The perils of a manual camera

I learnt a number of things this weekend:

a) Whatever pictures you take in film, take the same in digital if at all possible, especially if the light is beautiful and you're somewhere quite difficult to get to, e.g. the middle of bloody nowhere...
b) Places to develop film are rarely open on a Sunday, and those that are open are unlikely to have the best customer service available
c) My pentax film camera may well be broken, causing most of the filmto have 2, 3 or even 8 exposures on a single frame

Those pictures that were salvageable are shown below. If anyone has any suggestions about what might have gone wrong, please let me know! I'm much more used to digital cameras, and manual film cameras are a bit beyond my expertise, not to mention before my time (the pentax I'm using is older than I am...)

Some of the double exposures actually produced quite interesting shots. The two above are the same image, but I think each orientation highlights different aspects of the picture

Unfortunately, the multiple exposures means that almost all of the pictures taken on Marsden moor on Saturday have been lost. We took a wonderful walk around the National Trust Heritage Trail, and we couldn't have asked for a nicer day. Thankfully, a couple of the moor photographs could be saved, and I managed not to drop my cameras in when I fell up to my thighs in a bog.

                     Digital pictures from the Marsden trip to follow soon

36exp Contact Sheet

This is the very final part of the 36exp work; the contact print. This is the piece that the whole exhibition was originally based around, with every artist showing their contact print and only a couple of individual enlarged prints.

36exp Part 4

This is the fourth and final part of my 36exp posts, showing the remaining three triptychs on the film. There's still time to come and see the exhibition, which is open until Friday at the EASA gallery on Hulme St.

Also, I'm looking for a photographic club to join in Manchester so if anyone knows of a good club they could recommend, please let me know!

Finally, I'd like to say thank you to everyone who modelled for me for this film. I hope you'll agree that the photographs came out well, far better than I could have hoped for. 

36exp Part 3

It seems that I've inadvertently started a blogging race with my father, but I feel i ought to keep up appearances, so here is part 3 of my 36exp photographs. For those of you in and around Manchester, there's still time to visit the exhibition itself and see all the other artists' work at the EASA gallery on Hulme St.

I've excluded a couple of the photographs from these sets because they didn't come out so well and would have been a pain to layout in blogger (having a few difficulties still with getting things laid out how I want them!) Part 4 coming soom, which has the final three sets on it.

36exp Part 2

Ok, so I may have lied earlier. The 36exp photographs are going to be split over 4 posts rather than 3, and here is part 2. Enjoy, and do nip down to the exhibition if you get chance.

36exp Part 1

I'm lucky enough to be part of an exhibition curated by MUSEA (Manchester University Society for Emerging Artists) which is starting at the EASA Gallery on Hulme St in Manchester today, 30th Sept and open until 8th Oct. 


The exhibition is a collection of work by 36 artists, all done in film or slide. Each artist is showing a contact sheet of 36 pictures and enlargements of a few of the best pieces. There's going to be a great variety of styles of work on display, well worth a visit if you're in the area. 


My photographs aim to capture people doing things that they love and are important to them in life. They were shot as a set of triptychs, with each photograph showing a different aspect of the activity through the hands, feet and body but without showing the subject’s full face. I was originally interested in the way in which people’s hands express their individuality and emotion whilst engaged in a favourite past-time. This led me to investigate the way in which emotion is conveyed through body language rather than facial expression. These photographs depict close friends and family engaged in their favourite activities. 


Since this was my first work with a) film b) black and white, the whole experience was quite a learning curve for me, and generally I'm very pleased with the way they've turned out (give or take a couple which looked great in colour, but had too many similar tones to work well in monochrome). 


I'm going to post them in three parts, generally showing them as the triptychs they were originally shot as, though a couple of the weaker pictures had been excluded. 


Enjoy part 1, please let me know what you think and drop in on the exhibition if you get the chance to see the rest of the artists.

They've been put up in the order in which they were taken. More from the film, and finally the full contact print will be added over the course of the next week or so. Keep checking to see the rest of the film and please leave feedback.