Big Meal, Full Plate

Morning folks - before I start this FB I'd like to mention that the excellent Turkish photographer Omar Özenir has started a new English language blog - his previous one being Geldurkal. 

It is always worth reading his insights and looking at his sublime printing and photographic skills - highly recommended. 

Anyway the new one - in a stroke of genius - is called "Intermittent Agitation" and you can find it HERE.

Well, a couple of weeks back in a sort of gotta-get-out-of-the-smell-of-paint-fumes-and dust sorta way, I hauled out the Wista DX, Super Angulon 90mm, some ancientally expired film and walked less than a quarter of a mile from my house, to take some photos.

Incredibly you can fit an entire, small, 5x4 set-up, including camera, lens, 2 DDS's AND a dark cloth, loupe, ancilliary equipment etc. into the highly versatile and brick-outhouse built Think Tank Urban Disguise 40 V2. shoulder bag. 

It is quite a remarkable wee thing that packs easily to one side whilst you're under the dark cloth and removes the horror and hassle of a backpack/bumbag set-up.

The above were an exercise in using a 'new' paper - the "Full Plate" size of 6.5 x 8.5".

I wanted to try something that could balance economy with weight if you know what I mean - an inch and half all round bigger than my recent experiments with 5x7" paper, the 'Arfur as I now lovingly call it, delivers the balance that I wanted. 

It is a satisfying size to print 5x4 onto, and I think the same will be so when I get around to printing some 6x6 negatives too.

The above negatives were Kodak TMX 400, rated at EI 200. The film expired in 2012 (I have no idea why Kodak film is more expensive than Gold these days - seems a fecking stupid move. Luckily I have about 75 mixed sheets of TMX 100 and TXP 320 to use - all expired 2013.)

It was developed in some truly ancient HC110 (at least 10 years old) Dilution B, and remarkably, they came in at 6 minutes development time. 

I find that utterly astonishing.

The prints were Grade 3 on Ilford's "New" MGRC - I don't know whether it is my eyes, but the "new" paper looks slightly more contrasty at Grade 3 than the last lot. 

Who knows. 

Eyes can be deceptive.

And that's it - briefer than a pair of briefs.

Today I go back to even more painting - it will end eventually I am sure, just have to keep our heads down, keep going and keep the faith.

Till the next time, stock up on film now - a year further on and you'll regret not doing so.

H xx

The Good, The Bad And The Fiddly

Morning - I hope everyone is keeping well and safe and greeting the shit-storm of a New Year with typical British stiff upper lip and a tough set to your shoulders. 

Ha, this is nothing like it was when I was a boy.

They used to beat us to bed in the dorm and we'd be awoken by a bugle call at 3.30am for a 16 mile run.

Then it was weights, a hose-down and just as the sun was beginning to rise a luverly runny egg for brekfast,

Cooo, gosh . . . . 

Eugh, gosh!

Made us Britons wot we are. 

None of your Jonny Forener muck round here, all that garlik and unyons and stuff.

Oh no, it's boyled beef, spuds, carots and grave from here on in.

Also just for this year, theres going to be extra reeding, more words, and, chiz, tests at the end.

Coo gosh.

Pleez Sir can we go home Sir . . . .

Anyway, you might recall that at the end of last year I said I was going to have a bash at using a Large Format camera again.

The Wista has been sitting in its rucksack for a few years and there was a likelihood I could punt it over the posts on the games field. 

I won't even mention the Sinar F which is currently safely packed away in a box in a chest in my study . . . no doubt plotting something Swiss.

It was all a bit daunting to be honest, but you know what, I had a go . . . and I enjoyed it too.

So carry on reading whilst your erstwhile blogger has a breakdown and rebuilds opinions as he types!

Haunted Lane

Y'see, whilst having a clear out, I found myself with a surfeit of well-expired 5x4 film - I'd always known it was there, but I just hadn't realised there was so much:

Delta 100 - 12 Sheets

TMX 400  - 7 Sheets

TXP320 - 30 Sheets

TMX 100 - 45 Sheets

So what do you do with so much film? 
Yes that's right - you use it! 

I also decided that rather than hang about in the dark for hours on end (if you're tray processing a sheet at a time, believe me there are better things to do) I would try and find a different developer that might  shorten processing time. 

Bruce from t'OD suggested Adox FX39II, so I gave it a go.

As you'll know, it is generally recommended practice when you footer photographically that you only try one thing at a time, just to see how you get on with it. 

You absolutely do not thow the baby out with the bathwater and change everything at once.

