restored Olympus Trip 35’s from the late 60’s, one red and one blue covered. They should be here in a couple of weeks.
35mm film heaven.
Oh yeah.
Jellyfish
Posted on August 16, 2009
We’ve had a few days of wind and woolly weather again here in Perth – 125kph (70+mph) winds and rain/hail/thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening – well, not really, just very very wet.
The house held up well – the front door has been leaking worse than ever as the new seal seems to trap the water and allow it to seep under the door in larger volumes than ever. A new solution is needed and fast!
Anyway, Jay’s back has been really bad this weekend, so apart from attending the First Communion of the daughter of some friends of ours, we haven’t done a lot. In fact, today, Sunday, was so slumpy that the girls didn’t get changed from their PJ’s till 4:30 when I announced I was off to Point Peron to take some photos.
It chucked it down just as we were driving up the access road and the sky was very brooding, so I did wonder if it was a good idea to walk around the point. Its not too far, maybe 15 mins walk from the car to the furthest bit, but the rain here really is something else and there is no shelter at all. Anyway, as it happened, we managed to dodge the showers and had an excellent walk, saw loads of huge crabs in the rock pools, talked to the girls about erosion and stuff (once a geologist, always a geologist) and took some photos.
Point Peron
Point Peron Storm
The walk on the way back was interesting as the storms has brought in thousands of Portuguese Man o’War jellyfish and spread them all over the beach – Piper didnt have shoes on and the stingers can be really nasty for several days – so that was good fun. Not. Most of them were tiny, but there were a few bigger ones with very long tentacles. Nothing by halves, this country.
Portuguese Man o'War
rain rain go away..
Posted on August 13, 2009
so much rain and so loud against the window last night – kept me awake for hours 😦 Meh.
Really expected the hallway to be navigable depth this morning, but as “luck” would have it, the plaster seems to have soaked it all up.
Not good at all.
In other news, apparently, according to my dreams, you can get 120 and polaroid film developed by the fine chaps at the Land of the Last Chickens – where they release the films into the chicken coup and they fly up and the stick to the wire for people to come and collec them.
True dat.
excellent in parts
Posted on August 13, 2009
I just imported all the posts from my old blog over at blogger – WordPress did it so easily, one click and that was it done and in date order too. very cool, thanks WordPress 🙂
Its been pouring with rain all day today – absolute torrents of the stuff, lashing in from the sea. Now those trees are gone, I can see down the street towards the ocean and see the rain coming before it hits which is cool. Its clearing now and I can see some sunset colours – be a very good night for a few pics – the wind is howling so the sea would be very rough – good for long exposures making the water all milky. Not sure the lens would survive a second dousing with salt water though – maybe I’ll get a waterproof housing for the next jolly out :))
Given the rain and the leaky door, I fixed a new weather seal yesterday, which, on the face of it, looks like it should work – its totally plugging the gap and should work. Only it doesnt.
The hallway is full of water from the squall that just came in. Meh.
I’ll be going back to Bunnings tomorrow to see if I can get any seals that stick to the bottom of the the door too. Mind you, the glass leaks too, so that all needs sealing up – probably time for a new door..
mmm, floody
film addict
Posted on August 13, 2009
The Holga’s aren’t even here yet and I’m already thinking about what 35mm film camera to get to replace the broken OM10.
I think I’ve decided on a couple of old school cheapies – no reason to get flashy with my ambitions as all I really want is to recreate the vintage feel of photos from when I were a lad. Well, that and have some fun with it.
Soooooo, you ask with baited breath, what have I decided on?
Firstly, an Olympus Trip 35 – there’s a place that refurbishes and retrims them – awesome.
Red Trip 35
Secondly – an Olympus Pen – these are 1/2 frame cameras, meaning it captures 2 images side by side on a single 35mm image – so you can get 48 or 72 images per roll of film. Similar in some ways to the Trip
Olympus Pen
So, all I need to do is to get over the reeling $600 gas bill that came this morning *faints* and I’ll pick up a couple – it’ll be easier to develop the films than the 120 Holga ones too.
nooooooo
Posted on August 9, 2009
My lovely old Olympus OM10 film camera is busted.
