View Tube & Tower Block

Another shot from film, the View Tube container café is dwarfed by the development on Stratford High St.

Looking back to land along the railway on Southend Pier

One of the big problems I have with film is that quite often I don’t get though a roll very quickly – which means photographs lay in the camera undeveloped or seen for literally years. Last year I cycled to Southend as part of the coast to coast training – around 35 miles which I did enjoy and it’s nice now having the photos to think back to that day!

For any camera nerds, the camera was a Fujica STX-1 which were made in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It’s a very simple SLR which is excellent now I know more about what the numbers mean and how to use them! Lens used was a 80-200mm f4.5-f5.5 Clubman zoom which the internets appears to know nothing about. Given the x-mount fitting was only manufactured for a short while (~1978 to 1985 from what I can find) it probably dates from that time too.

Le Champs-Élysées

It’s very nearly 10 years since I took this shot, from the ‘Paris Wheel’ in Place du Concorde as part of a sixth form school trip. So this is a fitting time to return to Paris as a ‘grown up’ and actually stay in the city! As per usual, I’ve hundreds of photos to sort though – I think back in 2001 maybe I shot 2 or 3 rolls of 36 exp and lost half of the prints – how times change! I finally made it to the top of the Eiffel Tower, promenaded round the gardens of le Chateau de Versailles with the lovely Ruth and much more. It’s been lovely to try to speak French even if I have lost a lot of the skills. More musings to follow – it’s a fascinating city.

Pontoon, originally uploaded by Alan Perryman.

An archive photo, this one from August 2002 from the Tall Ships gathering at Zeebrugge.

The Belgian navy were pushing this pontoon across the dock using a small boat. Health and safety precautions? That rope keeping people away from the edge of the pontoon!

For the camera geeks, this was taken using a 35mm film SLR, Fujica STX-1 with a 50mm lens. I have absolutely no idea what the settings were…apart from wrong, given the largely bleached out sky!

Anyway… back to the real reason for the post. Here are those photos. I have to say I am not hugely impressed with the Jessops film to CD processing, though I guess for £2 a roll you can hardly expect fabulous results.

St Mary's from the Air

Landfall at Lands End - The visitor centre and lighthouse are on the other side of the chopper...

Patchwork Quilt of Mousehole

Newlyn Harbour

St Michael's Mount

Sikorsky S 61 at Long Rock Heliport, Penzance

The development also gave me a film back in return. So now I have 2 rolls of 200ASA in the fridge again. I suspect the STX-1 might come out to play again if we get a bit of an ‘Indian Summer’ this September…