Not me though.

Oh no.

Why do anything by halves?

So:

New developer.

Well expired (2012 some of them) films.

A format I'd forgotten how to use, as the last exposures I had done were in 2016.

Cold weather - nothing better for testing the mettle of a proto-LF photographer.

PVD-affected eyesight, which makes a lot of things (like focusing!) more difficult than they could be.

Oh yes, I was ready . . . but before we get to the main monkey-business, here's some backfill. It's long and no doubt boring, so if you fancy a yawn or are in need of a good sleep, please read; if not just skip it all till you get to the bit that says:

You Can Carry On Now

A long time ago, when I first started taking Large Format photos, I threw myself into it.

I had a Sinar F (for Field, or for those of us who have actually used them in the field, F for Feck Me That Weighs A Fecking Ton!); a 150mm Symmar-S; the world's Biggest Tripod and Head (Linhof Twin-Shank and Gitzo SERIES 5); a Sinar loupe, and couple of nice Toyo DDS. 

Oh and Gumption. 

I carried it all neatly wrapped in a Tee-Shirt Dark cloth, packed in a Deuter 22 litre (!) rucksack, with the Dark Slides in a lunchbox.

Oh boy was I dedicated!

My initial practice exposures were done on cut-up Ilford MGRC slotted into the holders, just to get an idea of things. Those were the days before you could buy the likes of pre-cut Ilford's Direct Positive.

It was a total bastard trying to neatly cut MGRC down to an accurate size under a safelight with a scalpel . . . well actually I didn't even have a proper safelight either, just a Philips red bulb.

But I was dedicated!

I then moved onto film and Kodak's HC110, coz I woz no longer just dedicated, I was serious too y'ken.

I lugged that set-up all over the shop, urban, suburban, haunted sites, woods, hills and one notable trip into the wilds that very nearly killed me (though that is a bit of an exaggeration).

Becoming frustrated by trying to produce contact prints I wanted to print something, so a call to the lovely man at the much-missed MXV Photographic resulted in £375 well spent - a DeVere Bench 504, 150mm Rodagon, all inserts and hand delivered too!

Printing was fun, but I still felt a need to break free, so hunting around I found a new friend.

I have to say, looking back, the acquisition of the Wista made the biggest difference - it was like carrying a kitten as opposed to a struggling bull-mastiff.

Looking back now I wonder where all that vim came from. 

Was it just a younger man's energy and enthusiasm, or was it something else?

From 2007 to 2014 I was like a man possessed, it was pretty much all I could think of.

And then it stopped dead.

For some obscure reason, my enthusiasm wained and I let it drop like a stone . . . right after the acquisition of one of the last 90mm, f8 Super Angulons ever made.

A final 4 more exposures were taken in 2016 and then nothing till this Christmas.

Why did I drop the ball? 

I have no idea. 

It might well have had to do with Hasselblad lust (a known affliction) but I've never really thought about it until, this holiday period, whilst kneeling in the dark for an hour loading all my film holders, I pondered why on earth I had actually taken up LF photography in the first place. 

And it sort of struck me, like a box falling off a top shelf, that it was (I think) a yearning for Validation.

Ah yes, the Heffalump in the room.

I believe I thought (in my Oh-so-SERIOUS-LF mind) that if only I approached photography with a BIG idea and a BIGGER format, I could validate my creative attempts and be taken seriously. . . as a . . . as a . . . ahem, coff coff:

Photographique-artisté

Make that a small herd of Heffalumps.

You see in those days I cherished an idea that someone somewhere would actually like my stuff enough to say:

Here y'go Sheepy! 

Go forth and make photographs you poor unrecognised thing! 

Here, have a grand!

Go and buy some nice gear, you poor thing. 

All these years labouring with a knackered old Rollei T - how on earth did you manage dahling?

I think you're GREAT and that world out there deserves to see your work

Or something like that.

I think we all feel like that don't we?

Maybe it's what drives the hunger for gear we all have.

If only we had better stuff we could make better work.

Tempting isn't it - you could be recognised, or even, gasp, appreciated!

That's a younger man's dreams right there, and fortunately, such a thing never happened.

No one came knocking and nowadays I just beetle about being creative in my own way without anyone asking where the work is.

Self-funded creativity is the only way I think.

An understanding and patient partner is a massive help too.

If you're happy - great, that's the most important thing.

If others like it - great.

And if they don't - well so what.

But back to the main banana, WHY THE MADNESS?

