World Photography Day - 19th August

Went for a bit of a wander around town with my Holga on WPD.



I haven't developed my C41 ColorPlus films yet (Praktica BC1 and Gakkenflex clone) but will add them to my Flickr set when I do. :)

World Photography Day 2011 - Flickr Set

Bristol International Balloon Fiesta 2011

Wow, that was one hell of a day. The event was, to be honest, pretty dull to begin with. I'd never been before and it took a while to get going. The 'mass assent' was worth the wait, but the real gem of the show was the 'night glow'. This is where they tether the balloons to the ground and wait for night fall. They they fire the burners on load of balloons in time to music, with a firework finale. Very impress.

However, the event was marred in two ways for me. So badly in fact that I doubt I would go again. They were...

1) Appalling management of the parking. The online booking of spaces and the marshalling of traffic when we arrived was handled very professionally. However, after the event the experience took a nasty turn for the worse. I don't know if staff just left or if they expected 1 person to manage a car park with hundreds of cars. Either way it was a nightmare. Parking was in a field the same as you would expect at a car boot sale. We had been parked in rows, but there was nothing to stop people driving in a straight line to the exit, and this is what they did. This made the people who had formed an orderly queue quite upset. In the end members of the public took it upon themselves to marshal the traffic and regain order. A big thank you to Andrew and friends for stepping up to the task.

2) There were at least three attention seekers at the event with laser points who though it fun to shine them on the balloons. Continuously. Grow up.

Anyway, here are some photos from the event...

More photos from the event can be found on my Flickr photostream here.

Silent Holga?

I'm reticent to take photos in London for fear of being constantly harassed by rent-a-cops. The Police situation seems to be much better now, after the many, many high profile cases where the Police overstepped the law and prevented members of the public from taking photos legally. It can't be an easy job for them and on the whole they all seem to have got the message that we are allowed to take photos of anything from public places. However, the private security companies don't seem to have the same appreciation of the law.

This leads me to wanting to take photos more covertly, just to avoid trouble. I'm pretty good a taking photos from the hip, but the noise of the camera can still attract attention. The Holga is a good travel camera for me. It's light and if I drop it or lose it, I will be upset, but not as devastated as if I had just dropped my Bronica. Also, to a certain extent the Holga has a certain disarming charm that no other camera has.

I have a few ideas on how to make the Holga quieter, but was wondering if anyone else has done this kind of work before? The Holga community is very active in creating modifications, but I haven't found anything aimed at reducing the noise of the shutter or film advance as yet.