Sprockets Archives - Matt Loves Cameras

Listen along as Roxanna Angles and Matt Murray judge the Sprocktastic 2020 competition entries!

Listen on your favourite podcast app or by pressing the play button above.

Sherry Christensen

Sherry sends these lovely sprocket images in from Alberta, Canada! Taken on her Sprocket Rocket with Fuji 400 film.

George Griffin

All shot on the classic Lomography Sprocket Rocket, the film was Kodak Gold 200. The London eye is a well known landmark in the centre of London and always worth photographing and if you every get the chance to ride it, great views over London. Enyford Village is a Village in Kent, will a ruined castle, Tudor building and a humpback bridge, with a ford, very picturesque British village. The sculpture is the latest to appear in Trafalgar Square, and I have know idea what it represents but I do like it. I think my favourite is the one of just the pods of the eye, I think it works well within the sprockets.

Ken Tuomi

Booth to CONTROL and On the Hard (first two images) – Rolleicord V with Fuji Super 200. Other two, Lomo Sprocket Rocket with Lomo Metropolis. Sloopkets is cinematic in perspective and a fan favorite, SproVolvokets has features reflecting the contest theme (film sprockets, sprockets mimicked in the vintage Volvos seen thru the 120 Wagon’s windows, plus the wheel spokes- trifecta!), On the Hard is apocalyptic and the guys working on the boat were more than happy to see an antique camera shooting their work BUT, would you believe….Booth to CONTROL is a most sprocktastic use of sprockets.

Andrew Spencer

Hi Matt I loved the Sprocket Challenge. I have a couple of personal projects on the go, and this worked in nicely with them. The ocean is a significant part of our lives where I live at Kaikoura, and I wanted to show this with some key subjects;

The Old Wharf was pioneering Kaikoura’s link with the world.
The old aquarium was a fish factory, soon to be demolished.
Aoraki is a whale-watching boat, whale watching being an essential part of our economy.
The Fergie tractor is a typical boat launching tractor for recreational fishing.

I shot the pictures with my Mamiya RZ67 ProII using Lomography 400. Pictures are hard-earned; The 35 cartridge is mounted in the magazine using adapters and I tape a 120 paper leader to the 35 film so I can sneak a couple of pictures onto the film before the magazine registers number 1. This involves a shuffle of using Multi setting to shoot the picture and Single setting to advance the film. Once you reach frame 1 on the counter you’re away. I use a 220 back as it counts all the frames so I kind of know where I’m up to.

I use a 65mm lens as it equates to my favourite focal length of around 30mm. Unloading needs to be done in the dark, undoing the back and spooling the film back into the reel for developing which I did in a Lab Box with Cinestill Cs41. Scanning is with a Canon EOSR mounted on a homemade copystand, with lightbox and Lomography Digitalisa holder. Two shots are required for the pano film capture to use the camera sensor fully, the two Raw files then head over to my MacPro and are stitched in PTGui and then processed using FilmLab App. A little retouch spotting and a slight contrast adjustment for output. I enjoy the colour random-ness of Lomo 400 in my world where colour always needs to be correct. Thanks for the inspiring fun! Andrew

Tom Napier

Hi Matt. Thanks for providing the motivation to do this little project. I have a sprocket rocket and a Holga. But noooo thats too easy, I had to go the guts and try something new (to me). This camera has been sitting on my shelf for years waiting for just the right opportunity to shine once again. Camera: Kodak Brownie 127. Film: Kodak Vision 3 500T hand rolled on 127 spool with 127 backing paper. Dev: by me with Unicolor C41 Powder kit and scanned on an Epson V550. The remjet wasn’t a problem with a pre-soak in water @39c and a table spoon of bi-carb. Not bad shots for a c1950 plastic box with a plastic lens. Also my first attempt at hand rolling film hence the slight slope to some of the images but hay, it is what it is. All shots were taken in my local area on the BEST side, i mean the north side of Brisbane. My favourite shot would have to be the glamor shot in the Vinnies window. The orange colouring along the edged of some shots could be light leaks but I suspect it was from the Epson V550 scanner. Anyhoo thanks once more for the chance to experiment and at least, enjoy a day out and about. Regards. Tom

Paul Wheeler

All images were shot on the Monaro Plains at the foot of the Snowy Mountains in NSW using a Fuji GSW690III 6×9 Medium Format camera with a fixed Fujinon 65mm f5.6 lens. Film stock is 35mm Kodak Colourplus 200, re-rolled onto a 120 spool complete with the backing paper. The negative size ends up being 35 x 67mm which is a beautiful big panoramic photograph encapsulating the sprocket holes. By re-rolling the film rather than using adapters or any of the other methods I can load and shoot the film exactly as if it were 120 without having to worry about frame spacing, spooling from one canister to another, losing shots at the end of the roll etc.

