Diary Entry Nineteen

So I finished off the photobook for my body of work “It’s Allright Around Here, Isn’t It?”

Yes you read that right, after all this time (ahem……I wrote the intro to the book in July 2022) and seven different drafts, as well as numerous changes to the sequencing and cutting down of the images to feature, I have finally got around to getting the book done and I’ve self published it. If you’ve been following my work for a while then you may know what this is about but if not the general gist is that this body of work was featured in the Ffocws exhibition at Ffotogallery last year and although I had made a small print run zine a few years ago I thought maybe the series deserved a bit more of a substantial publication.

So here it is, the book is A5 square format with an introduction by Photographer David Mayne and contains 66 photograph's from the series as well as coming with a photo postcard signed by me. I’ve limited the print run to an edition of 100 and will post anywhere in the world for free.

"I want others to be able to see what I see; A record of this World in which we live but that which is influenced by magical realism. Everyday places and situations that can have things about them that appear both normal and abnormal, where memories flow like living organisms, surviving within the cracks of bricks and paving. It’s this desire to document the ordinary that has ultimately shown me that it is both important to capture what we see not just because it can be taken away in the blink of an eye but because there is a certain beauty in banality."

If you want a copy then you can buy one through my Etsy store.

Diary Entry Eighteen

Well Hello There!

Once again I have been appallingly poor at keeping this up to date with new so i thought it was about time to put out something even if I haven’t got much to share.

So what’s new with me?

Well first off, you may have noticed a new page added to this website. I’ve brought together a large body of work called “Somnambulism 2015-2022” which is a collection of images made across the period 2015-2022, a bit of a long term project. I won’t go into the blurb about it here but in essence it’s my usual thing of seeking out the interesting and magical in the mundane and hoping to display scene’s and situation’s that we just let us pass by as we essentially sleepwalk through our lives. Somnambulism is the technical term for sleepwalking, beautifully translated from Latin (at least I think so) as “Dream Walking”.

Anyway I hope you find the photos interesting, at present they exist here and I’m sharing one per day (or relatively close to that frequency) over on my Instagram for the foreseeable future. If there’s enough interest then maybe something a little bigger may come of the work, but that’s undecided for now.

In other news I am FINALLY, ALMOST, SORT OF, NEARLY ready to put together a softcover photobook for “It’s Allright Around Here, Isn’t It?” , yeah it’s taken a while. I have a finished draft, one of many let me tell you, and I have shared this early copy with a few people for their thoughts and perhaps a few words that I could include within the book when I self publish it. It’s going to be a limited run of around 100 copies, maybe a little more depending on costings, and will feature sixty four photos from the series including some that were displayed at Ffotogallery as part of the FFOCWS exhibition I was a part of at the end of last and early this year. I’m really excited to get this out into people’s hands, mainly because someone who had a flick through a much earlier draft compared my images to that of Luigi Ghirri. I won’t say who that was but if you know me you’ll know that is an insanely huge compliment for me and it’s taken me a little aback. Yes I can be very self depreciating sometimes so lovely things like that blow me away.

Anyway, when the book is ready and printed I’ll be advertising it but if you’d like to be kept informed of when it’s actually available to buy, how to do it etc then drop me a line through the contact page (or Instagram, Twitter etc).

And final piece of news for the moment, I am in the early stages of working on something new. I’ll reveal here that it’s all being shot in black and white on medium format and concentrates on the remnants of the industrial past that litter South Wales which have just been abandoned and thrown away. It’s a path that’s been trodden before I know but I have always wanted to capture these kinds of places and just from the last few months I can tell you I’ve found myself a little emotional at times while out shooting, there’s so much of our past that’s full of exploitation of the working classes and seeing the structures and places they built and called home just thrown away brings it to the fore that so were those people when the powers that be deemed them unproductive or not needed anymore.

I’ll get off my high horse for now but, yes there’s lots to photograph and lots to share in the future.

That’s all from me for the moment, hope you’re all doing well.

Remember to keep shooting film guys.

Diary Entry Seventeen

Hello everyone, just a quick one to say that the opening evening for Ffocws at Ffotogallery went excellently. It was extremely surreal seeing my work on the wall of a gallery and even more so having people talk to me about it and be really interested in what I have to say and discuss. Seriously everyone was so lovely and I can’t thank Ffotogallery enough and the people who work/volunteer there for this opportunity. I thought I’d post a few photo’s of me from the event here for posterity and also remind you all that the exhibition runs from 4th Nov to the 17th December 2022 but that there will be other things I am going to be involved in as part of Ffocws as well.

The first of these being a series of Artist talks and Q&A’s. Mine will be on the 22nd November, it’s free and online so if you’d like to come along check out the link here.

Thanks again to everyone who supports my work, it’s greatly appreciated.

Diary Entry Sixteen

Well, well, well.

Someone has some very exciting news.

Yes that’s right. That someone is me.

