PVD Blues

OK - a slightly more serious tone than usual and about something you maybe know nothing about - I know I certainly didn't until it happened.

Life can be strange sometimes - after a break of approximately 5 years, I decided I really must trundle out the LF gear and start using some of the expired film I still have left before making an ultimate decision on what to do with all the gear that is clogging my study like a deep-fried pizza in the arteries of a 60 year old.

So there we were, eating our tea (coincidentally - home-made pizza) and literally like a bird crapping on your chips a cloud of black smoke appeared in front of my left eye.

At first I wasn't sure at all what it was - had someone set fire to the piece of pizza I was holding?

Why just one eye?

Had the dining table burst into flame?

Had I just expunged a rare and deadly black wind?

I looked sideways and the smoke followed.

Up.

Down.

Sides.

Periphery.

Every way I looked it followed.

I had by this point stopped eating and was trying to understand what was going on.

I'd also stopped talking, which my family knows meant something was up.

In truth I was shitting myself, not literally, but more along the lines of:

Oh FECK,  am I having some sort of small stroke?

Everything felt alright. No droops or dribbles. All limbs functioning. To all intents and purposes everything was fine . . . except for the smoke.

The sun broke through and looking out of my periphery, the smoke took on the colour of deep black blood.

I panicked, left the room, followed by my wife and son, who were trying to work out what was going on.

I sat and explained, or at least tried to explain what the heck was going on.

I tried to calm myself down - there was no pain, but everywhere I looked the smoke followed.

I waited to see if anything else would happen.

I opened and closed my eyes a myriad of times; looked every which way; focused; de-focused and thought to myself if I didn't know better I would say it was like all the floaters I'd ever seen in my eyes coming to life at once and doing a lovely little smokey dance.

No pain though.

That was the thing that kept me going and stopped me battering around the house like a headless chicken.

To say I was severely worried though, would be an understatement.

My wife's advice was to remain calm and sit and see if anything else happened, which is exactly what I did. 

And it didn't.

Sounds pretty scary doesn't it, well it felt like that too.

Everything remained fine that night and the next morning I phoned the doctors, who immediately said phone an optician, which I did. 

Fortunately there is one quite close to us, so he asked me to come in for an inspection . . so there I was a few hours later, up on the ramps, mask on and some interesting optical toys to look at - Topcon!

I was glared at, blinded, flared and generally given a most thorough going-over, and was told that what I had had was a PVD and that it was very common (he was averaging around 3 a week) which surprised me, especially seeing as I'd never heard of it.

Here's a run-down on them:

Posterior Vitreous Detachment (PVD) is a natural change that occurs during adulthood, when the vitreous gel that fills the eye separates from the retina, the light-sensing nerve layer at the back of the eye

SYMPTOMS IN DETAIL

Mild floaters in the vision are normal, but a sudden increase in floaters is often the first symptom of PVD.

During PVD, floaters are often accompanied by flashes, which are most noticeable in dark surroundings. Most patients experience floaters and flashes during the first few weeks of a PVD, but in some cases the symptoms are hardly noticeable. if pvd is complicated by vitreous hemorrhage, retinal detachment, epiretinal membrane, or macular hole, the flashes and floaters may be accompanied by decreased or distorted vision. Floaters are most bothersome when near the center of vision and less annoying when they settle to the side of the vision. They may appear like cobwebs, dust, or a swarm of insects—or in the shape of a circle or oval, called a Weiss ring

Over time, the vitreous gel that fills the eye becomes liquid and condenses (shrinks) due to age and normal wear and tear. Eventually it cannot fill the whole volume of the eye’s vitreous cavity (which remains the same size during adulthood) and so the gel separates from the retina, located at the very back of the eye cavity.

Over the next 1 to 3 months, the vitreous gel further condenses and the sides of the gel also separate from the retina until the PVD is complete and the vitreous gel is attached to the retina only at the vitreous base (see Figure 1). Clear vitreous fluid fills the space between the condensed vitreous gel and the retina.

If a PVD progresses gently, gradually, and uniformly, the symptoms are typically mild. However, if the forces of separation are strong or concentrated in a particular part of the retina, or if there is an abnormal adhesion (sticking together) between the vitreous gel and the retina (such as lattice degeneration), the PVD can tear the retina or a retinal blood vessel.

Flashes and floaters are typically more obvious when PVD is complicated by a retinal tear or vitreous hemorrhage. These conditions can lead to further complications, such as retinal detachment or epiretinal membrane, which can result in permanent vision loss. However, about 85% of patients who experience PVD never develop complications and in most cases, the flashes and floaters subside within 3 months. 

So where does that leave me a month down the line?

