Old Lenses And Long Stories (Part Two)

Greetings folks! I trust you haven't scratched a worry-patch into your hair with waiting to see how I got on with the Canon 28mm f3.5 lens and pushing film.
Phew, that's alright then.
Well, yes, it might well have been a worry, however worryeth no more, for Saint Sheephouse is here to asuage your ills and make all well with the world, whilst the meadow of your life is filled with happy bunnies, beautiful flowers and an endless supply of your favourite film.
Oh yes, there's precious few that get to revel in the golden glow of Saint Sheephouse's bounteous gifts, however today is your lucky day, because I decided last week that if the Pope could canonize people then so could I - so I canonized myself and hence my new title.
I mean no offence by this (honestly, I don't) it's just I feel that maybe we should all be a bit more Saint-like in all things . . y'know, just try and live better and happier and be kinder, more thoughtful and respectful of other people . . it isn't difficult y'know.
Besides, just to prove to myself I did the right thing, Saint Sheephouse has rather a regal ring to it dontcha think? I like it, but I don't think I'll be signing anything with it just yet.

Anyway - the premise for this weeks post:

1950's 28mm, f3.5 Canon Rangefinder Lens

1960 Leica M2

Kodak Tri-X, pushed to EI 1280

Using Garry Winogrand as inspiration.

I'll confess to you now, the last thing didn't work

You see for all my good intentions, there are a few factors which come into play. Firstly, making photographs in a small city like Dundee is difficult. People are deeply aware of you photographing them and it looks a little odd. Allied to this, I simply don't have the balls and lightning reflexes and proper gut-instinct, that Garry must have possessed. I don't know how he did it, I really don't - he moved like greased-lightning, made people smile and took great photographs.

However, I'll chalk this up as a possible new learning experience, as it's always good to do new stuff, and I also discovered during a conversation with a bona-fide ex-police dog trainer last week . . . ta-da:

YOU CAN TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS!!

Oh yes, that old chestnut is off the cards now, because dogs can be re-trained apparently. The bloke was fascinating and it would be nice to think he could help me with my reticence and lack of confidence in approaching strangers (I am only reticent with a camera . . not in general conversation) - but as I say that is for the future. In the meantime and for the purposes of this Blog, I took pictures my way and of objects I enjoy photographing.

So where to start. Well, here's some detailed pics of the lens, so that if you are so inclined, you can make some executive decisions about it and then go and politely ask your partner if it would be alright . . .

This isn't just a wide angle lens . . it's an 'Ultra-Wide'

                                    

Suitably  'Space-Age'

Front View Of Aperture Blades

Rear View Of Aperture Blades

Slight Distortion Of Viewfinder

View Through The Oblong/Curvy Window

And there you are - beautiful isn't it - I especially like the fact that the rear view of the aperture blades seems to resemble a machine-made version of Hokusai's masterwork 'The Great Wave Off Kanagawa'.

  

See what I mean? I wonder if that was intentional, seeing as the original name of Canon's rangefinder lens line was Serenar (apparently named after the Sea Of Serenity on the Moon) . . if you think like that, mix in a bit of zen-like happenstance, then you can sort of see where the designer might have been coming from.
Its handling it is a little different to yer bog-standard, normal-sized, muckle-fisted lens; it is very very small, and quite difficult to use quickly, but I've found that because of the great engineering and with the aperture and focus being really smooth and really positive, its smallness is no detriment.


So here we go then, film loaded, adventure trousers fully-primed and ready for whatever the world might throw at us!

1/1000th, f8

Well, it was a bad start as this was only time in my life I've been tutted when photographing.

I thought to myself I know I'll snap these two and try and go a bit Winogrand . . as you can see I failed dismally and was tutted to boot - that really put  me off, so I thought fceck it . . I'll do things my way . . so I did.

1/1000th, f5.6

This is more like it - definitely my sort of photo - incredibly this eyesore has greeted rail and road visitors to Dundee's Centre since Christmas 2013.

