90s bois. Set the camera up in the grass. Push the little lever. Wait for the mechanical whirl to end in a click. And a day in 1996 is captured in grainy, squinty glory. What were we up to on plum-pudding hill that noon? Digging. Just another madcap Gareth scheme.
I’ve always wanted one of these pancake 40mm lenses to turn my trusty little camera of 25 years into a proper compact when the mood strikes me. And this one looks and feels almost unused.
Misty morning in Observatory - looking down from our balcony onto the neighbourhood cult compound. Took the opportunity to take my #pentaxmx out in the mist, down to the international hockey tournament happening just a hundred meters away.
#tbt It couldn’t have been more obvious that ‘bar mooda’ was a front for organised crime. Expensive décor. No one in it. The police did nothing for reasons that are easy to guess. It took the staff being tied up and the place being firebombed to finally drive this particular blight from Observatory. This was taken on the morning of the firebombing.
She’s out and about after many years.
Hers ’n his. All ready to roll. Two of the most elegant cameras to emerge from the genius of 20th C Japanese engineering. On the right is my Pentax MX, available from 1976 - my birth year - which I’ve used since 1993 and has been all over the world with me. On the left the Olympus OM4 which came out in 1983. It’s an electronic marvel compared to the all mechanical MX. I got it for @withoutaleaf to document #setlife . ...
I found this pretty awesome pic of my pretty awesome sister-in-law, @awesomemeerkat (it’s right there in the name) who just had her birthday. This was at an ancient oak in Glastonbury back in 2000.
#tbt When the Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) cathedral was built it was the largest church in the Christian world and had the largest dome of any building. After Constantinople was conquered by the Turks (the final end of the Roman Empire) it was converted into a mosque (as Christians did to mosques in Southern Spain too) and the minarets were added. But the original 1st church of the Roman Empire still stands today. And this is what it looked like on a nice day in Istanbul in 2000.
#tbt From fake Tri-X to the real thing. The beautiful young Gareth by candlelight in 1997.
While I’m going through some ancient pics, this is one I’ve always been fond of. Scanned a bit small. I used a clunky old Takumar 400mm lens and my old Pentax MX with Tri-X film. I’m still interested in making wildlife pics with B&W, though it’s not as original an idea as it was back in 2002 or whenever.