Diary - Entry Four

Hey everyone, just thought I’d put out a quick entry in the diary to let you know what I’ve been up to recently and what’s coming up in the near future.

Cardiff At Sunset - Taken back in 2016 on the trusty Olympus trip and featuring In the Glasgow Gallery Of Photography’s new exhibition

Firstly a little bit of news about another exhibition that is going to feature an image of mine, in fact it should be starting today (at least I’m 99% sure it is). The Glasgow Gallery Of Photography is running a Cityscape Exhibition featuring images of, as you can imagine, cityscape’s and one of my images that I took quite a while ago now is featuring. What I think is even more awesome about this is the fact it was taken on cheap Poundland film using an Olympus Trip. Proof perhaps that the equipment doesn’t matter and it’s all about what you’re shooting not what you’re shooting with? The image has been published before in the second issue of Trip Zine, although as that publication hasn’t been active since April this year on their Instagram and was pretty limited run it’s doubtful many of you will have seen it before. As a little aside, you can now also buy a copy of my Street Photography zine through the Gallery as well as they now have a few copies of it in stock.

Secondly I have done another few live stream’s through my Instagram over the last few weeks, I think they’ve been a bit of a success as quite a few people have gotten involved, asking questions, joining in and I even tried to get my friend Steve over at Steven Prebble Photography jointly streaming with me (it didn’t work but we can always try again). I’ve been doing these things pretty off the cuff with no real script or solid plan of what I want to talk about so I’m open to any suggestions of good topics to discuss if anyone wants to shout out?

My Olympus OM-1 & Yashica D, my standard travel set up whenever I go away for a trip.

And final piece of news, I am going on holiday tomorrow. Specifically to Slovenia and then to Greece for a little under two weeks. I have packed the usual Olympus Om-1 and Yashica D as well as a ton of film so hopefully I’ll have a ton of new images to show in the near future. What it does mean however is that I am going to have limited access to the internet, since I refuse to pay for a grown up phone contract and just leech off Wifi, so I may go dark for a few days. Like I said when I return I should have plenty of new stuff to share and obviously you can keep up to date with me on my Twitter and Instagram feeds as and when I can.

Until next time, Keep Shooting Film Everyone.

The 6 Million P Man

New Zine - Street Photography Volume One

Hey everyone, a small update here to let you all know about a new zine that I now have available to purchase. It features black & white street photography taken by me over the last five years from my pretty extensive archive of images.

It is A4 size featuring over 40 images (Some of the photo’s I haven’t shared before) and is for sale for £5 with free delivery to anywhere in the world through the shop page on this website or my Etsy Store. Go give it a look and buy a copy if you like my work.

I’ll be back soon with a more concrete update soon but until then,

Keep Shooting Film Everyone.

The 6 Million P Man

Diary - Entry Three

One of the narrow medieval streets in Lyon. Great for Street Photography but not for your feet.

It’s been nearly a month since I last wrote here so I thought it was about time to give everyone an update on what’s been going on with me and my photography.

First piece of news is that I took a trip to Lyon for my birthday at the end of July (don’t worry if you forgot as I don’t really care about birthdays anymore, I’ve gotten old). It was only a weekend trip with a flight in on Friday and back out Monday afternoon but I managed to pack in a few sights and shoot a few rolls of film as well. Lyon was a really nice place, unfortunately as my French is appalling and although people spoke a little English I had to on some occasions rely on my knowledge of Italian and its similarities to French. Let’s put it this way, my girlfriend is vegetarian and very few places had a vegetarian option tat wasn’t just a plate of leaves so deciphering a menu and asking if meat can not be served was a challenge. Anyway the city was beautiful, lots of winding narrow medieval streets, easy to use transport that is cheap, plenty of sights, Roman ruins, etc etc…….We had a great time.

The bag that has saved my back.

Next up on the news front is that my back is (hopefully) no longer be screaming out in pain every time I take out my Bronica because I got a new bag for my birthday. A Manfrotto rucksack to be exact. It’s the same style as the shoulder bag I use for street photography and I have been incredibly impressed with it so far. It has an insane amount of pockets, pullouts and customisation features and the fact that it can fit about 3 cameras plus everything I would need on a long day out makes it my new favourite thing. I am aware of how awful that makes me sound.

I went to a Cardiff Shooters photography meet up for the first time since the start of the year, they always tend to happen when I am either having to work or when I’m on holiday. This time around it was in the morning of a day when I was going to watch Manchester Untied play AC Milan so I could only stick around for a couple of hours instead. Still it was good to see some faces I haven’t seen for a few months and nice to chat to some new people too. If I’m honest I don’t really go for the photography, the actual shooting of photo’s as portraiture isn’t my thing BUT if anyone is interested then they should definitely come along next time. It’s always a good crowd.

