Charlie's WorldHolga-tastic
Posted on October 24, 2009
I finally (after weeks of being lazy) posted off the latest batch of Holga and 35mm film to be processed.
Should get it all back next week, thats 9 films (5×120 and 4x35mil) – hopefully one or two shots are decent in that batch! I know there’s going to be a few duff ones as the back came off the Holga twice, so I strongly suspect I’ll get a heap of blown out ruined ones, although I am hoping not too many.
I’ve just started planning my fun for next year with the Holga – I’m going to get together a proper portfolio (if I ever send the fookin’ things off to be developed) and start offering Lomo/Holga wedding photography.
There’s something so nuts in the way those shots come out that I bet I could get a few gigs a year for couples who don’t want the traditional shots.
My plan is to buy 3 or 4 Holga’s and a couple of Diana F’s, a Superheadz Golden Half and perhaps even a Lomo LCF, load them up with all kinds of different films (depending on lighting, time of day, clients wishes etc) and have some fun with it.
Oh, and a Golden Half, by the way, is a 35mm 1/2 frame toy camera (72 shots on a roll) – its teeny and crap and lovely and I want one!
I’ll take the digital too, as I have an awesome Holga simulator in Photoshop if needed.
Its not going to be an easy option, and really, its going to be more expensive to do it this way than digital with the raw materials cost of film and processing (around $15-20 per 12 shots) but I can imagine with the right clients, getting some WICKED shots.
In preparation for this monumental journey into madness, I have created a couple of blogs, eventually, I’ll get a domain and link them together blah blah, but here’s what I was thinking…
http://lomoweddings.wordpress.com/
http://holgaweddings.wordpress.com/
rebranding
Posted on October 23, 2009
I’m getting so boring with this I might have to rename my blog “my adventures with irrigation systems” *rolls eyes*
I fixed the main problem with that 5th solenoid valve yesterday, the common wire (a bodge by the previous owner) had broken just out of sight of the hole I’d dug to uncover the valve. Fixed that with a new spur from a known working common wire and once I attached one of the spare wires in the control box to a spare terminal, the valve sprung to life. Woo!
A few tests and stuff later, it really looked like it was all working, so I set about routing my new spur common wire under the ground to the 5th valve. Once it was all wired up, a quick test showed it was all working. Buried the cables, filled in back over the valves and tested again.
*pooof*
The fuse in the control box went. I must have a dodgy joint (most likely the power or common to solenoid connection) or the originally broken common is stuffing up. I’ll get some new fuses some proper cable joiners (rather than just tape) and fix up the common later and see whats what
So near, and yet so far..
waterworld
Posted on October 21, 2009
Irrigation, reticulation, sprinklers, watering, call it what you will, its all the same and I flimmin’ well hate it.
So, after getting a new pump for the bore, it turned out the pump relay was also busted (probably happened as the old pump burned out) so that needed a sparky to come out and replace it – simple job actually, but not one I could (or would be allowed, regulations here being what they are) sort.
So, with working pump again, all the sprinklers were working, except the troublesome single station from before. It took a few hours of buggering about with the retic repair guy, changing cables, wires, testing with multimeters, changing solenoids, cleaning valves etc before we kinda diagnosed the problem.
Problems, actually.
The wiring is crap – each of the control wires for the other 4 stations has power when they shouldn’t
Theres no separate common for the valves, just, it seems, a shared one for the pump.
None of the wires to the troublesome 5th solenoid seem to work at all.
So, to fix it – I need to run a new cable from the control box to the 5th solenoid with a new common and new control wire. 30 metres of it, up the wall, along the garage roof, down the wall, along the bottom of the fence for 20 metres and into the valve.
Then, just need to rejig the order the valves are wired into the controller, put the last of the turf back and its done. And I’ll be $1000 poorer.
And then there’s the aircon, which I suspect isn’t working because the ducting has come away from the bottom of the evaporative housing.
I’ll take a look, but I bet I’ll have to call someone out.. *sigh*
circus
Posted on October 11, 2009
We went to see the Great Moscow Circus in Perth yesterday which was really cool. I’d last been to a circus when I was really small, back in the day when lions and tigers and performing elephants were all the rage. Sadly for me, that meant coming away in an allergy haze which I’m told lasted for a week (all the sand, horses etc)
So I was really looking forward to going again, especially as I had Telfast (antihistamine) on my side this time, just in case. Took the kids on the train upto the city and walked up to get an early lunch (through whinging and tears too, no less – still have no idea why actually) and then on to the circus.
Perth was lovely in the sunshine yesterday, and deserted too – for a big city it’s so empty on a Saturday.
Anyway – the circus was fantastic – a proper “big top” and everything. The acts were amazing, no safety equipment to speak of, just a large crash pad for one where 2 guys were flinging themselves from a swing across the ring onto a massive cloth hanging from the roof and then sliding down. They were 8 or 9 metres in the air so I guess something was required, not that any of the other acts were really any less high or dangerous. Totally amazing and worth the money, even if most of the acts seemed to be from Spain or Colombia and not actually Russia 🙂
Some tips though. Eat before, bring a drink for the kids and get there at least 1/2 hour early to get the good seats. We did all of these and it was fine, families that didnt had a much poorer view and would have been subjected the huge queues for the awful hotdogs and chips at the interval.
So yeah, 5 stars for the Moscow Circus in Perth.
