Heroes: Robert Capa

One of the great things about writing a blog is that I can impose my tastes on an unsuspecting nation!  Here's the first in a series of posts about my favourite photographers.

Robert Capa lived and died for his art.  He was a Hungarian combat photographer who covered five different wars.  None of the airbrushed falsehoods for Capa; he consistently portrayed the violence of war with unique impact.  If you're as impressed as I was you may well enjoy this excellent book.

Modifications For the Risk-Averse

The Holga is a very simple camera and lends itself to a whole host of modifications.  The trouble is that a lot of these alterations are irreversible.  I love my Holga and I am risk-averse when it comes to fiddling with it!

Although the Holga usually takes 120 film I have lovingly stuffed the camera with 35mm film... and I was really pleased with the results (see the photo).  Got to love those sprocket holes.  All it takes is some foam, some sticky tape, an elastic band and some scissors... and a bit of patience!  Here is a video showing you how to do it.  Enjoy!

We Need To Talk About Film

It's daunting choosing film isn't it?  Having taken thousands of photographs I have realised that there are just a handful of films that consistently give me the results that I want.  Let's start with straight-forward colour photography.

If I want vibrant colours I use the reasonably priced Fuji's Superia X-TRA 400  It is a "fast film" which means that you can shoot in lower light without much grain.  Most importantly though, it captures colour better than any other film that I have used.  Don't be afraid to buy old stock - as long as it has been stored properly you are likely to have very few issues even a couple of years past the expiry date.  It's also available in 35mm

In future posts I will recommend films for black & white and cross-processing.

Life's Like That

Last night I watched a documentary about Life Magazine on BBC4, and very good it was too.  A few clicks on Google took me to the lovely Life Magazine website containing millions (yes, literally millions) of photos from the archives as well as new photographs to illustrate current news.

If you love photography I can guarantee you many hours of enjoyment exploring this wonderful site.  There is a rather splendid book too: The Great LIFE Photographers

Life Through a Plastic Lens

If you have arrived at this blog it is probably because you have a plastic camera or because you want a plastic camera.  Either way you are in the right place because we'll be telling you where to get your hands on them and what you can do with them once you've got one.

We do hope that you enjoy the blog.  If there's something that you’d like to share with us then please post a comment as we would love to hear from you.