Well, it is testing - I think my right eye has had one too though to a lesser extent. 

If you can imagine you're looking into sunlight using two early uncoated Cooke portrait lenses, you'll get the idea of how the world looks - soft and flarey in places, marvellously sharp in others, and it changes all the time.

I hope to goodness it does settle, because it can be testing at times, especially using a camera. 

It's fine with anything that has a focus aid like a split prism, or else requires guess-work like the SWCM, but for something which requires heavy duty oggling like a 5x4 then it is nigh impossible. 

I say impossible - if I had a mind to do it I am sure I could, but it would take even longer than usual and it always takes bloody ages anyway.

It's haunting me though.

What if it doesn't clear up?

I can't get past that question because it is a big one. 

Bright sunshine can be problematic, and I dread to think how it'll be in Winter, especially driving on a wet dark night . . . if it stays like this I won't be driving and that means no more visits to the hills at that time of year (not that I do it much, but all the same).

Anyway, I'll keep you posted - I guess the whole point in writing this is that as a photographer your eye health is primo. 

Look after your beady mincers!

On the subject of hauntings, not that I've captured anything spooky, but I think I might have captured some atmospheres. 

They hadn't been obvious before, but maybe it is my blurry vision . . I dunno.

Anyway, as I was stirring into action about the Wista, I was looking at a bunch of contact prints from about 2014 and they sang to me. 

Scouting around I also came across a couple of prints that seemed to have the same feel - see what you think.

The first two are scans off of prints.

The first was taken with the 16-On kit on the Rollei T.

The second was a Sinar with a mid-60's single coated 90mm Angulon - a lovely lens.

Everything after that is a mix of 90mm Super-Angulon and 127mm Ektar on the Wista DX  - the scans are off 5x4 contact prints.

Pilgrim's Way

Ghillie's Bridge (Broken)

Railway Bridge Piers

Time and Warer

Grove and Spring

Lone Tree

Edge of Grove

Twilight and a Weird Feeling

Old Oak and Time

And that's it really.

Be aware of your eyes and I hope it (or the worse things that can come from it) doesn't happen to you - it is a big worry, and typing this, this morning, through a light fog of mistiness I hope to goodness it clears soon. 

It's taken me a while to get enthused about using 5x4 again and I've got around 75 sheets of film to use up before it turns back into oil!

Take care.

Infradig Daddio - Hepcats and Hacked Filters

Well, there I was, time on me hands and wondering what on earth possessed me to buy 20 rolls of expired Ilford SFX (albeit at the equivalent of £4 a roll).
I remembered that 17-odd years back, I'd gone through a phase of shooting it when it was around £3 a roll or given away with boxes of paper, but it's metetoric price rise (currently cresting approximately £12 a roll!) had put paid to me using it . . until now.

Allied to that, could I find my old Ilford gel filter material? 

Could I 'eck.

Well, all I can say is determination and much digging through boxes of stuff paid off. I found it! The only problem was, was that years back, in a thrift frame of mind, I'd decided to make my own IR filter using said Ilford gel, and a nifty Bayonet I Skylight Filter, so what I was left with was a 75mm square gel, with uneven roundals cut out of it . . . . but did I let it phase me? 

Did I 'eck!

After some careful unscrewing, trimming, re-screwing and cleaning - basically undoing the filter glass holding ring thingy, taking out the glass, putting a trimmed round of gel in, adding the glass and screwing up the ring holder again, I was ready to rumble! 

By the way, if you've never used it, I can highly recommend V-Vax Products ROR (Residual Oil Remover) - it does a great job of cleaning all that nasty greasy stuff you deposit all over everything, all day, every day.

By 'eck!!

It was a lovely sunny afternoon and I made my way to a sort of semi-secret spot I know . . . I say secret, but it's been a home to rough-sleepers in recent years, though sadly they always seem to be rumbled and their campsites trashed - I've discovered three trashed sites in recent months. 

Kids? 

Mental problems? 

Who knows, but the desperation of such actions certainly lends an air of melancholy to the places.

Bloomin' 'eck!!!

Camera was the old redoubtable mid-60's Rollei T; tripod my old Gitzo Reporter 224; meter the Lunasix 3S.

Stupidly, I forgot my Ilford reciprocity tables and I don't use a phone these days (too much faff) so the majority of exposures were based on total guesswork.

I was in deep shade all the time - the area is like entering a vast and deep glade with trees towering around you, banked on one side by cliff edge (yes . . in Dundee!). 

It is quite a place. 

Because of the heat of the day, the air was really humid and accumulating in Hot Steams. 

I didn't come up with that phrase - Harper Lee did in 'To Kill A Mockingbird'. 

