After much nagging by my dear friend & fellow photographer Toby, I finally put digit to keyboard and wrote a load of words down for the fantastic 35mmc website. It's about how I learnt how to use the Butchers Cameo quarter plate camera that my other mate (Rob) leant me in order to make old fashioned paper negatives and develop them at home. It's a bit like when you watch one of those grand design programs, and you think 'these people have no idea what they are doing - they'll never finish the job!'. Well that was basically me, I was in way over my head but somehow, luck, enthusiasm and good pointers & advice from my friends meant that somehow in the end I managed to actually get some half decent results. No one was more surprised than I was! Now that I'm about 60 or 70 exposures down the line I am confident enough to be able to get fairly consistent results, so I'm even thinking I might take it out a bit more often in public and shoot some old buildings, vehicles and even people if they are able to sit still long enough... Watch this space! I'm also considering whether there might be a chance that other people want to learn how to use something like this in which case I might be offering some lessons soon (covid restrictions permitting!) Meanwhile I have just ordered some chemicals to enable me to develop my own B&W film so that will be another first. I have all the equipment so it seems stupid to keep paying the lab to do it. I'll keep you posted on that one... The article on 35mmc is here: https://www.35mmc.com/30/03/2021/butchers-cameo-quarter-plate-camera-by-emma-wheeler/ A few pics below from the piece.
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