Category: General

Bain Boeuf beach has had a nice upgrade. The ground leading to the sea has been terraced into multiple levels, each dotted with benches and shady plants. Vehicle access is now restricted to two parking areas, and there is also a public toilet that seems to be well kept.

The water still isn’t the best for swimming, but the new amenities make the place great for picnics.

A friend on Facebook posted a meme depicting this year 2023 as an ominous fog enveloping a wooden rope suspension bridge, of which we can only see the first few uninviting joists. Even if that is an unfortunate reflection of my own mood, I wish good health and happiness to everyone.

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The office closed on 23rd December, and I spent the rest of 2022 recovering from working long hours in the last week. As my one-month sabbatical starts, I want to realise photo ideas, to visit places, to see friends and relatives, and to take care of personal business. Things go slow in Mauritius, so if we don’t manage our time carefully, I might not be able to do everything.

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This blog seems to have taken a photography theme, and I’ll run with it for now.

Over the last week, I played with my brother-in-law’s Canon EOS 40D DSLR camera. It was an interesting discovery. Compared to my Nikon D200, the Canon seems to do more through soft controls and menus, which forces me to take my eyes off the viewfinder. For example, on the Nikon, I can change ISO setting by pressing the ISO button and rotating a wheel until the correct ISO shows in the finder; on the Canon, I have to press the ISO button, then look at the screen to select the correct value. Similarly, to set the timer on the Canon, I have to press the drive button, then look at the screen again to choose the timer option; on the Nikon, I only have to rotate the function wheel to the timer function.

Of course, this opinion is based on my first experience with a Canon camera—an old model at that. But, overall, it was nice to use a different camera. My nephew, who is all about fashion when he isn’t absorbed in TikTok or Fortnite, wanted some photos. His request was a good opportunity to test the Canon.

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I also took a couple of shots from the rooftop.

I took these photos while we toured the western and southern parts of the island last Saturday. I avoided using the Nikon D300, because it was in the way too much to be fun. Instead, I leaned on my old Windows Phone. (I believe it is Saint-Felix beach in the first three pictures. But let me know if I’m wrong.)

The next day, our rented car was returned to us after its engine was fixed. We drove to the local beach in the evening, and I got to indulge in some proper photography.

Before heading home, my nephew and I had fun doing some light-painting. He was a good sport, running back and forth as my assistant to help me get these photos.

When we were in Mauritius in 2018, I planned the photographs below but could not make them. This year, they are the first pictures I took on our trip.

Another week, another series of tests with film.

Regardless of their questionable compositions, these pictures are rather good for being shot on expired film. They result from following the development instructions to the letter. Three and a half minutes in the developer chemical at exactly 38°C, as confirmed by three calibrated thermometers. Vigorous inversion instead of twirl agitation. And most importantly, no fingerprints on the film. The bleach, fix, and stabiliser stages were just as carefully performed.

My photography still sucks, though.

But now that I am confident with development, I can take time to improve on the elements of making good photos, namely composing and finding good light. I think a film camera is the right tool for learning, primarily because the limited number of shots per film roll encourages slowing down and paying attention.

But the Nikon FG-20 is not suitable for this purpose. Although it’s cute, it’s prone to mishandling: its shutter speed wheel can easily be knocked to the wrong setting by accident (and I suspect that caused the bad exposures from a few posts ago). Also its viewfinder isn’t as clear and informative as that of the Nikon FM2 or of the Minolta X300. Perhaps this realisation of a camera’s limitations is an encouraging sign of improvement.

The results of my film development are still hit and miss.

Here are samples from yet another roll that was started in 2018 and finished just this month.

I set the camera to ISO 400 for the Agfa Vista 200 film. This mistake not only caused the pictures to come out dark but also revealed what I thought to be light leaks when I increased the exposure in Gimp. Comments in online film photography forums, however, suggest that they could also be caused by under- or over- development, too high or too low developer temperatures, too little or too much agitation… In other words, any thing that I did during development might have been wrong.

