Category: Americana

Throwback Thursday… 1955 Ford Customline Sedan

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1955 Ford Customline Sedan
1955 Ford Customline Sedan
Fujifilm X-E1, Fujinon XF 18-55mm f2.8~4 R LM OIS at 21mm, 1/170s, f8, ISO 400

What was I photographing on this day in previous years?

Nine years ago it was this mildly customised 1955 Ford Customline ‘Tudor’ Sedan at a Charnwood Cruisers gathering near Loughborough in Leicestershire.

I seem to remember it was fitted with a 302 cu in (4.9l) V8 engine from a Ford Mustang…

Slide film Sunday… 1954 Chevrolet Bel-Air on Rollei Variochrome

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1954 Chevrolet Bel-Air1954 Chevrolet Bel-Air
Canon EOS 30, EF 40mm f/2.8 STM, 1/500s, f8, Rollei Variochrome

A little while ago I was sent a couple of rolls of Rollei Variochrome slide film to play with and to say I’m not impressed with the results are a massive understatement!

One roll was exposed at a classic car rally on a bright autumn day and although I didn’t have high hopes I did at least have some hopes of decent images… I mostly bracketed one stop either way of the meter reading and the above image is the ‘best’ of the lot!

The images are dull, lifeless, very grainy and not one is ‘correctly’ exposed and all these problems seem to have been noted by pretty much everyone who’s tried this film… I’m definitely in no hurry to expose the second roll!

Developed by AgLab
Digitised using Nikon D5600 & AF-S Micro-NIKKOR 40mm f/2.8 and Nikon ES-2 Film Digitising Adapter with minimal cropping and tweaking in Lightroom Classic CC.

Single frame… To err is human…

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Chevrolet 3100 truckChevrolet 3100 truck
Minolta X-700, MD ZOOM 35-70mm f/3.5 at 70mm, 1/60s, f8, – Ilford HP5 Plus rated at ISO 320
Developed in Ilford DDX at 1:4, 9 mins at 20°c.

All photographers make mistakes.

Over the years I’ve made plenty but this is a new one for me… A couple of years ago I acquired a Minolta X-700 that was missing its focusing screen and just before Christmas I finally got hold of, and fitted, a replacement.

All seemed to be going swimmingly until I took the camera out of my bag and before putting it to my eye noticed the focusing ring was set to infinity… so why was my (distant) subject totally out of focus? I twiddled the focusing ring, my subject sharpened but now the lens was set to its minimum focusing distance, something was definitely wrong!

I eventually worked out I’d fitted the new screen upside down! 🙄

Two minutes with a pair of tweezers and we were back in business! 😊

Carr Wood, January 2021Carr Wood, January 2021
Minolta X-700, MD ZOOM 35-70mm f/3.5 at 70mm, 1/60s, f8; – Ilford HP5 Plus rated at ISO 320
Developed in Ilford DDX at 1:4, 9 mins at 20°c.

Digitised using Nikon D5500 & AF-S Micro-NIKKOR 40mm f/2.8, pixl-latr and Negative Lab Pro plugin with minimal cropping and tweaking in Lightroom Classic CC.