We Might Feel Unsound.

My friend Iain is a proper photographer.
I try, but my main technique is to just take loads of pictures and hope that few turn out OK. 

Iain has a 'thing' for concrete. Be it roads, bridges or 'elevated urban landscapes', his shots of the architecture of Leicester and beyond are always interesting. People like Iain can shoot mundane things and make them interesting.

Today, I went to town to visit the Leicester People's Photographic Gallery and parked in Lee Circle just so I could try and shoot some 'Iain pictures'. 

You can see Iain's pictures here, but before you check his out, scroll down for mine...

Tying String Between Tin Cans and Pulling It Tight...

Among the films developed earlier in the week was one from the Holga that had been in the camera for a couple of months. The film included this picture of Gosia taken at August's Leicester Critical Mass Red Carpet Ride. 

The Holga really is a cheap and nasty camera, but I love the results it (sometimes) produces. This was the first time I'd used it with the equally cheap and equally nasty flash and the effect matches the scene perfectly.

The lack of precision and odd colours produced by Holgas and other toy cameras is something that people (myself included sometimes) spend a lot of time recreating with technology. The Lomo-Fi setting on the Instagram app takes a perfectly good picture taken with hundreds of pounds worth of Apple technology and makes it look like it was taken with a Holga, a cheap Chinese toy. But each to their own...

Speaking of which, here's another picture for you...

Our Endless Numbered Days.

Last weekend, to celebrate Gosia's birthday, we had a flying visit to Vilamoura in Portugal. I took a selection of film cameras including the 1990 Zenit 12cd that I was given by Gosia's uncle earlier in the year. The camera looks to have had a hard life. The black paint has worn off the prism, revealing the brass underneath and the anodising around the eyepiece has worn to bare metal.

 

Carrying a bag of metal bodied cameras with their cogs cams and switches through airport security usually leads to the inevitable 'is this your bag sir?', but it means that they can be thrown in a bag and exposed to salty sea spray and wind blown sand without worrying that they might get damaged.

With manual everything and my inexperience at guessing suitable exposure settings, using ISO100 film was probably a bit optimistic, but the results were OK. I love the 'feel' of the pictures and the fact that they aren't perfect (I have the 50D for that). Some of them look like they could have been taken any time in the last 50 years.

I look forward to experimenting with it further but with a faster film...

I should also mention that the film was developed by Luke at the Plastic Magpie Camera Club. He developed 7 films for me in less than 24 hours and at a great price. I really like the idea of riding to drop them through his door and then to collect them again - it seems to suit the whole analogue idea. He seems a decent sort too...

There are a few more pictures from this roll on my LomoHome

How Low Can A Punk Get

I've been to 27 countries in my time - it's about to become 28.
But which will it be?

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Smooth Solidarity.

October (2011):
commutes by bike 12 (131)
commute distance 310.5 (3597km)
total distance 703.5km (9255km)
commutes by car 7 (39)
turbo sessions 0 (1)
time trials 0 (17)
run 23km (63km)
row 7km (256km)
nights not at home 0 (47)

After yet more days of not feeling well and so lacking the motivation to ride, I've ended October having commuted by car 7 times. In February that figure was zero.

Still, the Polish trip has bumped up the mileage for the year for the year and I'd should achieve the 10,000km mark for the second time ever.
I appreciate that this is more than most people, but to put it into context, I was speaking with a rider from another local club who was telling me that he was already past 21,000 and would get to 24,000km+. He had records going back 35 years totalling 800,000km! No wonder, even at 57 years old, he is still kicking my arse on time trials.
Still, a mini-tour over the next couple of days should get me past 9,500km and closer to having a rest at Christmas.