Large Small Things

  After much 'um'ing and 'ah'ing i decided not to get a macro lens but fork out the vast sum of £11 for a set of close-up filters for my Bronica SQ-A.  While i can focus up to half a metre with my lenses i have always been keen to get that little bit closer.  I wasn't sure how sharp these filters (lenses to picky people) would be so i thought id run a test roll of black and white through the camera to see.  Armed with my £3 Ikea lamp and a huge reflector from ebay i setup my tripod.

  And i was rather pleasantly surprised.  Whilst a little blurry in places due to my own focusing error i really like how the shots came out.  It was fun to play with such a narrow depth of field, and the depth of field preview switch on my lenses was invaluable to say the least.  Im hoping to use the filters lots, especially for close ups in portraits.

Bronica SQ-A Test Roll

  I recently bought a Bronica SQ-A system and shot a few rolls of colour film.  However, since my chemicals always expire before i have enough film developed i have decided to store my exposed film until i have enough to develop over a period of a week or so, thus ensuring i dont waste precious chemicals.  This has meant, however that i havent yet seen any results from my new camera!  So a few nights ago i decided to shoot and develop a roll of TRI-X 400 to see the results.

  Now im not really a massive fan of TRI-X.  i have used it once before and the pictures came out very grey; i  prefer to use Ilford HP5+  as i like the tones and contrast more.  But this being a test roll i didnt want to waste any so in went my second roll of TRI-X.  I set up my camera on the tripod, plugged in the cable release and started firing away.  Heres the results:

  Im pretty chuffed with how they came out to be honest, considering i blasted them out rather quickly.  I still think im going to stick with the HP5+ though.