Olympus OM-2N // Test Roll

Agfa Vista Plus 200

Olympus OM-2N

Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

( some converted to black & white with minor cropping )

These couple of shots are from my first test roll using my new OM2N. I also used it with my new lens the Zuiko 50mm f1.4 and I'm very pleased with the results despite having the film get jammed and having to re-roll the film into a new canister in the bathroom in darkness (forgot how difficult it can be to work in pitch black it's been a few months since using the darkroom). A few shots were fogged (I quickly opened the back under a blanket to see what the problem was) but all in all I'm very pleased and I adore my new tools.

-Ella-

Autumn / 35mm

Olympus OM-10

Expired Kodak Gold 200

Catching up on processing

I recently treated myself to a new lens , Zuiko 50mm f1.4 and I'm so completely in love with it and I can't wait to see the results it produces especially when I get my hands on my OM2N to pair it with. Anyway , I caught up on some film processing today ...here are a few results.

Camera: Olympus OM-10

Lens : Zuiko 50mm f/1.8

Film : Agfa vista plus 200

Instant Photography Project , Photo 10

Apologies it's been a while since I last uploaded , sometimes I just really feel like giving up with uploading my work everywhere trying to get some kind of recognition for it but that's all part of the journey I guess , going through dry patches when you get 300+ views on a photo or blog post but no kind of comments/likes/favourites/criticism , nothing. Then you hear about artists / scientists / writers and everything of the sorts who also went through similar 'patches' where people though their ideas/work was no good and turned down numerous times but everything worked out in the end. I know , it's life ! and I'll keep persevering anyway.

This is a shot that I was desperate to take for a while , I drove past it a few times before I asked my dad to drop me off so I could quickly get the photo I'd been wanting for weeks. Why was I so drawn towards this tatty looking board with ripped posters? the golden question. I loved the colours , despite it being pretty grubby looking , something about it really stood out , using my instax probably wasn't the best idea for the shot as it didn't quite capture the colours I wanted however it captured the character and I like that. It has textures that I like and it's just different. What is not to love about being different eh? 

-Ella-

Instant Photography Project , Photo 9

As I was walking down the road I spotted this little grocery shop and I loved how bright and vibrant all the different coloured fruits there was outside the shop , I loved the colour , I also love the use of blue and red in the photo too (reminds me of the phone box photo from chester on post 7). Just as I was about to take it the man noticed I was carrying the unusual looking fujifilm instax and popped his head up to see what I was doing as well as helping his wife. Realistically he probably thought I was a weirdo especially with how weird looking the camera was that was in front of my face. But I'm pleased with the shot. An everyday street photograph.

Instant Photography Project , Photo 8

This sweet little snap was taken at the well known Snugbury's! I love all the green and the plants on the right with the slightly hidden door , it reminds me of the secret garden. The couple were eating their ice creams and having a conversation so I thought I'd add them in the frame too.

-Ella- 

Instant Photography Project , Photo 7

This was taken in Chester , I snapped this because I love how surprisingly vibrant the red phone boxes were and how well they looked against the tree in the background I also like the blue in the background too I think all 3 colours work well together and are quite eye-catching. I made sure to take it so that the phone boxes are as central as possible. I love the character of the photo with the people in the background (especially the woman on the left sat on the bench) and also with one of the doors being open and the other closed.

I enjoy the very British and casual feel it has to it.

-Ella-

Instant Photography Project , Photo 6

When I took this my mum said 'oh no re-take it the pictures are wonky' but I didn't because the reason I snapped this is because the clock and the tea-party photos gave me a kind of Alice and Wonderland vibe and the kookiness of the wonky canvas photos added to that feel for me. 

I've never been too sure on how much I like this photo. It's definitely not one of my best but I like it , it's different. 

-Ella-

Instant Photography Project , Photo 5

This is the first photo I took at the bus station (the previous post is the second) . Again , I fell in love with the light (that's what us photographers do) so I knew I wanted to snap it quickly. So I did.

