It's been a long time since my last journal... I've been a busy, busy, busy boy at work, but now the current project has been drop kicked out the door, I should have a little more time to put into photography, woo!

New toys coming:
Yashica 124 to replace my poorly 124g (now reduced to being a supply of spares)... it's metal and shiny rather than plasticy
Polaroid 110a with a Four Designs film pack conversion. I'm really looking forward to playing with this bad boy. At some point I may convert it into a 4x5 system, but I'll see how I get on with some Fuji instant film first.
Zeiss Sonnar 150mm T* for my Hasselblad body. The kit is slowly but surely forming, and soon I'll be able to put it through it's paces

So that's a nice bunch of stuff to play with over the summer... I've also re-stocked on film and have a stack of Ilford HP5, FP4, and Pan F Plus in 120 format to burn through *grin*. Also some Fuji colour film on the way to.

Film projects for the summer: Build up a strobist stylee portable lighting kit and become proficient with it... work on portraiture... work on some still life...

The more I learn about photography the more I realise how little I know.

I've decided to have a clear out of photography equipment as I'm rapidly running out of room in my rather small study... After having a think about what I do and don't use, I've decided to get rid of the vast majority of my 35mm and MF gear. I've decided I will only keep a Zeiss Contax for 35mm, other 35mm duties will be taken over by my 40d. I'm also going to clear out most of the MF stuff and stick with 1 TLR (either my exisitng Yashica 124g, or possibly a Rollei) and 1 SLR (to be decided). This way, I should have a more compact and portable kit. That or start hoarding all over again

So the following is or will be up for sale:
Mamiya C330 with 80mm 2.8, 135 4.5, and 180mm 4.5
Kiev 60, 300mm 4, 180mm 2.8, 80mm 2.8, 65mm 3.5, 30mm 3.5, 2x teleconverter
Rollei 35S (40mm Sonnar 2.8)
Olympus 1n with motordrive, 50mm 1.8, 135mm 2.8, 70-200mm
Canon EOS 1 35mm body with powerdrive, AA battery holder
Canon EOS 1n 35mm body with powerdrive, ni-cad battery and charger
Set of m42 bellows
Yashica Lynx 5000e (with battery adapter and new battery)
FED3
FED2
Zorki 4k
Kiev 4
A variety of LTM mount lenses
A variety of m42 mount lenses
A variety of Contax/Kiev mount lenses

Holy crap, having wrtten that all out I can understand why I'm running out of space

On a side note, I've replaced the light seals on the Yashica and C330, having spent a pleasent evening scraping a tar like goo out of them.

Well, I've just managed to trash 3 days of scanning and photoshop work with a dodgy batch script in photoshop.... sigh

Oh well, time to start scanning and dust removing all over again *cries*

I'm in the middle of a portrait project I'd start a couple of weeks ago. I've been practicing portraits with a whole load of friends which has been a lot of fun
It's also left me with a huuuugggggeeee stack of film to develop and scan, and I've spent the weekend up to my armpits in chemicals and film negatives. My poor scanner is overheating and needs a long rest.
I think I really need to change my working habits though... it takes me about 30 minutes to dev a roll of 120 film, drying time, another 45 minutes to scan, plus around 10 minutes per shot to de-dust and do basic levels/contrast work in photoshop. At this rate I'll be doing this 'til the heat death of the universe... bah. I'm seriously considering shooting more colour film, just so I have an excuse to send it off and let someone else take care of the dev'ing and scanning.

On the plus side, I'm currently bidding away for a Graflex Speed Graphic on ebay, which seems to be in rather nice condition, so hopefully soon I can start in the world of 5x4 *grin*

Finally my lovely new 40D has arrived to replace my broken 20D, hurray!