Took a load of photos whilst I was out and about in the city, bit you’ll have to wait – they were ol the Holga or Trip 35 🙂
redback season
Posted on October 7, 2009
I think it must have warmed up just enough for the spiders to come out.
Found quite a few redbacks around the outside of the house today and the girls just found one in the bathroom. Only small ones, so they’re obviously just hatching and getting settled, but small ones inside the house is still not good.
I’ll go get some barrier spray tomorrow and spray the patio furniture and some of the window frames and stuff – not everywhere as I don’t want to kill indiscriminately, spiders are part of the ecosystem like anything else, I just don’t want the really bitey ones inside or to get too comfortable right outside the house.
Speaking of good spiders, found the hunstsman that was living in the shed dead today 😦 I hadn’t realised how big it was – almost the size of my palm stretched out, tiny body though.
Huntsman
Although they are big, they’re timid and pretty harmless. I hope it had babies.
big
Posted on October 6, 2009
Tell you something you knew already.
Australia is a big place.
Its pretty much the same width as the USA – 4000-ish km from east to west at the widest point and only a bit smaller in terms of total land area. However, only 21 million people live here vs 320 million or so in the US. Thats a lot of empty space then. Where I am in Western Australia about 35% of the land area of the county, we only have 2.1 million people. And about 1.8 of those live in the Perth metro area.
Thats a hell of a lot of empty space. WA (0.8 people per sq km) only a bit more populated than Alaska (0.46) which is mostly tundra and wilderness, and waaaay lower density than any other US state (next on the list is Wyoming with 2.2 and there’s not a lot there apart from mountains and prairie)
So basically its more empty than a very empty thing, and I love it. The drive to York barely leaves metropolitan Perth, but its really clear even once you hit the forest that that’s pretty much it for population for some time. Miles and miles of forest and farms. Then pretty much sod all. Until you get to the other side 3500km away. Even Alice Springs, which is kind of in the middle of Australia, only has population of 23,000. Only a small town then.
And I love it – even in suburbia where I live, its relatively quiet, well spaced out. The UK is so packed full of people, falling over each other, whereas Perth, for all its faults and somewhat basic facilities (doesnt have the population density to support more), has so much more room to move, and that has to be good for quality of life. And if thats all too much – an hour or so’s drive, there’s pretty much nobody for thousands of kilometres.
picture taking
Posted on October 2, 2009
so, after yesterday’s post – I have finally finished a 24 shot roll in the Trip 35. I’ll send it and the upteen rolls of 120 film off to be developed on Monday – hell, I might even take them in in person.
Was a busy work day – the car was playing up as the garage somehow stuffed up tightening the new alternator belt – they sorted that quickly whilst I waited, not that they had much choice, I just handed them the keys and plonked myself in the reception with my laptop (had to do some urgent work).
Jay went out getting lots of craft stuff for the kids today, so they had a making stuff afternoon which they really enjoyed – so did I, glad not to have the noise of the Wii in the background whilst I’m trying to work!! .
Took some shots at the beach this afternoon too – I havent done that in ages, so its nice to get some more photos. There’s a really annoying purple fringed spot on my shots with the Nikkor 50mm though – have no idea why, it only seems to be there at f16 and over.
So thats today, I have red wine and I’m going to chill – photos to follow
facing west
Posted on September 29, 2009
I love my home office -the window faces west, which is in the direction of the weather for the most part. Being close to the ocean – only a few hundred metres – we get storms coming rattling in fast, and from my study window I get to see the fronts rolling in.
Today we’ve been getting sunshine, then skies like this…
weather front
shooting with the Trip
Posted on September 25, 2009
I have the Trip 35 and the Holga with me today as promised and guess what – it was fookin’ cloudy again this morning. Not a problem for the Trip, but the Holga needs sun.
So, I popped out across the road for a coffee with one the guys I work with and took the Trip.
The good thing about Perth is the traffic lights take an age to change and all go in sequence – none of this filtering across traffic to turn right or anything – so its possible to sit in the middle of St Georges Terrace, the main road through the center of Perth and take photos down the middle of the road before the cars start moving again.
So I did. Squatted down and took some snaps looking down the barrel of cars waiting for green a light.
Then, to the horror of the security guards in the courtyard of QV1 – I *gasp* took some photos there too. The guards started closing in, calling on their walkie talkies. I mean, what a liberty, an open space and a camera. I must be a terrorist, dammit, I even have brown eyes and a beard.  Its almost certain that I’ll go away and develop the film in my secret lair, studying the picture for the slightest security weaknesses.
Too bad for them then that I just walked off before they could aprehend Perth’s answer to The Jackal.
100% unsuccess rate
Posted on September 24, 2009
Every time I’m at the office in Perth I take a good long look at the weather forecast to see if its worth lugging a camera in with me for a few shots at lunch or after work. I’m only shooting with the Holga at the moment and I really love Velvia 100 film, which means it really has to be bright sunshine for any shots.
So far, I’ve managed to bring it in only to see clouds and rain roll in, and leave it at home only to see, as today, the clouds break and the sun come out.
Arse!
I need to find some 400ISO colour 120 film I think. In the summer here it wont be a problem, its always bright sunshine, but in this damp attempt at spring where the weather forecast has been pretty much random compared to what is actually happening outside, Velvia 100 just isnt fast enough.
I’m in again tomorrow, and its looking like its going to be bright sun, I’m bringing the camera no matter what!
Charlie's World 