So, where to begin? Probably easiest just to say it; I’ve been accepted in an open call I entered back in August for something called FFOCWS. What is that I hear you ask? Well let me tell you with the words from FFotogallery’s website.

“Ffocws is a brand new initiative launched by Ffotogallery to support early career artists in and from Wales working with photography and lens based media”

Sounds good so far yeah?

“We understand that not everybody has the opportunity to study at Higher Education level, which is why we are introducing the Ffocws Open Call specifically for emerging / early-career photographers who have not obtained a formal qualification in the subject and who aren't currently studying at higher education level. We want to see creativity, authenticity, and enthusiasm shine through your work. The selected artist(s) will exhibit their work in the exhibition alongside the other emerging photographers selected from higher education institution graduate shows across Wales.”

So, yeah. Pretty exciting huh?

So what do I know so far? Firstly I have had fourteen images from my project “It’s Allright Around Here, Isn’t It?” selected to be part of a group exhibition in the gallery (taking place from 4th November 2022 to 17th December 2022) alongside some other fantastic artists. Ffotogallery is a place I’ve hoped to one day be able to exhibit in so this is a dream come true for me.

But there’s more.

The programme will also involve being able to engage in artist talks, symposia and workshops. So not only can I display my work to an audience but talk about it to!

I am seriously incredibly excited about this , incredibly grateful to Ffotogallery and desperate not to waste this opportunity. Watch this space guys, hopefully I’ll be able to share more information soon.

In the meantime please check out the other artists who have been selected as well, their work is of an unbelievably high standard.

Diary Entry Fifteen

Well hello there, it’s been a minute hasn’t it?

And by that I mean it’s been……roughly seven months.

Corfu is beautiful, there’s no other way to describe it.

So first off, apologies for not writing anything here in all that time but I had a bit of an excuse. I got married (although that was in May so maybe that’s not as good an excuse as I think it sounds). Me and my now wife went to Corfu after the weeding, which was the first time we’ve able to travel outside the UK since 2019., it was incredible and perfect for shooting FAR TO MANY rolls of film. It’s taken me until now to actually get around to having it all developed and cataloguing

Not sure what to do with them yet. I mean there is a long term project I have going on in the background in which many of my favourite street images taken in the various places I’ve been over the years end up so some of these may end up added into that. Then again, some of them are very much holiday snaps. Am I overthinking this?

Cover of the prototype.

So other than that, what has been going on in the background photographically you ask? I’d love to say a lot but, well that isn’t really true.

I have been FINALLY working on a book, yes an actual proper book , for my project “It’s Allright Around Here, Isn’t It?”. It’s taken quite a lot longer than I thought it would which is partly down to having an initial 900 odd images and trying to whittle that down to something feasible for print. Obviously not all of them work together, not all of them are one’s I particularly like and also…..a 900 odd page book would be stupidity of the highest order.

Like I said, the sequencing needs work. These two images do NOT work together.

What I have managed to do so far is print up a prototype with roughly 160 odd images in it. The reason I’m calling this a prototype is because these images are not in any particular sequence and was printed up mainly so I could see a physical representation of what the finished product may look like eventually. Spoiler for you all, it will not look like the images here, for a start I’ve already cut a bunch more images out of it that I just don’t think work with the rest or are just too similar to other better one’s.

Who knows? maybe one day this early prototype will be worth something? I mean, if my photography ever becomes something valuable (I doubt it will be).

Well that’s all for now, when I have actually finished sequencing and get around to sorting out a print run I’ll be advertising it here, as well as all over my Twitter and Instagram.

Until next time..

Keep Shooting Film.

Diary Entry Fourteen

If only so that the number thirteen isn’t the last diary entry on this website for any longer than it already has been.

Hello everyone, I’ve returned with a little bit of news after what looks to have been a bit of a hiatus.

I’m still here, I’m still kicking along, I’m just spending a lot of my time and effort on my upcoming wedding and sorting out some house renovations. So not too much time for photography. I am still however working away in the background on my project “It’s Allright around here, Isn’t It?” and recently did a very short (I’ talking a few minutes) of talking about one of the images from the project for Ffoton’s “One Image” series. You can listen to that here but I would also HIGHLY recommend going through some of their archives and listening to some more as there’s some great photographers talking about there work in there. Much better photographers than me so I am eternally grateful to Ffoton for asking me to be a part of it.

One day I plan to make an actual book of the images from the project, fingers crossed later this year I can begin doing something about that.

Anyway thanks for stopping by. If you want to drop me a message or get in touch about anything then go check out the contact page or alternatively find me on Twitter @the6millionpman.

Bye

Diary Entry Thirteen

Pallet 005 (cos it’s the fifth time it’s happened) will be on the 14th October 2021 in Porters, Cardiff. It’s Free entry.

Hello Everyone. I’m back sooner than I’d anticipated and that’s because I have some news of the most excellent variety. I am going to be exhibiting in an art show.

