adetorrent; photography, lifestyle.

Following the epic fail first attempt with the Yashica T2 , Christy is back on Old Cameras . This time she was equipped with my favourite camera - the Olympus 35RC . We needed a 400 speed film to match the overcast weather and the camera's 1/500 maximum shutter speed so we stopped by Lomography near Carnaby Street, London , to see what we could find. We basically picked the cheapest option - the Lomography CN400 .  CN stands for Colour Negative I guess. I'd shot this film once in the past and I remember not being too excited about the colours. I much prefer the 100. As expected, Christy brought her A game. She's not really a film shooter - she uses a DSLR in real life. You can follow her on Instatram where she posts some of her lovely snaps. Since Lomography don't currently offer the 1 hour service at their store, and we needed the photos developed and printed same-day, we had them done at Snappy Snaps in Covent Garden . To be honest, I was a littl...

I spent some time in Greenwich, London this past week. I flew over the docklands and gazed upon it from above, aboard a cable car. It's s brief but incredible view of that part of London and beyond. The Thames river is a captivating creature - a serpent crawling haughtily through this ancient town.

I recently met up with a friend to go shooting. It'd been a while since I'd gone shooting with someone. Can I say, it was tons of fun. Sure, I didn't get into the 'zone' as I usually would, but it was its own kind of fun. London already has its fair share of red things - phone boxes, buses, royal mail stuff, but being christmas, it's looking plenty red in London right now. I spotted countless red christmas 'ugly' sweaters, shoes and of course, hats. Santa hats, obviously, but my favourite for the day was this awesome red fedora this lady had on. The Helios-44-2 was really in its elements with the winter lighting conditions. I basically shot at f/2 the whole time. One thing's certain when you shoot f/2 on the helios - epic bokeh!

I have a lot of respect for artists, especially painters.  Painting is a slow and meticulous process. Often you already have the image of what you're creating in your head, but you are just taking your time in bringing it to life.  I do a bit of painting myself, but nothing of the quality of the stuff I see around the streets of London.  Sometimes I'd see a piece of artwork and wonder who created it, how, when, why, and so on.  This is why I was extremely pleased to catch Desi Civera in the act. Well, actually, she'd just finished this work when I arrived. I was totally blown away by the work. I was also impressed by her kind polite personality.  What an awesome artist. Check out her work here: Instagram Tumblr

Can you believe it's almost mid August?  Before you know it, Autumn will be upon us. Like many people in the northern hemisphere, I've been doing some travelling, and taking lots of photos. Consequently I've got a bit of a backlog of rolls to develop.  I do also have many photos developed but yet to be sorted out. Many of them are from the plastic film point and shoot cameras I've been playing with all summer. Some have been total disasters, but some have really surprised me. The Olympus cameras are really kicking butt with their Zuiko lenses. Meanwhile here are some photos from the Asahi Pentax Spotmatic with the legendary Takumar f1.4 lens taken while casually walking from Holborn to St. Paul's Cathedral in London.  I really love the handling of this camera now.  I'm usually a rangefinder style guy, but the Spotmatic, and the Zenit-E before it, have really kept me loving SLRs too. Thanks for reading.  Please help support my hobby by click...

Just returned (in one piece) from West Africa and immediately I've got colour withdrawals. Everything out there is so colourful that it at times becomes overwhelming for anyone that lives in a relatively monochrome city.  At least in London we have red brick buildings that help to break up the shades of grey. I think until I re-adjust, I'm going to be spending a lot of time in areas of town with lots of graffiti. That shouldn't be too difficult.  We have loads those here.

So I've been home-and-away for over a week now and I'm having a blast.  I hear London has been basking in some good sunshine in my absence.  That's good to know. I'll be back soon enough. In the mean time, I've managed to lose one of the cameras I brought - the digital one I was shooting video with.  My Olympus 35RD is safe and sound, for now.

The South Bank of the Thames is one of my favourite places to go in London for a nice afternoon walk. There's a lot of art and cultural events happening almost constantly. It also has limitless potential when it comes to photography. There's also food. Lots of it! Even if there's no actual festival going on, there are are many restaurants and food stalls to chose from. I quite enjoy street food - quick, cheap(er), and delicious. When the tide is low, the river acquires a beach. I've taken some photos on the 'Thames beach' that people have refused to believe weren't taken by the sea side.  So I always make sure to include some landmarks now :) Talking of things happening all the time, suddenly out of nowhere, the deafening sound of the legendary red arrows and their signature red white and blue engulfed the South Bank as they jetted by directly overhead.  Thanks to the quick focusing of the Olympus 35 RD's rangefinder I was able t...

Is it me, or do reflections almost always make for a good photo? Here are some from my last walkabout with my Zenit-E with a 23mm Vivitar lens.   I find this lens somehow doesn't give the same beautiful colours I'm used to with the default Helios lens that comes with the Zenit-E, but I needed the wide view.

On an ordinary day in London, I ordered a beautiful cup of coffee, set it on the table, took a photo of it to preserve its beauty, set the Praktica BCA on the table and proceeded to commence drinking the coffee. "What's that?".  She sounded Spanish, accent-wise, so I answered "Es un cappuccino".  "No, I know what that is, THAT - your camera!".  "Oh!, It's a Praktica BCA....".  And so began the conversation.  Turned out she's a foreign student, from Spain, doing a Ph.D. in the sciences, as well as being a photography enthusiast.  I can't remember her name to save my life.  She was there to meet her boyfriend, who was visiting from New Zealand.  He was running late. And then this guy sat opposite us.  I hadn't noticed before.  He had mobility issues due to cerebral palsy.  He was on an epic film making quest about the daily issues and challenges faced by cerebral palsy sufferers such as himself.  He wasn't having...

One extremely busy day on Brick Lane, thousands of feet walking the streets, there was suddenly a moment of eery emptiness, and I was ready.

Some times I shoot random shots, apparently just because. You can trust this city though to randomly make things interesting in the background.  Random London.

I had been following  +Helen Briggs  for a while and am particularly fond of her double exposure work.  I was hence delighted when she agreed to swap films with me late last year. Film photography is exciting enough on its own - the anticipation, the uncertainty and so on, but with film swapping thrown in, both the uncertainty and anticipation are doubled - if you would excuse the pun. It was my first ever film swap so I am a bit of a novice,  unlike our Helen, but some delightful things still managed to happen.  'Twas the most wonderful time of the year afterall. I can't wait to do this again, especially now that I have a better idea of what to do in terms of exposure and framing.

Spring is well on its way here. This week brings promises of sunshine here in London. I'll be out with my cameras once again.  Monochrome season is over. Bring on the colour. And randomness.