Agfa Optima Parat #1

03-03-26

Yes, I still play cassette tapes.

I have been skipping the light fandango quite a lot lately and haven’t had much time to write a blog post. Two of my lovely social club women friends have gone on a cruise to the sunshine, and won’t be back for a couple of weeks, so I won’t be having quite so many late nights. And, at last the weather seems to be picking up a little, it’s been realty awful here in my part of the UK, days of rain, grey skies, and cold temperatures.

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Thought it was time I gave the half frame Agfa Optima another try, I got a lot of overexposed frames last time I used it, my fault for not giving the old selenium light meter enough time to react. Better results this time. Kentmere 100 rated at 200asa, developed in Bellini HC.

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**Former site of the IL Rondo music venue**. **Saw some amazing bands here in the early 1970’s**

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Hopefully I will be posting on the blog more often, certainly have a lot of images in the files B&W and colour on various cameras.

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PS, Henrietta seems to be settling in really well.

“Happy New Year”

11 Replies

04-01-26

Wishing everyone a peaceful and Happy New Year. I survived the celebrations largely unscathed. It has been really quite cold here in my part of the UK, lots of ice and a dusting of snow. Managed to take a bit of a tumble on my way home late on Friday. Fortunately no harm done due to being fairly fluid (ahem) it all happened in slow motion and I managed to soften the fall with my arms.

I have a few rolls of film to develop, probably next week if it warms up a little, and a new camera to test. I’m scanning in a folder of negatives for an old friend of mine, and he gave me a Contax 139 camera as a thank you.

“Merry Christmas”

9 Replies

24-12-25

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Peaceful New Year.

Starting Where I Left Off – Chinon Bellami #2

3 Replies

18-12-25

My last post about the Chinon Bellami was in August. Life took over, things happened but it’s time to conclude the Bellami’s outing.

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Considering it was a dull rainy day and the film was expired (Kodak color plus 200) the Bellami’s lens did a good job.

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**St Andrews Church at the start of autumn.**

I think the Chinon Bellami has a great lens, quite characterful. The camera is tiny and easily fits in a pocket. The only slight downsides being, it has zone focusing so you have to guesstimate distance, and it’s maximum film speed is 400 asa.

Autumn to Winter, and losing a friend

19 Replies

02-12-2025

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on my blog. A buddy of mine passed away unexpectedly, we had been good friends for 65 years. It knocked me back a bit to say the least. Along with other friends we would meet up once a week for breakfast and a beer. We were all in shock for a while. Then to top it all my cat Claude has decided to go absent without leave. thinking about it he probably had a second home all along. His chip is registered in my name. So it’s me, Henrietta (floof ball) and the very feral lad who lives in the cat kennel in my garden.

I have been taking photographs, film and digital (good therapy) I’m way behind with posting them.

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**The 2025 Christmas Tree Being Installed In the City Centre**

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These were all taken on my old Olympus E620 or Canon Ixus 300 (3mp)

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**C’est moi, One Of My Photo Buddies Loves Taking Impromptu Photos Of Us**

Been going out to the social club and a few other music venues. My beer consumption (pale ale) often followed with a spiced rum chaser has been more than usual over the last few weeks, settled back down now. Made a lot of new friends, guess that’s what social clubs are for. Oh, and I was 3 score years and 13 in October.

3 cameras are loaded with film, 1 roll waiting for development, 2 colour rolls back from the lab and 2 or 3 rolls scanned in waiting for me to post on the blog.

A strange few weeks and 11 years blogging on WordPress

19 Replies

09-09-25

Three weeks ago last Sunday evening I fed my cat Claude and Henrietta, (the homeless cat) that I let come into the house to sleep if she wants to. The next morning (Monday) there wasn’t any sign of the cats, didn’t think too much about it as I thought they would be somewhere in the garden. I started to worry when by the evening they hadn’t put in an appearance. By Thursday they still hadn’t returned, I had asked around and called out for them in the garden, I was getting quite stressed and upset. I let it be known that I would be contacting Cats Protection, the RSPCA and the Police. Friday I went to the Social club to drown my sorrows and then on to a couple of bars with some friends. Wobbled back home on autopilot and went to bed. At 2am I heard the cat door, rushed down stairs and there was Claude closely followed by Henrietta. They both looked OK and unharmed, sat up until 3am with them. To say I was relieved would be an understatement. I have an idea what happened to them but this isn’t the platform to go into detail.

