Archive for January 2008
Zen and the Colour of Nature
Oddly enough the two things I wish to write about are interlinked by one word. Zen. I’m sure most people will have come across it or heard of it, some may even think of Zen Buddhism but that isn’t the scope of this post. Instead I start with a ‘definition’ from Wikipedia which is quite nicely put:
Zen. ‘emphasis on mindful acceptance of the present moment, spontaneous action, and letting go of self-conscious, judgmental thinking‘
The two things are something I watched today and Zenwalk – a Linux distribution. Read the rest of this entry »
Timber! More Canon EOS 3 Results
I’ve had a right busy week me. It started on Saturday which I will go onto, then Sunday I put together my new wardrobe. On Monday and Tuesday I roamed the seafront with my camera snapping with glee and painted two walls of four of my front room which is good progress. Last night admittedly I was creamed* and tonight I have just sat about watching telly and cleaning up. And now to update my blog.
If you’ve been living under a rock, or just generally not heard any news – you might be aware of a ship called the Ice Prince that sunk off the Dorset coast shedding a lot of its cargo of timber. Long and short of it is that a wood slick was heading east for the English coastline and it so happens that my dear town of Worthing with its five miles of coastline was hit the ‘hardest’ with timber stretching as far as the eye can see and further still.
I had a bit of a ‘heads up’ on this as I put the press release out on the worthing.gov.uk website on Friday (not that I’d be the only one to know of course even at that stage) so I duly headed off down to the seafront Saturday morning. Took a number of snaps before the wood really came in. You only have to do a search on Flickr for Worthing and order it by most recent to see that practically every photo for nearly a week has been of the ‘wood slick’ for photos tagged with Worthing.
As such I got this shot of the pier and a few planks (no not me) that were starting to come in early on Saturday before the beach was closed and well the scenes you can see from Flickr occurred:
Taken on the EOS 3 with XP2 at ISO 400 and the EF 50mm f/1.8 II. Worthing Pier is in the background. I also got rather wet taking this photo. My bottom for one (bending down to angle the tripod’s elevation) and feet the other (my trainers I was wearing have one or fifteen holes…)
A deserted house on the foreshore at West Worthing. This one took a while for me to get right by which time I had it framed and the gate just right (which I didn’t move… Just worked it as-is) an estate agent said to me “You need a hand there?” — I said no no, just taking photos. He thought I was interested in the property (which I was but not to buy) and explained the problem with squatters.
Again taken with the EF 50mm (great lens for the money – nothing basically.)
And finally a Holga-esque inspired homeage to a photo in January ’08’s Black & White Photography magazine:
Worthing Palms
This came out much better than expected. Again the EF 50mm at work. (Eschewed the wide angle the past couple of days.) The light was fading fast but this was a cracking sunset on the foreshore at Worthing and the palms so still in the winter sun with a striking shadow just caught me whilst everyone was fixated on the washed in wood. This was probably taken with a slow 1/10th sec shutter speed if I remember rightly and it was a dead difficult job to get enough DOF while keeping the camera steady (caught without my tripod as I was walking home from work) — in the end the slight blur has given it a fantastic quality. This has been blown up to 16 x 12 and I am pleased as punch with it. For the living room no less.
So there you go. All shot with Ilford XP2 Super 400 C41 process B&W 135 film on Canon EOS 3 with EF 50mm f1.8 II lens. The XPS film does induce some grain but it gives a bit of quirky character I find in these. A very enjoyable and creative week photographically.
Check out my Flickr page for more shots and a growing catalogue!
Question: Dear BBC. Since when was the EAST on the WEST?
With the recent 2,000 tonnes of timber that washed ashore on Worthing beach (which I went down to see on Saturday as I live in Worthing) the BBC have been reporting the situation.
However they’ve gone and got EAST and WEST Sussex around the wrong way. Apparently WEST Sussex is on the east….
Elephant
I got my latest rental from LoveFilm through yesterday and it was Elephant by Gus Van Sant. I couldn’t remember what it was about as it had been some time since I had added it to my list.
As it turned out it was about a school shooting in a US High School. I do read and watch some pretty odd stuff it has to be said. If anything all of this proves that reading or watching something doesn’t really make you go out and do it or by now I would be a crazed car crashing cocaine sniffing Costa Del Sol small time crook living in squalor in a primal state in a high rise tower block picking off kids with a sniper rifle heading for a mental breakdown. (Pick out which books/films in that then!)
Usually I am the queen of tedium, or more accurately the banal in my writing and photography but I have to say the pace to start with made me rather ‘twitchy’ in an uncomfortable way, but I soon sat back and gave it a chance and quickly latched on to what was happening with the flow of time in the film. I have to say it was really quite shocking but also pretty touching. Although I must admit when the three girls were making themselves sick after eating a lettuce leaf or something between them I laughed quite a lot. That’s right I laughed at some people in the grip of an eating disorder before they got shot. Although the bit where they were shot was not shown in succession to their yacking up!