Still, I spent an hour yesterday evening to replace the light seals on the Nikon FM2. This simple maintenance job eliminates one possible source of future problems. My next adjustments are to pay more attention to the temperatures of chemicals and to twirl – “ yes, this is jargon – the right amount when agitating the contents of the development tank.

I make it sound like I am completely unaware, but I actually know what went wrong. It’s just easier to ascribe this failture to randomness. The truth is—

I am quite sure that the camera did not let light in. But the film was loaded in 2018, was expired, and is not known for quality. I mishandled it in the changing bag, touching it with my fingers many times. And the chemicals were poured into the tank when they were at 40°C instead of the prescribed 38°C. In other words, I screwed up. And those are mistakes that could be avoided with more care and patience.

To end this post, let’s look at the mobile phone version of that last picture from the series above. Why bother with film photography when the digital image can be made so conveniently and gives such quality? Film is just more fun.

The pictures from my photo walk to the local park aren’t great. But here they are anyway.

I developed the film with the Bellini Foto C-41 kit yesterday and scanned the negatives as soon as they were dry. The process was a little stressful, because I had to maintain the chemicals at a precise 38⁰C whilst keeping time and agitating the development tank the correct amount for each stage. But at least, the good pictures below (from 2018) tell me that the development was successful and is not the cause of the bad ones.

As I said, the FG-20 held an unfinished roll of film from around 2018. In addition, it was a film that expired in 2005. Its age is a factor in the poor quality of the pictures, but I am mostly at fault for not setting the correct exposure on the camera when taking the shots.

I finally visited the park that opened near my house in 2020 amidst COVID lockdown. It is a former golf course that has been rehabilitated as a green area. I carried a Nikon FG-20 camera with an unfinished roll of film on my walk and took pictures of the trees and wild grass that have grown all over.

Back at home, I pulled out old negatives that I had never bothered to scan until now. Going through the photos, I feel my interest in film photography being rekindled.

I don’t have pictures of the park because I am still waiting for delivery of new chemicals to develop the film. In the meantime, here are photos from over a decade ago that I scanned just today.

I finished the last post by describing my plan to cover the shed roof with a tarpaulin. Dissatisfied and impatient, I executed it two days later. The task was much easier than I had expected.

I was well prepared, having run the procedure in my head many times, even at the beginning when I was considering which of felt and tarp to use for the roof. So, when Amazon delivered the 3m x 4m tarp, I already knew that I had to use holdfasts to secure it against the wind whilst I worked, that I had to fold the slack so that it fit on the 2.5m x 3m roof, that I had to fasten it with washers and screws, and that I definitely had to stand on a thick board when I was on the roof. Starting the repair as soon as I signed off work, I finished in just about one hour.

Later that evening, the rain that was forecast arrived, and I could assess whether the job was good enough. I was pleased to see that water did not leak into the shed—everything inside remained dry. But I was concerned by water puddles remaining on the roof for a few days after the rain stopped.

My other worry is about the quality of the tarp. With a weight of 90 grams per square metre (gsm), it is noticeably thinner than my other 150 gsm tarp used to collect garden rubbish. I am not confident that it will last long against exposure to the weather, foxes, and the neighbourhood cats. This said, I console myself with the thought that the tarp is cheap and easy to replace.

I put a hole in the roof of the garden shed. It happened when I was working on the shed, replacing the old felt. Distracted, I stepped on an area of rotted wood between two beams. My foot went right through it.

With felt already laid on half of the roof and without any material available to fix the damage, I carried on despite the sour mood, pretending that the hole wasn’t there. The rest of the job was easy, as I had the brilliant idea, albeit a late one, of using a large board to support my weight. Had I thought of that before, the repair would not be bodged. And I would be confident that the roof will keep out the rain that is forecast for this week.

After this experience, felt and bitumen annoy me. The felt dug into the skin as I knelt to hammer nails, and the bitumen was difficult to spread, smelled foul, and stained body and clothes. Because I don’t want to handle them again, which I will have to if I replace the roof boards, I plan to instead cover the shed with a large tarpaulin. Tarp blows noisily in the wind and doesn’t look pretty, but it will make an easier repair, will keep out water better, and will last longer.