Out on my travels..

[Neal 1,866]

When I was at art college in Falmouth we did photography as part of the course. I'd previously been quite anti-photography as I saw it as cheating. However, I really got into the enjoyment of it. I only used black and white of course, but I found after a while that I started looking at the world in black and white.

I shared a house with one of the students on the pure photography course and he said to me once that, although he was technically a better photographer than me (I quickly forgot all the f stop stuff, exposure times and everything) I had an eye for a good photo. The way he described it was that, if we both went out together to take a photograph of something in particular, he'd get there and take a technically perfect photo of it, whereas I'd have run out of film by using mine up on the way with all the things I'd spotted that he'd not noticed. This was of course in the day when you had a very limited number of shots you could take on the film!

Although we were taught how to develop the film we never needed to do it as we had a special machine that did it for us too. There was a minimum paper size you could pass through it (when doing test-strips etc) but, being cheap students and trying to save money, we all experimented with trying to get the smallest piece of paper through so that we could get the maximum number of test-strips out of one piece of paper. Needless to say, yours truly was the one who discovered for everybody else what the minimum size was and jammed the machine up. The technician wasn't very happy with me as the machine was out of action for a whole day.

[FUJI 17,285]

4 hours ago, Neal said:

When I was at art college in Falmouth we did photography as part of the course. I'd previously been quite anti-photography as I saw it as cheating. However, I really got into the enjoyment of it. I only used black and white of course, but I found after a while that I started looking at the world in black and white.

I shared a house with one of the students on the pure photography course and he said to me once that, although he was technically a better photographer than me (I quickly forgot all the f stop stuff, exposure times and everything) I had an eye for a good photo. The way he described it was that, if we both went out together to take a photograph of something in particular, he'd get there and take a technically perfect photo of it, whereas I'd have run out of film by using mine up on the way with all the things I'd spotted that he'd not noticed. This was of course in the day when you had a very limited number of shots you could take on the film!

Although we were taught how to develop the film we never needed to do it as we had a special machine that did it for us too. There was a minimum paper size you could pass through it (when doing test-strips etc) but, being cheap students and trying to save money, we all experimented with trying to get the smallest piece of paper through so that we could get the maximum number of test-strips out of one piece of paper. Needless to say, yours truly was the one who discovered for everybody else what the minimum size was and jammed the machine up. The technician wasn't very happy with me as the machine was out of action for a whole day.

Brilliant stuff that bud, really enjoyed reading that. Yeah I can well remember the day's of film with the 24 & 36's & often having not loaded the film into the camera correctly & letting light in perhaps getting one or two pics at best out of a 48 exposure roll of film! How times have changed eh,jeez I often hold the shutter down on these cameras of mine for a couple or three seconds & have over 40 images,these new mirrorless camera's could fill the equivalent of a roll of film faster than you could blink! Still I love the look of the older film images,they just have character about them in fact I love b&w old photos better still & actually like b&w digital better too. I just enjoy going out and trying to take a few images,I'm not clued up extensively on all the exposure times etc,I keep the shutter speed around 1250 for the dog's running & obviously a lot less when they are just standing about,I use auto iso & generally stick to the lowest F stop on the lens,I'm not that finicky regarding it just a bit of fun & a hobby to me matey. Don't even know what settings I took this on,just used the old Olympus E500 this morning,didn't even put it on Manual,just turned the dial to 'sports mode' & clicked the shutter button,like I say it's only 8 megapixels this one but for social media & sites like this it's absolutely fine.

[FUJI 17,285]

Just returned from a few day's away on the Isle of Mull which is part of the Inner Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland, absolutely stunning place,so quiet it was unbelievable. The island only has a population of around 3000,the ferry from Oban to Craignure only takes around 50 minutes & for 2 adults,a dog plus our old motorhome the return cost was £49 all in,if you travel as a foot passenger it's £4.75 each way,so cheap as chips. I'd advise anyone & everyone to visit the island,there are at least 35 pairs of White Tailed Eagle's that reside permanently there along with slightly more Golden Eagle's,Hen Harriers are numerous plus the seabird life is quite extraordinary. Red Deer,Pine Marten,Dolphins, Seals,Minke Whale,Orca, Mull has it all, it's paradise for nature lovers, fantastic beaches,towering cliffs,both fresh water & sea lochs,big mountains as in Ben More,it has everything,they even have Tobermory which I'm sure many of you will know if you have children as it's the place that was known as 'Balamory' in the kids TV show. Here's a few pics from Mull..

[FUJI 17,285]

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[Neal 1,866]

I love the one of the heron.