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I am still experimenting with lensless images. This was made during a workshop on Lawrence Field in Derbyshire.

The effect you get with a pinhole adaptor on a DSLR gives a specific effect. This is different in feel to pinhole images made on film and won't be to many peoples taste, but I like it.

The downside is dust. If you think you have a clean sensor, try shooting at f138 with a pinhole 'lens'. The dust is staggering and takes an age to remove.

The images has a softness and a feel of having been taken a hundred years ago. You have no ability to focus, you can only control your ISO and shutter speed. It is rare, unless you go to high ISO's to get a shutter speed of less than 1 second and this image was a 2 second shot so if you want any degree of 'sharpness' you do need to use a tripod. For more creative 'blur' or 'ICM' type images you can handhold in bright light with no ND filters and still get plenty of movement in the image.

I have been amazed by Steve Goslings images made with lensless cameras and have made the decision to invest in a pinhole film camera to experiment myself.

As a dedicated digital user, it feels weird to be considering film. Worrying too, due to the costs. Having been so used to getting instant feedback from the histogram on a digital camera, to now face having to use a handheld lightmeter properly, bracket shots and then send the film off for processing and scanning, I am daunted to say the least.

But now I have made the decision, it has prompted me to consider taking this further. I guess this is a case of making a commitment. Now I have mentally crossed the line and decided to make the leap into film, I have decided to also try a medium format camera.

Like many others, Michael Kenna is one of my favorite photographers. He works much of the time on 6 x 6cm film. I love square format images and so have decided to try and get hold of an ancient Hassleblad film camera and one lens, if the price is right, to learn how to use it.

Of course, I will still be working digitally and adding this film work to my portfolio. I am in complete ignorance when it comes to working in film. My experience only goes as far as having used various film cameras up to my teens which just involved a lot of guess work with settings followed by posting a roll off to Bonusprint and being disappointed on the films return! I am going to have to get studying and practising.

So, if I can get hold of the cameras I need I will blog away on my exploits, failures, triumphs and lessons learned over the coming months.

You never know, it may even lead me to stepping up to large format photography at some point.

A goal I set at the beginning of the year was to make sure I had at least one shot published and paid for, it was sort of the step where you know you're doing something right. Anyway, story is, I got approached during a gig and they asked for my contact details which I happily supplied them with my moo card, the next day I was contacted by the folks at NME telling me they want my photo for their next issue. The process was quick and I was squee'ing most of the time, of course I didn't say anything just in case things didn't go through but it's published and here's my cheque, so yeah! It feels nice to not only get paid for a shot, but to have it published on a major magazine as the main live gig feature.

So yeah, will probably invest this in a new flash gun, though I already spent ?31 on a pretty darn good haircut, now I'm 70% lighter with all that hair out of the way.