Because, I have to say (rather like me old mate Bruce) I do find a large portion of Large Format photography relatively dull.

I know, because I've taken most of it, so don't get insulted and chuck your Dagor out of the pram.

It's a controversial statement, so let me justify myself. I've railed against it many times on here.

Just as a f'rinstance:

 

Buachaille Etive Mòr from that angle again, on an 8x10 camera and in colour too. 

Jings, just because someone famous took an iconic image of it, why copy? 

That single £20 sheet of colour film is sent off to be processed and printed (roughly a further £10 for dunking and another £10 for printing). 

Approximately, £40 for one colour image.

It's like owning a Rolex. 

Nice, but really expensive and almost pointless, because at the end of a day is it a craving for validation or something else? 

Does spending enough to cheaply feed a small family for a week on one image really make you a

Photographique-artisté?

Don't get me wrong - I'd love to have a go on the likes of a really nice 8x10" camera, and to be able to print it . . . Sorry for knocking a hole in upstairses staircase darling but the DeVere 8x10 enlarger wouldn't fit! 

But I don't necessarily think that having all that gear is going to make your work any better.

By the way, please notice the sarcastic use of work there; it's all over forums and gatherings and I loathe it. 

It's an effette term that's elitist and has all the hallmarks of Art School Bullshit. 

Work often hurts, can be mind-numbing, satisfying, exhilarating, soul-sapping, enjoyable, rewarding, stressful or a form of modern slavery. 

But please don't say photography is work, because it isn't.

Photography is a pleasurable experience that you do because you (hopefully) enjoy and are enthralled by it.

 

At the end of the day, no one is forcing you to take a picture.

So when you finally do decide to go all Ansel, mortgage your kidneys, leave a weeping family group and lug an 8x10 a couple of miles from the car, then give up because you're knackered; plonk your tripod down and think:

This'll do . . .

That is not work! It's Large Format photography.

Is it a form of masochism? Possibly.

Is it an urge for justification of the image? Possibly too.

Is it a craving for validation? Yeah possibly.

I'm not knocking anyone with the hunger to do it - after all I've been there, I can sympathise - you must have iron constitutions, but I am just pondering the reason we do it out loud in an effort to explain things to myself.

Maybe (and you can take this with a pinch of salt) most Large Format compositions are a result of the (not so) complex equation:

Weight + Distance = Image

I had to chuckle when I thought of that one; you see something promising, however, whereas with smaller formats you have the liberty to move around a bit and find something that looks exciting in the viewfinder, you are inexorably tied to that tripod (unless you're using a press camera), so you plonk it down and go through the rigmarole.

You fit camera to tripod; check camera; erect camera; lock down; open lens; compose and focus; get happy; check shutter; check meter; check f-stops; check film holder; double check composition; check focus on groundglass; make sure the corners are sharp if you want them that way; close down lens; stop down; cock shutter; insert film holder; remove slide; wait for fleeting light; take exposure; insert slide; remove film holder and place it somewhere safe; tear down set up, or else, more likely, carry it around (dangerously) on a fully erected tripod to the next place.

All the initial enthusiasm you felt for an image (well all my enthusiasm) can be rendered null and void by this activity.

Phew, is it just me or is there a pontificating twat in this room?

Anyway, again, WHY THE MADNESS when you could have just skipped in with a Medium Format camera and got pretty close to the same image?

I have thought about this a lot over the past few weeks, and I think this is where I (that's ME) am coming from now.

You see it isn't just a question of the ritual, though that is a huge part of it, but rather like doing Yoga or Tai Chi in a park, I think that the whole process gets you into a zone whereby you are entering some transcendental state of consciousness. 

The procedure is part of one whole thing. 

It's almost like a form of meditation and the image is the result of your concentration. 

Weird thought eh.

I am constantly surprised after immersing myself in taking 4 sheets of film, that a couple of hours have passed and all I have done is concentrated my attention on doing that.

Nothing else has mattered.

If you do make LF images though, please, these are just my thoughts, mad though they are - I'm really not having a pop at you - it's kind of addictive isn't it.

I'm there (behind that misted-over groundglass) with you.

There really is something rather satisfying about seeing the world on a groundglass in an upside down and reversed way and gathering all that conflicting information together so that it makes sense to your brain and ultimately to the final image.

It is certainly a challenge to do it well.

I don't know if I'll ever get there.

It actually just struck me, that it has a lot in common with my favourite TV series of the 70's, Kung Fu.

Anyway, you're not here for the pontifications of an old twat are you Glasshopper, you're here for photography . . aren't you?

