Canon AE-1

31Mar08

Well, it has been a while since I last posted, but I thought I should have a little chat. A while ago I was browsing Flickr as usual, looking at film camera’s photos specifically. I was contemplating all sorts of things, but the priority in my mind was a medium format film camera, such as a holga, or old TLR of sorts. Once I got over this idea I thought a 35mm camera would be more suitable, particularly because I have access to B&W 35mm film at school and the facilities to develop and print them myself.

So then I set about looking for interesting 35mm cameras and it turns out that there is no real thing unless I went for something like a lomo camera, but those are surprisingly expensive, so I thought I’d have a look at old SLRs from the 70s – 80s. I love the look of these period cameras, such nice chrome and faux-leather, they look great, and the Canon AE-1, (or similar, i.e. A-1, AE-1P, AV-1, AT-1), really shone in my view, mainly because they were being discussed as reliable and nice to use whilst durable.

So, eBay was my next point of call and for about a week I was looking at all sorts of different Canon film SLRs, (whilst also researching the various ones, and other brands such as Olympus and Nikon), again I came back to the Canon because it was very common on eBay, (obviously was popular in it’s day), and thus there were good prices too, so when I finally saw the chance I swooped in and bagged an AE-1 in stellar condition with an aged leather case, manuals and lovely bright red strap for £21.

What I find funny about this price is, that’s £479 less than what my 400D cost me, and already I find myself having more fun and taking better pictures with it, predominantly due to the lack of deleting/infinite shots! So, the camera is great, and I thought I’d just share a few photos from it with you.

This photograph is of a bookshelf at home, and I really like it. The 50mm f/1.8 lens on the front of the camera is deadly sharp and provides a lovely DoF which you can see here.

This photograph was done on Ilford HP5+ film, which I processed and printed at school in our darkroom, and I think it came out well.

After I used up my first roll of HP5+ I remembered that there was this ancient Kodak colour film lying around our house, and I thought I may as well try it and see if anything interesting would come out.

It seemed like it had not worked when I gave it to my photography teacher to get printed in town, (we can only process B&W at school), and it didn’t appear to have come back. I enquired into it, and it turned out that it had, and that the film had worked! Low and behold, the very old film brought out some photos that I really like!

Here is one of the colour prints, the film doesn’t even look that expired, the actual negatives are a little murky, which shows the age, but the prints seem to have done fine, although I think the printers may have done them up a little, (they scan the negatives and digitally print the images).

I really like this shot for the vivid colour of the bricks, and the light window. Furthermore, what you can see through the window I like, the shallow DoF throws it out of focus, but there is in fact a sunset on the other side, which I think works really nicely, and is my favourite point to do with this photograph.

Anyway, it is safe to say that I am really enjoying the AE-1, and it was a sound investment of £21 for a camera that I can imagine myself using for quite some time yet. There is currently a roll of HP5+ sitting in there, with some photos from Switzerland on it, (I went skiing), and still a couple of frames left, so I will be using those up and then seeing how they come out!!

Hope you’re well. Charlie -

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Tags: AE-1, B&W, Canon AE-1, film, photography, photos

I ‘heart’ NY.

29Dec07

Unusually enough, as I sit here drinking from my Starbucks, Central Park, mug, wishing I was in New York, thinking back to my trip I cannot remember seeing one of those cliché ‘I ‘heart’ NY’ t-shirts, not that I mind, I dislike them, even though it is the definitive statement that I could make. I remember pretending to look as little like a tourist as possible, which worked out well, as as far as I could tell, people more often than not thought we, (Mother and I), were New Yorkers.

On I think the second day, (after I purchased the Sigma 10-20mm, we visited the Museum of Modern Art, in New York of course. It was really great, I got in free which was nice, and then we just milled around for a while, with a nice break in the ‘chic’ café where I think I saw Natascha McElhone, an actress, (actor), you may know from Californication and other things. She was using an iPhone, as almost everyone seemed to be. (Maybe the non-iPhone users simply hid their phones from view).

I really enjoyed the photography section in the MoMA, there was a whole period exhibition of photos from around 1900-1935 ish, which was really interesting, including photographers that I had learned about at school during my AS Photography course, which was funny.

There was also this guy, surname MacFarland I think, and his photos were beyond interesting, they were seriously unusual, all panoramas, and they were digital stiches of it said 10s to 100s of images I believe, and then it was printed at a kind of 300dpi level, but on a canvas 4-6m long and a meter or so high, incredible detail was viewable. In one image he took lots of images of a garden during different points in the year, so there were fall trees, with summery flowers etc, incredibly unusual, all painstakingly stitched together in Photoshop to the point where you wouldn’t know unless you read it, and it was simply confusing the mixtures of plants, very interesting.

I like this photo purely because it shows the architecture of the building, and the people present, and some of the art being shown, so it covers a lot, whilst being in my opinion very minimal. It was taken using the Sigma 10-20mm once again, and I love it due to the wide feel that this image now has, really great.

Hope you’re well,

charlie styr.

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Tags: architecture, art, artwork, Canon EOS 400D, museum of modern art, new york, ny, nyc, people, Sigma 10-20mm, The MoMA

new york, new york.

29Dec07

As I sit here at home, I simply loathe the fact that I’m not still in New York right now. I’m listening to music that was played in the hotel, (W Hotels – Warmth of Cool), and quite simply, wishing I was there, the feeling of always being comfortable, always feeling alive and well was just something I wasn’t used to in England. I love it, the people, the cars, the shop fronts, the food, everything I guess.

This photo is one of my favourites from the trip. It is of the Federal Hall on Wall Street, famous, obviously. Besides that point, it was interesting to me due to the fact that there must have been some sort of scare in terms of a fire, as about five firetrucks pulled up honking away, and police vehicles, and that ’small’ Fire SUV you see there in front of you.

If this blog is going to be about the photos, then I’d better make it a little snappier, otherwise it’ll simply be another ‘diary’ blog of random thoughts. Not that I don’t love doing those, but I’ve already got a cool one. Although I like this design more :-)

I had purchased the Sigma 10-20 the day before I took this image in BH Photo, ($:£ very nice, thus, a pleasant purchase), and I used that for this image, you can see elements of distortion, particularly on the edge of the left firetruck, and people in the bottom right, but I kind of enjoy that in an image, it makes for some interesting compositional features.

What I really love about this image is the way it makes the buildings around the federal hall seem almost infinitely high, just shooting up uncontrollably, either side, and I love that feeling of clostrophobia and enclosure in this image, however, I gather and understand that some people may also not enjoy it as much as I do.

As well as this, little things like how the flag atop the building is so neatly folded over itself, and almost backlit by the light coming from behind just makes me smile, it’s very nice. All in all, it’s an image I’m most certainly pleased with and proud of. You can visit this photograph on my Flickr.

I hope your doing good, and as this photoblog is quite new, (first post :P), I hope this goes well, it was John’s group that inspired me to simply make somewhere for me to gas about my photos, and others maybe, sometimes. We’ll see. I’d love any comments, and I hope you’re well :-)

 

charlie styr.

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Tags: federal hall, fire, firemen, firetrucks, nyc, people, Sigma 10-20mm, travel, Wall Street