The Mamiya & Me. 3rd January.

So, I own what is one of the most wonderful cameras ever made (in my opinion) a Mamiya RZ67...  but I know I could always use it more. I love shooting film, and the quality and aesthetics of the photos I take on film win hands down to the photos I take with my Nikon DSLR; but somehow I use digital more than I should do due to it's instant results and capacity for thousands of photos.

Right now I'm itching to get out with it, so I'm planning a few shoots over the next few days where I can have fun with my camera once again.

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Guitars, Nature Reserves and a new lens for my Mamiya. 6th October.

I went out with my Mamiya RZ67 today, I have a new lens for it, a lovely 50mm wide angle lens! I used to borrow a Mamiya with the 50mm lens, but I haven't been able to get to one for the past few months which has been very frustrating as I haven't been able to work on some projects including Our British Lives. 

I knew I wanted to take photos with the Mamiya today, but I had no models/sitters who I could call on, so I just grabbed my old guitar and went to a local nature reserve. I've still got half a roll of film to shoot before I can get it developed, but I am quite excited to see the results (as per normal!), I have really missed shooting Medium Format!

Clutching the Mamiya. 21st June.

After many months of having to borrow a Mamiya RZ67 I have finally been able to acquire my very own one which I can keep forever and use constantly! I have been using a Mamiya for the past two years, but my love affair with this camera started when I decided to shoot a whole project on it, this project was "Our British Lives". From the beautiful colours that 120 film contains, to the high quality of medium format shooting and the 6x7 size of the negatives, I can not recommend this camera enough. I haven't put it down since I first got it, it is such a beautiful piece of equipment.

Our British Lives can be viewed on: http://www.ruthjones.org

Mamyia. 25th March.

So recently I've been shooting with a beautiful beast of a camera, the Mamyia RZ67, it produces slightly larger than medium format negatives (6x7), so pretty great for landscape and portrait photography! I've been using this for my current project about the English and how we live, the negatives are amazing quality when scanned in and it is an exciting piece of kit to use. 

I can't lie, it is a very hefty piece of kit, especially when you have a tripod, lenses and a digital SLR to cart round... but it does make me feel like a legitimate photographer rather than someone who just sees a photo and takes a snapshot of it on their phone. Cameras like the Mamyia take time to use, they make you focus on creating the perfect shot, that's one of the reasons why I love these cameras so much.

Daytime at the Fair. 22nd March.

There's a fair in my city at the moment, people only usually see fairs at night when everything's open and it's bustling with people. The fairground has a completely different atmosphere in the daytime; a few people walk about the grounds chatting together, on a couple of rides there are men checking the mechanics, some girls play together on one of the "£2 for 5minutes" trampolines, and dogs sit next to the caravans gnawing on bones. It's a friendly environment, it feels a bit like a morning at a festival, it's a community of people who travel and live a really unique way of life. 

So today I visited the fairground armed with the Mamyia with a roll of colour 120 film and captured the people and the environment which they call "home". 



Receiving. 12th March.

Almost every house in the UK is connected to an invisible network, through aerials, dishes, cables we all receive information which is now a major influence on how we live our lives.

In other news.. I was going to shot at Emmaus today, but the shoot had to be cancelled, so I won't be shooting there until next week now. I am shooting for my new project, which is a study on England and the English, on Sunday at a horse show. I am quite excited about this. I'm going out with the Mamyia and a few rolls of colour 120, I love Medium Format photography, it brings a whole new dimension of quality into photographs!

Holga. 6th January.

This is a camera which I am constantly falling in and out of love with. It can produce the most amazing photographs, but it can also produce the worst exposed and the most out of focus photographs. I am currently experimenting with the Holga and long exposures, I am yet to develop any film from this experiment, but when I have I know it will either be incredibly successful or look terrible. It is an exciting camera to own and it challenges you to look through the technical abilities of cameras but to just use your own creativity to invent a photograph.

Bagpipes. 25th November.

So today I have started forming ideas for a couple of new projects. One projects is where I am going to document the local business, I want to show typical British businesses and people who work in them through this documentary, it is quite open to me and I am just going to watch it unfold. The second project is a landscape piece where I am going to show how human constructions, such as pylons and wind turbines, are having to come acceptable as part of the landscape. Here's a piece of test work from this project:

Taken with 6x6 Bronica.

Bronica! 11th November.

So, I am shooting with this beautiful piece of image-making machinery over the weekend. It's a Bronica SQ-B and I fear that when I finish using if I am going to end up spending all of my money on one! I have a few different films to try out in it, all black and white (so I'll be developing them shortly after shooting them), I have a few different styles I want to try out with it (landscape/portrait) and I'm just generally excited about using it!