Yes I am extremely excited for a number of reasons; although I have had work displayed before it’s never been at a location I could actually visit at the time. Also Covid is a massive bastard and has ruined the lives of everyone, whether you’ve lost a loved one or just been trapped indoors and unable to get on with a normal life for the past year and a half, and this is the first time I am going to be able to go to an event like this since everything went to shit.

Some of the images from “Un Giro D’Italia” my project documenting my travels in Italy that I’ll be displaying.

So some details. The event is called Pallet, it takes place on the 14th October 2021 and it is a small one night event that showcases artists and their work in the local area and takes place in a bar with live music and all the usual fun you get in an evening in a bar. I was due to display with them back in March of 2020 but, as we all know and as mentioned above, the C word happened. Here’s a link to their Instagram and to their Facebook, they seem like lovely people so even if wasn’t part of this event I’d be saying how good it looks.

So what do i plan to display? Well I’m glad you asked. I thought this event would be a great place to exhibit “Un Giro D’Italia” in it’s final and finished form. Yes I have made and sold zines of the project (thank you to everyone who’s ever bought one) but I’ve never displayed it all in one place as a set specific exhibition. I think this would be a nice way to put a line under this project. It’s been great fun visiting Italy year after year and documenting what I see and the places I go but since my last trip got cancelled (again Covid you scumbag!!) a lot has changed in my life what with me now having a house and all the fun and costly things that comes with it. So This is me saying “Un Giro D’Italia” after the 14th October 2021 will be officially a completed project and I’ll be moving on to new things.

Anyways, like I said I am super excited about this opportunity and can’t wait to show off my work. Thank You everyone who’s ever supported or said nice things about my photography as it means the World.

Until next time.

Keep Shooting Film Guys.

Ed

Diary Entry Twelve

Well it’s been an awful long time since I wrote anything on here.

So my Youtube channel has been on hiatus for a few months, this website got deactivated and I haven’t really been shooting much new recently either because I was in the process of buying a house and that was kind of taking up both all my time and all my money.

This isn’t really a proper update post, more of a placeholder to say I am still here, I am kind of shooting a little but not as much as before. My current project “It’s Allright Around here, Isn’t It?” is still very much a thing that I am adding to on a regular basis but it’s evolved into a much more long term piece of work.

I have been writing an awful lot more recently, mostly short stories that may or may not ever see the light of day. The eagle eyed amongst you may notice I have hidden away the previous “Writing” section of this website and that is because I’m not sure how I want to move forward with that stuff..

Oh and also I am going to be displaying some of my images from “Un Giro D’Italia” as a contributing artist at an exhibition in October of 2021. Which is very exciting. I have no more information yet but it’s a show called Pallet.

Anyway That’s all for now, like I said just a placeholder. I’m still alive. Be back with more soon (hopefully).

Keep Shooting Film Guys.

Ed

So, I Wrote A Book

If you’ve visited this website before you may have become aware of the increasing amount of writing that I’ve been putting up on the, funnily enough called, Writing page. What you may not have been aware of is that I spent a good portion of last year writing a book for the first time and after finishing it towards the end of the Summer I have now finally got around to doing something with it. That is I have published it though Amazon.

I tried to price it as low as possible so that it actually covers the costs and any copies actually make me some pennies (I’m serious each one sold will get me pennies, not pounds) but if you’ve been enjoying the stuff I’ve been putting on the writing page here then please go check it out,

Thanks as always.

A New Project & A New Zine

“It’s Allright around Here, Isn’t It?” - 50 pages of my photography. Buy a copy if you like my work.

Well hello there everyone, it seems to have been a while since we last spoke. This isn’t really a full on diary entry so i wo’n’t get into what I’ve been up to recently but what I will tell you about is this; My new project and the zine made out of it.

So Over the last few years I have built up a relatively large archive of images of my hometown of Cardiff, unsurprisingly considering I have a camera on me most of the time. Over the last few months though what with being forced to stay close to home whenever I have been able to get out of the house I’ve found myself actively shooting in a particular style and particularly to add images to this archive.

I’ve ended up calling this entire thing “It’s Allright Around Here, Isn’t it?” firstly because hat’s pretty much how I would describe the city of Cardiff to anyone who hasn’t been here……..and also because it’s a massive rip off of Luigi Ghirri’s “it’s beautiful here, isn’t it?”. And we all know how much of a fanboy of Ghirri’s work I am.

An inside view of the new zine.

Anyway I’ve produced a zine although I am tempted to call it a booklet or a small book rather than a zine as this time I’;ve gone all out on the quality side. It’s over 50 pages long and features images taken over the last few years around my hometown, it’s perfect bound (yup no staples on this one) and I know I’m biased but it looks pretty bloody nice too.

Anyway if you like my photography and want to support me to make more of what I do then please consider buying a copy, they’re for sale through my Etsy store (the Shop page on this site will take you right through to it).

As always guys thanks for reading and Keep Shooting Film.

The 6 Million P Man

Diary Entry Eleven

Well hello there.