**Claude slept a lot after his adventure.**

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There’s something down there, Claude there isn’t.

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Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com!

You registered on WordPress.com 11 years ago.

Can’t believe I have been blogging for 11 years. Now that things have settled down with the cats (and me) I will hopefully be posting more regularly.

Chinon Bellami #1

2 Replies

12-08-25

This is only the second roll of film I’ve put through this camera, a roll of Kodacolor Plus 200, expired in 2019. I bought the camera at least 10years ago, think it cost me £12.00p or thereabouts. The lens trim ring is missing, but it works as it should. The wind on lever doubles up to open and close the barn doors that protect the lens, a nice 35mm F2.8, with manual focussing and a snapshot click stop marked in Green at 10 feet / 3 meters. It needs 2xSR44 button cells to work.

All the images were taken on my walks, mainly to the social club. The film showed strong colour shifts and it was a bit of a ‘B’ to get the images to look ok. I normally scan with the Nikon scanner set to neutral, although it does have lots of adjustments and I had to use a few of them for this film. Probably didn’t help that I loaded this film into the camera in October2024 and it wasn’t developed until April 2025.

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Lately I’ve had to engage autopilot on my way back from the social club and nearby bars. I keep meeting up with people I haven’t seen for ages, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

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PS. The album sleeve the camera is resting on is a 1967 mono recording titled OPEN, by Julie Driscoll, it has an amazing version of the Donavan song “Season Of The Witch.

Pentax Espio Mini #2

7 Replies

08-07-25

A few more images from the little Pentax Espio. Been trying to sort my garden out, but at the moment the garden is winning, hence the delay in posting. Also the weather has been really warm, hovering around 30deg over the last few weeks. My house gets the sun at the back for most of the day so I haven’t been sleeping too well. This has meant having to force myself to go and see lots of local bands and drink beer to cool me down and replenish lost body moisture.

***Ghost sign spotted on the way to the pub !***

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***And another, this must have been an off licence at some time.***

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The weather forecast for the next few days is hot again, so I guess I’ll be doing a good impersonation of a cast member from a zombie film.

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When I saw this it reminded me of an old Bonzo Dog song “Look out there’s a monster coming”

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Used the built in flash for this one, really pleased with the result.

The cats have been sensibly hiding away in the shade to keep cool, only saw Claude late evening or when he was hungry. Been feeding them plenty of wet food and yogurt cat treats cooled in the fridge.

Pentax Espio Mini #1

5 Replies

22-06-25

I bought this little Pentax about 15 years ago, it’s in really good condition. They have gained a bit of a cult following now and the prices for them are quite high for what it is.

Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted on the blog. I have been taking photos but at a slower pace than normal, due to catching another virus that made my muscles feel like lead weights, and a lack of wanting to eat, great for the waistline, even managed to get into a pair of my old 32 inch waist jeans. Added to that the weather in the first half of this year was pretty grim in my part of the UK. So I loaded it up with a roll of expired Ilford HP5, that was in October 2024 and finished it in March 2025 !

***It has a faux panoramic mode, so I thought i would give it a try . One of the few bright days.***

The panoramic mode just masks part of the image frame, and a mask in the viewfinder shows the area that will be captured. This is helped by it having a semi wideangle 32mm lens.

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***Waiting in the Gelato queue, it was very tasty.***

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What to photograph when the weather is not so good and you are on the way to the pub, street furniture I thought.

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There will be more images to come.

Visit to Nottingham and the Make It Easy Photo Lab

1 Reply

01-05-25

14th March 2025, the first proper PhotoBuddies outing for sometime. I wanted to travel light so took along my old Sony S80 digital, and a basic Agfa 120 film camera.

It only takes about 25 mins to get to Nottingham from my hometown. Luckily the weather was good.

**1st stop, East Midlands Parkway, and a decommissioned power station.**

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Managed to get an unposed shot of one of my photobuddies. We have been friends for a long time, both of us starting at Printing college in 1970, training in Lithographic Printing and Platemaking. He had some serious surgery at the end of last year, but is making a great recovery.

The people that run the lab were really welcoming and enthusiastic, sadly they are closing the business soon and moving on to new ventures.

We then went for a short walk for Coffee and Cake in Nottingham city centre.

