Photographer for the Day plus Photo Books

 

I am now available for daily hire for that special event.  No matter what the event you can get me to record it from start to finish, setting up to packing up.  I will follow your brief throughout the day taking candid and posed shots of everything that makes the day special.  Once done I will add copies of all the images* to a DVD for you to keep.  You can use this DVD to select as many images as you like to be included in the layout of a Jessops photo book.  The layout design will be professionally designed, tailor made to suit the occasion and the images selected.  The layout fee for one layout is included in the daily rate and you can use this to order as many books as you like.  The books will be charged as cost price so the prices you see on the Jessops web site are the prices I will charge you.  Should you wish more than one layout, either because you want different images in a separate book or you want books of different shapes, that can be arranged for an extra fee.  

Apart from photo books, you can also use the images on the DVD to order prints, large canvases, pet portraits or any of the products offered by Sally Jane Photographic Art.  

All images on the DVD will measure 700 pixels along their longest edge making them more than suitable to share on the internet.  Please reference the images as taken by Sally Jane Photographic Art if you do out of courtesy. 

For further information and prices visit the Sally Jane Photographic Art web site.

Sanderson Regular circa 1904

Now this camera was a real treat to discover.  I remember my dad using this one a lot.  Mum had placed it in the care of my sister for safe keeping many years ago when she went off on an extended holiday and never remembered to ask for it back.  I had always assumed, like the other camera, that this had been sold after my father's death with his business.  So when my sister came with an old leather box a couple of days ago I was so pleased to discover what was inside.

The camera is a Sanderson Regular Hand & Filed camera built around 1904 so it would have been old when my dad had it.  It took either glass plate film or hand cut film measuring 5 x 4 inches.  Sadly I only have one of the negatives that was taken on this camera although my mother believes she had some of the glass plates stored away somewhere.  With such large negatives the camera was capable of recording vast amounts of detail which is why my father used to use it despite it's age.

One Interesting feature it has is it's ability to tilt shift the lens.  Although my knowledge of this kind of camera is very sketchy I believe this would have been used when taking wide angle shot to counteract the distortion.  For instance, when taking wide angle shots of buildings the walls tend to lean out or lean in depending on what angle you hold the camera at.  Tilting the lens helps to correct for that. Today, a tilt/shift lens will set you back hundreds of pounds for a SLR camera but here it was incorporated into the design.

This particular camera has had a few modification made to it.  I'm not sure the lens is original as they were often swapped and normally they had a brass view finder mounted on the base board but on this camera that has been removed and a glass view finder has been placed on the outside of the case as seen in the top image.

Still, the camera appears in remarkable good condition and, if I could get film for it, I'm sure it would still take brilliant images.

I'm glad to have had the opportunity to photograph it.  It will now be returned to my mother's care or, placed on loan to a museum.

Plaubel Makina

If you read my profile you will know I am following in my father's footsteps as regards to taking up photography.  He, however, was a commercial and industrial photographer whereas I specialise in pet portraiture.  Still, same principals apply.
My mother was recently clearing out her loft that had not been touched in decades.  She came across one of my fathers old cameras which she gave to me.  So I thought I would share it with you.
This camera is a Plaubel Makina IIIr. It dates back to the early 1950's. Dad would have probably bought it second hand. It is fitted with a 100mm f4.2 lens. I don't know if he had other lenses for it but he probably did.
It was designed to take individual negatives that were inserted into plates that fitted on the back. However, you could get an attachment to take roll film. The image below shows two rolliback for roll film and 4 film plates for individual negatives.

To focus the camera when it was on a tripod you fitted a piece of ground glass with a sun shade around it. You can just see the sun shade sticking out the back of the camera on these shots. The image would appear upside down on the ground glass plate. Once the image was composed and focused you removed the ground glass plate and replaced it with either the single negative plate holder or the rolliback containing the film. You could then expose it using the shutter release as normal. Not exactly something you could use for sports action.
If you wanted to use it hand held, instead of using the ground glass plate you could look through the pop up view finder  or use the range finder(the two rectangular ports on the top next to the view finder).
Really makes me appreciate my digital SLR.

Wednesday 23rd June
I've been encourage to take the plunge and run some film through this camera so I have ordered a couple of rolls of black & white 120 film.  It remains to be seen how competently I can use this camera so the results will be very interesting.

Film Scanner

I now have a film scanner which will allow me to work from negatives supplied by clients where I am otherwise unable to take the photographs myself and the client does not have access to a digital camera.  35mm or medium format film only.  All negatives will be returned once scanned.

Photographer of the Month

I've been selected as 'Photographer of the Month' for the Photo Nomads blog.  You can see the full article here

http://www.photo-nomads.co.uk/wordpress/?p=8897

Cheap Macro Option

If any of you have your own DSLR cameras and would like to try you hand a macro photography but can't afford the cost of a good macro lens, here is a cheap alternative.

Buy a reversing ring for which ever lens you have with the best low light performance (lowest f/stop number). A reversing ring will only cost a few of quid, mine cost £3.19 from e-bay including postage, and will allow you to mount your lens on your camera backward. Sounds strange? Well I have to say it looks a bit strange but the results are amazing.
Why the lens with the lowest f/stop number? Well, you can use any lens but light is important in macro photography so the more light available the better results.

I bought a 52mm reversing ring for my Nikon D300 which allows me to mount my 50mm f/1.4D lens backwards. The images below show the before and after. The first shot is the closest I can focus with the lens mounted correctly while the second has the lens reversed.
Now for such a cheap option there has to be a drawback, right? Right, there is, you have to focus manually and set the exposure manually without any light metering assistance from the camera. Focussing often means adjusting the distance between the camera and the subject too, rather than using the focussing ring but that may vary from lens to lens. Still, for £3 it's a great little device.

You can achieve even better results if you purchase a coupling ring which allows you to reverse mount a lens on the front of another normally mounted  lens.  Getting a coupling ring the right size to fit two lenses though can be difficult unless you have two lenses with the same diameter

DIY fix for a problem LCD on a Nikon Coolpix P5100

My Nikon coolpix P5100 developed an intermittent fault about 6 months after I bought it. I bough it second hand so I could not take it back for a replacement and as it was originally a grey import I could not send it to Nikon for repair either. The fault consisted of the LCD flickering and sometimes turning off unexpectedly. The camera still functioned in all other respects but I couldn't see anything on the screen. Pressing parts of the back of the camera sometimes restored it but not always. Eventually the fault became permanent so I found a repair guy on the internet and sent it off to him. He was very good and told me it was just a loose connection which he fixed and sent the camera back to me after billing me a nominal charge. The work was guaranteed for 6 months. OK, so that was fine.

Last week the LCD started acting up again. It was now over 6 months ago that the repair was carried out. I was faced with either sending it back and paying another repair fee and postage or trying to do something about it myself. I figured, if this was likely to be an ongoing problem with this camera I ought to learn how to fix it myself. I searched on the internet for a solution but found nothing so it was down to trial and error. As this was only a pocket camera and not one I rely on for my portraiture I decided I had little to lose.

You can see a detailed step-by-step guide as to how I fixed the LCD on my P5100 here.

New Galleries

All the galleries are now fully functional on my sister site at www.sally-jane.co.uk. this site is about general photography rather than Pet Portraits. You will find galleries for various subjects from still life to portraiture. If you are interested in commissioning me for any photographic work you will find contact details on the web site.