It’s been a little while since I wrote anything on here, I mean what with the end of the world and whatnot having a quick burst forward of thoughts from myself onto a diary entry on this website felt like one of the least important things to be doing. BUT I guess now that things are slightly less terrifying than they have been (don’t get me wrong the world is still scary broken) I thought perhaps I would put something up here and tell you all what I have been doing.

Spoiler alert; Not actually that much since like most of you, I haven’t left the house a lot.

Home developed Fomapan Classic 100.

Firstly, as some of you may be aware from my last post here way back in April, I have started to develop some of my own black & white film at home. After the ease I had in developing the first two rolls of film with my Labbox and Cinestill Monobath chemicals I decided to buy myself a nice big brick of Fomapan and just shoot a lot more. As you can probably tell from the images I share I tend to shoot in colour and I tend to shoot medium format BUT since none of us have really been able to travel particularly far and I’ve had some spare time on my hands the idea of just documenting daily life on easy to develop black and white film has really appealed to me. The main inspiration came from Matt Day who always says that as a catchphrase “document your life” and it makes sense, one day we’ll all be gone and no one is ever going to see a hard drive full of images on a broken computer but a big pile of physical negatives…..that’s forever. I keep telling my girlfriend what I’m ending up with is the largest personal collection of photo’s of her, because that seems to be the only person I am photographing at the moment.

Next up, well i wrote a little something for Emulsive about how awesome Ektar is. Again if you’ve seen any of my work you can probably tell I am in love with that film and I rate it as probably, nope I am definitely going to say it, THE best film you can buy today. It’s not a long article, in fact it’s probably shorter than this diary entry BUT it does have a few pretty pictures so go have a read of it if you’d like……and while you’re there read some other stuff because Emulsive is a great website.

One thing that passed me by recently was the fact that this website is now a year old. Yes, one year of an actual proper website with bells and whistles and bits and pieces of my own that replaced the WordPress one I used to have. I think that still exists so click the link above if you want to see previous stuff of mine in a much more……amateur capacity (I am well aware this whole website also is amateur as hell too). I would say lets have a celebration of some kind but instead I’ll just say thanks everyone who actually visits and reads these things, I’m sure it’s more people than I actually imagine so it is nice to know that people out there care what I have to say and what I have photographed.

One of the images from My “Un Giro D’Italia” series. A street in Torino, Yashica D, Kodak Ektar 100.

I think it may be a good time to plug the fact that my Etsy store still has tons of copies of zines I’ve made with images from my Un Giro D’Italia series. As the trip I had planned for earlier this year got cancelled because of the whole pandemic situation it looks like any new addition’s will be put on hold for some time, in fact I am considering stopping adding anything new to Un Giro D’Italia as maybe it has run it’s course. Maybe. Let me know what you think about that? I mean I have made three zines, published an in depth article on Emulsive and written about it for Lets Explore Magazine and I just feel that perhaps this has reached a natural conclusion. No ability to make new images to add to it, maybe just close it and say that’s it done and move onto something new.

Regarding that, my Youtube channel has been getting quite a lot of views since I started it a few months ago and what stated out as me discussing photo’s from Un Giro D’Italia has developed into something a little bit more. If you haven’t seen the channel please go take a look, I’ve made a few videos that are more in depth than just talking over photographs and I have some different style content planned for the near future too.

One of the images from my Hometown of Cardiff that I’ve been documenting for some time. Yashica D on Fuji 400H.

I have decided to release into the wild a few images from a series of work I have been shooting and planning on doing for sometime. Due to the whole, you can only leave the house for short periods of exercise in the local area my photography has been really concentrated on that. The local area. So a series documenting my hometown of Cardiff has ballooned in size and is currently on somewhere between 200-250 images of just various places and scenes around the city with more to follow. I’m not sure what to do with this stuff yet but a zine probably seems sensible and will appear at some point and then beyond that…….who knows? Anyway I’ve been releasing images from it across my Twitter and Instagram for the last few weeks so if you haven’t sen any of that go check those out.

AND FINALLY………

I have given this a lot of thought and I am considering making a slight change to this website to include something new. Something not photography related.

So I have been writing a lot over the last year or so and a lot more since I had the whole enforced extra time stuck at home time on my hands kind of thing. So I am thinking of creating a separate section that would feature some of my writing, mostly fiction and mostly short stories. Let me know what you think about this idea?

Anyway thanks for reading through this, I appreciate it’s a longer one than normal and has been quite a while since I last did one of these.

As always.

Keep Shooting Film Everyone.

The 6 Million P Man

Diary Entry Ten

The various development bits and pieces i used.

So I FINALLY got around to developing some of my own film. Yes a lot of people have made the assumption that because I shoot solely with film nowadays that I also develop it all myself, well they are very wrong. All of the images I’ve made over the last few years have been developed by AG Photolab, I was first told to try them out by a friend of mine years ago and have never used anyone else since. However since we’re all stuck indoors at the moment hat with the whole global crisis that’’s going on I thought I’d give it a go myself.

