Tag Archives: pentax

Photography

Trying to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear

Westward Ho! is a ridiculous, bizarre  and unusual name for a seaside shithole

These photographs were taken using a Pentax Espio 120mi, which I obtained from a charity shop for £1.50 and is an appropriate junkshop camera to take images of a low market, seaside, caravan site infested, blot on the landscape.

I have done my best to make this place look as attractive as I can…

westward_ho westward_ho_pebbles

The village name comes from the title of Charles Kingsley’s novel Westward Ho! (1855) which was set in nearby Bideford. The book was a bestseller, and entrepreneurs saw the opportunity to develop tourism in the area. Which explains why a perfectly beautiful piece of coast looks like an inner city crap hole.

Photography

Pentax Espio 120mi #pentax #35mm #film – Vintage film cameras

More and more people are turning to Charity Shops to buy goods. Other people’s castaways are somebody else’s ‘can use’. Not only can you purchase usable quality clothing, you can get (slightly) out of date technology – there is nothing wrong with something manufactured in the 1970s, 80s, or 90s. Like antiques and fine art, quality is quality.lisa_westward_hoThe photograph above was taken using a Pentax Espio 120mi, which I obtained from a charity shop for £1.50 and is point-and-shoot, mid-range, 35mm film camera. The Espio is an autofocus unit with automatic exposure settings and a built in flash unit.
old_boat_bideford

Design initiatives make this a small and flexible camera – notably the physical size and overall quality of finish make this camera a stylish baby. It houses a good quality zoom lens (38-120mm) with plenty of features that enable a variety of picture taking settings.

The focus and exposure system on this easy to use camera is an improvement on earlier Pentax compacts, giving sharp results and a decent contrast of tones. One of the most useful applications available on this model is ‘backlight compensation’ setting, which enables you to take a photograph using natural light in the background and flash in the foreground, giving an even tone across the image. Panorama mode is included in this little package which gives a different aspect ratio from most other cameras.

Art

Creating a fake

Creating a real vintage looking image is better than creating a fake. This image was taken with a Pentax K1000 35mm camera in July 2012.

The Pentax K1000 is an almost all metal, mechanically (springs, gears, levers) controlled, manual-focus SLR with manual exposure control. It was completely operable without batteries. It only needed batteries (one A76 or S76, or LR44 or SR44) for the light metering information system. This consisted of a center-the-needle exposure control system using a galvanometer needle pointer moving between vertically arranged +/– over/underexposure markers at the right side of the viewfinder to indicate the readings of the built-in full-scene averaging, cadmium sulfide (CdS) light meter versus the actual camera settings. The meter did not have a true on/off switch and the lens cap needed to be kept on the lens to prevent draining the battery when the K1000 was not in use.

Pentax K1000. (2012, May 31). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:26, June 8, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pentax_K1000&oldid=495230110

The rise of Instagram,  a free photo sharing program that was launched in October 2010 is the best example of this ‘look back’ at analogue photography from the 20th century. This service allows users to take a photo and apply a digital retro filter to it and then share it on most social networking services. The distinctive retro feature of this app is that it converts photos, which in contemporary formats are rectangle, to a square shape, like Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid images of the 70s. The most common aspect ratios used in still camera photography, are 4:3, 3:2 (more recently in consumer cameras 16:9 is being used). Other used aspect ratios include 5:3, 5:4, and 1:1 which produces the square format. Most mobile devices have a 4:3 aspect ratio.

The problems of fragmentation and confusion that exist within more traditional art practices, such as painting and sculpture (in the broadest possible milieu) are mirrored in new art practices. Within these technological and new media categories, diverse concepts and imagery has been lumped together to form a hodgepodge of non-related methodologies and artworks.

What is this direction?

The meshing together of processes, unrelated imagery and the breaking down of barriers cannot be seen as a shortcut to intellectual credibility. The dedicated thought process that goes with the creative procedure should be one of intense reasoning. It is therefore unrealistic to expect the uneducated masses to use the computers prescriptive decision making to create ‘real art’. The birth of Photoshop has enabled everybody to create ‘non-intellectual’ versions of Rauschenberg (and Warhol) – this is not ART.

Biography

Self Portrait 1974 – Photograph

This was taken with a 35mm Pentax SLR in 1974 and manipulated in the darkroom in Stourbridge College of Art and Design. This reminds me of the simple pleasures I had messing about with making images – it is a shame I have become cynical.

There are millions of ‘Art’ viewpoints; some take a position of extreme difficulty or resistance. This position questions everything and is unforgiving. The principal is that artists should look beyond the superficiality of life and expose the core. They should also look at the superficiality of Art and culture and rip and tear at the flesh of its own conception, rejecting Metaphor, Romanticism etc. etc. By implementing such self imposed draconian measures you may be left with a purity of ideas but that leaves little to create or live for.

QUALIFICATIONS:
Postgraduate Certificate from Wolverhampton University  in Painting
BA(hons) degree from Exeter College of Art and Design in Printmaking

EDUCATION:
2004-2006 Bristol University
2002-2003 Wolverhampton University
19761979 Exeter College of Art & Design
1974-1976 Stourbridge College of Art & Design

Beauty and the Beast

£51.12

Media: Painting and Screen Print on canvas, signed and dated 2011.

Size: 400mm x 400mm

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