The Last Shot

  I seriously don't know how people can shoot 35mm film.  Not the format, that doesn't bother me - it's the fact that you've got to shoot either 24 or 36 frames!  I honestly can't go out and shoot that many frames!  I shoot mainly 6x6 which means i get 12 shots to play with.  Even so, i still often find myself shooting randomly just to finish up the last shot or two on the roll so i can go home and develop the film straight away.  I'm not the kind of person who can spread a roll of film out over a week or so, it preys on my mind and i picture all manner of light leaking through my camera onto my film.

  That being said, when it comes to taking holiday snaps 35mm is the way!  Jess and I recently went to Greenman festival in Wales as we do every August, and this year we took along our Yashica FR-1 and some rolls of Provia 100F.  We went a bit trigger happy but still only shot 3/4 of a roll (the curse of also having cameras on phones).

  The next weekend, however, we were off to Maryport in the Lake District to visit some friends of ours.  We took the Yashica along, of course, in anticipation of good times.  Good times were had, but mostly indoors in the dim light - not suitable for 100iso.

  Our friends have horses though.  Really nice horses.  I'm not really a horse fan but these horses are lovely.  I decided to finish off the last few frames on the roll taking photos of the horses because the light was nice and soft and one horse in particular had a lovely grey coat.

  The weekend ended (as it always does alas) and we headed home.  I posted the film off the next day (i don't yet develop my own E6) and then counted the days until it would come back to me in the post.  Back it came and i'm sat at my computer flicking through my holiday shots.  To my surprise the most stand out picture on the whole roll is one of the horse ones:

  I know it wont be everyone's cup of tea and it's not going to win any awards, but I like it because it is nice and soft and just has lovely detail.  And here we get to the point of this blog post - sometimes the shot you take to finish off your roll is the best thing you'll shoot all day.  It has happened to me many times, just taking a quick snap to complete the film and then that picture turning out to be the one you spend your time printing and framing.  It's strange how you can spend ages metering, filtering and exposing one frame and getting a very bland result, yet use guesswork and quick focusing on another and get the best shot of the roll.

  But this is photography and this is what we do.  Never be afraid of the final few frames on your roll, and never underestimate the power of a quick snap!

Never Underestimate...

...The power of a charity shop!  I'm a big fan of charity shopping - some people turn their nose up at it but i dont mind owning second hand stuff and if the money i pay for it can help someone else then thats even better.  Lately though charity shops have seemed a bit "dry".  There was a time when you could wander in and pick up great used cameras and darkroom stuff for next to nothing, but it seems that since film has had a sudden resurgence in the past few years, so have charity shop camera sales.  But yesterday i struck gold!

  As some of you may have read i have recently moved house to an area called Kirkham which is just outside Preston.  It's only 20 minutes away from where i used to live but Jess got a good job here and she doesn't drive, plus we were over here 5 times a week anyway so it made sense.  We moved at the weekend and i booked Monday to Wednesday off work (which means i'm back in today unfortunately).  We got our friends and families to help us shift everything over to the new house and then we blasted out most of the unpacking and did a little decorating.

  Yesterday we decided to have a little wander into the village which is literally 1 minute walk away from our new house.  It's quite strange having every shop you need so close to your doorstep.  There's hardware stores, a Morrisons, a greengrocers, cobblers, banks etc; and, of course, charity shops.  We decided to pop into the first one you come to on the high street and lo and behold sat in the display cabinet was this:

  And it came in a camera bag!  All for £20.  Needless to say i bagged it immediately.  As you may know i dont usually shoot 35mm but i thought i may as well get this camera as i have a box of 35mm film i got given when i bought my darkroom and sometimes you just want rectangles instead of squares.  So, whats in the kit i hear you ask?  Well...

• A Yashica FRI camera body with TTL metering (complete with manuals)
• A Yashica 50mm f1.9 lens
• A Yashica 28mm f2.8 lens
• A Tamron 80-210 CF Telemacro f3.8 lens
• A Tamron 500mm SP Telemacro lens (with hood)
• A shutter release
• Cokin ring adapter with linear polariser
• A camera bag to keep it all in 

  Not too bad a haul in my opinion.  Im not too sure if the camera or lenses are any good but i cant complain at £20 can i?!  I shot a quick roll of Ilford Delta 100 yesterday afternoon with it and developed it and the negatives look good.  I did a quick scan and got this:

   Focus is a bit off but i think it came out ok.  I hate scanning film though and im sure the darkroom prints will come out way better (once the darkroom is set up).  Speaking of which - although there's no room in the house to create one, Jess wants met o get a shed and convert it.  No doubt that's a project ill be doing a few blog posts about soon enough.  But for now, hit those charity shops!  It may take a while but you'll eventually find something awesome!