Basically these hot patches of air (you surely must know exactly what I mean) signify the presence of restless spirits.

Believe what you wish, but they certainly leant an air to the place.

Flippin' 'eck !v

As usual, I'll detail the exposures after the contact.

Film 66/71 Ilford SFX ISO 12

Before I start - when using a Rollei for infrared, because there's no mark for it, always put the focus point (on the focus knob) forward to the f5.6 mark - it works. 

Oh and for all SFX - box ISO is 200, adjust to ISO 12

1. 1 second, f11 - MISTAKE!

2. 55 seconds, f11  - Guessed - bloke started chatting!

3. 1 minute, f11 (40 seconds f8)

4. 1 minute 30 seconds, f11

5. 7 seconds, f8

6. 8 seconds reading - took to 35 seconds, f11

7. 1 second, f5.6

8. 1 second, f 11 MISTAKE!

9. 1 minute reading - took to 3 mins, f11

10. 15 seconds - took to 25 seconds, f5.6

11. 120 seconds, f11

12. 1 minute reading - took to 3 mins, f11

Pyrocat-HD, 5+5+500ml, 21℃; Gentle agitation (with Paterson agitation rod) to 14 minutes, stand to 18 minutes.

Good results considering the reciprocity was all guesswork.

Use ISO 12 all the time.

You're reading the exposures from the bottom left up and then bottom middle up, then bottom right up.

As you can see, the exposures were wildly long in a lot of cases, and this gave me my other worry - the Rollei T is totally prone to internal flare especially with anything less than half a second. Fortunately I'd remembered the hood, but all the same, I thought that with times like these the whole film would be a mess . . . well, I guess the deep glade helped a great deal, and the filter too obviously.

The filter gel by the way is no longer manufactured by Ilford, but you can get similar IR gels from the likes of Lee and if you have a Rollei and don't fancy paying a thousand pounds for a Rollei Rot, then using an old UV the way I have and cutting your own is the way to go - there's no detriment to image quality. The gel is safely held in the filter holder, protected at the front by glass and at the back by the lens cavity . . 

No doubt someone will chime in about using a UV combined with a IR, but the results speak, so without getting super-technical . . .
Oh, and there's a lot of f11 isn't there - optimum setting for a Rollei T's Tessar!

Also, on the advice of Darkroom Dave's website, I changed the box speed of ISO 200 to ISO 12 - the combination of all this and developed in Pyrocat-HD has given me some wonderfully easy to print negatives.
Jammy 'eck!

Dream Sequence 1

Dream Sequence 2

Dream Sequence 3

Dream Sequence 4

Dream Sequence 5

Dream Over

David M, regular commenter and welcome reader of FB, said I take a lot of pictures of gates and windows and things because I am (sort of) channelling my own (self-made) barriers (sort of). 

Here's his quote:

But there's another series embedded and it's about barriers. The expanded metal gates, the fences, even the hanging banners. Even the dark shadow across the path in the distant view of the V&A. All some kind of barrier or obstruction between the camera and the objects or path behind. 

It's hard to say for me really - I think he could be right and it is the sort of philosophical debate I'd welcome over a pint or two in front of a cosy fire (it the pubs ever survive this torpor)

Anyway, at the end of the day the whole exposure guessing worked so well for me, that I've just purchased a proshade for the Hasselblad and a Lee IR filter . . . can't wait to use it on the SWCM (and I'll take my reciprocity tables next time!)

Oh and the prints were a piece of cake to print - no faffin' all Grade 3 with Ilford MGRC. 

I love it when a plan comes together!

Till next time, Sheephouse to Earth . . . over and oot!

Some Photographs Of The Same Thing

Well,  I'll not say it's boring, but it is quite a change for me.

I've rarely photographed (some might say slightly obsessively) the same thing twice - it's just not really in my remit.
Certainly I'll visit the same places and re-photograph them, but the same thing? 

Well no. 

But this thing was different.

Hasselblad SWC/M

It's quite unusual to find a large piece of deep water marine equipment just sitting on the ground, waiting for something to happen, but such was the case with this. 

You maybe saw it recently in the post about Frankenstein.

I've no idea quite what it is, but one thing is for certain - it's from some Brutalist Planet, where things are made tough and look the same too.

To my eye there's something that I find fascinating about it and I can't quite place it.

Is it because there's an air of Chris Foss about it?

If you're not aware of Foss, he's a SF book illustrator, whose amazing flights of the imagination made a deep impression upon the (slightly) young Sheephouse. 

Look him up  - there's plenty of examples around - and then tell me if you think our subject wouldn't be out of place in one of his paintings!