Francois Laverdure

Here are the pictures for the Schprocktastic Challenge (Yes, I did write this wrong simply because I thought it was funnier 😁). I wanted to stand out from the crowd a bit on this one. I figured you would get plenty of Sprocket Rocket panos so I opted to use something a bit more rare: the BlackBird Fly. For those not in the know, it’s a 35mm TLR that exposes the film vertically. I took it to a local skatepark, that’s when I realized it was the wrong camera for the job. Have you ever tried to capture a fast moving subject with a waist level viewfinder that flips the image left to right? That was definitely a challenge. I’m really proud of the shot of the kid on a scooter I took there. Even the shadow is perfect. For the one with the chain, I had to dance around a field covered in raccoon poop… I never knew they could produce so much doo-doo! So here are my best four. They were all taken in my home town. All shot using the BlackBird Fly (orange version) on Foma 400 dunked in Rodinal.

Sandra Camacho

I used Lomography’s Sprocket Rocket for these images, for the B&W I was trying Ilford XP2 Super, the colour film was some random expired 200iso I found online. I really like how the vignetting ended up framing the moving fishes. I think that is my favourite. The goggly eyes on the trees was just one of those strange happenstances. I was walking along one of the main avenues in Lisbon and found them staring at pedestrians while we waited for the light to turn on a crosswalk.

Alan Ma

COVID has forced me to rethink my whole reason for photography, and embrace the isolation of early morning landscapes at the beach, which has been fantastic for enjoyment and mental health during lockdown. I’ve really loved shooting sprockets in my 6×12 ONDU pinhole camera. they capture a magical passing of time at f161, with a crispness and ethereal nature that just isn’t possible on a standard 35mm camera with lens. The best ones have ‘lensless flare’ where you can see the photons bending in from diffraction, creating a mysterious colourful explosion, especially in sunrises. Kodak ektar just sings in the ondu, combined with stand development in c41. Vertical panos are also really interesting, when they work!

David Mihaly

I used the Lomography Sprocket Rocket, a simple toy camera which I have come to love. Ilford HP5+ was the film of choice, developed in FPP D96 for 9 minutes, followed by a water stop bath and finished off with Ilford Rapid Fixer before being scanned with the Epson V550. My favourite of these images might just be “Oh, Deer”, featuring the downtown Columbus, Ohio skyline and a bronze deer sculpture by Santa Fe artist Terry Allen – I like the whimsy of it and the fact that it’s different than my usual fare. “The Ridges” was taken at an abandoned psychiatric facility on the campus of Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. “The Mighty Hocking” proved to be a little too mighty, as it flooded the Athens region several times, leading the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to re-route the river in the late 1960s and early 1970s. “Drive” features the view just outside the Tall Pines Area of Walnut Woods MetroPark in Groveport, Ohio.

Barnaby Nutt

This is a 360 selfie – it’s me on a bike and my daughter in the trailer behind, riding down a hill in the sunshine. Taken with a Lomography Spinner held horizontally on Agfa Vista. It shows the road in front of us as well as behind. Like all things Lomography, it’s a cool effect but something that needs using sparingly. I get the spinner out every couple of years, waste a few rolls, and then put it away again. Not sure how this aspect ratio will fit into a zine!

George Quiroga

I photographed these images with a Lomography Sprocket Rocket camera on September 26, 2020 at a local wetlands preserve called Green Cay Wetlands in South Florida. I used Ultrafine Extreme 100 film and processed the roll in Kodak HC-110 Dilution B for 8.5 minutes. I chose the park and the camera specifically to photograph the long boardwalk leading lines. It was a beautiful sunny day with dramatic clouds that help cast beautiful reflections and create dramatic shadows on the boardwalk. My favorite image turned out to be the cloud reflections in the lake.

