A review of the year is one way to reinforce the good and help forget the bad, and given that 2012 was a pretty crap year for the weather in Wales it might be nice to give the impression that there were some good days from time to time. Even if some of the better days were indoors ...
Jazz at the Third Floor Gallery, Cardiff. Reversed lens on a handmade 6x7 camera.
The Third Floor Gallery in Cardiff is one of the cultural highspots for photography in south Wales. Yes, there are other galleries, other venues, other places, etc, where you can see photographs, but this is probably the most electric and eclectic of them all.
Swansea Beach and the Meridian Tower. 4x5 swings and tilts.
Ordinary cameras are all very well, but being able to tilt and swing the lens plane away from the film plane makes for a lot more fun than just pushing the shutter. For one thing you have to look, and see what you are doing. You also have to think about what and how you are shooting, which can't be a bad thing.
Cardiff Millenium Centre. 6x7 swings and tilts.
I don't often shoot colour film. Colour doesn't interest me very much in itself and so it's only when colour can actually be the subject of the image that it seems worthwhile to pay the cringingly exorbitant processing costs.
Doublex on Dunraven Beach. 4x5.
One obvious way to save on film is to take two shots in one frame. It can get a little hackneyed if every other exposure is a double, but once in a while it works out as something interesting.
Cardiff Naked Bike Ride. Rolleiflex 621.
Naked bike rides are becoming annual events the world over in many cities. Cardiff has its own, and it's a worthy event for shootists. The ratio of baps to paps on this occasion was probably in the order of 2:1.
Matching Bike and Rider, though oddly enough it was not his bike. Olympus XA-2
I had to ask if it was his bike. He said it wasn't.
Nudes. 4x5 swings and tilts.
Neither Photobucket nor Facebook have banned this shot, so it must be all right to use tilts and swings on critical areas of the male nude.
Beach Scene on Superia 200. Samoca Super 35 Rangefinder.
The Samoca is a delightful little camera from the mid-fifties that spent several years in a back shed before its rescue and restoration. The lens is a simple coated triplet, but the added haze makes it suitable for ambient shots.
Osanpo with Retina. Retina 013.
Walking around with a camera is as fine a way as any to spend a good day in Cardiff. If the camera happens to be an interesting little German thingie with a sharp Ektar lens, then so much the better.
Fibonartists looking skyward. Walz Envoy 35.
Set 1 of what will become a global movement. If you know about Fibonacci numbers no further explanation will be necessary, or you can look up the pjsymonds project.
A Short Conversation in a Street in Firenze. Rolleiflex 621.
It's no Planar, but the Zeiss Tessar 3.8 lens is still a great worker in the 800g body of the Rolleiflex 621. The camera is from 1934, and a joy to use in the street.
A Portrait Snatched while the Subject was not Looking. Leica M2.
The great thing about a Leica, I find, is the speed and precision of the rangefinder.
Multiple Window Dummies. Leica M2.
I like reflections and never find much use for polarisers. I also like shop windows.
Double Exposure with a Pinhole Camera.
Channeling Gabrielle d'Estrées and her sister, of course. It's not just that my portraiture is influenced by 16th century paintings, I'm also influenced by art of the 15th and 17th centuries as well.
You know, it really won't take a whole lot to make 2013 a better year than 2012. And given the weather on Jan 1st, it has at least started well.