Now I only had to buy some developing chemicals as I have had both a Lab Box developing tank/box thing for a while ever since I backed them on Kickstarter and the scanner I use for scanning prints can also scan negatives (it’s an Epson V370 in case you were wondering). I decide to give a go using the Cinestill Df96 monobath as I’d heard it was very easy to use and I bought it from Analogue Wonderland.

The packet of Cinestill df96 Monobath chemicals.

So how did it go?

Well it was actually as easy as I had been led to believe.

The Monobath chemicals are as easy as mixing to packs of powder together and making sure they are between 20-28 degrees centigrade (they work colder but just take longer) and the lab box was incredibly simple as well, just pop a roll of film in, close the lid and wind a knob until it pulls the film onto a reel inside itself. In fact the most difficult part was using a film retriever to get the end of the film out of the film canister in the first place, it took me around 15 mins to get the first roll of film out then 15 seconds for the second one (must have been doing something wrong).

The final part of the process. Scanning the negatives.

The results weren’t bad either. I specifically shoe to develop two rolls of Fomapan 100 black & white film I had hanging around, I couldn’t remember what was shot on it so if something went wrong I didn’t lose any important images for a project or something. Yes a few have come out a bit odd with light leaks and scratches but that is very likely more down to me ruining the film trying to get it out of the canister in the first place and my poor shooting conditions. One roll of film has a few of these issues, the other has nothing at all so I put that down to me rather than anything to do with the chemicals or Lab Box itself.

I think this is something I will be doing a lot more often now, the only thing that has been slowing me down from shooting more has been the cost of development so now that this has been sort of solved I guess I’ll be shooting a lot more just regular everyday stuff on black and white film from now on. I’ve already bought a ton more black and white film online and waiting for delivery of it.

Anyway it probably doesn’t mean an awful lot to tell you what I’ve been doing, the whole process and then not show you any of the resulting photograph’s does it? So below are a few of the images after I finished scanning them into my computer, i think for a first attempt some of these aren’t half bad at all.

Let me know what you think. about them and as always;

Keep Shooting Film Everyone.

The 6 Million P Man

New YouTube Channel

I mean the heading basically says what it is doesn’t it? Since I have time on my hands at the moment and I can’t really go out and make new photographs I thought what better time to sit down and talk about my old photographs using the power of video? Yup I set up a Youtube channel which you can find here.

The rough plan I have for this is that every week I’ll be posting a video talking through a roll of film that I have shot, that roll of film could be from many years ago or it could be more recent but the idea at the moment is to talk specifically about Un Giro D’Italia and the images I have made on my solo trips to Italy while creating that project. It just seems to fit and make sense to do it that way.

A word of warning, my production values re ow, the audio and video won’t be top of the range and I have a voice that will send you all to sleep but…….That doesn’t mean you might not find some of the things I say or show uninteresting, right?

So if you’d like to hear me talk about my photography on a semi regular basis please go check it out, subscribe etc etc.

Until next time

Keep Shooting Film Everyone.

The 6 Million P Man

Diary Entry Nine

OK a lot of things have changed since the last diary entry I wrote on here and a lot of plans of mine have changed due to the Covid 19 pandemic so i thought I’d write a diary entry on here and share a few images from my archive since I won’t likely be able to make anything new for some time.

First off, unsurprisingly my planned trip to Italy for April didn’t go ahead. As I write this I should have landed in bologna and spent the last few days in Rimini, tomorrow I would’ve been heading to Ravenna and then in the middle of next week I would’ve been going to Ferrara. Instead I have been working from home in my day job since the 19th March, a date I should’ve been displaying some of my images at an art show that also unsurprisingly got cancelled/postponed.

So what have I been able to do? Well I’ve been going through some old images of mine, I have a huge amount of them in boxes as well as saved on hard drives. Sometimes it can be a good thing to look back through old work even if it’s just for memories it brings up. I’ve also been writing a lot recently; I’ve been writing a book since the start of the year and the free time that this whole crisis has opened up and the forced homeworking has left me with a lot of spare time to actually get on with it. I’ve also written an article about the first roll of film I ever shot that’s hopefully going to be on 35mm.com at some point in the future as well.

I’ve also been carrying out a Polaroid based project since the start of the year, making an image every week for the year although the subject matter recently has been pretty generic and similar of the inside of the damn house. I’m going to continue with this for now but I’m not sure it’s going to be as interesting as I hoped it would be.

Anyway time to share a few old photo’s since I can’t make any new ones for a while.

One of the canals in Brugge, me and my girlfriend visited Belgium at the end of January. Yashica D, Kodak Portra 160.

Bologna in Spring 2019, I should’ve been here again right now. Yashica D, Kodak Portra 400.

A beer in a bar in Brugge. Olympus Om-1, Fuji C200.

Diary Entry Eight

Shopping Arcade in Brussels, Belgium. Yashica D, Kodak Portra 160.

