Clacking, but not as expected

I raced a film through the new Clack on Saturday morning hoping to get it processed within the week. Lo, and it was done by the afternoon.

The photos are not at all what I was expecting. I'd assumed they would be more Holga or Diana like - focus falling away from the centre perhaps, or not really in focus at all, maybe with a dream-like quality. Some vignetting wouldn't have surprised me either. But there was none. The photos look distressingly normal, as though they were shot with a digi point-and-shoot...

This was taken from my office window.

The negs are as enormous as advertised - 8 shots only on a 120 roll. These were shot on a Fuji Pro400h, which worked out pretty well because it was an overcast day. Next time I'll try a slower speed - 50ASA would have been the norm at the time they were made. I'm also keen to have a go with a B&W roll.

I also discovered a bit more about the Clack from here and here. They were made between 1954 and 1965, and mine has a metal body which puts it at the earlier end of that period. The shutter speed is pretty slow (probably about 1/30th), but I'd read this somewhere so I was pretty careful to brace the camera. It all worked out wonderfully. It so often does.

Red Chair - A series takes shape

This is the next installment in what I plan on being a series partly inspired by the incongruous black object on the cover of Led Zeppelin's Presence.

This was taken with the extremely wonderful Lubitel 166. While I've bought a few cameras (including a Holga and Diana) from the Lomography folks, this was an eBay purchase from last year, with the camera made sometime between 1977 and 1980. It's taken a little while to get used to but, in conjunction with the Agfa Portrait 160, everything that's come out of it has been great, except where the photographer's been a dullard. And he's an idio... oh wait...

Tilt Shift Helicotper Rescue

I love tilt-shift photos, me. I've even taken a few. But this is fabulous... Like "Thomas the Tank Engine" meets "Tellietubbies".


Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Tuesday evening

Another day at work. Can I differentiate it from the others? I'm feeling a bit more on top of things than I have over the last few weeks, but I still always feel behind. At least I'm getting used to that.

Today I caught up with Jenny, an old colleague, who's now working on a project to work out what the hell we're going to do about our coastal regions once climate change gets slightly more serious than it is now.


This is not an aerial shot of the future coast, by the way. It's a holey rock I saw the weekend before last at the Otways. It sat just short of the pool at the bottom of Stevenson's waterfall, where a collection of incredibly large rocks sat in some dark water...

I also adjudicated a debate between the communications folk and some transport policy people. Sigh.

Who's a Clacker now?

I've been waiting for this for a week or so, and wanting to buy one for a while, but an Agfa Clack arrived for me today from the UK.


I've been mad keen on trying a Clack for a couple of reasons. First, the negatives are so amazingly large - they were designed to be contact-printed only - and their shape is a bit more 16:9 than 4:3, which should give some great results for wide, horizontal shots. Second, from what I've read it sounds like they're a bugger to get a decent photo with. Some comments I've read suggest they have only a very small focus sweet spot in the middle of the frame, and that's it; everything else is a softened blur. I've also read they have a relatively long shutter speed, so bracing against lamp posts looks like the go. The photos I've seen on flickr have been pretty impressive, so I'm not too worried.

I'm going to put a film through it in the next week or so. As soon as I have, I'll post some shots, at least if they're any good.

Future Sailors/ Prostitute Robots

Still not postful minded.

Highlight of the week was hearing a report from Jess, one of Will's carers. Jess was half humming, half singing, "Future Sailor" to herself, when Will said, "that's a Mighty Boosh song!". Jess was suitably, and wonderfully, shocked. Four year old children aren't usually given to being able to identify surreal, punk musical Pufnstuf-esque Brit-com, but that's Will, I suppose.

It's a wonderful follow up to the few years ago, when F was taking Emmy through the supermarket. Emmy, about seven-ish, walked up to F in a supermarlet aisle with a plastic lunchbox on her chest, and in a loud, clear steady voice, said, "Mum, look... I'm a prostitute robot from the future."

More bushfire

The toll from the bushfires just keeps getting worse. 181 and we're being braced for more. We had a briefing on Monday from our security and emergency management team to suggest things would get much worse (it was about 100 at the time).

I've got about a dozen people from my team (of about 120) working on bushfire issues; mostly communications people. Friends at the road organisation are working flat out. Anything we can do....