So yeah, maybe that's why it caught my eye - it's just a shame it has been fenced off.

It wouldn't look out of place in the foyer of the V&A as an example of Design and Functionality, but instead here it is, sitting by the gates of a scrapyard waiting for the end. 
I'll be sad to see it go.
When I was thinking about (and photographing) the Frankenstein piece, this, to me, became an allegory for The Modern Prometheus.
Something created by man, not 'beautiful' in the conventional sense, but BEAUTIFUL in its own right, yet now cast away.

Stupid I know, but I like to think that maybe Mary's spirit was governing things.

Anyway, enough of my musings, without further ado, here are:

 Some Photographs Of The Same Thing

Rolleiflex T

First up is the one I posted before. 
This was taken with my Rolleiflex T - a camera that seems to (strangely) get a fair amount of stick, and yet, what's not to like: it has a single-coated Zeiss Tessar, optimised for f11 and the typical Rollei practicality, where everything has been thought through incrediblty well. 
That it sat in their line-up inbetween the Planar/Xenotar configured top of the range boys and the lowly Rolleicord, seems to be largely ignored these days. 
A lot of vendors sell Rolleicord Vbs for a heavier premium (because they're 'newer') and yet, optically many would argue the Tessar has an edge over a Xenar.

Don'tcha just love old optical terms!

As with most (well, in my experience) TLRs (apart from the likes of the 3.5/2.8 E's and F's) the lens works best in the happy smiley people range - i.e. from about 3 feet to about 15 feet. 
It's not really a landscape camera though it DOES produce excellent results used as such. 
Actually, for all that, the majority of landscapes I've taken have used a TLR and I've never really complained about the results.

However, when I invested in my Hasselblad system I truly realised what I had been missing!

Still, this being said, I've no complaints with the T. 

It has been a good friend for years.
What the shot clearly shows is that it is entirely easy to operate a Rollei handheld in low-light situations - this was just about sunrise on a Winter's dawn and 1/30th at f5.6

Hasselblad 500 C/M, 60mm Distagon

I was so enamoured with it, that I went back the following week, this time with the 500C/M and the 60mm Distagon affixed.

I love the 60mm Distagon - it's an incredibly sharp lens with virtually no distortion.

Here's what Zeiss say in their literature:

Distagon T* 60 mm f/3.5 CB

The Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 60 mm f/3.5 CB is versatile wide angle lensto be used with all current Hasselblad cameras. The stunning optical performance recommends this lens for a wealth of demanding tasks in commercial, advertising, and industrial photography, to name just a few.

Detailed interiors with people,groups in particular are a hallmark of this lens. In candid wedding photography the Distagon T* 60 mm f/3.5CB is an indispensable tool that can be used wide open whenever ambient lighting conditions ask for it.

I found it rather telling that in a visit to the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin, alongside his trusty Rollei, there was also a 500C/M with a 60mm C Distagon attached.

Nuff said. 

It doesn't seem to be a too popular lens in the Hasselblad V line-up - no idea why.
The film was HP5 at EI 200 and exposure was definitely happening - it was bleedin' BALTIC . . . nah, 1/30th at f4.

Hasselblad 500 C/M, 150mm Sonnar

Still thinking about it, I went back AGAIN the following week.
What with everything being fenced off and all that, I felt I needed something longer. 
And what did I have? 
Yep, the 150mm Sonnar.
I've detailed it many times before - it's a bargain of a lens for a Hasselblad - sharp as a tack, creamy out of focus and relatively useable at f4.5 maximum aperture. 
The beauty with all the Zeiss Hasselblad lenses is that you really can shoot them wide open and get very useable and distinctive results, so even though I was shooting unfiltered Ilford SFX at EI 100 and was operating pre-sunrise (the exposure was 1/125th at f4!) I was still confident in my ability to photograph things relatively wide open
. . . and that was just my trousers . . .  nah, just joking.

Hasselblad SWC/M

I had a break of a week or so, but I found it was still on my mind; so, not wishing to leave things out, I headed back yet again. 
This time I was toting the SWC/M with that luscious 38mm Biogon. 
It is a lens that can really do wonderful things to light, and I'm not sure what it is - it just seems to be a great translator. 
Suffice to say I love it - it may not be the ideal lens for everyone, but I find if you get yourself into the Super Wide Zone mentally, it is all you could wish and a whole lot more.
The film I took with it, was FP4+ as it is all I had left - not exactly ideal for the light levels I was encountering.. 
I tried to approach each frame like I was making a sequence of photographs - I'll let you see the rest next time, but in the meantime, the pictures of the Marine Monster will have to suffice.