Hello everyone, it’s been quite some time since I wrote one of these. The main reason for that is that the winter has made me not really want to go outside particularly often with a camera, plus the whole Christmas and post Christmas period ten to be pretty expensive so analogue photography not being a particularity cheap hobby ends up quite far down the list of things I can afford. Anyway I am back now, I’ve had somewhere in the region of 10-12 rolls of film that I have saved up back from the lab and a ton of prints to start sharing so new images will be making there way out soon. As always the best place to see any of my new work is through my Instagram as that is updated on a pretty daily basis. Anyway, what have I been up to since the last diary entry?

Bar in Brugge, Belgium. Olympus OM-1 Fuji Superia 200, Expired 2004.

In January i took a trip to Belgium, spending a few days in Brussels and Brugge. I didn’t shoot a huge amount of film although I did take plenty with me, the weather was very windy and changeable and since it was Winter and got dark very quickly, shooting low ISO film was always going to be a premium. Anyway I took along the Yashica D and Olympus OM-1 and managed to shoot 2 rolls of 120 and 35mm through them and have had the results back from the lab. They’re a little bit of a mixed bag if I’m honest, some I’m quite please with, others I think are just garbage, but that’s just how it goes sometimes. One thing that I am pleased bout is how well the 35mm held up, this was some Fuji colour film that had expired in 2004 that has been living in my freezer for a while. I had no idea if it would even expose anymore but the results from it are quite nice, perhaps I need to shoot a little bit more of this.

Electricity Pylon. Zenza Bronica S2A, Ilford FP4 125.

I’ve also had a lot of 120 that I’ve been shooting with my Zenza Bronica over Autumn and Winter, I used up the last stocks of black and white in medium format that I have as to be honest I just do not shoot it that much. I used black and white as it felt right using it during the winter when everything is devoid of colour, another reason why I don;t shoot much during this time of year is everything just looks grey and depressing. If I’m honest I’m not that happy with the results, again because I have found I’m just much more of a colour shooter. Anyway, here’s an example (to the right), let me know what you think.

In other news, I will be returning to Italy again in April. With the whole Brexit crap seemingly to finally be a thing that is going to screw with my ability to travel to Europe I am hoping this isn’t the last time I get to go but it may very well be. So I am spending just under two weeks in and around Emillia Romanga, I plan to visit Rimini, Ravenna and Ferrara as well as Bologna and maybe a short day trip to Florence in order to watch Fiorentina play football. I have a small list of things to see and do and photograph but am open to suggestions so if anyone has been to any of these places and have suggestions of things to see or do then drop me a message. And also there are still plenty of copies of the zines I have made of images I have made in previous trips available to buy through the Shop page/Etsy Store.

And finally, I plan on going to the UK Photography Show in the NEC near Bimingham in March. Apparently there’s going to be quite a big analogue presence there this time around and it should be a good opportunity to meet people that I have up until now only spoken to through Twitter or Instagram. If you’re going to go as well then let me know.

That’s all for now, as always; Keep Shooting Film Everyone.

"new" (kind of) zine available

Hey everyone. I mentioned last time around that I would be doing a second edition re-print of my first zine in my “Un Giro D’Italia” series, well it’s back from the printers and now available to purchase through the shop page or Etsy store. It features four new images that weren’t included in the original as well as a new foreword and afterword. So if you bought a copy of Parte Due and Parte Tre but never got a chance to get hold of the first issue then now is your chance.

Thanks for reading.

The 6 Million P Man

Diary Entry Seven

Castello Sforza from Parco Sempione, Milan. Olympus OM-1 Cinestill 800T

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas or festive period or whatever you celebrate if you celebrate at all. It’s been a little while since I updated this blog so thought it was about time to add to it even if there isn’t much new or exciting things to say.

A street in Isola, Milan, at night. Olympus Om-1, Cinestill 800T.

Firstly you may remember a weekend trip I took to Milan back at the beginning of November. Although it was a trip mostly to watch football I still took along a camera and a few rolls of Cinestill 800T as I find it pretty difficult to go anywhere without a camera nowadays. As usual with Cinestill 800T I was planning on using it to shoot some night street shots, although I also ended up using it pretty extensively during the day as well and the results came back from the lab with a few decent images in there (although the back of my camera opened on some, annoyingly). I’m always impressed with the look of the Cinestill especially when using it in daylight with a filter, as you can see from a couple of these to the right. Yes it has that halation effect that a lot of people don’t like but for me it perfectly suits my photographic style (yes I think I actually have one).

Putting the FUN in funicular railway. Lago Como, Olympus Om-1, Cinestill 800T.

As well as Milan I took a day-trip to Lake Como, me and my friends didn’t really have a plan on what we were going to see so just turned up to a powerboat race and had a general wander around Como itself and took a funicular railway up to the top of a mountain. Anyone who knows me will know that anytime I travel I have an obsession with either going to the top of the tallest cathedral or old tower for the view or up a funicular railway. Why would you go anywhere not to be able to get to the highest point? Anyway turns out that a lighthouse at the top of the mountain we climbed was where Alessandro Volta invented the first electric battery (I had no idea that’s where the word voltage came from either), great view, random history/science lesson. To the right is the view of the lake as we took the funicular railway (which always puts the FUN in funicular, I insist on saying that EVERYTIME I ride one of these things, much to everyone else’s annoyance). The colours that came out on this image I am particularly pleased with.