You Can Carry On Now

The contacts below look utterly shite, and I would agree with you too, but that's what happens when you are trying to ease yourself back into something and trying to remember the process at the same time. 

It wasn't easy.

Gargh!
Delta 100 and TXP 320
90mm f8 Super Angulon

The 90mm f8 Super Angulon was like looking through a misted (it was very cold, the ground glass became condensationy immediately!) black net curtain. 

I hadn't a scooby what was going on.

Giving up all hope, I pointed the camera in a general direction, adjusted focus a bit and let rip.

Compositionally I have committed visual suicide as you can see.

You'll never take me seriously after this.

Developer was Adox FX39II. 

It has made me go hmmmmmm in a high-pitched way . . bit like a mozzie really.

Gargh 2!
Delta 100 and TXP 320
90mm f6.8 Angulon

It was slightly warmer - well the sun was out briefly and the wee 90mm f6.8 Angulon, whilst barely covering 5x4, did the job and I could see the ground glass a bit better, however it doesn't excuse the visual ghastliness of the above.

Maybe it IS that 5x4 thing.

I don't know.

All I do know is that the proportions of a 5x4 image are probably the most difficult to compose with - well they are for me, and strangely, unlike other formats, they seem to imbue the whole pantheon of Larger Format Photographers out there with a similar look - it is very weird.

Is it that the inherent proportions of a sheet of 5x4" or 10x8" are locked against the wider view of an increasingly widescreen world? 

Think about it, we all viewing everything in effectively Panavision.

Your TV is big and widescreen - you're so used to it that anything older than the mid-2000's looks cramped and small.

The world is 16:9 mad.

Over the past couple of years, cosying up with some old boxsets (Frasier, Cheers and Only Fools And Horses) it made me think that the old 4:3 ratio that the world lived with for so long, has far more in common with a 5x4" negative than modern 16:9.

Like the best advertising, auto-suggestion is subtle. Ergo, if you are viewing something W-I-D-E then you are thinking wide. It colours the way you view the world.

Maybe . . and it is a big maybe . . . that is why Large Format photography looks a tad out of kilter to modern eyes.

It is just a thought.

Again the sheets were developed in Adox FX39II. 

Anybody want some? 

OK it is optimised for T-Grain films (lower speed ones) but even with Delta it has produced muddy looking negatives.

Don't mention how it acted with TXP 320.

Look, don't mention it right!

That's Better!
Kodak TMY 400 (Expired 2012!)
90mm f8 Super Angulon

I had come close to deciding to wear the 90mm Super Angulon like some sort of 1990's rapper's neck attire. MC Sheep in the House, or something like that.

Fortunately I chose to lug it and the gear back to the Art College and try again.

I thought I'd better use the TMY 400 because it was the most ancient of the ancient ones I had - it expired in 2012.

The sun was out again, but really low and seeing as the whole slant of the Uni campus is South facing . . . well, what could I do but invoke the gods of flare!

Developer? 

Hmmmm - I stroked my chin - the thought of processing one sheet at a time in Pyrocat for my nominal 14 minutes leant an air of total ghastliness that I couldn't even contemplate it.

I thought again, and herein lies more madness.

It certainly wasn't going to be FX39II!

I've had 2 small containers of HC 110 (the old original un-f***ed-up stuff) sitting in my darkroom for 10+ years. It's gone a bit orange but I thought, why not, so tried it.

My reason there, is that I'd had a bad load on a sheet of film - fingers all over it trying to get the little bugger into the holder - so I thought why not try the developer and if the load was buggered up, I had nothing to lose. 

So, one 5x7 tray, 9ml of HC 110 and 295ml of water at around 20℃; 6 minutes in the dark for development, 1 for stop and around 4 for fix and bingo! A result.

I was so chuffed that it actually looked normal (compared to the mud the FX39II had produced) that I decided to process the rest of the sheets in it.

To say I was delighted would be an understatement.

HC is a nice clean-working developer and the time is very convenient, although these are now salient points as Kodak changed it entirely a few years ago. Plus it is now nearly £40 a bottle!

God bless 'em.

I think if I continue along this route I'll just use Ilfotec HC which is supposed to be virtually identical.

Haunted Lane (again)

Him (again)

The Planet Takes Over

And that's about it really - the above are scans from work prints, quickly done on Ilford MGRC, Grade 3.

I quite like them actually - it's enough to make me want to persist with the Super Angulon's dimness.

