You still use an OM1?

 After last year's relative success with the OM1 and a T32 flash gun (decent exposures, and no complaints about being blinded from the family), this time I brought out the OM2, to make use of its fully auto option. Just set the camera to Auto (no need to set a shutter speed), the aperture to a recommended f/5.6, and let the camera do the rest.  Once again, the results were pretty good. I will only show one of the many "family opening presents" shots, as it is the one which people like best. As well as a growing grandson, it shows that the musical tastes of my son (on the right) have matured to the point of liking Bruce Springsteen, which is well worth celebrating. Meanwhile, out in the garden, last year's Christmas tree was decorated again.

As I hinted a couple of posts ago, not all of the recent OM photos were taken with an OM1.  My experiment with flash at Christmas got me thinking. I had a T32 flash gun, which works well in a manual sort of way on the OM1, but on later models it can be fully automatic. So...hello and welcome to a nice OM2N.  All working smoothly so far, an Auto mode if I am feeling lazy, and Manual if I want to recreate the OM1 experience.  Meanwhile the OM1 with the non-working meter has moved on to a new owner. I'm sure it will have a long and happy life, never needing another battery.

Just a quick one, mainly so I don't forget it myself. A couple of less than perfect buying experiences have revolved around the reliability of the OM1's light meter. Something I learned along the way is a test to see if the meter is calibrated correctly. With the meter switched OFF, turn the shutter speed to B, the film speed to 1600, and the aperture to f8. The needle in the viewfinder should be level. Apparently, small adjustments can be made if it is slightly up or down (don't ask me how). If it is way out, it may be beyond help.

 It's been a while, but photography hasn't stopped. My OM1 adventures were interrupted for a while by my first steps in black & white developing. Father Christmas brought me a developing tank and all the other essential bits, and the next couple of months were spent putting films through various cameras and trying to perfect the method of getting decent results from the chemistry sessions. Of course, things didn't always work as planned, and it meant that some of the photos I took were best forgotten, but after a few trials of different timings and agitation techniques, I seem to have it sorted, touch wood. So in an effort to catch up, here are a few of the recent shots from my stable of OM1s. Kodak Portra400 Kodak Ultra400, Zuiko 35-105 Kodak Ultra400, Zuiko 35-105 Kodak Ultra400, Zuiko 35-105 Kodak Ultra400, Zuiko 35-105 Kodak Ultra400, Zuiko 50mm Kodak 400tx, Zuiko 35-105 Kodak 400tx, Zuiko 35-105 Kodak Potra400 Just realised - a couple of these weren't taken wit...

 I have never been a big fan of flash photography. It probably stems from years of using those little point and shoot cameras with built-in flash, often at parties or family gatherings. The resulting pictures of people with red eyes were one thing. But the other effect I found was that going around with a flash tends to put people off having their picture taken in the first place. Better to just point and click if you can get away with the lack of light. So for the last few annual Christmas gatherings I have used a fast film if the room we were in was getting plenty of daylight, or not bothered if it was too dark. This year I decided to give flash another go. The later OM models had the ability to use various Olympus flash units in fully automatic mode, where all you had to do was turn the flash on and fire away. For my OM1, that's not an option, but I decided to keep things in the family and found an Olympus T32 flash to try out. Because of the changes they made to the flash autom...

 When I wander around a town with camera in hand, I often ignore views and buildings because, well, they're a bit ordinary. But then our local paper runs features on its website where they dig out twenty photos of the town centre from the 1970s, and it's fascinating. Just ordinary shots of ordinary buildings, but the pictures capture the time, and we all look at them and remember.  So, in future I will try to take a few "ordinary" pictures and hope they mature into something worth looking at.  As a start, another regular feature in the local paper are the stories of pubs closing without warning. A local brewery, Sam Smiths, own about 300 pubs, mostly across the North of England, with another cluster in and around London. The northern branch of the business is run by Humphrey Smith, and while his idea of what a pub should be might appeal to some, it doesn't make life easy for the people running them. No television, no music, no phones, no electronic devices, no swe...

 The arrival of a new baby into the family is a big cause for celebration, even more so when it's your first grandchild. Of course, it is also a fine opportunity to take some photos - these moments simply have to be captured. Everybody says "they grow up fast", and it's true, so getting images of the first few weeks was something I was keen to do. It's probably true to say that of all the pictures I have taken, and will take in the future, these are the ones which will be looked at the most in 10, 15, 20, years from now. Daughter Sally gave birth to little Stanley at the end of August, and spent the first few days in a hospital room with hardly any light at all - a couple of flourescent tubes, and a small frosted window covered with a net curtain. Still, I managed to get a couple which passed my test of "worth keeping". I just opened the lens right up, took the shutter speed as low as I dare, and crossed my fingers.  After that, Stanley has been snapped ...