A bridge over the River Po in Torino, one of the many images from the archives of my project “Un Giro D’Italia”. Yashica D, Kodak Ektar 100.

In other news, I finally got around to writing a full blown article about my long running “Un Giro D’Italia” project. It’s available on the film photography website Emulsive if you’re into that kind of thing, although pre-warning for you; it is pretty long since it spans several years of travel, photographing and fun around the Italian peninsula. As the article suggests, this project is far from over and for all intents and purposes may never actually end, I mean i keep going back to Italy and take a camera every time so how can it? Perhaps one day I’ll put on an exhibition of some of the images? (hint hint; I do plan on doing that at some point in the future).

The cover of the second edition of Un Giro D’Italia Part One, which will be released for purchase in the New Year.

Also worth mentioning is that in the New Year I will be re-releasing a second edition of the first zine I created from “Un Giro D’Italia”. I have had requests in the past from people who purchased parts two and three who were unaware of the first part when it first came out, so a second edition seems to make sense. It will be in limited numbers but it will be a slight update as well, with a new introduction since it is now two years later since its first release and will also have a few new images that didn’t feature int he first edition as well. I’ll have more new about it when I am ready to release it the world for sale through my Etsy store and also the shop page on this website.

Finally I will have another image of mine being shown by The Glasgow Gallery of Photography in the New Year during their month long street photography exhibition. Thank you to them as always.

Anyway that’s all for now, as usual if you want to get in touch with me then you can do so through the About/Contact page on this website, through Twitter (also if you want to see me talking about more than just photography) and as always my Instagram is updated daily with new images so please check that out as well.

Until next time I hope you all have a great New Year and remember; Keep Shooting Film Everyone.

The 6 Million P Man

Diary Entry Six

Hello everyone, although the last update here was a little over three weeks ago it’s actually been closer to six weeks since I did a diary entry on what I have been getting up to, so it felt like it’s a little overdue.

La Spezia Seafront - YOU could be the proud owner of a postcard of this image.

An alleyway in Mykonos - Shot on Kodak Ektar 100 with my Yashica D

First up an update on the postcard giveaway I was running from my Instagram, in short I’ve amended and extended the idea for it. Instead of giving away some postcards of my image taken on the seafront in La Spezia to a few select followers once I hit an arbitrary follower number, I’ve been using a random number generator to just pick someone off the follower list every so often and dropping them a message saying I can send them a postcard if they’d like one. A few people haven’t replied, probably because yes it does sound a little weird a stranger offering you something free, but quite a few people have been very happy and are now the owners of a postcard of my work. I’m going to keep doing this until they are all gone, which may take forever, so if you follow me on Instagram and you get a message from me it might be for one of these. Also if you don’t well why not? I update it way more regularly than here.

Next up is some results, photography related results. I’ve finally got around to getting developed and scanning in ALL of the images I shot in Slovenia and Greece at the end of September. for the record that was 6 rolls of 35mm Fuji C200 and Cinestill 800T shot with my Olympus OM-1 and 8 rolls of Kodak Ektar 100 in 120 shot with my Yashica D, so yeah that was a hell of a lot of photographs to go through.

Sunset over the Caldera in Santorini - Again shot on Kodak Ektar 100 with the Yashica D

I’ve been sharing them over on that Instagram already (like I said I update it way more) so you may have seen some already but there are tons more to show. One or two I am really quite proud of and am probably going to get made into much larger prints for the wall in my house, or as Christmas presents for people as I can think of at least one person who would probably like that under their tree. I’ve put a few of the nicer (in my opinion) images here so let me know what you think and as always if you like an image and would like a print then just drop me a message.

Some Cinestill on a surprisingly expensive but plush Inter branded scarf…….? How artistic of me.

Time to talk about some recent travel/adventure news., actually it was more of a weekend trip, to yes you guessed it , Italy. Me and a couple of friends went to Milano for the weekend to watch Inter play Verona, I myself have been to the San Siro before (last year to watch AC Milan play Sampdoria) but neither of my friends had and with the rumours of it being knocked down to make way for a new stadium in the near future they wanted to check it off their list of famous stadiums to have been to. Other than watching football (which was incredible since Inter are actually good this year) we did the standard sightseeing around the city and took a day trip to Lake Como as well. Obviously as this was literally less than 2 weeks ago and I procrastinate massively I am yet to send off the couple of rolls of film I shot to the lab and get back results BUT I specifically shot Cinestill so I’m looking forward to how they come out, especially when I was shooting at night on the streets and in a few bars. Stay tuned for those.

Ljubjana shot on Cinestill 800T with my Olympus Om-1.

