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This is a very experimental shot!
I removed the lens from my old broken Prinz Saturn 35mm film camera and managed to mount it on my Panasonic GM1 digital body - not very well and held on with rubber bands!
There is no aperture adjustment so this is the result of the lens 'wide open' - probably much more so than for what the lens was designed.
It's an 'in house' shot - the eating end of the kitchen.
Converted to B&W and sepia toned. It does look an old photo from the 1930s now!
Taken with Bronica ETRS SLR, 75mm, Shanghai GP3 100 film, hand processed and scanned using Canon 9000f
Got a few Dictionary of Image entries to catch up on, and a bucketful of clouds. Can anyone spot the bird-poo on this one? :)
making progress on my current dictionary project
Wörterbuch für Selbstgespräche (auf deutsch)
mein aktuelles Wörterbuchprojekt schreitet voran
John McKinlay (1819 - 1872), explorer, was born on the 26th of August 1819 at Sandbank on Holy Loch, Argyllshire, Scotland, third son of Dugald McKinlay, merchant and feuar, and his wife Catherine, née McKellar. Educated at Dalinlongart School, he migrated to New South Wales with his brother Alexander in 1836. They worked with their uncle who held land near Goulburn until he became bankrupt in 1840. Strong, energetic and 6 ft 4 ins (193 cm) tall, John turned to outback districts and learned much bushcraft from the Aboriginals. He also made money by taking up squatting leases on the River Darling and selling them. By 1851 he held occupation licences in South Australia, some in partnership with James Pile of Gawler and others near Port Augusta. By then McKinlay was thoroughly self-reliant, an accurate shot, and equal to almost any situation except public speaking.
In August 1861 McKinlay was chosen by the House of Assembly to lead the South Australian Burke Relief Expedition. Eight of the party assembled at Kapunda with 26 horses, 4 camels, and a loaded cart. Further north he bought 12 cattle and recruited a bullock driver. At Blanchewater Station he collected six months' stores sent up from Port Augusta and a hundred sheep. The party established a depot at Lake Buchanan in mid-October. McKinlay made many excursions and found what he thought was the grave of Charles Gray. On the assumption that all Burke's party had perished, W. O Hodgkinson was sent to Blanchewater to report and bring up fresh supplies; after a month he returned with a cook and newspapers announcing the rescue of John King by A. W. Howitt and the deaths of Burke and Wills. On the 7th of December at Cooper's Creek, McKinlay found the tree marked by Howitt near Burke's grave and buried a document showing his intention to proceed back to his depot, then northward.
McKinlay had been instructed to explore north and west of Lake Eyre. After finding many lakes and much pastoral land he made for the Gulf of Carpentaria in hope of meeting H.M.V.S. Victoria. Heavy rain in February 1862 transformed Sturt's Stony Desert into 'running streams and blossoming meadows'. The stores had been depleted and the cart abandoned but for some time the party lived well on plentiful fish and meat. However, the leader never relaxed his strict discipline and good relations with the Aboriginals. He shaped the course accurately and on the 20th of May arrived near the mouth of the Albert River but mangrove swamps prevented sight of the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Unhappily, the Victoria had sailed for Melbourne and the party was bitterly disappointed. With his usual determination, McKinlay decided to make for Port Denison (Bowen) six hundred miles (966 km) away on the east coast of Queensland. His watch had become useless for calculating the distance travelled, his bullocks were reduced to two, his remaining horses were in bad shape, his camels were lame and had to be fitted with leather boots, and his last four pounds of flour were reserved for making gruel in case of sickness. By the 20th of June his men were rationed to twenty ounces of salt meat a day and by the 31st of July all the livestock except ten horses had been eaten. On the 2nd of August, McKinlay saw fresh cattle tracks and soon the herd with two men came in sight. Within an hour the party was 'pitching in to roast beef and damper', but for weeks the men suffered great pains after meals.
McKinlay led his men slowly over the last eighty miles (129 km) to Bowen, where he was given a complimentary dinner and a handsome testimonial on the eve of sailing for Rockhampton on the 17th of August. A month later he reached Melbourne. The Royal Society of Victoria welcomed him, and with Landsborough, he was given an enthusiastic reception in the Exhibition Building. In October, McKinlay arrived in Adelaide, handed his journal and charts to the government and was awarded £1000; the five men who returned with him were given six months' pay. He was banquetted by the mayor and given a silver tea and coffee service. At Gawler, he was welcomed as 'a conquering hero' but demurred from making speeches. Although he had summed up the actions of each day before he slept, he had no talent for talking or writing about his own exploits. Described as 'the knight-errant of explorers', he went his own way and ignored critics. His party was the second to cross the continent from south to north and, like J. M. Stuart, he never lost any of his men.
In 1865 McKinlay was chosen to lead an expedition to determine a better site for settlement than Adam Bay in the Northern Territory. He sailed from Port Adelaide in September and arrived at the bay in November. He denounced it as worthless for a port and city, and went in search of better country. He found patches of good country south-east of the Adelaide River. He then turned north to the East Alligator River but was hemmed in by floods. In June 1866 he killed his horses, dried the meat, bound the skins to saplings and made a raft on which he took his party safely to Adam Bay. In August he joined the Beatrice and by way of Timor returned to South Australia, reporting favourably on Port Darwin and Anson Bay. He revisited the Northern Territory in 1870 to select sites for holders of land orders and then offered to survey the route for the overland telegraph from Darwin but his terms were rejected by the government.
Between his explorations, McKinlay continued to take up new runs. On the 17th of January 1863 at Saint George's Church, Gawler, he married Jane Pile. Worn out by hardships he died on the 31st of December 1872 and was buried at Willaston Cemetery with a very large funeral. An impressive monument was erected in his honour at Gawler, its foundation laid by John Forrest on the 14th of November 1874. The Shire of McKinlay in North West Queensland, was named after him in 1903.
Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography.
Luna, flying under the radar on a beautiful winter's day. I love how his white muzzle matches the colour of the snow on the stone wall. One of a pair of our beloved "pensioners" who still catch mice with great skill. Luna is deaf now, but he still enjoys the sight of the birds and the warmth of the sun.
Textures thanks to Jenny, Cleanzor and Skeletal Mess. Created for The Dictionary of Image.