**There is some lovely architecture in Nottingham.**

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I still have a few frames left to take on the old Agfa film camera, hopefully I can finish the roll next week if the weather stays good.

Birthday Boy

5 Replies

27-04-25

It’s Claude’s 4th Birthday today. He’s had lots of treats, a lot of fuss, and is outside now soaking up the sunshine on a lovely warm day.

“Happy Easter”

15 Replies

20-04-25

Well I managed to catch another virus the week before last, different from the last one which was Bronchial, this one made my muscles feel like lead, and my appetite totally went for 4 days, bonus being I managed to fit into a pair of 32″ waist jeans I found in the wardrobe.

Last Monday (14th) I went to Nottingham with my PhotoBuddies, I wasn’t feeling 100% but we had a great time, paid for it the next day. Took a few images which I will post next week.

Spring in the garden

The weather has been quite good over the last week, bright but cold and breezy with it. The garden is really flourishing, the Lilac trees are in bloom and the Rhododendron is starting to flower early.

The Cat gang this morning

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The Homeless Girls

I took these this morning with my old Olympus E620 and 40-150mm lens.

Springtime

14 Replies

27-03-25

It really felt like a spring day today, warm and breezy, next few days are forecast to be the same. So I grabbed my old Olympus E400 and 40 – 150mm lens and headed out to the garden.

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The cats were really enjoying the warmth and sunshine, the black and white one (I’ve called her Beatie) she is an absolute sweetheart with loudest purr, and the long haired tabby is Henrietta, she sleeps in the house overnight.

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Claude was out all day soaking up the sunshine, only popping in for snacks.

Monochrome Monday (Holga 120N)

5 Replies

10-03-25

According to the Film Trackr app, I had loaded up the Holga with this roll on the 5th of October 2023 for a walk with my two Photo Buddies, didn’t finish the roll on the day and promptly forgot about it. One of my photo buddies was quite ill in 2024, but after surgery is now making a good recovery and we are looking forward to some photowalks later in the year.

This was the first time I had used the Holga 120N (I also have a 120S) Wasn’t expecting much from it because of the plastic lens. The film I used was Rollei RPX 100 developed in BelliniFoto RDL (Rodinal) in February this year.

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I bought the camera used from that auction site for £20.00p and it came boxed with all the items in the above image. I added some light proofing and matt Black paint to parts of the inside. taped up the body catches and film window.

I really like the softness of the lens, apart from removing some dust spots and sorting out the levels, (the film was a bit under exposed) that’s all I had to do. Next time out 200 asa film I think.

Monochrome Monday

10 Replies

24-02-25

According to the metadata I took these images in March 2011 on my Olympus E400 DSLR at the Great Central Railway in Loughborough. An old friend of mine who is a bit (a lot) of a railway nut persuaded me to go. I am of an age where I can remember steam trains running on the national network !

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I still use the Olympus from time to time, it was my first DSLR, and has a CCD sensor which seems to be a thing at the moment. It also has a strong anti aliasing filter so the images are quite soft straight out of camera. Olympus colours are nice, be it CCD or CMOS sensor.

I’m just finishing off a roll of film in a half frame camera, it’s taking some time mainly because the weather has been pretty awful in my part of the UK for the last 2 months.

Back in the land of the living

10 Replies

05-02-25

Eventually managed to shake off the Flu/Bronchitis/Covid or whatever nasty it was that decided to infect me. I’ll get a flu jab this year, have only ever had one, and that was in 1969 when the firm I worked for paid for all the staff to go to a private doctor. Felt a bit flat over the last few weeks, two of my friends have been having a bit of a tough time, and the weather hasn’t helped, been mostly dull, wet and cold. I have 3 cameras loaded with film and 2 rolls still sitting in the fridge waiting to be developed. Managed to get out to the social club a few times to see my friends band play, and met up with an old mate for a pub lunch, a nice 2.5 mile round trip. Travelled light so only took an old Sony Digicam and my phone.

**Typical of the weather we have been having, the little Sony did Ok.**

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**Just up the road, this gallery had some very expensive art on display**

**I liked this piece, bit above my price range though**

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Good job I was walking to the social club that day.

**Abandoned single seater mercedes AMG**

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Arrived at the social club a bit early, the band were still setting up, gave me time to quietly enjoy my first pint of Cornish pale ale before the crowds arrived.

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Claude and the homeless cats are all doing well at the moment. I’ve been giving the homeless gang lots of food during this cold spell, and a lot of fuss.

