I have waxed lyrical about my fondness for my Agfa Isolette I in the past. They are cheap to buy and a great way into medium format for anyone willing to give it a try. If you want one, the usual caveats apply to any used camera, condition is everything. Avoid the "fungus farms" and buy a nice clean example, which is usually a good sign it has been looked after, as was the case with my Agfa Isolette I when I liberated it from ebay for not much cash.
I really enjoy using my Agfa Isolette I, it's simple to use and has handy red dots for those of us too lazy or not too bothered about getting creative with it. Set your aperture to f/11, distance to 30 feet and snap away! All you need to worry about is your shutter speed. I metered the light with my trusted Gossen Trisix selenium light meter set at 100 iso. The extra 25 iso with FP4+ 125 really makes no difference to it.
I shoot familiar compositions from slightly different angles, and to be fair use mostly the same settings. Shooting at f/11 with the distance at 30 feet gets most stuff from 10 feet to infinity in focus. I adjust the shutter speed and aperture as needed, especially when I get to the shaded woodland paths.
I headed to The Wash and, you probably guessed it already, my old friend the lone tree there. I have enjoyed photographing this tree over the years. It's solitary position gives me a range of angles and I have come to favour a couple, especially on a sunny day. I like to photograph it with my back to the sun or at 90 degrees to the sun, but anywhere between 90 degrees either side is good.
I also took a few shots of the derelict car that is still slowly rusting away. Each time I see it, there's a few more dents and dings thanks to the kids that play on it. Every year it loses a little mass and in the years to come will eventually rust into the ground, but it will still be around for a good while yet.
I headed to the woodland path where there has been a lot of activity over winter. The once muddy bog of a path has been given a complete make over and is now a smooth asphalt path. This has been warmly welcomed by everyone who uses the path regularly and disabled folks who get about on electric buggy's can now enjoy the path too. Drainage from The Wash has been improved, the ditch cleared and routed further from the path.
A lot of the dead trees have been removed too. Ash Die Back has blighted woodlands across the UK and beyond, killing many trees. In most places the dead trees have rotted down into the soil, but in places like our local woodland paths, there were a number of dead trees that were still standing and eventually they would fall.
Before they fell on someone, our local Council invested in having them felled and removed. They also took the plunge and invested in improving the path and I'm glad my local taxes have been used in this way. I photographed a number of trees that line the path and headed on my way to my favourite tree by the farm.
I'm sure a lot of you are probably sick of the sight of my favourite tree, but I'm most certainly not. It's my barometer, my window on the seasons and it is just about to grow it's foliage for 2025. Late February is a magical time as snowdrops dazzle us with their white bell shaped flowers and crocus begin to rise from the ground, ready to bloom in early March.
Through photographing my local countryside over the years, I have developed an appreciation of nature and the pace Mother Nature operates at. It changes by the day, particularly at this time of year as winter comes to a close and spring begins. It also clears away my winter blues and gives me hope for the coming year ahead.
I took my last few photos as I walked along the farm road and headed back towards home. The fields are looking greener as this years crop begins to grow and the Sheep have been moved to their home farm, complete with the few lambs born this year already. I took one last shot through the trees to the houses on the other side of the valley and headed for home and a well earned brew.
It was a few days later when I recovered from my long afternoon walk and I got around to developing my roll of Ilford FP4+ in Kodak HC-110 1+31 dilution B for 8 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. I digitised it with my Nikon D700 and Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens mounted on my K&F Concept tripod. My film was held nice a flat with my Valoi medium format film holder mounted on my Pixl-Latr and illuminated with my A5 sized led light pad. I processed the RAW files with Affinity Photo 2.
As I processed my images I was reminded of the beautiful afternoon that I had yearned for in the first couple of months of 2025. It was a very enjoyable walk, yet totally exhausting. I was, as is usual for me, using more than one camera and having a heck of a lot of fun. My trusty Gossen Trisix got my exposures pretty much dialled in and I didn't have to do too much to them to be fair. Just a little dust removal and spotting out the scratches as well as adjusting the levels to my liking.
Here's a few photos from my wander in the countryside with my Agfa Isolette I on a gloriously sunny afternoon at the back end of February 2025. I love using this camera and it wont be long before it gets another outing. It may even live in the opposite pocket to dear old Baldy The Baldax, ready to go whenever it's needed. As always I have put these photos and more in an album on Flickr for you to view in full resolution via the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
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