flash – Jonathan Gazeley

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.

For ages I’ve had the idea of producing a themed set of three black & white prints to display on the wall on my stairs at home. This evening I finally had the inspiration (the three classical states of water) and motivation to take the pictures and develop the film immediately after. I wanted toContinue reading “Ice, Water & Steam”

Flash in a chimney

I realised recently that I hardly use any flash in my photography. I’d like to improve my skills with artificial lighting and the only way is by practice. Trouble is, I’m not really interested in portraiture, which is the most common use for strobes. Today I was inspired after seeing some pictures of night landscapesContinue reading “Flash in a chimney”

Dad’s retirement

Recently on my blog I posted about using flash bulbs with an old box camera. The photos in this post are taken with said box camera, and the indoor ones are using flash bulbs. This is my first attempt at using flash bulbs, and indeed at any flash photography on film. I had a bitContinue reading “Dad’s retirement”

Flashbulbs

A while back, I bought a Conway Synchronised box camera which came with a Coro Flash included. More recently I managed to get hold of some flash bulbs for it, but had trouble using them. Using a multimeter and some paperclips I tested each stage of the flashgun and the synchronised trigger mechanism in theContinue reading “Flashbulbs”

Audioboo

I heard about Audioboo – a sort of Youtube for audio clips – the other day on BBC Click. I decided to give it a go, since I fairly often embed audio clips in my blog, simply by hosting and linking to MP3s and letting the user’s browser handle the playback. This doesn’t always workContinue reading “Audioboo”

New camera: Coronet Conway Synchronised

For some time now I’ve been wanting to get into medium format photography. I have the right developing stuff to process the films myself, but unfortunately no way of scanning the negatives without buying a flat-bed scanner. But my colleague Paul offered to scan 120 roll film if I processed it first. With this barrierContinue reading “New camera: Coronet Conway Synchronised”

Stop and think

It was an interesting challenge from Stu this week. Set up your photo of any subject. Now stop. Think. Make THREE improvements to your photo. …and finally take it. I was somewhat lacking in inspiration, but since I’ve recently become interested in how to light scenes properly, this is a perfect opportunity for some experimentingContinue reading “Stop and think”

Copper macro

I stole the idea for this shot from Paul Seward, who in turn stole it from John Domingo. With such clear instructions I thought “Meh, how hard can it be?”. I don’t think my result is anywhere near as good as Paul’s or John’s, which just proves it’s probably harder than I thought 🙂 GivenContinue reading “Copper macro”

Meltdown

The title “On not buying cheap crap” was a close runner up for this article. A few months ago I bought a set of flashes from eBay. The price was very low, and obviously I wasn’t expecting miracles. For around £130 I managed to get two 150W flashguns, two tripods, all the power and syncContinue reading “Meltdown”