The Lab Box, I’m really looking forward to using this.

I took delivery of my Lab Box recently. If you’ve heard of this then i don’t really need to explain it but for those who haven’t, it’s basically a daylight loading tank that allows you to develop film without the need for a darkroom or even a dark bag to get film out of a canister or roll. I have the 35mm model but it can also do 120 with an adaptor. I haven’t yet tried it out, I have some C-41 chemicals that were gifted to me by Eduardo Pavez Goye through his Patreon page but I haven’t got all the mixing bottles and jugs etc to actually use them yet. Very soon though I will be starting to develop my own 35mm film which is very exciting.

This image will feature in my new zine as well as an exhibition at the Glasgow Gallery of Photography.

I have news on the new zines that I have mentioned previously; it is currently at the printers getting made. It should be available in a week or so, I’ve gone for an A4 one this time around so i can fit more of my images into it and it’ll feature black and white street photography that I have taken over the last five years. Once it’s in my hands I’ll be putting it up for sale through the shop page/Etsy store and will do an announcement about it. Conveniently one of the images that will be featuring in it has been selected for an exhibition on monochrome photography being run by The Glasgow Gallery Of Photography, good news for me as that’s another exhibition that my work is apparently good enough to display at.

This image (Hopefully) will be featured in The Secret Postcard Show.

That also leads me onto another announcement about exhibitions. Hopefully one of my images from Italy, specifically the one here Taken in La Spezia, is going to be featured in “The Secret Postcard Show” a free to enter open exhibition run by The Old Lockup Gallery. I say hopefully as i don’t officially know BUT I saw my package get delivered on their Instagram feed and why would they show it if it isn’t going to be in there? Weirdly the image also blew up on my Instagram page as well, it’s had more likes than I’ve had in absolutely ages. I assume it’s because it’s a good photo but it’s probably just because it featured somewhere prominently and their algorithm went nuts.

Anyway that’s all for now, I did another live stream on my Instagram earlier today and they’re becoming a little bit more frequent so if you do want to chat, ask questions or just get a little bit of a sooner update than through the website then come and follow me on there.

Until next time, Keep Shooting Film Everyone.

The 6 Million P Man

Diary - Entry Two

The cliffs at Monknash in the Vale of Glamorgan. Zenza Bronica S2A, Kodak Ektar 100.

Hey everybody, welcome to the latest update of what I’ve been up to photographically. Firstly lets go back to what I was shooting during the last update and show some results.

So last time around I took a trip to Monknash in the Vale of Glamorgan and photographed the coastline, cliffs, beaches and lighthouse in that area.

This is a place I haven’t photographed in quite some time, mainly as it involves a good few hours of hiking in the sun, a lot of wind and the threat of “terrifying” giant cows blocking the path. This mage to the right is taken at the top of one of the cliff’s looking down over the Bristol Channel.

Penarth pier, Zenza Bronica S2A, Kodak Ekatr 100.

I also mentioned that I’d shot some images in Penarth along the beach and of the pier. This has been a standard location for me for years as it’s always been a very short drive to get to no matter where I’ve lived in Cardiff. This image to the right is the end of the pier at low tide (I was trying to get a reflection in the wet sand that hasn’t quite worked as well as I was hoping).

There was a reason behind shooting coastal locations as I have plans for a new project and zine in the future. Quite some time ago I produced a zine called “Coast” that featured images shot around the South Wales coastline, and I think it may be time to create a sequel of sorts.

So let’s move on to what I’ve been doing recently, below should probably give a good idea of that:

Rest Bay at sunset. Zenza Bronica, Kodak Ektar 100.

So the weather has been very good over the last few weeks here in Wales and as it’s now officially Summer that means when I finish work I can still head out with a camera before it gets dark. So I’ve been able to head out quite a lot recently and shoot a LOT of film.

First off I took a trip to Rest Bay to photograph the beach at sunset, it’s around a 40 minute drive from my house but also happens to be one of the closet places to my house you can see the sun setting down over the sea itself (everywhere else is more sunrise territory which is far too early for my liking). As you can probably guess some of the images I shot there are exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of using for the future “Coast 2” (working title) zine.

Pontsticill Reservoir. Zenza Bronica S2A, Kodak Ektar 100.

Next up was a day trip to some of the reservoirs that can be found in the Brecon Beacons (one of the great things about living in South Wales is that the sea can be half hour drive one way and mountains a half hour the opposite way). On this particular occasion I visited Pontsticill Reservoir which is a few miles north of Merthyr at the very beginning of the Brecon beacons National Park. This place was so perfect for the kind of photography I enjoy that I actually came back the following weekend with my girlfriend to do the same thing all over again. the second time was better as it involved cake at the end of a few hours of scrambling through trees and pathways in the woods.

