Full Colour FED

Garden of Memorial, St Marys Church, Lutterworth

I think these are some of the best photographs I’ve managed to extract from the FED 1 camera thus far. High bright Summer light, focussing on colour as much as form, although taken well away from the classic ‘Golden/Blue Hours’ so not much in the way of sky to trouble the FujiColor 200 film. Typically softish contrast from the Industar 10 lens has given everything a lovely ‘vintage’ look, pin sharp and high contrast these ain't!

A late Summer walk with heavy rain approaching near Lutterworth

So for the most part I'm really pleased with the new improved FED, although I've noticed that uneven exposure across the frame remains something of an issue. Perhaps a tenth of the frame on the left (or top with portraits) is noticeably lighter, but only really apparent on images where there's a lot of light sky (I think there's a hint of it on the image above for example). I suspect this may be a problem with the fastest shutter speed, 1/500th on the FED, which probably requires a slight tweak to the tension on one of the curtains. Given that I tend to shoot the FED in the 1/60th to 1/200th of a second range, unless it's really bright and I'm struggling to stop down the aperture enough, I'll probably let it go for now.

Class 37 Diesel Locomotive at the privately owned and rarely open Gotherington Station on the Gloucester Warwickshire Railway

Toddington Station Footbridge on the Gloucester Warwickshire Railway

Curve Theatre, Leicester

Fairground Ride at the Rutland Garden Show

Town Hall, Lutterworth

Corby Rail Station Lamp Post

Bell Tower for St Frances Cabrini Church in Bedford

 

Class 24 Diesel Locomotive approaching Gotherington Station

Street Art, Southampton Street, Leicester Cultural Quarter

Burghley Sculpture Garden

Pod by Nick Horrigan

Fire by David Annesley

Much as we loved our trip to Kew for the Henry Moore Exhibition, a combination of the relentlessly dry and crispy condition of the gardens, and perhaps a smidgen too many Henry Moore's on show had me yearning for something with a bit more variety. Ideally a bit closer to home... and a bit greener!

I'll travel quite a distance to see good modernist sculpture by an absolute colossus of the form like Moore, but perhaps not quite so far when there's dozens of them. A single statement piece in an appropriate setting is always going to impress. By the twentieth statement piece, the impact is likely to have diminished somewhat. In this age of instant access and short attention spans, I want to be surprised and titillated at every turn, because I'm shallow like that.

Fool's Lantern by Nick Horrigan

Interred by Joseph Hillier

Living as we do in semi-rural North Londonshire, we have the pick of Stately Homes to visit. Which is a shame because I've never felt the need to gawp at upper-class life in that way. The gardens are a different matter though, often the venue for major events and festivals, relatively inexpensive to visit, and who doesn't like strolling around a well-tended garden with an ice cream.

One of the more local Country Piles to us is Burghley House near Stamford. Home to the world famous Horse Trials of course, slightly less famous for it's impressive collection of modern Sculpture.

There's truly something for everyone here, including a delightful Garden of Surprises that's ideal for children of all ages, ourselves included. Access to the gardens is around £12, and you'll be happy strolling with your Camera (and perhaps a picnic, the café wasn't all that to be honest) for two or three hours on a sunny day at least.

The Edge by Nicolas Moreton

I took the FED on this slightly more affordable occasion, and very quickly shot my way through 24 exposures of Kodak Gold 200, running out of film just as we were ready to leave. Once again I left feeling we went at the wrong time of the year. The gardens were very busy with families, a last hurrah before little-uns returned to school, and how much better would it all have looked on a frosty Winter morning, perhaps cloaked in mist or blanketed in snow, when the gardens are sadly not actually open...

Garden of Surprises

Copper Tree Fountain - Garden of Surprises

Tower 4 by Denis O'Connor

Vertical Face II by Rick Kirby (rear)

Vertical Face II by Rick Kirby

From Far Away Great Changes Come As Forms
 You Thought You Knew by Robert Fung

Gloucester Old Shots

Class 26 Diesel-Electric Locomotive

I must say, I felt much happier loading the recently serviced FED (below) with a cheap and cheerful Colour Film than the (even cheaper) Black & White roll I'd tested the camera with. Don’t get me wrong, I like monochrome well enough, in fact I like it a lot in the hands of really good photographers. But for myself I'll continue to use powerful editing software for the less colourful stuff, particularly when it helps papers over the cracks of some of my poorer photographic efforts.

The scans from this Fujicolor 200 film, exposed as they were through a relatively inexpensive 1950’s Collapsible Lens, are perhaps not the best quality images all told. The colours are somewhat muted, slightly washed-out I'd say. They have, for want of a better word, that 'vintage' look that's so popular in photography now, and yet somehow they look realer to me than the hyper-real images from my phone camera.

This is partly a nostalgia thing of course, because this is what photographs looked like in the golden age of cheap Point and Shoot cameras and High Street Kiosk developing (ask your parents!). I think it also reflects something we’ve become all-too familiar with, the tendency for phone cameras to deliver a level of ultra-contrast and colour that's certainly attractive, but doesn't necessarily represent what we actually see with our eyes/brain.

Concrete Mural by Joyce Pallot and Henry Collins
Sainsbury Store, Gloucester

As we know, even the most expensive film emulsions can struggle to reproduce what we actually see, but we also know that camera phones come with all manner of image-enhancing software, designed to produce the perfect exposure under a wide variety of lighting conditions.

Unfortunately there's rarely an option to turn these 'enhancements' off, so what appears on the screen may well be pleasing to the eye but it's rarely what we actually see in reality, and of course the temptation to tweak, edit, and enhance digital images even more is something that few of us can resist.

Class 37 Diesel-Electric Locomotive

The main reason I was keen to load the FED with colour film was a long anticipated day out with friends at a Heritage Railway in the Cotswolds. A day spent trundling up and down between Broadway and Gotherington Station on the Gloucester Warwickshire Steam Railway, vintage camera in hand, hauled on this occasion by vintage Diesel traction rather than 'fire risky' Steam Locomotives.

Now I’m certainly not a Rail enthusiast, but my goodness, don’t these old-fangled locomotives look great captured on old-fangled film! A fact that seemed to be lost on the many enthusiasts filming the action on the day with high-end DSLR's. Pretty much everyone had a camera in tow, but as far as I could tell I was the only one shooting 'era-appropriate' film on the day, which of course marked me out as more of a casual tourist than serious Rail buff. So the question is, were those sideways glances looks of envy, or pity!...

Other great photo opportunities were taken/missed throughout the weekend in Gloucester, and during a walk on the sunny Stroudwater Navigation from Nailsworth to Stroud.

Kyneburgh Tower by Tom Price

Gloucester Docks

Clapham Court, Gloucester

Locks on the Stroudwater Navigation, Gloucestershire

Stroudwater Navigation

Art Exhibition, Gloucester Antiques Centre