By all accounts,  the Super Angulon design is a Biogon derivitive and seeing as you've seen a lot of that courtesy of the SWC/M on these pages, well maybe there'll be an air of uniformity to the images.

Anyway, I'll let you go now - you've read a lot, and they'll be coming around with your cup of tea and scone soon.

Remember to say hello to that nice lad Herman, he might look a bit funny but his heart is in the right place.

TTFN.

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.

Il Buono, Il Matto e Il Cattivo - Parte 1.3

OR

HOW TO SPEND A HAPPY COUPLE OF HOURS NEXT TO 

A RIVER

Morning folks - fed up of the election yet? 

Remember a vote for Sheephouse is a vote for fair dealings and honesty, so I urge you to go and put your X in the correct box - we're fielding candidates all over the country - YOU KNOW IT MAKES SENSE.

Well, here we reach the happy conclusion of something started a while back - you can read about part 1 here . . . and part 2 here . . .

I'll let you get on with that if you haven't read them already, and for the brave and exhausted souls who have . . . on with the show! 

OK, so I'd been weathered off and decided that I simply must take some pictures, so I found a nice riverbank and did something I haven't ever done with a 5x4 camera - 

I parked myself. 

Wot's that Sheephouse? Parked?

Yeah, parked - dumped my rucksack, unpacked it, set up camera on tripod, attached LowePro bumbag to my bum and over the next two hours wandered up and down the riverbank taking pictures leaving rucksack where it was and packing/unpacking nothing apart from at the start and at the end. I made 8 photographs - this would normally have taken approximately 3 total hours of time were I having to pack up and move on every time, so essentially I shaved around an hour off of valuable time. 

Light waits for no man and I was alternating between astonishing, bright sunshine, heavy cloud and deep freezing shadows. The river was running fit to bust. The air was filled with clouds of water droplets all diamondy and wonderful in the sunshine. The noise was incredible and my soul flew. 

It was a pleasure which I can hardly describe. 

How wonderful not to have to think about packing up and moving on! Never done it before, but I will from now on. I dug deep into the landscape and felt that having the freedom to just wander about paid out in spades. If you are a LF photographer, please consider using this approach:

study your maps

pick a spot that looks good

PARK

and then have fun

It made all the difference to me.

Anyway . . . 

Right, well what have we here Sheephouse?

It's prints M'am innit.

Oh really?

Yes M'am . . . proper prints, made on proper paper and developed in proper chemicals. The paper, if you don't mind me telling you M'am, is some ancient Agfa Multicontrast Classic (or MCC if you like) - it's at least 10 years old and has lost about a Grade of sensitivity, however it doesn't appear to be fogging. The paper developer was Fotospeed - it is excellent and very fast, and then they were archivally fixed and toned in Kodak Selenium.

Really young man . . . that's jolly interesting.

Yes M'am, I agree

So, here they are as promised at the start of this lengthy process - film was the last of my well expired TMX 400 (when it cost £50 for 50 sheets) and some of my well-expired TXP 320 (when it cost £50 for 50 sheets). All were developed in 1:25 Rodinal at 21 Centigrade. Some of the negatives were sorely underexposed (because I'd knocked my meter and hadn't noticed) and I had to try and enhance the upper Zones by Selenium toning the negative - this works quite well actually.
The lenses were a 1980's Schneider 150mm Symmar-S and a late production Schneider 90mm Super Angulon. I like them both - they are superb lenses.
Camera was the Wista DX which is a superb companion and my tripod was the Gitzo Series 2 Reporter - it is ancient but operates as new - testimony to great engineering and build.


So, kick back, dip your bagel in your coffee and tell me what you think.

OK - the eagle-eyed will notice that is only 5 contacts . . well the other 3 were impossible to get looking right so I haven't included them, I have however printed one of them!

So now for the projection prints. All printed on my DeVere 504 through an ancient 150mm Rodagon.

This was actually bleached and then toned - unfortunately it was a bleach too far and it has given it this lith look. That being said a number of people have said they really liked it . . so there.

I like the tonality of this one - it did need a little bleaching, but I was careful and then toned in Selenium

This is a little section from the above - you can see how well the Super Angulon has rendered the water.

And finally . . . this is my favourite - it reminds me of John Blakemore.
It's hardly original, but I find it pleasing.
The thing that attracted my eye first was the reflection of the tree at the bottom of the frame.
Bleached selectively along the water's white and then Selenium toned.

