On Christmas Day

I took this on Christmas Day last year. It has been a good year. I learned how to develop and print B&W, I have been experimenting with film, got new cameras, took some great pictures, shot and put together my first photo story.
I still have a long way to go before I am able to produce the images that are in my head. For the year to come I want to wish for myself patience and courage to find and shoot those images.
To everyone who has been reading this experiment, thank you for stopping by and my best wishes for the coming year.
Ira

Autumn in London and misfortunes of the broken back

These are my favourites from four autumn films I shot around London. I had the misfortune to loose the screws that keep the back of the Zenit closed, so I one of the films is mostly ruined. The first and the last pictures are from that ruined film...

My Zenit Em and shooting with shallow focus

I generally shoot with a wide open lens since the Pentax is loaded most of the times with a 100 ISO film and light has been scarce as of lately in London. Despite of that you can't really say if I have been shooting with a wide open lens, unless it is a portrait. Like this one.

On the contrary the way the Helios lens on the Zenit renders the background is so much more visible.

I know both shots are different and all, but it seems like the Helios is the altogether better lens. Despite the fact that it is slightly slower compared to the Pentax-M 1.7/50 mm lens I have mounted on the Pentax.

Bottom line is, despite the fact the Zetit is double the size and weight of the Pentax, I should start carrying it around and shooting more with it.

What did your dreams turn into?

My cameras

I currently have four cameras: three film and one digital. The digital is a Nikon D60 and the film cameras are (left to right):
Zenit Em with a 44 mm lens, Pentax SuperMe with a 50 mm SMC lens and Smena 8 with an incomprehensable lens. :)

The Zenit is my dad's, the Pentax I got from a colleague who no longer uses it and the Smena came from a friend of my mum's after my desperate cry for long forgotten film cameras living in people's cupboards.

I usually shoot on the Zenit. I currently have a colour film in the Smena but because it has no built in meter and also the film advancement system is rather odd (you just rotate a button on top and there is nothing to stop you from rolling in the whole film) so I have no idea what is going to come out of it, but it is a toy anyways.

I am planning to get a colour film in the Pentax this week and go shooting on the weekend some of the blooming roses around town.