Cross Processing..was it a happy accident?: dltphoto

  Slide film development is a colour reversal  process allowing a positive image instead of the classic negative, there is also a technique of doing it incorrectly, purposefully, to reach an entirely different end result. This has become commonly known as Cross Processing.
I imagine someone sometime ago accidentally, not on purpose, developed there Slide film in the colour negative process and was probably jolly ticked off, however, after calming down found the results to be somewhat interesting!

Instead of the Slide film (E6 process) going into the correct chemical procedure, putting it into the regular (C41 process) film negative process can render some very interesting results.

 Firstly, its no longer a Positive, please remember back to holding up slides to the light and seeing a positive image (Fig A) you may have to go back a few years!!

Fig A

Anyways, since we are scrapping this correct process the film now becomes a negative! ( Fig B)

Fig B

 Now we have run it through the in-correct chemicals we have also "tainted" the colours in the process. We should now expect a higher contrast and bolder colours in the cross processed negative. This can lead to blown out highlights and sometimes loss of detail.... but we are monkeying with the correct process. Its our own fault. ummmm Blah blah blah..... here's the good stuff!

Granny & Grumpa's Antiques, Abbotsford: dltphoto

I was introduced to an unbelievable new shooting location by one of my photo accomplices, right under our noses here in Abbotsford on the Circle Farm Tour. I didn't have much of an idea of what I was really going to see there. Next time I visit I should have a goal or a topic to shoot, since there is SO much to see there, It was quite overwhelming. Barns and barns full of, well... junk. At least junk to someone, collectable works of art to others. Expected to only spend an hour or so there, we ended up calling it a day 3 hours later, and really still didn't do the place justice from a photographic point of view. (check Wallace's Post)
Mainly I could see more "instagr.am" style shots than really good photo content. Many signs and random objects that you wouldn't normally see. Overall after being kind of wow'ed by the place for the first hour or so I settled in to some shooting. Since it was all so packed in and dark the use of flash became apparent. For some reason though I couldn't get my  flash mojo going. Maybe it was my accidental foot dunk into a murky green bog thing, the concrete surrounding it  had a small channel built into it with  rotten plywood covering it... note to self, don't walk on plywood on concrete. Fortunately nothing got damaged, a few scrapes on the equipment and the leg, but it all still works. Could have been a lot worse!

The Pea Soup-Green Bog

The "Hole"

Plenty of textures to be had. That part I really enjoyed. Anything old and rusty is going to photograph well. I found a couple of old ornate radiators basking in the sun....texture heaven

Welcome to Canada, instagr.am :dltphoto

http://instagr.am/p/O1gnysq33A/

The Murky Underside of the Stunning Upperside: dltphoto

Many moons ago I acquired a wonderfully different camera to add to my Nikon collection. The Nikonos V film camera, as posted previously somewhere, sometime ago, on a blog post far, far away.
I resurrected it for some fun underwater antic's. Our kids hesitance to swim in the gorgeous green lake this year, without life jacket, was mildly frustrating. All of them now are very capable swimmers but I guess the massive lake must be a tad intimidating. Until of course I splashed out the Nikonos V and then off came the life jackets and on came the diving underwater with reckless abandon. It was quite the turnaround. I created monsters.

Working with the Nikonos is kind of odd, apparently water has some defraction non-sense that means when I focus a certain distance its actually not that distance blah blah blah... I found a technique of my own. GUESS IT.
Along with the "GUESS IT" technique, I applied the "hold the camera underwater and GUESS that they are in the shot!" technique. With the 28mm lens its fairly safe that I will get most of them in the shot as for hands and feet etc... well, that's part of the fun for me. So featured below are some of the better "GUESS IT'S" that I ended up with.

July 2012: Favourite Shot: dltphoto

This months star image for me was featured on a previous post, I just love the lines. The depth of field worked perfectly to draw my eyes toward the triangles. Rumour has it, that things in three's are the key to a successful image, which I am not entirely sold on at this time.

David & Goliath: dltphoto

At the time of composure I had absolutely NO idea that  "David" (as he is now known), was wondering out of my frame toward the bottom. The little guy was soooooo miniscule I didn't notice him until editing this shot. Goliath, sadly, was supposed to be my main point of focus!
Who do you look at more?