Hasselblad SWC/M

And that was the last of them - should I go back with every other camera and lens I own or would that be over-egging the pudding? 
The latter methinks.

So, job done. 
Hope you like the photographs . . . and if you don't, well I can dig it (as they used to say). 
They're all 800dpi scans off of prints as usual - Ilford MGRC for speed and convenience. 
However I will say that as scans of prints I think they're fairly ghastly. 
Certainly in the SWC/M shots the slight vignetting from the lens (the weather was so terrible and I was getting 1/15th of a second at f5.6!!) has been heavily over-emphasised. 
The prints whilst not brilliant - more works in progress - look considerably better than the scans - but then again isn't that always the case. 

Anyway, 'nuff excuses - over and oot the noo!

TTFN and don't forget to post those letters. 

In Search Of "The Modern Prometheus"

Well, there I was with nothing more than the old Rollei T in my hands and the thought that I really should use him more than I do. 

Oly The Rollei has been a friend in my life since the 25th January 2003 (oh the power of keeping notebooks!) when I was pushed into the remembrance (by my brother) that at one time I had been dead serious about photography. 

He was alluding to my degree course at Duncan of Jordanstone College Of Art and my friendship (yes I can call it that, and indeed so could all his students) with Joseph Mckenzie (father of modern Scottish Photography - not my quote) or just plain JOE as we called him.
A giant of a character who railed against the mores and attitudes of the narrow-mindedness of the institution that was DOJCA his whole life. 

"The Ruby In The Pig's Arsehole" was what he called the Photography Department, and it was true.
No making of little me's by him,  no sir - he gave you wings to fly. 

Anyway, that's been detailed before. 

Suffice to say Oly The Rollei was a sound purchase and has stood me well through hundreds of films.

This is an intereactive post, in that it requires you to click links - if you're OK with that, please proceed!

Prometheus 6

Anyway, enough of technicalities, I've had a thought to do a small photographic portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin for a while.

Who's SHE? I hear you ask.
Well, better known as Mary Shelley, she spent a small portion of her formative years (1812 and again 1813) in Dundee.

"I wrote then—but in a most common-place style. It was beneath the trees of the grounds belonging to our house, or on the bleak sides of the woodless mountains near, that my true compositions, the airy flights of my imagination, were born and fostered."

If you read the preface to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein she says as much, about her days spent dreaming and observing the 'drear' banks of the Tay.
It was a very different city in those days too; the town expanding exponentially from it's post-medieval port status, to full-on Industrial Centre.
The influence on a young and imaginative mind must have been immense.
She could draw from the sites of witch burnings; plague pits; haunted lanes; a smelly and bloody whaling industry; mills; smoke; a burgeoning (and racially disparate) population; slums; death and dirt.
Oh and mountains!
The ways of a young imagination with such things to play upon it, can only be drawn from reading the book.
It must have been profound.

Her base was a large house (demolished roughly around the 1860's) called The Cottage. It was owned by the industrialist Thomas Baxter and looking at maps, must have been a typical, moneyed, house of the time with decent grounds.
All that is left of it and its grounds now, is a small plaque on a very large wall that puts a full-stop on a small street called South Baffin Street (y'see, Dundee's whaling heritage is all around - we even used to have an East and a West Whale Lane).
South Baffin is quite unusual in that there is no resident's parking, just a couple of forlorn benches plopped in the middle of a street of tenements.

Anyway, I digress.

Sometimes don't you just wish you had a time machine?
I suppose you do own one if you use your imagination, but all the same . . .
Looking down on the myriad of satellite dishes (Oh how 90's Dwarling!) strewn over the tenements, it was hard to get myself back to a time when a young girl would have looked out on relatively unspoiled Firth!
As I stated before, Dundee was a very different place then.
If you look at the OS at this link and then scroll in till you see Camperdown Dock - The Cottage is around the one o'clock mark up from there.
As you can see, to the left of the map are to be found the sprawling docks and the remnants of a medieval walled City.
To the right of the map you see open strath and scattered houses and factories.
Lots of open fields.
That process of the slow creep of the City outwards, is still ongoing.
Landscape becomes managed and culverted (as indeed it has always been).
Picturesque land becomes lost and built upon and before you know it, all that is left are the old names.

The area that also concerns us is Stannergate.
This still exists and it was at this point where the culverted  burns entered the Tay.
On the old map, there's a promontory, but this is now buried under modern reclaimed land. Apparently the promontory was where Mary would sit and think and dream and watch all the flotsam of a working port go in and out.
Now it is the site of industry with a deep water port (owned by Forth Ports) and a substantial Rig Decommisioning Area.