Again I like the central composition , similar to the shot in the previous post , I love the way the light leads you down the centre and how open space it makes it look. You focus straight down the middle where the light is.

-Ella-

Instant Photography Project , Photo 4

This is another one of my favourites from my project. I was walking through the bus stop and I was entranced by the stunning light filtering through all the windows and the harsh shadows it created. I spotted this man on the bench waiting for a bus , I had to capture it. Even though it was relatively spur of the moment , I'm pleased with the central composition of the man waiting and the mirrored panels either side and the various patches of light. Another thing I like about this , is the blues and how they pop so well.

-Ella-

Instant Photography Project , Photo 3

I took this photograph in my nans garden , two reasons I mainly took this is because I had already tried photographing flowers with this camera (for the project) and they hadn't turned out because the camera is a fix focus camera so it stays at the same focal length all the time and so when I tried to get close ups of flowers it was a lot harder than I expected...so I instantly thought to shoot these, I shot them because when I see these flowers I relate them instantly to my grandparents because of them being in their front garden , so it has a little sentimental value behind the photo too.

I also really like how vibrant the purples are against the green leaves and the colours compliment each other perfectly so I thought it would make a great addition to my project.

-Ella-

Instant film photography #2

This is one of my favourites from the project. I absolutely adore sunsets & taking photos of them , there is something about them that is so mesmerising & stunning in a way unlike anything else. The colours they create and how different each one is. I took this when I was sat in the car (I wasn't the one driving ha) , I knew I wanted to add a sunset shot to the collection and I loved how dramatic the clouds were surrounding the sunset. Notice the little blue dot directly in the middle of the sun? that's just ink (the ink that creates/develops the photo) I've seen it appear in instant photos taken by other people too , I believe its from where a certain section is blown out.

Again , the idea was that it's spontaneous , I carried my camera everywhere with me so I was prepared for the moment I wanted to quickly snap. And if that moment means I was in a car driving past a sunset , so be it :) 

-Ella-

Instant Photography Project , Photo 1

Maybe it's about time I showed some of my instant work I did for a college project called 'point and shoot' , I briefed the work myself and it  was probably one of my favourite projects to date. Some of you may have seen this before : 

(as it is my blog background image) which shows several of the photos from the collection but I thought I'd do a series of blog posts showing the photos a bit more up close & in detail. So let me know what you think.

Firstly I guess I should start with the first photo I took with my instant camera (Fuji instax wide 210 in case you were wondering what model the camera is)

I was a little nervous about taking my first photo with my instant camera mainly because the viewfinder isn't lined up with the lens meaning what you see isn't exactly how the photo will come out. That's something I learnt to keep in mind more and practice with during the project. To think more about composition knowing if I photograph the subject directly it'll crop a bit off. I was also very excited to use the camera , I had always wanted to use an instant camera , I was eager to see the photo develop in front of my eyes. It seemed like magic. 

I'll give you more information on the project. The idea behind it was to show that you don't need thousands of pounds worth of equipment to take well composed , interesting , story-telling photos. Also that the physical quality of the image doesn't need to have thousands of mega-pixels...also that you don't need to spend hours planning a shoot and that you can literally pick up a camera at the right moment and take a photo to be proud of. I love the idea of spontaneousness & photography going hand in hand.

My first instant shot is of a friend , Mary. The photo was taken in the gorgeous woods of her back garden , the light outside was stunning and I loved the shadows it created , I wanted a pretty relaxed portrait so I didn't think too much about it and pressed the shutter. The first thing that surprised me was how soft focused the photos are that the camera produced , I expected them to be a little more sharp but overall I wasn't too bothered as one of the key points of the project was to shoot with equipment that didn't cost thousands or even hundreds.

Honestly it is SO great watching the photo develop in front of your eyes without spending hours in a darkroom.  And I knew instantly that I was going to love taking more.