Sundown Over Caerphilly Mountain. Zenza Bronica S2A, Kodak Ektar 100.

As I said before the weather has been excellent recently and because of that I have been heading out most evening’s to photograph the sunset from Caerphilly Mountain as it is literally 10 minutes from my house. The image to the right here shows why I like to head up this way so often, the colours that come alive in the hills and fields really come to life at sunset. Kodak Ektar is one of my favourite film stocks specifically for the way it can make scene’s like this pop.

So that’s what I’ve been getting up to since last time, now it’s time to talk about what plans I have coming up in the near future.

as I mentioned before I have an image of mine being shown at a pop up exhibition of the Glasgow Gallery Of Photography, that is coming up very soon (the 17th July-20th July. Very exciting as this is the first time my work has been exhibited anywhere other than on my own walls or published by myself.

I have also started laying out plans for a few new projects, as previously mentioned a follow up to my previous “Coast” zine is a long term goal but I’ve also decided that perhaps it’s time to delve into my archives of street photography and produce a publication of some kind of that. There is plenty of it available and a lot of it I have never shared with the world so it kind of makes sense to make something tangible people can hold in their hands, if you think this is a good idea let me know.

One of the first images taken for “Home”. Yashica D, FujiPro 400H.

And finally I have also begun working on a new long term project with a working title of “Home”, medium format based and focusing on where I live, Cardiff. This just makes sense as I spend most of my spare time photographing the world around me, often minutes from my own doorstep and yet have never thought of putting it together into some specific body of work. As this will be a long term project I have no plans on releasing any of the images in a specific format like a zine or anything just yet and may not for some time but I thought announcing it in an update post here made sense. As well as showing one of the images I took recently when I made the decision to do this.

I should also mention that i have a few new items available to purchase through my shop page/Etsy store, namely couple of prints of some images I made some time ago. I don’t tend to sell prints of my work, preferring to collect them together into bodies of work in zines and the like but I had these printed some time ago and they didn’t sell out so i thought perhaps newer followers of my work might be interested.

Final piece of news is to let you all now that I’ll be off travelling again very soon, albeit only for a few days over my birthday at the end of this month. Probably the most surprising part is that I am NOT going to somewhere in Italy, I know it’s shocking. I will be visiting Lyon for a few days at the end of July, the city looks really cool with lots of windy alleyways and streets and big open parks, exactly my kind of place to shoot a little street. I’ll let you all know how that went in the next diary entry but if you can’t wait until then why not follow me on Twitter and/or Instagram where I post more regularly?

Until next time, Keep Shooting Film Everyone.

The 6 Million P Man

Diary - Entry One

Hello again everyone.

I planned to make updates on this part of the website sporadic but regular (if that can be a thing) and thought that perhaps this was a good time to give an update on what I’ve been up to with my photography recently. Firstly lets talk about what I’ve been shooting;

Monknash, Vale of Glamorgan

I’ve finally had the opportunity to get out with my fixed Bronica and put a few rolls of film through it. I took a trip to the coast on both occasions, the first day out was to Monknash. This is an area about 40 minutes drive from my house between Ogmore on Sea and Llantwit Major and a location i’ve been to a few times in the past. There’s a car park about 15 minutes walk from the beach and the Wales Coastal Path passes through the area. I shot a few frames of the cliffs, the beach and coastline as well as Nash point Lighthouse which is a fair trek along the clifftop path but a well worthy walk. The whole area, if you go at the right time and right day, can be incredibly peaceful, I perhaps saw three people the whole day that I was there.

The Pier At Penarth

My second day out photographing with the Bronica was not far at all, a quick drive to Penarth to photograph the pebble covered beach and cliff’s as well as the pier. This is a pretty standard location for me as it’s so close and easy to get to, just a shame that the suns sets behind the cliffs instead of into the sea (I am not a morning person so have never made it for sunrise instead). One of the things I love about Penarth is the reflections you can catch off the wet sand at low tide, it makes the beach look like a mirror.

I haven’t had a chance to get anything developed and printed to show the results from these two days yet but when I do they’ll be shared on here and my Instagram, so keep an eye out.

Next piece of news relates to me rather than my photography. Stephane James has started shooting portraits for a project he has begun called “Caerdydd Creatives”, with an idea to photograph creative people in and around Cardiff. I was one of the first people he shot for this and am really happy to e a part of it, the images he made look fantastic. You should check out his work, he’s really talented.

