Jonathan

Keys, music and rose

Still life photography isn’t usually a field I dabble in. You might think it would be easy, but it’s actually quite hard to make an arrangement that looks good. I’m quite pleased with this arrangement, although I’m hopeless at making up titles so it is simply called keys, music and rose. This picture was takenContinue reading “Keys, music and rose”

Gatecrasher

OK, so this isn’t a gate, and it isn’t so much being crashed as crushed, but I stand by my title. This metal fence was bent by a large branch that fell from a tree. It is a huge branch – larger than the trunk of most trees. The tree from which it fell is just outContinue reading “Gatecrasher”

Oldbury Court revisited

I like to live within walking distance of photogenic areas. Until a few years ago, we used to live adjacent to Oldbury Court, but these days we live near Troopers Hill instead. It’s only three miles away but I’ve missed Oldbury Court as we rarely go now. For the first time in a while, we visited for aContinue reading “Oldbury Court revisited”

Kodak Duaflex

Released 1949 The Duaflex is a pseudo-TLR. TLR because it has two lenses (one for viewing, one for taking) but pseudo because it isn’t a true TLR. It has fixed focus, no ground-glass viewing screen and behaves more like a box camera. This one was a gift from my colleague Paul. See all photos takenContinue reading “Kodak Duaflex”

Volvo Amazon

I saw this 1968 Volvo Amazon (also known as a Volvo 120) parked up in Bristol the other day. I’m not a classic car buff it was so shiny and really stood out on the street, so I thought it was worth a photo. A quick check of the number plate tells me this isContinue reading “Volvo Amazon”

Frosty morning

It’s been cold and frosty in Bristol for the past few days. We’ve also been spoiled with bright, sunny weather and beautiful sunrises and sunsets. The other day on my way into work, I stopped off from cycling, removed my gloves for as long as I dared, and snapped this image.

Making a fake daguerrotype

Daguerrotypes are an old type of photograph which were produced on a silver-coated copper plate, giving a mirror-like finish. True daguerrotypes need unpleasant chemicals but I tried to find a different technique to make unique pictures which appear to be on a metallic background. A few years ago, I found a box of glass photographic plates. Strictly speaking,Continue reading “Making a fake daguerrotype”

Sontronics customer care

My most recent microphone purchase was a pair of Sontronics STC-1 small condenser microphones, primarily as an upgrade for some less expensive microphones I already owned. I did my homework before buying, and ultimately decided on the STC-1 over other brands based on the technical data, although the lifetime warranty was a nice touch too. Now,Continue reading “Sontronics customer care”

Flash!

This is a used Philips PF1 flashbulb. It used contain magnesium wool – now it contains magnesium oxide splattered over the inside, and the glass has cracked with the heat of the flash.

5.1 recording with a Williams star array

I’m becoming interested in surround-sound (5.1) recording. For me, this doesn’t mean upmixing a multi-track recording and encoding as 5.1, but capturing the real ambiance of the environment in true 5.1. There are several methods of using multiple microphones in array to record in surround, and they are discussed in reasonable detail at DPA’s Mic University.Continue reading “5.1 recording with a Williams star array”