Overall I thought it was very good. I’ll watch it again tonight. Certainly not for everyone as I can see why some people took it as a stuck bit of pretentious cinematography but I liked it. So if my opinions of the past are anything to go by — you’ll hate it. 
Hometown Glory… THIS is the song…
Maybe once every year, probably once a decade there is a song that steals your mindset, that literally stops the world around you. I caught this on the radio this morning and well…I literally pulled over to listen. My heart was pounding and eyes misted by the time the three and a half minutes had come to a close. That song is Adele – Hometown Glory.
This is virtually the song that I couldn’t write and couldn’t sing but the one that runs through the whole of Memoirs of a Time which I am still writing. It sums it all up, the words, and the melody of that haunting marching piano carries you along…
This is so special. Blows everything else out of the water that I have heard certainly in the past five years if not since the turn of the decade:
Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
Odd Tastes
It has to be said that as the years have gone by I have moved further and further away from dance music and liking it as so much of it is complete shit or I’ve heard it before ten to fifteen years ago. That said once in a while I hear something that I think, “Yeah I like that and I cannot think for the life of me why?!”
This is Simian Mobile Disco “Hustler” — and it’s that bass line and drum beat that’s got me hooked. As the comments on YouTube note for this it does remind me also a lot of Aphex Twin “Window Licker” which is definitely one of my all time favourite videos if not tracks (I like it, just don’t adore it.) Simian Mobile Disco also have another good track in the form of “I Believe…” Here’s Hustler though:
I have very strange tastes sometimes!
Canon EOS 3 – Review Part IV
The first few shoots and the results.
Continuing from Part III and the two previous to that I have discussed at length.
This part is still being written however in the meantime I have got back my first results with the EOS 3. I’m pleased to say there appears to be no underexposure issue but I would ideally need to test with slide film and be certain that I aim to shoot some Velvia (50) soon!
In the meantime I got back some very nice results from my first roll of XP2 Super, here’s a few examples from my Flickr account:
Ilfracombe Harbour, Quayside. North Devon.
Ilfracombe Harbour, Quayside. North Devon.
Shoreham Flyover (A27), West Sussex
Shoreham Flyover (A27), West Sussex
‘Twist, Turn, Slow, ‘Round We Go.’
Click on any image to bring it up in Flickr.
NB: the third and fourth images are the same shot but with different metering. This roll was shot purely to push the EOS 3 in the same ways I would with the 5QD to see the differences in exposure metering. Only editing done has been cropping and border.
Scanned using Nikon Coolscan III (LS-30)
All images Copyright ©2008 Victoria J K Lamburn. No usage permitted without prior permission (which I will grant for non-commercial means with full attribution!)
So far, very pleased. I have sent off a roll of Ilford Delta 100 to the lab for processing to see how it’s performed at a lower ISO (all the above are ISO 400.)
Canon EOS 3 – Review Part III
Continuing from part II, I explore the various reasons why I have chosen to stay with film in an increasingly digital age.
Continuing my first impressions of the already impressive EOS 3 I want to explore these impressions a little more but most importantly answer that question of why analogue (film) in a ‘digital age’? Specifically I am referring to 35mm film when I say film given that there are many film formats. My arguments may be different for medium or even large format, but the EOS 3 is a 35mm SLR.
In terms of answering why film in a digital age I believe that the two aren’t mutually exclusive and that they can co-exist and work together. There is however I think a saddening trend that digital is there to replace analogue because digital is better by being digital in its own right. This is not the case, they are both good and both have their strengths. To my mind it’s really about how each of their strengths play into your needs and knowing when to use each Read the rest of this entry »
Canon EOS 3 – Review Part II
The Biggest Differences
Depending on which camera you have used before, the EOS 3 will at least present you with things that are clearly different to what you may have already been accustomed to. If you have been using one of Canon’s consumer cameras such as an EOS 300, 1000 or 350D, the first thing you will realise this the size of the camera. Even without the booster or vertical grip appendage the EOS 3 dwarfs the EOS 300 I had bought as a Christmas present for my brother. Read the rest of this entry »
First Impressions: Canon EOS 3
Some sectors of the blogosphere are dedicated to the rumours of the EOS 450D, 50D and 5D Mk II/3D. So it seems absolutely fitting that I weigh in with my first impressions of a ten year old (1998) 35mm film SLR body. Granted the one I have is not 10 years old but the technology in it is, as is the design.
(The 3D links to a fake image. Lots of give aways in it)