I've made lots of photos of this hoarding before and it has had a number of fantastic and vandalisable posters on it . . but this I think sums things up. Yes we have upmty-tump millions being spent on the V&A being built and the whole waterfront getting done up, however at the end of the day, you can't stop the vandals! 

Oh, and in the Canon viewfinder the edge of the hoarding was hard up against it's left edge optically, so I got a surprise bonus bush and a mental to-do note about approaching the finder in a Gumpian manner . ..

"Life With The New Canon Is Like A Box Of Choclits . . You Don' Know Watcha Gonna Git . . "

1/500th, f16

I've made it a semi-mission of mine to take pictures of Phone Boxes before they disappear altogether. Can people even remember back 10 years when they were everywhere? I like them- they're interesting and often vandalised. This one was in the University of Dundee Campus, and it contains no phone, just lots and lots and lots of poetry! It is hard to make out from the scan - as I said, a print would transform it, however I haven't had the time to make any.

1/500th, f5.6

Again, Dundee Uni Campus to the rescue. I initially thought this was a man acting all enigmatic, however I soon discovered it was a cardboard cut-out! Hard to make out from the scan, but again a print would sort it.

No idea who he is though . . .

1/250th, f11

Gumpian slip - that is my camera bag in the lower part of the frame. I just like this and I don't know why.

1/1000th, f8

That 'La-La Crew' have been super-busy of late. I really like this as it has the tonality I have been looking for for a while. It reminds me of Wynn Bullock and Paul Caponigro and Walker Evans later work.

1/60th, f8

This delightful looking piece of concrete is an abandoned building on the Uni Campus. I've made tons of photos of it and have never got tired of photographing it either. . however now, it will no longer be a grounds for inspiration as it is being boarded up after a particularly spray-heavy attack. That's progress!

I'd love to get inside for a few hours.

1/30th, f16

I have photographed these doors many times and I think this is almost the definitive photo of them - I'll be sad to see them boarded up. The tonality on this is outstanding to my eyes - there was a massive tonal range and the lens and film combo has done its best to capture it in a hard-edged way that I rather like.

1/30th, f4

Them doors again - the creativity of the spraying is quite something - I think a lot of these guys would be decent artists if they didn't limit themselves

1/30th, f5.6

Another Sheephouse Shpeshull. Just the sort of shot I enjoy making. The white stuff is polystyrene beads . . they used to be outside the doors but somehow made their way in over a long period of time.

1/30th, f4

Yeah . . me too. 

More details from my favourite corner.

1/30th, f4

It's refreshing to find a lovely unmodernised close in a tenement building and this is one of them. At one time, back in the days when secure entry systems only existed on posh flats, this was par-for-the-course in Dundee. Honest, when I first came here in 1980 it was truly the arse end of nowhere - everyone wore flared trousers (or seemed to); very real violence existed because of its teenage gang culture (gun-free of course, more a solid battering from about 20 pairs of boots); there were derelict buildings all over the shop and it's staunch working-class history was writ large everywhere. It was tough, and I felt like a right old softie.

It's greatly improved these days with a hard-edged charm, and soon to be mucho-improved with the addition of the V&A (hopefully).

1/15th, f4

It's hard to imagine anyone leaving a pram anywhere these days isn't it, yet here one was and nice little line of baby-things drying in the back closie, so I quickly nipped in, snapped my snap and nipped out again with a smile on my face.

1/500th, f8

This is weird isn't it, not least for the fact that the two guys on the 'Whizzzz' poster were looking my way. This is the sort of shot I love taking because it is unclear as to what is going on. The Canon has done a sterling job in cramming as much 'stuff' onto the frame as possible . . well done little chap!

1/500th, f8

The combo of underexposure and over-development has achieved a nice photojournalistic effect.

1/1000th, f8

Same as above - This is a little homage to Walker Evans - I have tried to photograph this setting in this way for as long as I can remember, but I have finally achieved it with the 28mm . . now I can rest!