Android meets Real Camera, Nikon Coolpix: dltphoto

Well, this looks very interesting! A Nikon camera with Android operating system. Could this be a dream? The ability to use ones Apps, directly on the camera after image conception. This is possibly something that all mytubo'ers and instagram'ers will be lining up for. More camera capability than ever before to be shared instantly. Cool!
Where do I sign up?

Nikon Canada

"The Highlander": dltphoto

One of the questions people always ask me "whats your favourite lens?". ( favourite, yes I am British!)

So it may not happen to be the smallest lens in the world, or even the lightest. Actually its quite cumbersome, expensive and jolly heavy after an entire day of shooting.

Photography Coaching, One on One: dltphoto

I have found in these last few years that more and more people have DSLR camera's or even very advanced compacts and they still have far too many questions or a desire to learn more but need help getting started. I realise that there are many group courses put on by very capable teachers but very often learning can feel more comfortable in a one on one environment. I am now offering myself as a One on One coach for anyone who wants to learn and walk away fully understanding the reason for which they came to me for. I am offering hourly sessions from my home studio on almost any topic of photography. Taking betters pictures( Composition) , understanding the Cameras functions. Topics such as flash, both on camera and off, understanding Apertures and Shutter speeds. I can help people who are considering future business enterprises in Photography. I can even help with basic image editing, using adobe photoshop and/or adobe lightroom.

This is a very hands on, practical course where not only will I show you the methods but help you understand why we use those methods. Clearly since I am teaching out of my home studio I wont be able to offer "wildlife" photography sessions, unless I can train my unruly cat!

Feel free to email me at info@dltphoto.com, primarily I will be available on Sundays  and Mondays, but other evenings can work also . A minimum of two hours at $75 then any additional hour at $30 per hour,  I can deal with couples should you both want to learn at the same time for convenience, add $25 per hour for the second person.
This is a very relaxed environment, I will not cram information down your throat to make your head-spin I hope, on the other hand, coffee can be provided should I be putting you to sleep.

You will need to bring all your camera equipment with a fully charged battery and empty memory card, for tripod work I will provide that for the coaching. Any brand of camera is welcome, or type of camera. Its just about you taking better pictures!

All sessions will be operated at my Home studio in Abbotsford.

Things that grow out of trees : dltphoto

http://instagr.am/p/OaXtxoK35G/

Random Road Signs, Instagr.am :dltphoto

http://instagr.am/p/OSMkkrq32D/

Camping 2012, Digital, Part 3: dltphoto

the last of the DSLR Pics, Sorry to bore you all!.

Wells, BC

Somewhere in Wells, BC

Barkerville (flarekeville), BC, instagram :dltphoto

http://instagr.am/p/N2mEzlK33b/
Barkerville

Camping 2012, "Nostalgic Version, Part 3":dltphoto

The Final installment...
Leaving Barkerville but rather than doing a wicked 10 hour journey in one stint we decided to have one last night at Green Lake, fortunately our 'normal' camping spot was still available!

Tourist Centre, 100 mile house

Camping 2012, Digital, Part 2: dltphoto

Here are some shots from my DSLR, Nikon D200.

China Town, Barkerville, BC

http://instagr.am/p/NptL2dq3_5/

Camping 2012, "Nostalgic Version, Part 2":dltphoto

So as I mentioned I had at least one blank roll.. well darn it I ended up with two! That means that the Voitlander will either undergo surgery or it will have to be retired. Everything seemed to be operational! Alas, that's the biggest loss of frames I have ever had... as I said I am not too cut up, i did shoot most things with a couple of cameras. Its disappointing but I will live.
We opted for not staying at one location this year and headed from Green Lake to a place called Barkerville, another 5 hours from Green lake, up past Quesnel in the Middle of NOWHERE. Currently Its the furthest I have traveled within BC since I have been here... This province is pretty darn big!

Williams Lake Tourist Centre

All of our Rigs...

