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April 2022

18 Apr

Posted at 09:06h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Make up your darned mind. Those of you with children or cats who stand in the doorway will now exactly where the title of this post comes from. But it is also a muttered undertone for a lot of photographers - and that included me over the weekend. I'd taken a Fujifilm X-E2 camera along to the in-laws for Saturday luncheon and was intending to take some group pictures. It was even attached to the little Sirui tabletop tripod I use for reportage at shop open nights. Beautiful combination - but only when there is electricity in the battery to work it. There was electricity in the battery when I put it into the bag at home  - but it had all run out and run away by the time I got to Mandurah. The wretched on/off switch had been activated as I loaded it and the camera was switched on the whole trip. The first indication that something was wrong was the fact that it was red-hot inside the bag - and the little red dead-battery icon confirmed it. The lunch was...

15 Apr

Posted at 07:38h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Is whom? What name springs to mind? Is it a name you don't know? Is it your own name? Drawn to this by a supposed quote from Billy Connolly that said he measured success for himself by the amount of time in a week when he could do what Billy Connolly wanted to do. I find myself suspecting any quote or meme that reaches me on social media - since many of them are constructs and mis-attributions designed to push a political message. But I rather like the idea expressed with this one. If it really was the Big Yin who said it, thank you. So who IS the most successful? If it is a question that revolves around money earned, you'd have to be guided by the ATO. The banks won't reveal who has the most in their accounts - unless you're emailing as a Nigerian lawyer with the legacy of a prince to distribute. The photographers themselves won't say, and even if they get together in a conference, numbers mentioned are likely to be imaginary. No-one likes to tell real...

13 Apr

Posted at 10:10h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Because it probably isn't mine. The writer of this column is looking alternately at a keyboard and an iMac screen. Peering would be a better word, and it is being done around a number of internal barriers in his eyes. Floating bodies, cataracts, and what have you. Plain sheets of paper are starting to look like ordnance survey maps. The time is coming when something will need to be done. I bring this up because the fate of your hard-won traditional photographic print - the one that you started growing months ago when you hauled out the old SLR camera and which you have nurtured lovingly through so many tanks, trays, and chemicals - depends on the eyes that see it. And upon the way they do. a. The eyes that see it may be a wonky as mine. If someone criticises your picture for a technical fault that you are sure does not exist, suspect the final two lenses through which it is perceived. Do not get annoyed and be tempted to poke a finger in there. Beauty is in the eye of...

11 Apr

Posted at 08:37h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

If it's like my computer screen, pretty darn flat. The same applies to the EIZO monitors that Camera Electronic sells - wonderfully professional display devices that are far more accurate that the eyes that peer into them. Even if you are off, the EIZO's are on. But what about the results from your newly printed analogue image? The wonderfully retro art that the new film shooter has been able to produce in only a week? What does it look like? Well, if the neg or slide went into a professional lab and came out as a RA-4 or inkjet print - pretty darn flat as well. Ditto if the photographer did it at home through the scan-compute-inkjet route. Prints from the output tray of my Epson R3000 printer on Epson or Ilford papers come out nearly as flat as the paper that went in the feed slot. The addition of ink makes for a little buckling, but this gasses off and dries out and the final prints are dead flat again. Note that I always store my printing paper in its original package, flat,...

08 Apr

Posted at 08:28h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Have you ever gone into a shop or showroom and purchased an instrument? It felt like an important moment, didn't it? It could have been a musical instrument - your first guitar. A wind instrument. A Bechstein grand piano for the porch on the beach house at Dunsborough...

06 Apr

Posted at 08:37h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Is Camera Electronic a store or a shop? Yes. Both. Two shops that store all sorts of photographic gear and shop staff that store all sorts of photographic knowledge. Even the writer of the shop weblog column knows how many beans make five. It's six, but you can go onto your computer and claim a bean-back...

04 Apr

Posted at 08:25h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

And a big picture at that. Newbie, you are not so new as before. You went through the entire process of buying film, loading it, taking pictures with it, and developing it. You have a black and white negative in a plastic sleeve or paper envelope - not in a hot and sweaty hand, thank you. That negative is a precious thing, and, unlike a digital file, can be irreparably marred if you put fingerprints on it. Those plastic sleeves that CE sells are there for a purpose. How do you go from the neg to a positive picture? Three ways: a. Take the negative sleeve to the professional laboratory and ask for prints of the pictures. You can have them in many sizes, but remember that the traditional photographic sizes are still running in Imperial measures. This you may get a 4" x 6", a 5" x 7", an 8" x 10"  an so on. Photographers are dinosaurs, really, but take some comfort from the numbers. If they start asking you whether you want half-plate or cabinet size you'll know they are...

01 Apr

Posted at 08:27h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Ah, Grasshopper, you have had your first films developed. You have the scans and have seen the images on your computer. You are proud. Now you must humble yourself again. It is time for you to develop. And if you ever wanted to make a mess, here is your chance. If you share accommodation this will be a trying time. Your housemates will consider murdering you, for you will steal their bathroom. First off - do not try colour processing initially. It involves precise temperature controls and handling of dangerous liquids and is best left to the professional lab. Concentrate on black and white negative development. There will be dry work and wet work - the bathroom - and some new equipment to borrow or buy. If you are able to use a communal darkroom at a school or a club, by all means do so for a year - you'll learn so much that you can bring back to your own premises, without losing the good will of your housemates. If you are on your own, you'll need: a. An entirely dark room...

30 Mar

Posted at 09:14h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Unless it is a film on the front of your lens. The newly-hatched photographic chick who has just discovered grand-Dad's old SLR or TLR in the closet ( and had it serviced at the Camera Electronic Repair Department ) can turn to their left from the Service Counter - turn right around - and see the film fridge. Now's the time to start thinking about what goes through the camera. There has always been a variety of film available for analogue cameras. Monochrome negative emulsions, colour negative emulsions, colour transparency emulsion. For a time there were monochrome transparency emulsions sold. All sorts of mnames from all sorts of factories; Kodak, Ilford, Orwo, Agfa, Fujifilm, Sakura, Perutz, Adox,etc, etc. Many are just history now, and some names have been brand-traded to different factories, but that film fridge is still full. The choices may not be as wide today, but you can still shoot all year on good stocks in most divisions. And you can shoot on a 35mm camera or a medium-format camera just like the old days. You can't shoot on a 126...