Photography with an 86 year old!

St James Park, Liverpool

Sorting out the loft (still not sorted by the way), I came across my dad’s old May Fair Camera. A simple box camera made in 1931.

After cleaning the May Fair inside and out, I ventured out armed with a new roll of 120mm Ilford HP4 – still available from Boots the Chemist – and made a few photographs at St James Park by Liverpool Cathedral. What you see above is scanned from the original print and has not been enhanced or altered. The weather was overcast but the light reasonable.

After using digital cameras for many years now it takes some getting used to the idea that you only have 8 negatives! It really focusses the mind on the job in hand.

The viewfinder is very small and despite my best efforts at cleaning remains a somewhat scratched. Composition was difficult and the photographer has to rely on sufficient light reaching the mirror that reflects the image up onto the tiny viewfinder.

My dad’s vintage May Fair Camera

I think for an 86 year old camera this image is impressive and I will be going out again to see what else I can capture with this vintage gem.

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A New Direction

My first camera

Back in May 2014 I posted this:

Over the past couple of years photography has increasingly become a more important part of my life. I use it as a part of my job as a graphic designer but I’m also using it more and more outside of the professional sphere to take images that give me pleasure or capture a moment in time. Drawing and painting are truly pleasurable activities too but there’s something about photographs & photography in general that is really beginning to dominate my free time.

I intend to post a some of my photographs to this blog, along with observations on photography, cameras equipment etc and I hope you enjoy the new direction this blog will now take. I will, as before, continue to make comment or write about other subjects or events that interest me or come to my attention.

To read my May 2104 post follow the link below:
https://taylorsimons.wordpress.com/2014/05/02/between-one-second-and-the-next/

A rare thing indeed

After the demise of Waterstones in Bold Street, see my earlier post: http://bit.ly/1W4XOBF bookshops in Liverpool are becoming few and far between. Reid of Liverpool is one of the few independent booksellers left in this city. A very rare thing indeed.

Reid of Liverpool is a traditional antiquarian & used bookshop, established in 1975. Over 40,000 titles of a most varied stock, from academic, science, fiction, unusual and arcane.

If you are interested in more go here: http://bit.ly/1W6fMc8

Type that makes me smile #2

But the beer is very good.

Type that makes me smile #1

Reception

A cathartic experience in the main.

This photo (above) is a faded polaroid of my old home studio which was carefully tucked away under the stairs of our home. Nothing in the picture now remains and only the washed out image capturing the past gives life to my memories of the objects within it.

It’s been a long time since I last posted to this blog. May the 2nd 2014 in fact. The reasons are many and largely personal and of probably of little interest to most people, so I’ll spare you the details…

However, over recent months circumstances have forced me to look back over the past. Going through old photographs, personal effects and having to wade through and then part with a lot of things that have accumulated over many years, both in my own life and the lives of others close to me. Charity shops seem very happy with much of what I’ve brought into them over the months and as for the rest – those ‘things’ that had had their day – it was off to the local Waste Recycling Centre. It’s been a cathartic experience in the main, as well as a truly exhausting one.

So I’m in a reflective state at the moment, when I can find the time. All the sifting and sorting is still going on, but the end (of sorts) is in sight now.

I thought it would be interesting to look back to May 2014, when I last managed to post to this blog and get a glimpse of what was in the headlines back then. This is a very short selection of what I found…

Malaysia’s government releases a preliminary report on a missing plane, and Nigerians search for the kidnappers of hundreds of girls.

UEFA to investigate nine clubs suspected of breaching financial fair play regulations

Jeremy Paxman quit Newsnight after new BBC news boss James Harding reprimanded him for ‘disloyal’ attack on ‘smug’ corporation.

and…

Boo Boo the bear cub is given a last-minute reprieve after officials threatened to put him down for biting 14 students and sparking fears of rabies outbreak on a campus. Two-month-old bear was part of petting zoo that visits Missouri university in May 2014.

So please bear with me (so sorry about that) as I do my best to bring this blog back to life and for those of you who have dipped in and out to check up on older posts – a big thank you. I’ve been amazed that this dormant blog has had so many views while I’ve ‘been away’ and it’s encouraging to know that blogging, in the age of Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, still has a place.

Between one second and the next

Over the past couple of years photography has increasingly become a more important part of my life. I use it as a part of my job as a graphic designer but I’m also using it more and more outside of the professional sphere to take images that give me pleasure or capture a moment in time. Drawing and painting are truly pleasurable activities too but there’s something about photographs & photography in general that is really beginning to dominate my free time.

Only a camera can capture that instant in time, that vital moment between one second and the next and record it forever. There’s something thrilling about that and I find it increasingly addictive.

Maybe as I’m getting older I notice how time appears to slide by at an alarming rate of knots these days. Possibly this is my futile attempt to freeze time, slow it down to a moment and hold it there for good.

The more images I take, the more I realise I have so much more to learn. I’m currently looking at the work of Saul Leiter and Cartier-Bresson, two masters of the art. I recommend their work if you like me have an interest in photography.

If you want to take a look at a few of my images then they can found on my Flickr site. I would be delighted if you paid them a visit and added a comment here and there.