The photos were taken with my Canon AE-1 35mm SLR camera and among
the last that I had developed before inexpensive film processing
services were all discontinued, and I began storing films for when
time and money permits me developing them myself.
These were scanned from the negatives, but unfortunately I only
really started to get the hang of the scanning settings towards
the end, so the colours are a bit out in many of them. The scanner
is quite slow, so I'm refusing to start again.
The Lake Goldsmith Steam Rally is a well established event and
puts on a good show every time, but for the 100th rally everyone
really put the extra effort in to make it special. This cumulated
with a line-up of traction engines in the main arena at the end of
the usual grand parade around its track, though my photos of this
somehow suffered some damage of undetermined cause.
For the parade itself I let loose with my 500mm f/8 Vivitar mirror
lens attached via a 50mm mount adapter, this being just about light
and convenient enough to convince me that I could take long-distance
shots of moving subjects without a tripod while standing on the tray
of a ring-side parked vintage truck. Many out-of-focus results
followed, but nevertheless I got lucky with a few and so revealed
some great close-up shots of enthusiasts simply having fun with their
machines. I think the slight blur even adds to the mood in couple of
them.
Otherwise, my usual 28mm lens was out to capture some crisper shots
of just a few of the many sights around the expansive rally grounds.
Higher resolution copies are available on request.
