FALLING SOMEWHERE AS RAIN

A recent upgrade of equipment at my University meant that a large Epson digital projector was headed for the skip. Luckily, I was able to rescue the main lens with the help of one of the AV technicians, who kindly removed it during the decommission. The lens is a large motor driven unit, about 9” long. It had a collar attached with individual drives for focussing. I managed to remove this without damaging the function of the lens and freeing up the threads around the lens, so it can be manually focussed by hand. The optics are very clear and must comprise several elements, as the lens weighs about a kilogram overall. The body is plastic, but like most Epson equipment, simple but well made. The focal distance or flange distance was conveniently short, so by just resting it next to the camera body, with the universal adaptor attached, I could focus quite easily. The only problem was attaching it firmly enough to the camera, as the rear element was larger than the diameter of the camera. ...

Being resident in semi-rural Lancashire has its benefits, as there is always something to photograph nearby. The relatively flat landscape runs away to the edge of the Pennines and the TV transmitter station is clearly visible on remote Winter Hill 20 miles away from my home. Winter weather always provides beautiful vistas, as fog and frost covers the land as the sun edges up over Beacon Hill. Arable and crop farming have taken place in the area for centuries, with the canal network used to ship out vegetables and crops to Liverpool, returning with ballasts of night soil to be spread on the fields again as fertiliser. As testament to this rich history, the landscape is dotted with relics of a past age - dilapidated farm buildings, rotting husks of greenhouses and in almost every field corner - old farm machinery. The landscape quickly overruns the relics, covering the old brickwork with moss and ivy and entombing the machines in tibetan balsam and crab grass. A lot of the old tractors ...

My weekly trawl through the vintage photography section on ebay, sometimes flags up the weird or the curious and even less often, I manage to buy something. Over the last five years, vintage lenses and related material have shot up in price and popularity, as the hipster crowd have found it looks good to be seen with an analogue camera on their arm, alongside the tweeds and neatly trimmed beards.  Vintage Camera Stall, Camden Market  Also, the distinct look and effects possible with old glass have been popularised by Hollywood, as many film makers use older lenses to achieve specific effects. Zack Snyder recently used an old Canon lens to film 'Army of the Dead' and the cinematography of the 'John Wick' series echoes the glowing neon favoured by japanese camera enthusiasts, looking to re-create the cyberpunk effect. Shinjuku District, Tokyo One of the oddities I managed to score and very cheaply, despite having a bit of a drive round Lancashire to collect it, was this o...

 As a boy, I always enjoyed making things, or finding new uses for discarded junk. Magnets and magnifying glasses fascinated me and still do to a certain degree. Perhaps this is why after I rediscovered photography as a hobby, I was determined to see what I could do with my camera. Probably one of the first customisations I applied and certainly the most useful, was a viewfinder. As my camera only has a small viewscreen on the back and not a through lens view, it meant I had to hold the camera away from my face when using it and keep my spectacles on, in order to see the display. As I am short sighted, this necessitated flipping my glasses up and down between shots. So, I found an old slide viewer at a car boot sale and fastened it on with a plate of Meccano, and a screw knob or the plate of a tripod. The viewer was similar to another boxed version that I found later, complete with slides. Its interesting to see the dedication on the box, as it was a gift from the British Society o...