Kodak Gold 200 – fragglefilm

Film Friday ~ Kodak Ektar h35 ~ part 3

November 18, 2022November 13, 2022Posted in adventures, diptych, Film, Kodak Ektar H35, kodak gold 400, PhotographyTagged Adventure, film, fraggle, Kodak Ektar H35, Kodak Gold 200, photography, South SHields30 Comments

Camera info ~ This camera is a half frame camera, which means what it says, it only shoots half of a frame of film, so when you put a roll of 36 in it, you get 72 pictures. Neat eh? The camera itself is cute looking but a bit hokey, plastic with no settings other than a flash on/off on the dial around the lens, and the dial is as stiff as a stiff thing on a stiff day. I loaded it with a roll of Kodak Gold 400 and took it everywhere with me but it still took a fair few weeks to finish the frame. I shot the film with the making of dyptichs (2 pictures taken together to complement each other) in mind. I’ll be posting some of them on Fridays.

This set of diptychs will be my last for some while as I’ve a new roll now in the Ektar which will probably take a couple of months to shoot. These are from a little project I’m doing on South Shields sea front.

My first visit was to Little Haven Beach to see the Weebles

and Herd Groyne Lighthouse

the beach was empty of people though evidence of them was apparent.

I went up to Sandhaven and Ocean beaches and had a walk along to the amusement park.

There’s a mini race track for mini people outside one of the arcades.

A bit further on I got to the fairground, which is usually locked up over winter, but I wandered in unchallenged and so started taking photographs. I think one of the arcades was either open or having work done, but they didn’t bother about me.

Verticle spinning bucket thingy and a crazy house.

A good place to end. It was strange to be alone in an amusement park usually shrieking with kids and things spinning and moving all the time. I took some more photos with the Contax so we’ll have a look at those next time.

Stay tooned 😊
📷 🎞️

August Miscellany ~ 3

October 7, 2022October 6, 2022Posted in Contax Aria, Family, Film, Photography, UncategorizedTagged Contax Aria, film, fraggle, Kodak Gold 200, photography12 Comments

The last shots from this roll in August take me back to sunny days and Bar-B-Qs, or ODE’s as they’re known here ~ Outdoor Eating Experiences :). Our friends Paul and Lorraine who live over in South Shields and have a lovely big garden, had friends and family over one Saturday afternoon, and I took a few frames.

Phil, Lorraine Paul under the gazebo thingy

It was nice to be socialising oudoors and seeing family we hadn’t seen in ages.

Phi and I had a few ODE’s ourselves on sunny evenings after work

finally, I love it when the evening sun lightens the corner of the living rooom window, and if you look carefully in the shady bottom right hand corner, you can espy Lord Vincent on the back of his favourite chair.

That’ll be it on Film Friday for a while, I’ve got 2 rolls of film on the go and no-where near finished, but, I’ll be back!

Stay tooned! 📷 🎞 😊

Film Friday ~ August Miscellany 2

September 23, 2022September 22, 2022Posted in adventures, Contax Aria, Film, Kodak Gold 200, Photography, UncategorizedTagged Adventure, Contax Aria, film, fraggle, Kodak Gold 200, Northumberland Zoo, photography19 Comments

Summer seems a long time ago now, sitting here with the rain coming down all day. More pictures from my August roll of film, this time. Back at the zoo with Cal and Liddy, the digital shots some of you saw on the Otherverse Blog.

I’d never heard of these giant donkey’s before, so here is the informtion you are gagging to know too now..

The Baudet du Poitou, also called the Poitevin or Poitou donkey, are (no surprise) bred by the Pesky French. They were (?)created by breeding male donkeys with lady Poitevin horses to produce Poitevin mules which were formerly in worldwide demand for agricultural and other work. The Baudet has a distinctive coat, which hangs in long, ungroomed locks or cadenettes. They were possibly bred from donkeys introduced to the area by the good ol’ Romans. According to wiki they were also possibly a status symbol in the middle ages at least in France, (will rely on April for corroboration on that point) I suppose like having a top specs Range Rover is today, or was, maybe not so much now with climate change and the cost of fuel. Anyhoo, I digress. By the 1800’s France had established a studbook for the breed, and the 19th and early 20th centuries saw them being used for the production of mules throughout Europe. (Is anyone else thinking ‘genetic engineering to the max?) During this same time, Poitou bloodlines were also used to develop other donkey breeds, including the American Mammoth Jack in the United States. Then came mechanisation and by 1977 there were only 44 giant donkeys left in the world. There are more now because of private and public breeding and by 2005 there were 450 purebred Poitou donkeys. They are still an endangered species, their population is below 800 animals worldwide, with 60 of them in the UK.

