Photo 150 "2022" - Phil Wood

Miranda F wrote: I knew there was a funicular at Bridgenorth but haven't bene on it. I shall have to take the old triumph up there this summer.

Or drive the old Triumph to Kidderminster and take the Severn Valley steam train to Bridgenorth. That's a day outing I would love to take

Phil, that trompe l'oeil is very well done, when you look very close you can see it, but if you wouldn't have mentioned it I wouldn't have noticed it. The B&W of Bridgenorth is very well done, both composition and conversion.

Phil Wood wrote: Thanks Miranda F / Pieter. I don't have an old Triumph (though I still hanker after a nice Bonneville), but would be delighted to join you both at Kidderminster for a day trip to Bridgnorth. Not a bad idea for a summer DM.

Sounds good. The old Triumph is a car (1970 Vitesse). Not much room in the back seats, but the roof comes off on a fine day. You can see it here

Edited by Miranda F - 06 February 2022 at 20:03

Love your archives! The double exposure should have been the advert for that special effects filter.

Thanks guys (the EV cabling also caught my eye).

I had two Cokin double exposure 'filters' - I hope to find one using the second effect as I go through the many boxes of slides.

Roger Daltrey / The Who ... and is that Keith Moon behind?

Week 6 - Theme 2: Week Prime - Colour

Sigma 50mm f2.8 AF macro

This is the lens I meant to use last week. After a little AF calibration (-3, not so bad) it is now focusing nicely enough on my A99ii.

The lens dates back to 1990 and from the outside looks to be very solidly constructed - lots of metal, reminiscent of the first generation Minolta primes. With Sigma one always has concerns about the focus gearing as many of their designs have plastic gears that are prone to fail when stressed by the more powerful focusing motors used in more modern camera bodies. I don't take many shots that need rapid AF, so I tend to have the camera set to slow AF mode to protect all my screwdrive lenses. I don't know if this is why none of my Sigma lenses have had a gear fail - but I don't think it hurts.

The lens performs nicely, macro is a tad better than 1:1 and images are sharp and pretty crisp. CA can be an issue, but it is with most (all?) lenses from this era.

Do I recommend it? Not really, it's a perfectly good lens, but it just isn't as good as my Minolta 2.8 macros - which I got for pretty much the same price - mine (1990 Sigma, 1985 Minolta & 1993 Minolta RS) all cost me around £50-60.

I spent Thursday are the UK National Archives in Kew, in the grounds were posts marking a trail of sorts. Each had a plaque bearing a graphic showing a cartoon mouse in various guises. I have combined two of the images, which I think of as Tourist Mouse (complete with camera) and Sherlock Mouse.

Mouse trail


Sony A99ii + Sigma 50mm f2.8 AF macro

Week 7 - Theme 1: Blast from the Past

Sticking with the concert theme for a second week, these guys are not so instantly recognisable. Very fine band though. 1976, same gig, second on the bill.

Who 2?


Praktica LLC (probably) + Aico 300mm f5.6 (probably).