And that folks is that - was it worth the wait? 
Only you can decide. 
LF takes a huge amount of effort, and sometimes I am not sure it is worth the effort, however with that last print, I can say to myself (as I wash up on the beach of emptied and dying LF photographers, spent before their time on the river of photography) 
"Yes . . . at least I think so."

TTFN - poiple pills - yum yum yum.

The Good, The Mad And The Ugly 1.2

Morning folks - well the madness continues . . . if you read the last one, you'll know the story . . . if you haven't, best catch up here.

Anyway rather than bore you with acres of meaningless rambling, I went with the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words . . so you've got 16,000 words ahead of you . . good luck!

Oh, and I apologise in advance about the picture spacing . . . strangely for such a wonderful tool, Blogger is total shit at handling pictures and text together - it's a well-known problem. 

So, do like I do: put on your best Yorkshire accent and keep muttering: 

"Chuffin' bloody technological bloody marvels . . "

Once rinkling, tinkling burns turn into raging slippery torrents, courtesy of the melting snow.
Deeper than you think, you wouldn't want to fall into one.

  

I have often just stepped over this one. I couldn't jump it this time though - the bank on the far side is pretty soft.
Slip, crash, smash . . . . goodbye camera.

At last - something I could cross.
New pair of Altberg Defender boots get a good work out - they passed with flying colours.

The snowy-mist just wasn't having any of it.

Every time I take a picture, my Mother stares back at me . . . not that she had a beard or anything.
What you see on my head is God's gift to Winter headwear - the Lowe Alpine Mountain Cap - it's Goretex, warm, covers my elephant's ears and keeps my head well dry.
My Buffalo Special 6 shirt (star of several FB's) was wet through, however still remained warm.

Just about sums up the day so far.
The small ridge you see just to the right of centre, is up by Davey's hut on Jock's Road. It doesn't look that high, but in the words of Father Ted:
"This one is near . . . that one is far away. Near . . . Far Away."

You can't tell from this pic, but my rucksack was steaming in the sun - it had got very wet

I count the blessings of Mother Nature.
Resting besides a small river is a true heart's ease. I could have spent all day here, lazing in the sun . . . but there were photographs to be taken!

 

Hello Mum!
The look on my face says it all. I was steaming too, though not in the accepted Scots fashion . . . however had someone passed me a bottle of Woods Old Navy Rum, I would gladly have obliged them.

This gives you an idea of the sound!  

Sheer heaven. 

You can tell there's a lot of water moving along though by the sound. Outwith spate, river's tend to have an upper, higher-pitched tone. The bass aspect of this is indicative of thousands of gallons of water passing each and every minute.

I'll take this little break in the pics to say how fortunate I am to live not that far away from such beauty . . . of course, for me, it would be better to live in the thick of it, however it would make commuting a tad difficult . . how the feck did I end up in retail in a city?

Right, back on with t'shite . . .

 

The power of our Mother.
Dense clouds of fine water droplets were thrusting into the air and being illuminated by the bright sun - it was quite something.
My inner caveman stood in awe.
Unfortunately the photo doesn't convey just how much water was passing by - it was lots, and rapid too.

Yes I know . . . the centre column shouldn't be raised (slapped wrists) however the Gitzo reporter is pretty sturdy and it doesn't seem to have any detriment.
And anyway, I couldn't get the legs in a position where they wouldn't be in shot, hence the jaunty angles.

Same again please.

'E's big, 'airy and 'orrible and I be feared of him.
Passing Yeti decides to take a snap.
© Shite Sheephousian Shelfie

Ah  yes, the Craghoppers Microfleece Darkcloth!
You can often find them for about £6 in their sales. It works well - very breathable, doesn't cling too much, keeps out a decent amount of light. Has a zip neck so you can get it tight 'round the rear standard, and being a fleece, seems to eliminate some of the 'Darkcloth breath' condensation problem.

Packing up to go

And the weather just glowered in again.
As I was driving off from the car park, a massive snow storm blasted in.
What a day!

And I am going to call it a day there - the films are processed, but I have hit a time-related problem in being able to show you real prints, so I shall endevour to do that in the next one. 

The one thing I haven't mentioned, is that, rather than the usual 'set the camera up, compose, take photograph, take camera down, move on' . . regime (approx. 20 minutes taken each time) I decided to park my rucksack in one spot, set up camera, get dark slides into Lowe Alpine Fjell bum bag (very handy) and just wander up and down and enjoy this small section of riverbank - it made a hell of a lot of difference.

But more of that later - so, until the next time, take care and remember to start heading to the bathroom before you get the collywobbles.