All posts tagged: Lincoln

Just how much better are today’s cameras?

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The image you see above was taken on a freezing cold, steel gray day which the UK seems to get under high pressure in the winter. Light levels are low and very flat. It was under such trying conditions I decided to test a 1930’e Zeiss Ikon 515/2 camera. The test subject was the city where I live, Lincoln in the East Midlands of England. Hardly the South of France on a sunny day but… I used 400asa Ilford XP2 (c41 film) because I could take it into the local Snappy Snaps shop to get it processed quickly. I’m impatient you see. For those who may be interested, the shot was hand-held with a shutter speed of 1/50th of a second and an aperture of f5.6 It barely froze the people who were walking. This is the camera. It’s a folding camera with bellows separating the film and lens planes. It’s odd and clunky but despite being over 80 years old it’s still serviceable and still produces more than adequate images. It has a focus ring, …

The Usher Gallery, Part of the Collection.

Exhibition Review: It’s art but is it photography?

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New Photographic works. The Usher Gallery, Part of The Collection, Danes Terrace, Lincoln. LN2 1LP. T:01522-550965 W: thecollectionmuseum.com Opening hours: See website. This exhibition by James E Smith comprises 2 parts. First is Call to Action, a series of black and white photographs from his time in Australia. The images are simply hung. Second is Half the Battle is Knowing What Sells, a small book shown in the middle of the gallery. This second part of the exhibition is not covered in this review; though, in passing, it comprises e-mails received by Smith concerning briefs given for commercial advertising purposes. You can download the book here free under the creative commons license. Judge for yourself. I am from a commercial world and this poses some difficulties in the understanding of “art” per se. In a discussion with a  photographic artist recently (we were talking about an event I had attended the day before which included him and a group of other artists) I wrote:- “The terms of reference used by artists and those in commerce are …