Gary Danton's Digital Scrapbook

A Nice Surprise

Hi All

I love reading the feedback I get for my photos on flickr, but every now and then I get a nice little surprise. One of my most recent images has been added to a gallery of images called “The Quays” on The Lowry, Salford‘s flickr page.

The image was taken using Hipstamatic on the iPhone just outside The Lowry Theatre. Its a great place to take photo’s as the architecture is very unique and photogenic.

I’m flattered to be included in the gallery, especially seeing the quality of some of the other images selected, and a little bit of exposure (no pun intended) is always nice.

Thanks

Gary

Tags: flickr, Hipstamatic, IPhone, Lowry, manchester, salford, Salford Greater Manchester

Horwich Parkway – A Mini Panorama

Horwich Parkway, a photo by Gary Danton on Flickr.

Hi All,

Just a quick post today – I’ve been messing around with a few of the Hipstamatic images I took on the train a few weeks ago and found two that were particularly suited to a panorama.

Initially I attempted the lazy way and did it with a photo-merge in photoshop, but the results were hideous, so I had to do it the good old fashioned way. 10 minutes of cursing and a lot of tongue poking later and I had what I wanted.

I finished it off with a canvas textured neutral backdrop to keep with the retro feel.

Thanks

Gary

Tags: flickr, Hipstamatic, Horwich, IPhone, IPhone 4, panorama

Little Discoveries

Hi All,

I’ve recently been clearing out my office space and I happened on an exposed roll of Ilford HP5+ 120 film. Initially I couldn’t for the life of me remember when I had shot it – I’ve only had a single roll developed for my Holga.

After some thinking and checking through my images on flickr, I do remember taking the Holga with me when I went for a drive over to Belmont, back in March (the Hipstamatic images taken were posted here, here and here). There should be some similarities in the images, as they would have been shot at the same subjects.

I’m going to use Ilford Labs again for the processing, but as 120 format scanning is a little on the dear side I think i’ll get them developed as nice 6″x6″ prints and then scan them in from there (even though I’ve got a reasonable flatbed scanner, I still struggle to get a decent scan from a negative).

I’ll get this roll of in the next few days – i’m intrigued to see how they came out. I do remember it being quite a sunny day, so i’m hoping for better results than my first roll (very gloomy conditions).

Thanks

Gary

Tags: 120 film, Camera, Holga, Photography, Techniques and Styles, Toy camera

Abandoned Power Station

Abandoned Power Station, a photo by Gary Danton on Flickr.

Hi All,

At the end of last week, I did a little bit of urbexing around the Red Moss area of Horwich.

We went specifically to find the old power station that used to be attached to the old Horwich Loco Works – the Loco Works now acts as industrial storage and the power station has been stripped and left to rot.

We wanted to get inside the building and have a look around, but due to the local flooding we had to settle on a long distance shot.

I’ve planned lots more exploring of the Red Moss SSSI over the summer and I’ll post what I find here.

Thanks

Gary

Tags: Black and White, flickr, Horwich, Power station

Kodak Ektar 100

Hi All

I’ve been playing with some colour film lately, specifically Kodak Ektar 100. When I do shoot film, I tend to shoot on various black and white films from the Ilford range, so this was a nice change.

Kodak Ektar 100 Test Shot #3 by Gary Danton

Kodak Ektar 100 Test Shot #3, a photo by Gary Danton on Flickr.

This is the first time I’ve used professional grade colour film so I didn’t really know what to expect – I’m more used to the cheaper Kodak Gold film. To this was to be a bit of a voyage of discovery.

I used my standard film camera setup for these shots, consisting of my aging Olympus OM10 with a 35mm f2.8 Zuiko lens, I’m pretty familiar with this setup and I knew the types of shots I was after.

I’d like to say that I’m more than happy at the results achieved with this film. The film was processed and scanned at Boots in Bolton, so I wasn’t expecting miracles but the colours came out really well. I love the over saturated colour that the film produced, they make such a difference compared to the cheaper generic films.

I do have a second roll of Ektar stashed in my camera bag just waiting for an excuse to be used 🙂

You can check out the rest of the set on flickr here.

Thanks

Gary

Tags: Bolton, Boots, flickr, Ilford, Photographic film, Photography

Holga Projects

Image via Wikipedia

Hi All,

I’d just like to tell you all about a little project that I’ve just signed up for called “Holga Projects“.

The basic premise is that a number of Holga 120 cameras, already loaded with film are being sent around the world to different project members. Once you recieve your camera, you take 3 shots, then pass onto the next member, where-ever in the world they may be.

The project is being run by Ted Forbes who also runs a couple of great podcasts called The Art of Photography and The Photography Show.

The following project manefesto is taken from the project website:

The idea is simple. We will send a Holga camera loaded with film around the world with a theme. Photographers who want to participate will get 3 shots to fill on the roll before sending the camera to the next person (4 people per camera). When the camera is returned to me I will process the film by hand and post the entire roll with photographer credits on the show website.

Its a great project that I can’t wait to be a part of. I think that spaces are still available and if your interested, send an email to Ted at the following address: holgaprojects@theartofphotography.tv making sure that “Holga Projects” is in the subject field.

Thanks

Gary

Tags: Camera, Holga, Photography, Techniques and Styles, Toy camera

Chilean Volcanoes

Hi All,

Occasionally while browsing news sites on the web I see an image that I absolutely have to share, well this is one of them:

This image was found via the BBC’s website and is credited to Reuters.

This image was published on the Beebs website under the regular “In Pictures” feature. In this instance the pictures were of volcanoes in Chile’s Puyehue-Cordon-Caulle range erupting millions of tonnes of ash and rock 5km into the air.

Its a wondeful, once in a lifetime image.

Thanks

Gary

Tags: BBC, chile, Reuters, volcano

North Wales Redux

Hi All,

These images were both taken on a recent trip to North Wales. I’d originally converted these to Black and White (here and here) as they were a little dull.

I really liked the shots so I had a little play in photoshop, and managed to tweak the colours exactly as I wanted them.

I know that some people frown on heavily tweaked images, but these are both true to the original colours of the scene. I love them both 🙂

Thanks

Gary

Tags: North Wales, Photography, Wales

New Camera

Pentax P30n with Hoya 28mm f2.8 by Gary Danton

Pentax P30n with Hoya 28mm f2.8, a photo by Gary Danton on Flickr.

Hi All, I recently picked up a new camera of Ebay for a paltry £13 – a Pentax P30n.

I’d been looking for a while to replace my (slightly knackered) Chinon CM-4s but could never find a bargain. Despite my misgivings about Ebay I took a punt.

The lens is a Hoya 28mm f2.8 wide angle on an m42 screw mount. I found it advertised on a local shops website for £9.99 – at that price I really couldn’t complain!

I cant wait to put this new camera through its paces.

Thanks

Gary

Tags: Camera, Chinon, Ebay, flickr, Pentax, Photography