Donald Qualls

I used ORWO DN21 (same as Lomography Kino Babylon 13 only much cheaper on a bulk roll), shot in a 1950s vintage Wirgin Auta 4.5, 6×9 folding camera, Schneider-Kreuznach Radionar 105mm f/4.5, with 35mm to 120 adapter set. Film was processed in replenished Xtol stock for 7:00 (corrected for temperature). The film has a little light leakage from a bulk loader accident. I like the Abandoned Siding best — it’s got the “far from anywhere” vibe that goes with slow B&W film adapted into a 70 year old camera.

Jeffrey Sechrest

G’day Matt, I’m pretty new to shooting sprockets. I have always liked the look of exposed sprocket holes. I recently bought some 35 to 120 adapters so that I could shoot x-pan like panoramic photos with my Mamiya RB67. The ability to shoot sprockets was a nice bonus. My submissions are from a single roll of Ilford Delta 100. These were taken about an hour south of my home in central Florida. Its an area I occasionally pass through while working and have wanted to photograph for a while. I processed the film with my usual developer – HC-110 (B). Some adjustments done in Adobe Lightroom.

Kerry Jeffrey

Hi Matt! My pics are made with a bright blue Lomography Sprocket Rocket. I received one for Christmas from my son 4 years ago and it really has become my cure for times when I’m bored with photography. I typically use Kodak Pro Image 100, or Fuji 200 and for long night exposures my cable release is a paper clip and a rubber band. The artist studio is probably my favorite image, though certainly not the best. I was volunteered to help frame some paintings for an artist who had become quite sick. His studio was just as he’d left it when he was finishing his last painting months before and it was a great experience to stand exactly where he had been standing and try to imagine his thought process in the painting. The corn field and tree were in the fields around his studio. The night image is from a restaurant called Beast, desolate on a Saturday night after curfew.

Thanks for the great shows!

Kerry
Beaverton, Oregon, USA

Belo

Matt Dugard

Shot on velvia 50 in a Fuji GSW690III. My first time shooting 35mm in a medium format camera. It was great fun, I will definitely be trying it again. My favourite is the sunrise shot over the sea. Next time I think I’ll try some faster film stock and a color negative film.

Dustin Nickerson

RRS 6×9 and Kodak 2254 – Something went wrong and I ended up with about 8 exposures on the same frame. I was pretty surprised by the results and even think they it actually worked out.

Dale Willetts

The colour pic of Droitwich canal was taken with an Agfa Clack box camera on fuji C200 film. The two sepia pics were also taken with the Clack but on Kentmere 100 one is of a memorial cross at Claines parish church near worcester and th second which is probably my favourite is the road bridge over the river Severn in Worcester city centre. The black and white pic was taken with a Holga WPC (wide pinhole camera) on Kentmere 400 again at Claines parish church.

Adrian Doyle

Picked up a lovely red Sprocket Rocket to take on this challenge : ) Film is Ilford HP5 develop at home with the lab-box and cinestills df96 monobath. Pictures are different scenes from around my local town of Chapel Hill North Carolina.

Wol Gilbraith

Yikes, when did I last shoot 35mm? I’ve never shot sprockets before, but I read up online, and figured 35mm would fit nicely in an old Lubitel 166B from the early 80’s. I home-develop in Rodinal, so the film needed to be mono, and what they had in the shop was Ilford Delta 400, so that’s what I used. First time for this film. It wasn’t til after I loaded the camera that I read the bit about getting a count of how much winding on is needed, when there’s no numbers visible in the red window (the red window being shut, to protect the film, in the absence of backing paper). At it turned out, I got 13 exposures on my 36-exp roll. Plenty room for more, with less winding, but I was keep to avoid overlap. And I wasn’t too sure how much field of view, in either direction, would be caught on the firm – hence the framing is a bit iffy. The foggy field and the standing stone involved a 35-mile round trip by pushbike specially for the purpose, so they’re probably favourites – I like how the soft focus of the Lubitel works with the soft light. The trip to Loch Faskally was for the autumn colours, not so obvious here, but I wanted to get some people into my top four. Splash was taken from the dry safety of a parked car, out the window. All the negs came out a bit dark. Scanned with Olympus OM-D EM-1 ii, and tones adjusted in Lightroom. There’s plenty detail on the negs, with scope for some local adjustments too. Thanks to Al Clark, also in my part of Scotland, for sharing the post with the link to the Challenge. Would I do it again? Hell yeah!

