Sydney Opera House from the harbour.
(Camera: Olympus OM-PC; Lens: Zuiko 50mm f/1.8; Film: Fuji Provia 100F transparency)
Last November I flew down to Australia to take in a total eclipse of the Sun. It was my first trip to the Land Down Under (where women glow, and men chunder) and I was knocked out by the unfailing friendliness of all the Australians I met. Continue reading
Sun over Parry Bay, Metchosin, BC.
(Camera: Olympus OM-PC; Film: Kodak T-Max 100)
Now that the winter soltice is behind us, the Sun begins its long journey northwards on the celestial sphere and the days are starting to get longer, at least for those of us living in the northern hemisphere.
Sunset on a forgotten beach somewhere far away. All messed up with no place to go.
(Camera: Agfa Isolette II; Film: Kodak Ektar 100; Various non-Instagram filters.)
Instagram is in a bit of hot water with its users right now because of recent changes to its terms of service. People are expressing shock, outrage, and horror that a corporation is (gasp!) putting profitability ahead of their concerns. Now there might be something truly nasty lurking in all that fine print you’re forced to agree to when you sign up for an account, but since the verbiage is written by lawyers, for lawyers, it’s hard to tell. One thing for sure, it’s fertile ground for misrepresentation and misinterpretation. But my issue with Instagram isn’t their terms of service (which I assume are odious), it’s that I could never convince myself there was any point to it. Continue reading
So far this review has focused on the Belair’s features and how it handles, but of course it’s the results that matter most. This is where the rubber meets the road, or to put it in photographic terms, where the photons meet the emulsion. It doesn’t take much to see that all the features, attractive pricing, and marketing hype don’t amount to a hill of beans if the resulting photos aren’t good. Continue reading
(Camera: Olympus XA; Film: Kodak T-Max 100)
Getting to know a new camera is always fun and full of interesting little surprises. The Belair Cityslicker is no exception. Indeed, given its expansive feature set, surprises are almost guaranteed. For example, to my surprise, I found the Belair has something in common with another medium-format camera: the legendary Hasselblad. Continue reading
(Camera: Olympus XA; Film: Kodak T-Max 100)
826 Yates Street, Victoria, B.C.
(Camera: Olympus XA; Film: Kodak T-Max 100)
With film photography now largely a niche pursuit, the announcement of a new film camera is usually met with a mix of surprise and excitement. But even still, the unexpected arrival of the Lomography Belair X 6-12 sent tremors through the film community. Within days of its unveiling, the “I Shoot Film” Flickr forum spawned a thread jammed with several hundred messages expressing reactions that ranged from unbridled delight to cynical condemnation. Clearly the Lomography people had struck a nerve. And it’s easy to see why. Even after you strip away the layers of seductive hype and hyperbole that seem to cling to every Lomography product, the Belair is potentially a remarkable photographic instrument.
Greater Victoria Public Library, Victoria, BC.
(Camera: Yashica 35MF; Film: Ilford XP2 Super 400 chromogenic)
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