I got myself a mention on the Sunny 16 Podcast this week, granted it was actually on Backing Paper the follow up email reading version of the show AND granted it was a footnote towards the end AND granted it was more about other people’s responses to something I posted on Twitter but still…… VINDICATION!!!! Anyway what I asked was “does anybody out there in the film photography community have any other creative outlets other than photography?” and the response was pretty cool and a little overwhelming. It turns out that, yes of course they do and also they’re incredibly varied from similar things such as sketching and painting to out there things like making and selling dinosaur themed hoodies. Was really cool seeing just how creative people out there can be, and for the record the thing I’ve been doing recently other than photography is writing, short stories and jotting down a few ideas, nothing great but just something I’ve liked doing.

Finally as Christmas is surprisingly not that far away, like just over four weeks or something i think, I thought I’d mention that I am again taking part in the Emulsive Secret Santa (which if you don’t know about it is a giveaway organised by Em of Emulsive to connect analogue photographers across the world and swap gifts) .This is my third year participating, obviously I can’t say who I’ve been matched with but it does mean that I get to send a package to another country again which is always cool when you think about your photography going to someone from another culture, as well as obviously some cool film photography related gifts. Just for context last year my package went to Hong Kong and the package I received came from the U.S. I have also decided to participate this year in Analog Talk’s Christmas print exchange, same kind of thing but you send a 6x4 print of an image of yours to a random matched person somewhere in the world and you receive the same. At time of writing the Emulsive one has closed for entry but I think you can still sign up to the Analog Talk one.

Anyway thanks for reading and as always, Keep Shooting Film Everyone.

The 6 Million P Man

Giveaway - Sort Of.

This is the image of mine that I have in postcard form to send out. Taken in La Spezia earlier this year.

So if you follow me on Instagram you may have seen that I have a few postcards of one of my images hanging around the house, they’re left over from when I entered them in The Old Lockup Gallery’s Secret Postcard Show. Basically I got far more printed than I actually needed and thought maybe I’ll just give some away.

So as my Instagram has been hovering around the sub 800 followers mark I thought that once it hits 800 I will choose a follower at random and if they want a postcard of my work then they get one for free. Same at 810, 820 etc etc until 900 followers.

I am well aware that follower numbers don’t really, and shouldn’t really, mean a lot in terms of vindication of my photography BUT it can’t hurt to get more people viewing my images and also getting copies of my images into people’s hands for free seems like a nice thing to do.

So if you don’t follow me on Instagram then please do. if you already do maybe see if anyone you know might like to check me out? And remember to keep shooting film everyone.

The 6 Million P Man

Diary Entry Five

Lake Bled, Slovenia.

Hello. I have been back home from my holiday for a few days now and thought I’d share a little update of what went on, where I went and just generally what is happening at the moment. Firstly the big news is that i got engaged, the main reason for the holiday was to visit a few places my girlfriend had always wanted to see for her birthday and I thought Id combine that with doing something a bit stupid and asking her to marry me. She said yes as I’m clearly an amazing catch.

Sunset in Santorini. Hopefully the Kodak Ektar I shot using my Yashica D comes out even more stunning than this.

We spent a few days in Slovenia, visiting the capital Ljubljana and also taking a trip to the beautiful Lake Bled. Then we made the ridiculous decision to travel to Venice purely to catch a plane to the Greek island of Mykonos, spent a few days there, then onward by ferry to the island of Santorini (which are both stunning places by the way). And then finally another ferry to Athens for a few days vising the famous sites before heading home.

The professional appearance I had when taking the above photo.

In all the whole experience was amazing, I got to see ancient Greek ruins, visit stunning islands and mountains, photograph some amazing sunsets and experience it with my best friend. As I haven’t had a chance to get the images I shot back from the lab, I have posted off some 35mm today but haven’t done so yet with the 120, I ahven’t any proper images to show you. Just some snapshots from my phone.

In other news since i’ve been home I’ve had another two images of mine exhibited by the Glasgow Gallery of Photography in their current landscape exhibition. One is the image of mountains you will see on the front page of this website, an image I shot last year in the Brecon Beacons. And another shot recently at sunset on Caerphilly Mountain less than a 10 minute drive from my house.

Not featured the half roll of 120 and half finished roll of 35mm (that I later finished at home). All of this was shot in Slovenia and Greece.

Also the cool guys at Film Bros have agreed to sell a few copies of some of my zines at a zine fair being run by Bright Rooms at the Peckham Levels on the 5th October. They suggested I get involved but as it’s down in London and I have a family event the same day here in Cardiff they have been super cool and agreed to sell some of my work on my behalf. Thanks Guys.

Also just a random incident I thought I’d mention; three times this past week I’ve had strangers comment on how cool my cameras looked. See everyone, film is definitely not dead!

Anyway I’ll leave you with an image of just how much I shot over the last few weeks. This is actually just some of it as there’s still half a roll of 120 left in the Yashica.

Until next time, Keep Shooting Film Everyone.

The 6 Million P Man