Even though you can't get near the actual Stannergate foreshore itself, you can get relatively close enough, and indeed if you stand there at low tide, and close your eyes (ignoring the incessant car roar) you can sort of feel the movement of the estuary; the holding back of land; the chanelling of springs and burns and rain-water courses; the turning of the tides and the planet.
Indeed, I'm not sure what it is, but it has something.
My father-in-law, born and raised in Dundee city centre back in the '30's when it was proper poor said his mother used to take them to the Stannergate for a holiday.
It's only a couple of miles from the centre, but, at the time would have been beyond (just about) the smoke and industry of one of the busiest and hardest-working cities in Scotland.
With the nearby 'Grassy Beach' and the delights of Broughty Ferry further along the coast, the cleaner air blowing off the estuary and the un-sprawled-upon fields, must have been a panacea to a population familiar with grime and stoor.

So that's set the scene a bit hasn't it.
From South Baffin to the Stannergate is a short walk and on my first exploratory expedition (serious and with camera in hand) I didn't make it.
Initially I wanted to get a feel for the place, so I started at Broughty Ferry Road, walked to the top of the steps at South Baffin St, back down, along to the Roodyards Burial Ground (site of the ancient and long demolished St. John's Chapel [a well-known shrine from the C15th and Hospital of St John The Baptist, also from that time] though the site is documented as being a plague site for the disposal of corpses).
From there I made my way down the deserted and neglected Roodyard's Lane, crossed the main road and headed into the docks.

I've photographed the docks for years and always find something interesting - it's that sort of place.
You also tend to be ignored even with the likes of a 5x4 set-up, which is very nice indeed.

Anyway, back to Mary.
I struggled, I really did.
That she was here is fact; but to draw a line between her and modern Dundee is pretty much an impossibility.
Certainly it was for me, camera in hand, wondering what to photograph.

And this is what I did - as usual, you get the whole contact and notes, and then some prints.

Film #66/64

Ilford HP5+ EI 200

1. 1/4 f5.6 ZIII South Baffin Street

2. 1/2 f8 ZIII South Baffin Street

3. 1/2 f4 ZIII South Baffin Street

4. 1/8 f8 ZIII Cemetery/Roodyards Road

5. 1/15 f5.6 ZIII Cemetery/Roodyards Road

6. 1/30 f4 ZIII Rolleinar 1

7. 1/4 f8 ZIII Rolleinar 1

8. 1/8 f8 ZIII Dock Street

9. 1/30 f8 ZIII Sign

10. 1/60 f5.6 ZIII Rolleinar 1

11. 1/30 f5.6 ZIII Object

12. 1/30 f5.6 ZIII Scene

Pyrocat HD 5+5+500ml 22℃

Usual agitation. 14mins, stand to 17 mins

Lots of camera shake - no tripod, should have used cable release.

Forgot hood a couple of times hence flare. The drilling thing looks amazing on neg. They're not great though - could do and will do better.

ALWAYS USE THE HOOD!!

Ah yes, the sage words "Always Use The Hood"!
If you own or are contemplating an old Rollei, and, like me, rather like shooting into bright light sources, then get a hood.
You can see it in the lower section of frames 4 and 8 on the contact. basically, if you don't use one, the following frame will be ruined by a band of flare. It used to frustrate the heck out of me because I had no idea what was causing it. I bought a Bay 1 hood, and it stopped. All the other frames above I am using the hood in similar lighting and there's no flare.
Save yourself heartache - USE A HOOD!

Anyway, here's the results - they're all 800dpi scans off of my prints made on Ilford MGRC for speed and convenience. It probably is a slippery slope for me  - I can bang out a bunch of prints compared to the care I have to use with anything fibre-based. This being said, the results are fine and they work for me as a visual stimulus, as in:

"What are you going to do wiv all them prints then?"

"You gonna just stare at them wiv your jaw open, droolin' on yer jumper ? Or are you actually goin' to get off yer fat arse and do sumfink?"

Ah yes, the visual arse kick.
It'll be the latter, deffo.

I sort of put these into a slight sequence - not sure if it works or not.

Prometheus 1

Prometheus 2

Prometheus 3

Prometheus 4

Prometheus 5

Prometheus 6

And that as they say is that.
Hope you've found it interesting. It's amazing what local history you can find in Britain if you dig even a little bit.
I've had fun doing it, improved my knowledge and, semi-inspired, have gone on to explore the area further with a bunch more films which I'll be posting in subsequent, er, posts.

If you get a chance, or maybe you are intimately familiar with it, read Frankenstein. I initially found it difficult to approach, but when you start stripping it back, and discovering the influences that brought it into being, and indeed the influence it had on fiction full stop, well, I think it is pretty remarkable.

