From the archives

The first portrait I ever shot (with any consideration) back in 2003.  Ilford HP5 Plus with the Chinon CP-7m.

From the archives

Recently I was having a bit of a tidy up around the house when I came across my old black and white negatives from my days at university.  All of these were developed by myself, either in the uni's darkroom or back home in my parents bathroom.

This one was taken at Napier University's Craiglockhart campus which was used as a military psychiatric hospital between 1916 and 1919.  Poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon both received treatment here which was reserved for shellshocked officers only.

Subsequently the building was used as a convent and then a Catholic teacher training college before becoming part of Napier Polytechnic in 1986.

Craiglockhart campus - Ilford HP5 Plus (35mm neg crop)

© Ross Bull

Sandwich man

One from last year, shot on the Rollei 35B.

© Ross Bull

The gardener

A couple of shots from an old, outdated roll of cheapy Jessops 35mm film I had lying around.  Taken with the Rollei 35B back in the autumn.

© Ross Bull

Wardrobe Convos with the 35B

Occasionally I do some photography for Kim and Helen over at Wardrobe Conversations, usually shooting on either my Canon 600D or Helen's Panasonic G5.  So it was a nice change to try shooting some material on the Rollei 35B.  These shots weren't for use on their site, just for my own amusement.  Check out this post if you'd like to see the G5 versions.

Helen and I went for a day out in Dundee, taking a snoop round the grounds of DJCAD and also a visit to the world's smallest street market.  We managed to get some nice shots using cracked concrete and graffiti as backgrounds which always works well for fashion shoots.  The street market, organised by Richard Cook, took place on the site of one of Dundee's slums and now home to Richard's vintage spectacle shop.

 

An old roll of Klick film.

Remember Klick?  Are they still on the go?  Turns out they are, only now owned by Max Speilmann which is owned in turn by Timpson which in turn, it appears, is about to be sucked into the gargantuan folds of Tesco.  Such is the wonderful world of choice promised by free market capitalism.

Stuffed away in a box in the garage I found a few old rolls of Klick's own brand 35mm film which I'm now putting through the Rollei 35B.  Although I sent my negs away to Peak Imaging for processing and printing (good, speedy service by the way) the whole process took me back to when I first started and would get my films developed on the high street.  Having to pay for each roll of film then pay for it to be processed meant that it cost far more to take a picture back then than it does today.  Not having much money, this is probably how I ended up developing my painfully slow shooting habit.  A habit, which despite having shot on digital for the last ten years, I'm just beginning to break, or rather evolve.

I don't consider my style to be slow in the way that fine art photographers spend hours working on every minute visual and technical detail.  I spend my time looking for emotional connections to my subject matter.  The actual taking of the photograph I often do in a very fast photojournalistic manner - shoot and move on.  But I like to spend time around the people or places I'm photographing, either physically or mentally.  Then once I've ever so slowly found that emotional resonance, snap and the photo's done.

Rollei 35B + Ilford XP2 Super 400 test shots

These are some test shots I took earlier this year with the Rollei 35B and a roll of XP2.  It was the first time I'd shot 35mm film in a decade so a few of my exposures were a bit off...to say the least!  Still I got a few frames that I was quite happy with including some of Alyson Conway's brilliant Lemming sculptures.

It was really nice to see genuine film grain again, even if it did show up in ways I hadn't planned for.  It's also worth mentioning (in my defense!) that the film was several years out of date and had been lying in a box in the garage for who knows how long.  I've ordered up some new rolls for shooting further tests and will post the results here as soon as I have them.

Negatives were processed by Ilford then scanned into Photoshop by myself using an Epson V700.  Other than cropping and framing, these images have not been post processed.

Lemming sculpture by Alyson Conway. Seabraes Park, Dundee

Sheep's skull. Auchmithie.

Dundee from Newport-on-Tay.

Rollei 35B

Type:	Viewfinder
Year of release:	1976
Country of origin:	Germany
Country of manufacture:	Singapore
Film:	35mm roll film
Image size:	36 x 24mm
Lens:	Rollei Triotar 3,5/40mm
Viewfinder:	Direct vision
Construction:	Metal and plastic body
Available apertures:	3.5, 4, 5.6, 8, 11,16 & 22
Available shutter speeds:	B, 30, 60, 125, 250 & 500
Available ISO settings:	25, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800 & 1600
Accessory Shoe:	Hot
Tripod Bush:	Yes
Available accessories (manufacturer):	Various flash guns, filters and lens hoods. Filters and the lens hoods are screw fit - size M25x0.5. Camera supplied with a black leather pouch and lens cap.
Wikipedia:	Click for Wikipedia entry
Manual (high resolution .pdf):	Click for manual

Front view (Serial No. 4705864)

Rear view (Serial No. 4705864)

Top view (Serial No. 4705864)

Bottom view (Serial No. 4705864)

Detail showing sliding body (Serial No. 4705864)