A Ring Tailed Lemur surprisingly in focus! Interesting factoid:-
Ring-tailed lemurs have scent glands on their wrists, which they then rub all the way along their tails to then waft their tails at other lemurs in ‘stink fights’! As of early 2017, the population in the wild is believed to have crashed as low as 2,000 individuals due to habitat loss, poaching and hunting, making them far more critically endangered, despite reproducing readily in captivity and being the most populous lemur in zoos worldwide.

Fallow Deer have been around for over 8000 years, and are now found roaming free on every continent except Antarctica.

Liddy ~ a unique member of homo sapiens, the most abundant and widespread species of primate. And she is a little monkey!

That’s it for this week! Phil and I are off to Edinburgh today, to the Murrayfield Stadium where Scale Scotland are having their model show, if the Pesky Scots have internet connection up there, I’ll catch up with y’all later.

📷 🎞 😊

Film Friday ~ August Miscellany 1

September 16, 2022September 15, 2022Posted in Contax Aria, Film, Kodak Gold 200, PhotographyTagged Contax Aria, film, fraggle, Kodak Gold 200, photography, Tynemouth Market23 Comments

Random photographs from a roll in the Contax I took with me out and about in August.

A few weeks ago I posted my Hipstamatic outing to Tynemouth Market over on the Universe Blog but of course took a few with my Contax too.

I was with Phil, and we always grab a coffee from the Ouseburn Coffee Company, and Phil managed to knock his one all over the counter, resulting in copious amounts of paper towel mopping up on our part. The guy serving was very nice about it and gave him another cuppa free of charge. I’d have made him pay 😉

I know I posted a picture of Foxy Scotsy last time, but I like this one much more.

I do love the quirky things people bring to sell, I might have to have one of these next visit!

I wish I’d been sharper with the focus for these cute guys

Just people.

I couldn’t resist these ladies again

That’s it for this week, stay tooned though!

📷 🎞 😊

Film Friday ~ Craster May 2022

May 27, 2022May 27, 2022Posted in adventures, Contax Aria, Film, Kodak Gold 200, Photography, UncategorizedTagged Adventure, Contax Aria, Craster, Dunstanburgh Castle, film, fraggle, Kodak Gold 200, photography23 Comments

Sophie has been home from Spain for a couple of weeks and we’ve been out and about with our cameras. We spent a Sunday up in Edlingham and Craster ~ the Edlingham shots are mostly with the FujiXT2 so will be appearing on Sundays over on the Universe blog, but we also went over to Craster and had a windy walk up the coast to Dunstanburgh Castle, and I employed the Contax Aria for the visit, loaded with Kodak Gold 200 film.

Craster is a small fishing village on the Northumberland coast. It has a small harbour and a grassy path leading up to the castle which is the only way to get to it. For many years, the village has had a herring-curing business: Craster kippers are well known around the world.

Dunstanburgh Castle was built on an epic scale atop a remote headland along the coast. It was built at a time when relations between King Edward II and his most powerful baron, Earl Thomas of Lancaster, had become openly hostile. Lancaster began the fortress in 1313, and the latest archaeological research indicates that he built it on a far grander scale than was originally recognised, perhaps more as a symbol of his opposition to the king than as a military stronghold.

Unfortunately the earl failed to reach Dunstanburgh when his rebellion was defeated, and he was taken and executed in 1322. Thereafter the castle passed eventually to John of Gaunt, who strengthened it against the Pesky Scots by converting the great twin towered gatehouse into a keep.

The focus of fierce fighting during the Wars of the Roses, it was twice besieged and captured by Yorkist forces, but subsequently fell into decay.

Before we arrived at Craster we had lunch at our favourite café in Rock, which readers of the Universe blog will have heard me bang on about.

It was a really blowy~blustery day so walking up the coast was a bit like being beaten up, we didn’t get right up to the castle before we’d had enough and turned round, wimps that we are, but far enough for a long shot of it.

flower pots line the roads coming out of Craster car park

There are quite a few holiday cottages to rent, or maybe they are second homes for posh people, along the sea front, and the have their own little gardens to sit in with views of the harbour, castle, and sea.