The Superheadz Demekin Fisheye Camera

My wife gave me a Superheadz Demekin fisheye camera last Christmas as a novelty present.

I've written a full review of the camera here but I'll summarise here as follows:

The camera is small, light, with a very wide angle lens and is very simple to use. you can see from the examples show that the image quality is as good as you'd expect from a 110 film camera. Which actually is not too bad - it reminds me of the super 8 films my grandmother would take of my sisters and I when we were little children scampering about. The 110 film has the same vibrant colours and impressionist feel as Super 8 film.

This is a great camera for whipping out and taking a surreptitious photograph - you don't have to aim it and it's so small most people won't notice. That being said I was caught ought by a Moroccan street vendor in Marrakesh who harangued me saying that I was a very bad person for taking photographs without permission and obviously Jewish (!?). He looked confused when I told him I was a Roman Catholic.

110 film is rare these days though eBay seems to have regular supplies and there are labs that can process the format so the Superheadz Demekin is not impractical.

I don't normally push products but on this occasion I will - this camera is alot of fun and is small enough to fit in your pocket when you go travelling. The pictures are vibrant and reasonably sharp. The Superheadz Demekin would make a great gift to a friend or relative or for yourself.

You can buy the cameras on Amazon as you can see below:

Vincent Price promotes the Nishika N8000

This is probably the best promotional video ever produced. Getting the great Vincent Price to sell the virtues of the Nishika 3D camera was an act of genius.

If this doesn't make you buy the Nishika N8000 nothing will.

Facebook URGENT CALL!!!!!!!!!!!!

My brother in law told me that Social Media Marketing was THE thing last night and that I needed a facebook profile and a twitter account. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be marketing but I've just set up my first face book account.

I obviously don't want to look like billy no mates so this is an urgent call to whoever it is who actually reads this blog to become my friend on facebook.....I know there's one of you out there so stop sending me hate mail and be my friend on facebook instead!!!

You can find me on facebook/wanderingholga (I think?) my username is wanderingholga anyway.

In the meantime here's another photo from Morocco. I'm not normally a big fan of double exposures but this (accidental) shot was taken in the Jardin Marjorelle in Marrakesh.


So please help launch my cyber social life into the 21st century and be my friend on facebook....

PS does anybody know how to my posts on my blog appear on my facebook wall?

Marrakesh

Here are a couple of shots taken during a trip to Marrakesh in January 2010. Both images were taken with a Holga.




The first photo was taken towards sunset on the famous Djemaa el Fna. The square fills up every evening with food stalls, acrobats, snake charmers, story tellers hustlers and thieves and the locals come to eat, meet their friends and take in the colourful entertainment. This image though is one of my favourites as it captures the atmosphere of the place. The photo was taken with Ilford Delta 3200 pushed to ASA25,000.


The second shot was a chance encounter - my wife and I were walking down a side street when I noticed a butcher talking to a local man in berber dress. The butcher was framed by his meat and hooks and so I decided to take a take a discrete shot from the other side of the road. The light was about as low as the film and holga could take but I was very pleased with the results. The final frame had to be heavily cropped and it's a shame there wasn't enough light to show the detail on the man talking to the butcher but I like the colour and the atmosphere of the image.

Click on photographs of Marrakesh to see the full gallery. I'll be posting some other favourites soon. In the meantime please feel free to comment on anything you see in the blog, post links, follow, or whatever.

Colombia

These are some shots taken during a recent holiday in Colombia. My wife and I stayed in Cartagena del la Indias to attend the wedding of a friend.

Cartagena is a colonial gem and grew wealthy from being the principal jumping off point for Spanish convoys taking gold and silver to Spain. This wealth also attracted the attention of privateers most famous of which was that great English sailor, Sir Francis Drake, who paid the city a visit much to the consternation of the locals (and my great amusement some 400 years later!)

Click on the link to see the full gallery of photographs of Cartagena

The three are amongst my favourites though. They were all taken with my Holga loaded with my favourite colour print film, Kodak Portra 160NC.

Where Land Meets Sea

Taken with a Holga 120wpc loaded with Fomapan 200, developed in Ilfotec DDX. I wanted to capture a simple image contrasting the different textures of land and sea.

Kiev 60 at Canvey Island

I recently purchased an old Soviet made Kiev 60 camera on ebay on a whim having seen some photos taken with the camera on the web. To be honest it had always been on my wish list to buy a medium format SLR and the price was right so I paid my money and got my camera a few days later.

I was abit taken aback by the sheer size of the thing when it arrived. I'm used to carrying around the light weight plastic holga but the Kiev is the same size and weight of a small tank - I almost wasn't sure whether to take photos or invade Berlin!

Anyway I had also bought some Fuji Provia 400X and Kodak Ektachrome 64T on ebay so I grabbed a roll of each and drove to Canvey Island to see what I could see. Anybody who knows Canvey Island would understand there is no better place for an old Soviet camera and when I got there the first place I found was a funfair. The full gallery is here but I will post more of the images on this blog as I was blown away by the results.

The first photo was taken with the 400X, the second with the 64T.

Winter Landscapes

A couple of landscapes taken during a walk around the River Lea near Cheshunt. Taken with my Holga loaded with Ilford XP2 400.



Feel free to comment, link as you please.

3D Fun at Christmas

I finally finished scanning all my films and am now editing the images which will take me a few weeks yet.

The first batch of photos were taken on Christmas day at Henley on Thames with my favourite 3D camera the Nishika N8000. Most of the photos I took that day didn't come out because the camera could not cope with the indoor lighting. These four images were taken at about 4.00pm as the light was fading outside. the film is Provia 100F xpro'd - which I think adds to the gloomy effect.

The images are a little dark but fun none the less.

Scanning!

Just got back from Colombia and spent the week end processing the forty odd films from Marrakesh, Colombia and various outings around Broxbourne.

Am now light headed from inhaling Blix fumes! And scanning all the films which will probably take 6 months. This is one I like taken in the Djena el Fnaa in Marrakesh. Ilford Delta 3200 pushed to ASA 25,000 for all you technical nuts.

The image hasn't been photoshopped yet so it's a little untidy.