FatherHood Friday 19: More Conversations With Em
Yet another week draws to an end. We have had a pretty good week with everybody being well for a change (although Amanda seems to be coming down with a cold again)
Samantha is up and walking around now and seeming to be a lot less frustrated as she chases Emily and the cat Luc (next door neighbours cat who comes to hang out most days) around the house. Teething has also taken a bit of a break this week 🙂
Took the extra wheel of Emily’s running bike and took her to the bike track across the road (still not finished). After a few near crashes she got the hang of it pretty quickly and was racing round.
Conversation with Emily:
“Dad…we had a good day today riding my bike at the bike track and then at the beach didn’t we?”
“We sure did Em”
“Mum didn’t have as much fun as we did, did she?”
“Probably not”
“All she had was “Crap! Crap! Crap!” Cause she forgot her cellphone charger didn’t she”
“<Speechless>”
Emily Monkey.
Sam on a Slide
First Roll of 120 Through Rolleiflex
Here goes a few images from the first roll of 120 film I put through the Rolleiflex. These are all straight off the film with no corrections and using the camera meter.
All I can say is WOW…Even with a couple of  good-sized cracks round the edge of the lens this camera is giving a sharp image and the meter is spot on 🙂
You can see the extent of the lens damage in the top corners of this image as a darkening of the sky but all in all not too bad and could be post produced out with a bit of vignette.
A little bit of flare here as well but this was across the sun so was kinda pushing it to see what it would do…
Not the best photo but hey it’s not everyday you see a couple of stormtroopers walking down the street.
I almost got them front on but need more practice with focus and reverse panning techniques…
I think this might replace the F5 for a little while as camera of choice for street shooting… Well we’ll see 🙂
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, 80mm Zeiss Planar, Fuji 400H Film
NDX Filter Shots
All these images were taken with a Cokin NDX filter which reduces light by a massive 13 stops, ie you can’t see anything through it.
They are all around 10 minute exposures in the middle of the day with lots of people around but because of the long exposure they seem mostly deserted.
I converted them to black and white because unfortunately the filter has a colour shift which is near impossible to correct.
I like they way they feel…kinda deserted and slightly disturbing.
Not entirely happy with the result and will go back and do again possibly when it is more overcast so the shadows aren’t as problematic.
Ferry Sunset
Sunset taken from the Interisland Ferry leaving Picton a couple of years ago.
I think there might have been fires in Australia which accounts for the intense colour of the sky. (No modification in Photoshop)
Sorry this is a quick stock one while the excitement builds for the Rolleiflex I get back tomorrow!
Rolleiflex Action
This week at work someone dropped in a Rolleiflex TLR camera that they didn’t want because it wasnt working and the taking lens had some chips out of it where someone had tried to fix an earlier problem.
Now this doesn’t sound the best but if you have ever handled one of these cameras it’s a pretty awesome piece of mechanical engineering. It also had the bonus of having a 35mm adaptor which when I took a couple of test shots means that you don’t get any loss of image quality from the marks on the lens!
Anyway took it to a camera repair guy today and he is going to reseat the lens and tidy it up a bit so hopefully later this week I will get it back and be ready to go shoot.
I will post pics of the camera when I get it back 🙂
These 2 shots were only test so sorry they aren’t more interesting 🙂 These are actually taken when the lens wasnt seated properly so hopefully will be sharp as when I get it back.
Must remember to see what is leaving the scratch down the entire neg…
Spinning
Playground toys can be great to photograph…
Darkroom Printing Session
Managed to get in a darkroom printing session this week so of course I had to get a photo of it 🙂
This is the City Council public darkroom and at $5 NZ per hour is a pretty good setup with everything you need except chemicals and paper (there a both of those there to use but are other people’s cast offs so wasnt too keen to use them)
I spent the first couple of hours thinking my paper was dud since I couldn’t get any contrast even with using a whole heap of magenta filter and then discovered that the filters had been disengaged on a switch on the side of the enlarger and once this was discovered things went a lot more smoothly… A trick to remember for next time.
It’s nice to know that I can still be a Dumbass sometimes 🙂
People Taking Photos
Here goes a series of images of people taking images 🙂
This guy was obviously very happy to be here.
This kid had the right idea, get above the crowd…I need one of these (the person to sit on, not the kid) 🙂
Always make sure your assistant is well attired.
When I was taking this I was wondering if he was actually taking a photo of me or if that puddle was just REALLY interesting.
Fatherhood Friday 18: The Return of Wild Hair
Another week down. This week has seen the return of colds mostly all round and continued teething from Sam.
Conversation of the week with Emily:
“Dad, dad”
“Yes Emily”
“Dad…Do you remember when Sam was sick?”
“Yes I remember”
“And the Doctor was closed and we had to got to the other doctor and Sam was crying lots and lots?”
“Yes I remember”
“And we had takeaways for lunch… I liked that, can we have takeaways for lunch today?
“No Emily” 🙂
Teamwork. Emily taking Sam down the slide… It doesnt seem very long ago when kids were doing this with Em 🙂
Emily at Playcentre with some wild hair.
Kinda hard to see but Sam fell asleep the last time we went out street shooting. In hindsight I should have gone into a shop and asked to use their mirror to get this shot because its kind of hard to see here.
Borrowed Lensbaby
Borrowed a Lensbaby the other day to take a couple of shots with.
Not really sure what to think of them…
Jump for the Camera
Tourists having their picture taken at Civic Square in Wellington.
Cropped in slightly.

























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