getOBphoto

  I had never before heard of a Toshiba Tosner T-35F. Never heard of Toshiba making cameras either. Aren't they into electronics and printers? The only electrical component here is the flash. Which I never use. Well, what drew me to this little plasticky thing? It was the price, of course! And most importantly! The Exposure Control! I like to have control, and this camera gives it to me. On top of the camera there are two sliders. What they really control are (not the weather, dummy!) ASA & shutter time , i.e. between 1/125th and 1/250th of a second [ASA100=1/125; ASA400=1/250] and aperture [weather symbols] - consequently depth of field (focus). So, I control two shutter times and three apertures. That's a lot for a tiny plastic cube with a plastic (?) lens. I am very happy with the negatives from the first roll exposed with the camera. They are very consistently exposed. That is down to me loading a 400 ASA (Fomapan) film and deliberately using the controls for every li...

One of our cats was missing. Now she is back! Mysli kom hem!

Inspired by a Youtube video I bought a Kodak EK2 instant camera for €5 in a thrift shop. These Kodak instant cameras are in limbo, like Polaroid's packfilm cameras, since no film is manufactured anymore.  The photos above are the first attempts at developing Fujifilm's Instant Wide photos with the EK2 hand-cranked rollers. On the way through the photos snagged at something behind the rollers. That was yet another one of half a dozen details to adapt for the two systems to work together. My basic assumption was that I could use the EK2 camera body as a back for modern instant photos on my Polaroid Land Automatic 230. I've modded the Land camera into what I call a 'Dallroid' (using a Dallmeyer lens and manual shutters), as you can see in my earlier posts from my Adventures in Packfilm. The EK2 has a hand-cranked developing mechanism, unlike most other instant cameras that develop photos using battery-driven motors. This time (again) I used part of an empty packfi...

I find it immensely enjoyable to make "slow" photography with my large format (9x12cm) camera . But I also find it difficult to arrive at the state of mind that this type of photography demands.  I shouldn't use the term "slow". A better term is Deliberate, which is how a photograph in the large format has to come to completion. If a mistake is made; if one of the several steps made to produce an exposure is missing, there will be no (discernible) photograph. I have come to realize that (manual) photography demands a lot of me. Sometimes too much. I do have difficulties to concentrate when my attention is divided, so repeatedly make simple but decisive mistakes. And it happens in social situations - when my attention is on both making photographs and on the people being subjects or company. And the frequency is something like 75% of the time. My rate of success when working alone is maybe 90%. So what do you do? Practice method; practice social skills; practice ...