-Ella-

Technical Post ; OM-10 Problems

It's been exactly 245 days since I was given my film camera (Olympus OM-10) for Christmas..and less than a year in I've already decided I'd like a new camera. It's a sweet relatively sturdy camera and usually gets the job done , it's better to use with the manual adapter if you want more control over the settings (again , usually). However without the manual adapter the camera itself is aperture priority* so really its more built towards having a little control and even when I have my manual adaptor fully attached I have noticed despite changing the shutter myself , it will ignore that occasionally and pick a shutter for me which is really very inconvenient as I am always using it handheld without a tripod and if I want to take sunset photos (which 80% of my not yet developed roll is) it will lower the shutter right down and ruin the shot, which is greatly annoying as film.is.precious. and not cheap especially if its expired which most of the film I use is.

So I'm still looking to stick with the Olympus OM brand , probably (hopefully) the OM2N or something similar where the camera is fully manual.

Aperture priority ; The photographer picks what aperture and the camera automatically controls the shutter speed to what is 'correct'.

Example of the shutter taking control ^    :(

-Ella-

Roll 7 ~ elderly-esque ?

                            Orlando Roll 7

Camera: Olympus OM-10

Film: Agfa Vista Plus

Bottom two have been converted to B&W

Sorry it's been such a long time since doing a post , It took me a while to get my latest film developed, I got the results back today and despite the fact ASDA suck at scanning photos and just anything photo related at all , I'm pretty chuffed with the results. However I have noticed there seems to be an issue with my camera's shutter which is slightly forgiveable considering it's age. It's also a pretty good excuse to invest in a different 35mm. Thinking about getting the Olympus OM2N so if anyone reading has any experience with that particular camera let me know what it's like.

Anyway...

Anyone that knows me , knows I adore photographing old people and capturing their stories , this latest roll was me doing that but in a slightly different more personal way I guess. I have my own style of photography which I'm quite proud of because it can be a hard thing to achieve. In my case , I love capturing light in different situations ...sunsets, light streaks , light leaks just about anything light related, I love it. I love photo's that tell stories , I love photo's that maybe look a little bit abstract or even just relatively simple (example : the 2nd photo ^ ) and I incorporated that into these 'elderly-esque' photographs. 

The current film I'm using in my camera is from 1988 so fingers crossed I'll get some good results shortly.

-Ella-

Ilford Pan 400 ~ Minimalist Rose

Camera: Olympus OM-10

Film: Ilford Pan 400

Oldies ~ Ilford Pan 400

All of these photographs were taken with a pentax k1000 & Ilford Pan 400 film. The first photograph and the last photograph are actually from my first ever roll of 35mm film which I don't think are too awful considering. All of these were developed/processed by myself. I have just started 'scanning' my old negatives with my DSLR hence the flash backs. Hope you like them! (plenty more to come).

-Ella-

Ilford pan 400

This is one of my favourite black & white shoots so far , although I haven't spent much time using black and white film. After watching a documentry on the photographer Jane Brown yesterday I feel inspired to explore more of B&W.

I developed/processed the film myself and spent hours printing in the darkroom.

Camera: Olympus OM-10

Film: Ilford Pan 400

Mist

This is one of my film photo's from my third shoot using Orlando (Olympus OM-10) I don't think I actually uploaded it to my blog because at first I didn't really like it but after hearing that my boyfriend liked it I decided to upload it to some sites to see what other people thought too and it turns out quite a few people like it. So here it is.

 What do you think?

Earlier today I uploaded it to my instagram account ( @redcurlsandacamera ) and it was re - posted by an account that shares film photographers work and it got a fantastic response almost instantly! It's small things like this that make me so excited.

-Ella-

Vintage film with a twist

I had some of these photos printed today ready for my college photography exhibition that's coming up and they look great printed , very pleased with the results. For anyone wondering , there is no filter on any of these :)

-Ella-

More crazy coloured captures

 

-Ella-