It’s me, Looking Like An idiot

I recently streamed a live Instagram video of myself discussing my photography, my influences (ahem mostly just talking about Luigi Ghirri) and other general chat. I had the idea since the weather was dull and I had spare time from my day job and thought what the Hell. Turns out quite a few people tuned in to listen to me blather on like an idiot and enjoyed it, I have no idea how or why this turned into a success but I’ve decided I’ll probably make them a little bit of a regular thing. Step one is to actually have a script of some kind, or at least notes, so I can keep track of what I plan to say and make it feel less all over the place. Step two is to think of some subjects to discuss int he first place, I’ve got a few ideas for the future already so hopefully this will become a good way for people to listen to me talk about my work and ask any questions if they have them. I have no plans on ever getting a decent digital camera to make any sort of YouTube nonsense though. I don’t have the time or patience for that.

Cesare Fabbri - The Flying Carpet

Talking about influences, i recently purchased a new photo book that has had a profound affect on me. Cesare Fabbri’s “The Flying Carpet”. Some of the images in it are spectacular, especially when you consider they are of incredibly mundane situations and places. it wasn’t cheap but then again I paid for quality so who cares? I seriously recommend checking out his work, some of his images are beautiful.

And the final piece of news, it’s a big one; I am going to have one of my images displayed at a gallery exhibition. I am beyond thrilled about this. the image is one I shot in Bologna last Autumn and will be displayed as part of an exhibition of other photographer’s work at a pop up exhibition run by The Glasgow Gallery Of Photography from the 17th - 20th July 2019. Annoyingly i can’t actually go myself but again i’m beyond thrilled to have had one of my images chosen for this. Check out their website for any more information if you want to pop along yourself.

So there we have it, I’ll try to keep these updates to the point but if you want to ask me anything or just chat then feel free to drop me a message through the contact page or Twitter. And remember if you like any of my images then I have copies of my zines available through the Shop page, I dropped the price of one of the older one’s so grab a bargain while you can.

Until next time, Keep Shooting Film Everyone.

The 6 Million P Man

New Website

Sunset in La Spezia, Italia. Yashica D, Kodak Ektar 100.

So I finally decided that if I wanted to take myself seriously as an actual photographer then perhaps I should create an actual semi professional looking website in order to show off my work. Because of that; Welcome to The 6 Million P Man’s photography website where I will be sharing some of my images and thought’s from now on.

This blog will be updated regularly although not on a consistently monthly or weekly or any of that kind of basis. It’s going to be more of an “as and when I think I have something useful to say”. So in that respect I think I’d better say what I have been doing and creating photographically lately.

A few months ago I took one of my annual photographic trips to Italy. This was the third such trip and on this occasion I visited; Torino, Parma, Reggio Emilia, La Spezia, Siena, Firenze and Bologna. Unsurprisingly I shot a pretty farcical amount of film, using both 35mm and 120 on my Olympus OM-1 and Yashica D TLR and I’ve whittled these down into a select few that I’ve made into a zine that is available to buy through my Etsy store. This is the third zine I’ve made of my travels around Italy, hence why it’s called Parte Tre (Part Three) but I’ve also got loads left of the last one I made as well, amazingly called Parte Due (Part Two). Anyway as usual Italy was great, a beautiful country that feels like it’s been designed specifically to be photographed, plenty of images are currently going up on my Instagram for this at the moment.

Glenn & Katy’s Wedding. Yashica D, FujiPro 400H.

In other news I photographed the wedding ceremony of a couple I work with (in my real day job), totally on film. This was obviously slightly nerve racking, I can imagine using digital for a wedding is stressful enough buy shooting anything on film is always a toss up between achieving something fantastic and literally getting nothing back in return at all. Luckily, despite one of the camera’s I had with me jamming at the worst possible moment (that’s why you should always bring at least one if not two backup’s, which I did), the results that I got back from the lab were pretty much exactly how I wanted them to be and the couple were really pleased. I’ve been a mixture of relieved it went so well and swearing never to do it again since I was so stressed out for the whole day.

My Zenza Bronica S2A, In Working Order At Last.

Final piece of news relates to one of my camera’s, specifically my Zenza Bronica S2A. The shutter jammed open back last September when I was halfway up a mountain, and annoyingly halfway through a roll of film. ever since it’s been gathering dust while I’ve pondered about shelling out a small fortune to get it repaired and also trying to find someone who actually can repair it. I’m going to plug someone here as not only were they the only person I could find who even considered repairing it but they also did a damn good job. I used Miles Whitehead , he’d previously fixed a shutter issue with my Olympus OM-1 so I was pretty happy he could fix the Bronica as well, it’s always good to know you’ll get consistently good work that you pay for.

Anyway thanks for reading through this, as I said his is going to be a relatively regularly updated part of the website where I’ll be sharing news about what I’ve been up to. If you ever want to get in touch then please do so through the contact page.

Keep Shooting Film Everyone.

The 6 Million P Man