That's it - TTFN and remember, never drink the vinegar from a jar of pickled onions.

Last Drops Of A Golden Summer

Well, there I was with actual time on my hands to do stuff . . so what did I do? Yep, had a good sort through the darkroom.

There were rather a lot of old boxes of paper, and a lot of (seemingly empty) 25 sheet envelopes. 

I've always known that I had some Forte Polywarmtone left, but in my mind it was one sheet . . . had I read the envelope, I'd have seen it was 3, the last time I inspected the interior . . er . . . nearly 7 years ago . . gulp.

I don't know about you, but I think I hate digital photography more now than I did then, simply because in its wake the death-knell of many many fine papers and companies rang loud around the world, including Forte, whose Polywarmtone is the subject of this 'ere blog.
This, legendary (and I don't bandy that about lightly) paper - long gone to the great darkroom in the sky - is a tragic casualty, and meanwhile some digital fecker is groaning on about his jets clogging up. 

Saints alive, from the experience pov, this is IT - printing with museum grade materials, which will, God willing, outlast us all, only to be munched on by the cockroaches from the end of days . . .

It truly is sad that the choice of materials available to today's hobby printer (or professional) is a tiny slice of what it once was.

However, while we're here, I'll boldly state that for those of us who do still make the effort to print - fortune smiles upon us - for the greatest photographic paper in the world is still made:

Ilford Galerie

It is superb and expensive, BUT, reassuringly easy to print with.
Choose Grade 2 and with careful print manipulation you can take on the world - it's versatile, and perhaps unusually for any paper, really does make any almost any image look superb.
For myself I also get far less spoils with it than anything else.
At the end of the day, if you're going to spend a shedload of time printing some meaningful negatives, then it's a no-brainer.

But, back to the nub of nostalgia and the Forte.

The Last Of The Mohicans
This Was Surface PW-14
Must Have Been In My Darkroom For Around 10 Years

The Instructions
All Well And Good If You Know/Have The Correct Filters
If Not . . Guesswork Involved

It looks old doesn't it, from the Bohemian Chic of the envelope to the typeface used on the instructions, and it is old in its attention to detail and sheer out-and-out quality of materials.
There is little like it any more.

It had a superbly variable warmth (dependant on developer) coupled with easy toning, which yielded a broad palette of nice tones.

It was quite a slow paper both in exposure and development - mind, maybe that is because this is an ancient sample; but then again, a box of Galerie I have that is older comes to full fruition in 120 seconds in Polymax developer, whereas the PWT took 180 seconds plus.
And I do seem to remember when I got the box that it seemed pretty damn slow then, but then I also seem to remember reading that that was a mark of the paper.
There's an interesting article and link to register to buy a box (if it ever goes into production again) here

Anyway, I had to treat it right - it wouldn't do to send this off into the night without a decent image, and I hope I have done it justice.

Looking back through my print archives, I can see that I didn't have the skill or the images to make the most of it before and have only found 2 images that I like printed on it . . . wonder what happened to the other 20???

I mixed up fresh fix and stop. The Kodak Polymax developer was mixed not that long ago so was fine, and into the dark I went.

I'll confess that it has been well over a year since I printed on fibre paper which is shocking, so the quiet rhythm of darkroom work took a small amount of time to get used to again, but once you've learned to ride Ansel's bicycle, well . . .

I spent 6 exhausting hours from start of printing to end of toning and start of washing because I also printed the same negatives (plus a couple of others) on Galerie. I wanted a comparison between the two for this 'ere blog, because I thought you lot would be interested . . so stop yawning at the back!

It was fun with a capital F, and my intention is to spend more time doing it.

I take a fair amount of photos, and to not print many of them . . well, what is the point in taking so many photos - capiche?

And so, to the prints - they're all 800 dpi scans from the prints themselves and I'll detail the details as it were underneath.

I'll also say that just for fun I tried to match the prints with equivalent ones printed on the ancient Galerie - it was semi-hard to match exposure, but I took it on the chin for the team . . . and only actually matched two of them.
Well, it did seem a bit extravagent.

Anyway, anon . . .

Forte Polywarmtone
Somewhere Near Grade 3?
Who knows, but it was Selenium Toned

Ilford Galerie - Grade 2
Selenium Toned

Yes I know, the Galerie print is a fair bit more exposed - it was very difficult to do and I certainly wasn't going to use another sheet of (expensive) paper just to furnish this blog with more testing.

I am super happy with the Galerie print as it reflects the feel of the day. The PWT print is very lightweight and 'airy'.

As you can see it is no slouch as a paper though - I would say fine detail is equal in both.