Michael Newman

All photos taken with ONDU pinhole cameras loaded with FPP Sprocket Hole Film.
The film is Svema color 125. The gravestone images were taken with the ONDU MkIII Multiformat using the 6×9 mask. Eastern Cemetery is in fact the oldest cemetery in Portland, Maine. Rusty Cow Girl and Sunflower Sprockets were taken with the ONDU MkIII 6×6 Pocket. They were taken at Pumpkin Valley Farm in Dayton, Maine during a portrait shoot with my daughter in and around the sunflower field.

Mary Green

Mrs Mary Green

Rusty Cow Girl

Sunflower sprockets

Ken Bertram

I used the Lomography Sprocket Rocket Panorama camera for all of the images. The Spring Valley image was taken on Iford HP5 developed in Kodak HC-110. This is my favorite image of the bunch with the Bridge in the center and the blur on the sides, it looks like a dream. I have taken several images of that bridge but this one turned out to be the most unique one. All of the color shots were taken on Fuji’s 200 color print film developed in Cinestill C-41 kit. All against Matt’s advice of using a 400 speed film. I chose that film because I was using a flash at night on some of my images and did not want them washed out. However they were not worthy of the sprocket’s competition or damaging Matt’s eyes for life. I don’t know if I will use this camera again I preferred using the plastic pano over this one.

Michael Vickery

Hi there Matt!

I just wanted to drop you a line to say hello and thanks for your brilliant podcast. I discovered it a couple of months ago now and have been listening through all the episodes whilst commuting to work.

It’s great to have a quality Australian based podcast for film photography and I do enjoy your style….. relaxed as if chatting with like minded friends and of course the family feel with your good lady wife and children making their cameo appearances. Well done to you all!

I had fully intended entering your Sprocktastic 2020 competition and duly loaded my Holga 120 with a roll of 35mm film. Due to various “busy life” reasons I was very late getting the shots I wanted and ended up rushing around earlier this week to try and get through the roll and then get it developed. A tall order to say the least!

In my rushing around and not being careful enough, I had a bit of a stuff up when removing the film from the Holga which exposed the film to red light plus there is a chance that the film suffered some “in camera” heat exposure along the way.The long and short of it is that when developed, the images all have a strong red colouring. So, not only did I miss the entry deadline, the photographs are rather spoiled. I’ve attached 3 anyway just to give you an idea of what I was trying to shoot.

The first, the abstract/graffiti photograph, was my attempt to get “sprocket” written on a shot using a torch in the dark …. it didn’t turn out like that but that’s ok. The image is exactly what came out in the dev/scan….. not post processed in anyway other than adding a frame. I quite like it and will put this down as a happy accident. The bicycle photo was my attempt to get an actual sprocket in a photograph…… I thought that would be a little bit of fun to run with the “Sprocktastic” theme. The last shot is of an unused small grain silo at a micro brewery here in Perth. The shot is clearly faded and pink but there is a “lomo” feel to it and I keep looking at it so included it just for interests sake. So there we go. I shall look forward to whatever your next challenge is and try and be far more organised and try to produce photographs worthy of entry.

On another note , after listening to the episodes about the panoramic competition from earlier in the year, I set about purchasing a wide pic plastic pano. I found a brand new example on Gumtree and it arrived from the lady who was selling it in Adelaide last week. It cost me just under $30 in the end…… so definitely not a thrift find but I’m happy with it all the same and will put a test roll through it soon.

I have been very slowly getting back into analogue photography over the last year or so and hope to get shooting regularly from here on. Work and family commitments always make life busy as you will well know but let’s hope this coming summer can produce some great work. I have literally just created an IG account for my film photos which is – defiantcharisma

It’s totally blank at the the time of typing but I will upload the 3 shots attached here later on to remind me that the only way is up after my stuff up with this roll. All part of the fun….. I think

Anyway, apologies this email has ended up being rather longer than anticipated so thanks for taking the time to read.

Cheers and regards.

“Michael in Perth”

Devon Adams

I teach public high school photography and was on a photo tour in Greece when quarantine began. We hurried home and went into lockdown for weeks, but then we began to slowly and carefully do day trips out and about. I shot these at Gold King Mine & Ghost Town in Jerome, Arizona on a Holga modified to fit 35mm Lomography 800 film. I’ve modded my Holga before so had a pretty good idea what I was doing here. I like shooting the Holga or my Sprocket Rocket because they’re lightweight & give wild results. Developed at home in Unicolor & self-scanned. Minor digital edits.

My favourite is the old yellow race car. All of these are double exposed but I like how the car racing number is also floating above the car itself.