Taking some test shots today I noticed that the shutter speed was a lot less than it should have been – almost 1 second at times. Meh – had a look inside and its all broken by the mirror – the plastic inside bit seems to have been broken and shaken loose somehow. So, its going to have to go in the bin – they’re very common cameras and it wont be an economic repair.
Back to ebay then. As the lens is still good, I’ll be looking for a nice OM body 🙂
things that irk me about photos
Posted on August 9, 2009
Looking at some pictures on Flickr and other sites, a few things regularly irk me about some “professional” photographers photos.
Now, I’m far from being perfect, I’m not a professional photographer, but people, there are some simple things that we all need to watch out for
1. Horizontals
The horizon is always horizontal. Unless you’re doing a really wacky obviously not meant to be straight shot – use something such as Picassa, Photoshop or similar to straighten the horizon in your shot. It takes 2 seconds and is really not an option. Wonky horizon = wrong. This is especially noticeable with beach shots, and I’ve seen so horrors with wedding photos where the horizon is at such a wonk that I feel ill looking at the shot. Wedding photographers should know better than this!! (oh, and make sure the horizon doesn’t bisect the Bride or Groom’s head, thats pretty much an outdoor portrait 101)
2. Verticals
Walls and buildings and things like that have verticals and horizontals. And, barring a few degrees of construction error, or the leaning tower of Pisa, thats how it is. So, when taking photos with buildings or masts, or even trees, cos they mostly grow straight up, make sure they are actually straight in the finished image.
Or, take a little more time in camera to get it a little more right. Thats what we all had to do when using film a few years back. Have we lost the art so much?
If verticals are not vertical, or the horizon is wonky, then the eye really notices it and immediately, the picture looks wrong.
It only takes a few mins to fix, so fix them! And to those of you who are more professional out there who are guilty of this – you should know better, its embarrassing – sort it!!
*woot* (sic)
Posted on August 8, 2009
no, I don’t really use dreadful expressions such as woot or similar..I’m just being a smart arse and its a private joke.
Anyway, the thing of joy – not only have we ordered a couple of Holga medium format toy camera
this piece of plastic junk takes the most awesome retro pictures and I’m really looking forward to getting out there and having a go.
In other news, and the main cause for the woot – I found my OM10 film camera in my suitcase from when I went to the UK. I was so sure I brought it back with me – the one bloody place I didnt look was in the case.
so, loaded with Ilford black and white, I shall go forth in retro heaven for a bit. Sorry D300, you’re too digital and perfect..
grammar
Posted on August 5, 2009
It reallllllly pisses me off to read things like
Could of
should of
would of
There children
etc
etc
More and more, on forums, newspaper “have your say” columns, even some blogs, I’m reading these very basic spelling and grammatical mistakes. I think some people really do think that “their” is spelled “there” and “could of is actually correct. Its “could have”, btw, if you were somehow wondering what was wrong.
Worse still, I hear on the news, radio and tv – the use of the words “ambo” and “firey” to replace ambulance and fire brigade. This kind of slang on national TV is just awful, almost unthinkable. What next, txt spk in newspapers?
Its the fookin’ English language people, your (no, not you’re) first language. Learn how to use it.
There’s really no excuse.
Splash
Posted on August 5, 2009
Took the kids out to Point Peron after school to let them work off some steam, it was a nice warm evening and the light was nice for some photos too.
Got a few nice ones along the beach as the sun went down – I really need a polarising filter to make the best of the landscape, but never mind!
Piper
Got a nice shot of the little ‘un playing in the rock pools and also a couple of good ones of the sunset a litte later (which turned out to be a nothing special colours wise)
Point Peron Sunset
But then, I had a bit of a nightmare – the tripod slipped on the seaweedy rocks and the camera fell into the sea! meh!
Hastily scooping it up I popped the battery and memory card out and headed home
Now the D300 is weather sealed, but it did get a tad more of a dunking than I thought it would be able to cope with and I really didn’t hold out much hope for the lens, which isnt sealed and took a 6 inch bath.
Luckily, after some disassembly and cleaning, gentle blowing with a hair dryer and much panic, it all seems to still be working. The lens might not be ok in the long term as there was a little salt water in the zoom mechanism, but the camera body was fine.
*phew*
I’ll keep an eye in it, if it stuffs up in the near future, I’ll have to claim on the insurance.
Charlie's World 