1/1000th, f8

World's worst selfie!
Och well, some you win . . this is underexposed and not developed enough, so I have had to pump the lightness of the negative a bit so it looks pretty shite doesn't it. I should properly print this with some selective bleaching - that would work. I like the vignetting on the sky - reminds me of David Bailey's 60's stuff . . but poorly executed . . .

And there you go - the eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed from all of these that there's vignetting on just about every one, however moving to f11, f16 and beyond it vanishes, so if you are trying to use this lens in a wide-open super-fast 'street' manner, bear that in mind. For myself, I like the vignetting - it will mean I no longer have to 'set' a print into its field by adding extra exposure to the side parts of every print - fan-bloody-tastic!

And now a word on processing:

OK - film (Kodak TXP 400 . . Och . . Tri-X then) was rated at EI 1280. It was developed in a small tank, in Kodak HC 110, Dilution B at 21° Centigrade. 

I gave the film a 3 minute water-bath prior to developing and started with gentle constant agitation for 30 secs, and then gave 2 very gentle inversions every 30 seconds up until 12 mins. At 12 minutes I gave it 4 gentle inversions and then left the whole thing standing still until 16 minutes. 

Stop, fix and wash were all bog standard.

You would think that 16 mins in HC 110 Dilution B would result in extreme overdevelopment but it doesn't - I think I got it about right actually.


Right so lets abandon the scans and do some stuff that film was invented for, namely making prints.
I had a good session with this lot, though didn't make as many as I wanted, however these will suffice.
They're all printed on Ilford Galerie, Grade 2.
Developer is Wolfgang Moersch's Eco, which is a very slow worker with most papers, but we're hitting the three and a half minute mark on Galerie; it is a lovely developer though and lasts for ages, so it is worth the effort.
They were fixed in 2 baths of Amfix, untoned and washed in my old Paterson Archival Washer.
Air drying gives Galerie the most incredible gloss, which unfortunately you can't see.
I'd be happy to exhibit any of these, not that that will ever happen, but one can dream.

Bike Shed. Dundee University, 2014

Self Portrait. Abandoned Building, Dundee University, 2014

Abandoned Building, Dundee University, 2014

Whizzzz. BT Phone Box, Dundee Waterfront, 2014

800 DPI Sectional Enlargement. Ilford Galerie Grade 2.

You can see from the above enlargement that the Canon is none too tardy with regard to detail - bear in mind this is Tri-X pushed to EI 1280 and developed in HC 110 - grain isn't half as bad as you would expect, and the texture of the backboard has been rendered nicely. Result!


And that's it. Hope you've enjoyed this half as much as I have in making it.
My hat is firmly tipped to those Japanese designers of the 1950's who got the backs of Leitz up so much that it set them about designing one of the world's all-time great lenses . . the Summicron - and if anyone out there wants to lend me one (a Summicron that is) I'll happily set up a shoot-out.
Until next time, look after yourselves, take care and keep taking the tablets.

Old Lenses And Long Stories (Part One)

Morning squirls and tots . . well, what can I do for you today?

What was that at the back? Speak up lad. I cannae hear ya!

Ah yes, another piece about trying to emulate a famous photographer's technique like wot I did with Ralph Gibson?

Yes, well that sounds interesting.

And what?

What?

Call it the Garry Winogrand Experiment?

Well, maybe not, but then again . . .

Regular FB'ers . .or just plain ol' F'ers (you don't mind being called that do you?) will know that I dedicate all my spare spending money for your delectation and enjoyment; in fact, I would say that I selflessly buy myself all these things just to please my readers who are a knowledgable lot and not a little bit inclined to enjoy my purchases just as much as I do!

It's your fault that I spend days and weeks staring at pictures of Hasselblads. Your fault I dissect the relative merits of every single 35mm lens that would fit my Leica . . and dammit, it's because of you lot that I lost my resolve and chunked my Hasselblad fund in favour of a 1957 (or thereabouts) 28mm Canon f2.8 rangefinder lens (and finder) to fit the M2.