**Claude making the most of a bit of sunshine**

“Happy Christmas”

17 Replies

Just a quick post to wish everyone “Happy Christmas” and “New Year”

I’m recovering from a really bad Fiu infection, was my first time out of the house for over a fortnight yesterday, a quick trip to town for some bits and pieces.

I had one really bad night with the infection, nearly called the paramedics, but Claude came up to the bedroom and made sure I was OK, bless.

I haven’t felt like taking any photographs or developing the 2 rolls of film that are sitting in the fridge, maybe next week. Hopefully be going to the social music afternoon on Friday, will be so good to meet up with friends after a 2 week absence.

Here are a few images from early autumn in the garden when I tried out some effects filters, diffuser and prism on my digital Olympus EPL1 and old 50mm Zuiko lens.

Best wishes for Christmas and New Year.

Claude to the Vets, Autumn, and Burning the candle both ends.

14 Replies

14-11-24

It’s been a few weeks since I last posted on the blog. I’ve been busy redecorating the front room, I’m ashamed to say the last time it was decorated was 32 years ago, but I did a good job back then. Been putting it off for years mainly because of all the moving of books, CD’s, vinyl albums, HiFi system, and furniture. It’s nearly done now and looking much better.

Had a bit of a fright with Claude last week, he wasn’t lifting his tail, so took him to the vets, they gave him a thorough nose to tail check over. Couldn’t find anything obviously wrong with him, the vet thought he had probably strained or pulled a muscle, he loves chasing squirrels, never catches them. He was such a good lad at the vets even though he was prodded and poked. A liquid painkiller was prescribed and after a couple of days his tail was back up in the air, and I could sleep again.

**Today in the garden (camouflaged with a leaf on his head) looking for squirrels**.

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Unfortunately the music pub I go to has closed as a music venue, so over the last few weeks I’ve gone down when I could (lots of late nights) to see local bands playing. The last evening at the venue was really good and really sad. The demographic of the city I live in has changed drastically over the last 5 years and many pubs and clubs have shut their doors. The city is not a place I like to visit anymore, there is very little that interests me in the town now. The one bit of good news is a nearby social club is letting my friends band play on Friday afternoons, went to the first one last week, it was well attended, lots of my friends were there, the beer was good, and the band sounded great.

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Some Autumn images from the garden today.

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Two October Garden Visitors

I have 2 rolls of film to develop and hope to be blogging more frequently when the decorating is finally finished.

Lens Artists Challenge – “Looking Back”

10 Replies

14-10-24

My first time posting to a “Lens Artists” challenge, this one set by Sofia Alves who has posted some lovely images on the theme of “Looking Back”. The timing worked out just right for me as I have been scanning in some old film negatives, I took these images in 1992 on my Rolleiflex TLR camera. I haven’t used the flatbed scanner for quite some time, the hardest part was getting the colour to look OK. The film was Fuji Reala 100.

**Isle of Eigg, Volcanic Rocks and the Sgurr.**

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The weather was really scorching for our visit, unusual for the western isles of Scotland. The Isle of Eigg is a wonderful place to stay, it’s so quiet and peaceful, the first time I have really experienced silence, there is always a background hum on the mainland.

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**The Church of St Mary and St Hardulph, Breedon on the Hill**, **Leicestershire.**

This last image is much nearer to home, and I took it to finish off the film in the Rolleiflex when we arrived back from Eigg. It’s a lovely old church with a long history (Wikipedia) and the views from Breedon Hill are really good, must visit again.

Minolta 70W Travel Zoom #3

coronet66

Film & Digital Photography, Vintage Cameras, Travel, Music.

Agfa Optima Parat #1

“Happy New Year”

“Merry Christmas”

Starting Where I Left Off – Chinon Bellami #2

Autumn to Winter, and losing a friend

A strange few weeks and 11 years blogging on WordPress

Chinon Bellami #1

Pentax Espio Mini #2

Pentax Espio Mini #1

Visit to Nottingham and the Make It Easy Photo Lab

Birthday Boy

“Happy Easter”

Springtime

Monochrome Monday (Holga 120N)

Monochrome Monday

Back in the land of the living

“Happy Christmas”

Claude to the Vets, Autumn, and Burning the candle both ends.

Lens Artists Challenge – “Looking Back”

Minolta 70W Travel Zoom #3