Fish market – my photo of the year 2025

Simon Foale replied:

Comment posted: 19/12/2025

Possibly sharing a joke about the weirdo with the antique camera photographing fish?

Simon Foale replied:

Comment posted: 19/12/2025

Thanks for this David. Never been to the Kolkata fish market but it sounds interesting! Where uninterrupted refrigeration (AKA 'cold chain') isn't possible the other two options are brining / salting and drying. SE Asian markets feature an awful lot of dried fish as well as other dried seafood products like beche-de-mer and dried squid. The Mamiya-6 folding cameras are great for traveling - super compact and, as long as they've been adequately maintained, pretty reliable.

David Hume replied:

Comment posted: 19/12/2025

That reminds me of two things… One was getting a new bellows for my Isolette III from a guy in Wales I think? I had it fitted by a camera guy over here in Adelaide who used to fix my grandfather's cameras. That was a pretty wholesome bookend. (The camera came on our last trip to Venice) The other is our Vietnam guide stopping to buy fish sauce for his mum somewhere, and explaining how the best fish sauce came from that region and it was just these tiny fish placed whole in a big earthenware pot and being squashed down while they sort of decomposed in to this yummy sauce. (I'm a fan of this sauce too)

Simon Foale replied:

Comment posted: 19/12/2025

I was checking out the Isolette cameras a while ago and they seem very nice but finding a good one requires a fair bit of patience I think. Has yours produced images you are happy with? As for your remark about fish sauce, this is very interesting to me, in part because one of the key insights that set me on my current small pelagics research trajectory was gained from reading about the biological oceanography (= how the nutrient regime that drives fishery production operates in space and time) of the fishery that supplies the fish sauce market. These fisheries seem to be strongly seasonal in various parts of SE Asia, because it is seasonal winds that drive the currents that in turn drive the nutrient-rich upwellings that support growth of the plankton the fish eat.

Simon Foale replied:

Comment posted: 20/12/2025

Thanks Danai. Yeah the Automat definitely saves a little bit of hassle like that. But if you leave the camera closed while winding the film on, you still need to cock (I should say 'tension' if I'm going to decolonise my language) the shutter manually because the little lever that performs the automatic shutter tensioning only engages when the front is open and the lens fully extended. Enjoy your two fabulous Mamiyas!

Simon Foale replied:

Comment posted: 24/12/2025

Thanks for this Michael. Will look forward to your photo of the year. Enjoyed your Phoenix I story and images, esp the fence and goalposts shots - very atmospheric!