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!

The Shores of Mars

  Last weekend my wife and i went up to Maryport in Cumbria to stay with some friends who have recently moved up there.  There were about ten of us camping over in a field behind their house and bouncy castle had been hired to kill the small hours of each morning.

  The weather was glorious on Friday and Saturday, and at night you could see so many stars it was breathtaking.  I quite fancied doing some star trail photos but couldnt sum up the energy to set the gear up.  I regret that now as my plan to do it Saturday night was thwarted by clouds.  After an evening of bouncing and restless sleep we all decided to head to the nearby beach to pass some time and take in some sun.  Now im not one for lying in the sun all day, i get bored and restless so i decided to head for the shore with my friend and his dog.  Fortunately before leaving the campsite i had thought to grab my Diana F+ and a roll of Velvia so i loaded up and started shooting at anything that caught my eye.  After an hour or so we were back at the campsite ready for barbeque and frisbee.

  Instead of sticking around on Sunday i headed straight home as i was feeling rough and just wanted to lie down.  I thought about how my film would turn out.  I knew it would have an extreme colour shift because this is Velvia were talking about! The resulting photos were... red.  And thats an understatement!  Ive had purple Velvia before but never such an intense amount of red.  I must confess that i quite like it.  Who knows what colour my next roll of Velvia will go?