The negative this came from was Ilford Delta 400, EI 200, developed in Pyrocat-HD.

Both prints were lightly toned with Kodak Selenium 1:20 too.

One thing you can't get from this is the surface quality of both prints. I prefer glossy finishes and that's what they are, but what I will say is the finish on the PWT is utterly sublime - it is glossy and silky and rather than reflecting light all over the place as a lot of glossies do, it holds it and adds it as an extra dimension.

That sounds like bollocks, but it is my impression of it.

Even Adox in their wishes to revamp the paper say that it will be impossible to replicate that surface ever again . . .

Nothing like ramping up the pressure on my last three pieces then 😅

Forte Polywarmtone
Unknown Grade.
Bleached And Then Selenium Toned

Ilford Galerie Grade 2
Selenium Toned
Digital Scanning Footery

I rather like this image in an old and decrepit way.

It was exposed on a piddle-i-dee afternoon in Moffat. It was chucking and I was moving about with the Rollei T seeing what I could find. I came across an abandoned cottage and it had outbuildings in the back garden that were in a serious state of disrepair. This room looked like it had been someone's cosy den at one point - but that must have been a couple of decades ago.

The texture of the curtain mixed with the very subtle reflections of glass (barely discernible in the terrible light) made for an image that cried out neglect and disappontment and abandonment.
You could feel the buildings' pain.
At that time (early 2017) there were a number of properties in the town that were like that, which was very unusual. I always remember the town as a place of polite well-to-do-nes; of friendly old ladies who were very accepting of incomers; of youngsters who were less welcoming and a crowd inbetween who were fine!
It was a place of clean (but fading) moneyed cliquiness and a quiet fortitude.
I like/liked it A LOT.

Anyway, I've cheated . . . the Galerie print is poor, so I've lightened it a bit in 'Photos' - I dunno, I got arse over elbow and mucked up my timings. 

The PWT though . . . that is another story.

What I was dealing with was a terribly under-exposed negative. Y'see what I'd done when taking the picture, was grit my teeth, stopped down a tad (just to get the ivy and the curtain) and shot it at 1/8th at f8.

The film was TMX 400, 2 years past its expiry date and the EI was 200.
Well-expired films do need a bit of extra oomph in exposure, but sadly this was a guess too far.
The light was terribly poor and everything was fairly dreich.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, it isn't easy to print.
As such it was a tad more exposed than I thought suited the subject matter, so after a while in the washer, I took it out, and bleached it lightly in Potassium Ferrycyanide.
Interestingly this has taken some micro-highlights that weren't at all obvious and given a sort of streaking to the lower right quadrant - fortunately that has given some form to some of the very very slight reflections that were present on the glass.
On the whole I like the rendition

And so, to possibly the last sheet of PWT ever exposed in the world!

The Bones Of Granton House
Forte Polywarmtone
Unknown Grade.
Bleached And Then Selenium Toned

I rather like this image - it was taken at Granton House in Moffat - a (once) wonderful Georgian House cum hotel which burned down a couple of decades back. It's a shell of a building and rather dangerous, so if you are tempted to visit, don't put our head through a lintel - it could well collapse. There's the wreck of a van in the garden, as you can see above, it looks rather like the slumped skull and tusk of some mechanical elephant and I'd never noticed that till I typed this.

It was a hot spring day, the fields surrounding the house were full of the wash and debris of the severe storm of Winter 2017 when the whole town was cut off.
I know this area well - it is the product of such weathering - but that storm must have been something else; the fields were full of small boulders - quite something.

I am glad this was my last image on PWT, though strangely none of the legendary warmth comes through - I'll put that down to using Kodak Polymax developer (liquid Dektol) which is neutral to cold, and then toning in Selenium 1:20 for a couple of minutes.

All the lovely subtleties of light the Rollei's single coated lens has let through though, are present in the negative and on the print. 

I like it a lot actually.

I didn't make a Galerie print of this - maybe at some point in the future, but tbh I was ker-knackered as I had made another set of prints for another article. 

It was 6 solid hours of work - thoroughly enjoyable work.

And that's about it - if you print you'll understand the trails and tribulations; if you don't, well, I know it is easy for me to say from my high castle and guerilla darkroom/cupboard, but you should try and learn it. 

The final, physical image, is IT to me. 

To take light and time and atmosphere, and even emotion, and distill it into something you can hold and look at, well, it really is the whole point as far as I am concerned.

So, Forte Polywarmtone. 

Good luck Adox - I think it is going to be a difficult job.

I had great pleasure using up the last of my supplies and hope I have done it some justice.

TTFN - thanks for reading, and if you could help me across that road I'd be forever grateful . . .