Camping 2012, "Nostalgic Version, Part 1": dltphoto

So since I have been so amazingly nostalgic since getting the two cameras from the UK, which were my dads, I thought it be fitting that for this holiday I would use the Cameras that my dad would have used for his holiday time. Now, as mentioned before, the film processing and film technology is far superior than back in his time, so the results I am getting maybe far greater than he ever got. Not to mention that I have surpassed my father in the art of photography. For him it was a hobby, the guy who was always relied on to take pics, not that he was a wealthy man who could afford many cameras, in fact quite the opposite. The Turners were a very stereo typical working class family were dessert at dinnertime was a massive luxury. I still see the little house my dad lived in back in Taunton with Uncle Norman and Granddad Sidney and Grandma Daisy, sadly I can only remember growing up seeing Uncle Norman, I have no recollection of my Turner Grandparents.... anyways.. i got off track!
So, I am using his camera's to record our holiday! Again, I am likely to be a little less frugal with the amount of shots during the vacation than he might of been, being that film and other costs would of have been maybe out of his reach.
The two camera's I used are the  Pal M4 and the Voitlander BL. I grabbed some of the oldest film I had in my fridge in the hope that I might add a bit more character to the shots with some fogging and discolouration, but alas that didn't seem to effect anything, also I used a little black and white also...None of the images are edited anyways on the computer, just scanned and saved low enough rez for the blog.

Barkerville BC, Artistic View: dltphoto

As you saw on the previous post a few of my "Promotional" style shots, well here are just some of my more artistic renderings...

Thought I would throw a B&W in here...

Camping 2012, Digital, Part 1: dltphoto

The first of this years camping trip was to one of our favourites, Green Lake. Since I holiday with several different cameras, perhaps about 10, i find I am able to post a few times just using some of the different camera formats. This years I have a full spread of varying digital ( compact and DSLR) and film ( manual and automatic).
  Having so many formats and being able to still use them all makes it all a little bit more fun for me, after all it is my holiday too! In this entry I will be displaying some of the digital compact versions, since I have an awful lot of images I think I will just bore you with a few!

The beach

My Cycling Shadow

green, mytubo :dltphoto

Barkerville, BC: dltphoto

Somewhere way up in the middle of nowhere on the road that takes your hours to get there is this wonderful little town called Barkerville, Established 150 years in a time when Gold was in them there hills....
This is an excellent place where people have restored an old Gold Rush town and have made it into a wonderful destination for  people, willing to do the drive, to mooch around and look at some of the old buildings that made up this Western style town.To make it even more enjoyable they have capped it off with people in full dress for the time period wandering around pretending to be characters from that period, really quite the photographers paradise!
Since I hadn't really read to much up on it, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I certainly didn't imagine it being as large as it was. The buildings were wonderfully rustic, not like the good old brick I am used to from good ole England. The Only thing I missed or would have liked was the occasional tumble weed to go rolling down the main street!! that would have made it priceless

Here are some of my favs to give you some character feel to the place

June 2012: Favourite Shot: dltphoto

This months epic was a "straight outta the Fuji" compact shot... I just love the "busy"ness of the shot and its somewhat abstract nature..really since there is no distinguishable scale for size it could be a huge water fall or an incredibly small one??

Barkerville, BC. Instagr.am:dltphoto

http://instagr.am/p/M9tYPBK3z0/

Pal M4, Part Two : dltphoto

So since I had so much drama on the first roll and that I fixed it or at least hoped I had fixed it, I thought it fitting to give it another roll. Having seen the results when I got the film back it reminded me of how wonderful film really is, this is a process which has been around for such a long time and to this day is still amazing. It really can stack up against digital. Don't get me wrong, digital is soooo convenient and cost effective and easy to delete and and and... but film has never lost its appeal.
This little Pal M4 is very, very capable, in the right hands of course. I am quite enjoying it! As I mentioned before I have a little wide angle lens with it, here's to show you how little extra the wide angle offers. I have yet to determine exactly "how wide" it is, no literature on it that I can find at this time. I guess its around 35mm wide equivalent from the cameras native 45mm.

Firstly.. you need to FOCUS it... duh!!!

With the wide angle lens on

Without the extra lens (45mm)

 So the scene is fairly different you see more of the cars and more of the poles in the background. Since I am also using the Wide Angle viewer on top of the camera I am sure my alignment is off a tad, I didn't use a tripod like I probably should for this experiment, but really who reads this and does it really matter???? heheheheh