Damn you all. But I just couldn't take the pressure.

I could feel it on me all the time. Buy. Buy. Buy . . .

So I did.

And the relevance of this lens to everything?

Well it is none other than the same (not the same, no not his, but the same type) used by Sir Garry of the Winogrand during his formative years in the early to mid-1960's, before he used Leitz lenses.

It is an interesting lens - the fastest of its type when first made, and nowadays, though considerably a cult lens, generally considered an also-ran in terms of sharpness, fall-off, vignetting, use, etc etc.

So why the chuffin' 'eck did I buy the useless thing then?

Well, apart from it being all your fault, I already own another Canon lens - a really nice, late Blackbelt 50mm f1.8 and being totally impressed with that and its wonderful build quality, I succumbed.

Add to this that, to be honest, I have become a bit bored with everything being 'normal' visually as it were and getting a really decent price on the deal  . . well, what can you do, except go a little crazy every now and then!

The Sepia Glow Of Memory
Leica M2 & Canon 28mm f2.8 Lens

And there you go - that's the little beauty resplendent on my M2 . . they go together like cheese and toast don't they. I especially like the finder on top too - it all looks incredibly space-age and just so 1950's-NOW

However, before we get all excited and dash around like mad schoolboys on a humbug bender, I will halt this reverie immediately - you see one problem arose when I made my initial quick inspection of the lens - it had separation on the rear element . . In the words of someone who regularly drinks Yorkshire Tea . . "By chuffin' 'eck. What a bloomin' nuisance missus an' that's no mistake!"

In case you don't know, it means that the elements of lens glass cemented together with Canada Balsam were becoming uncemented. It never gets better, and basically is a time-bomb waiting to get worse, or not worse . . so, despite falling immediately in love with the lens, I contacted the vendor and we arranged a deal on a near mint 28mm f3.5 Canon that he had in stock instead.

It isn't quite the Winogrand special . . . however it is of the correct era and only a stop slower (and by all accounts sharper than the 2.8). So lets sit by our letterbox with the elephant gun and see if we can pick off the postie from this distance . . .

The Cold Light Of Day
Leica M2 & Canon 28mm f3.5 (Type IV) Lens

There, that's better . . so what do you think of the camera now? 

The lens is about mid-1950's and is a solid piece of exquisite craftsmanship - it is surprisingly small and surprisingly heavy and very beautiful. Peter Loy (the vendor) was right in his condition description (as he always is) - the glass is as clear as a bell, focus is smoother than a knife through butter and the aperture is easy and positive. All in all, it's hard to imagine the lens is that old and has seen a useful life. In fact, were I of a nutty mind I could stand on a street corner with my M2 and one of these on a short strap, with a trilby on my head, and pretend I am working for Life Magazine!

The design was the fastest wide angle in the world at the time of original production in 1951, and I can see why Leica were worried - it is a beautifully made thing. I've trawled through lots of Life photographers biogs and photos, and this looks to be one of the lenses favoured by them at the time, as well as being a stalwart of the Korean War. . so that can only be a good thing, can't it.

And you know what? I would be more than happy just to sit here and look at it all day, but that's no good . . To be honest, I am steadily dying (as are we all) - entropy is catching up with us - life is moving quickly . . someone might just be pulling a perfect monkey pose on a pelican crossing whilst a real monkey is actually crossing in front of him . . . in other words - THERE'S NO TIME TO LOSE!

And this folks, is how you should approach you picture making . . like the greatest thing is out there.

And you know what? It is, and the thing is you never know when it is going to be right there in front of you.

So where does that leave us . . well, back to the original tenet of the Blog - trying to emulate and photograph like a classic 1950's/60's 'street' (I hate that term, but for want of a better word) photographer.

So, Leica - CHECK

Reasonably priced (at the time) Japanese wide angle lens - CHECK.

I seem to have forgotten something . .

Oh yeah FILM.

Well, I've got that sorted out - some Tri-X that I've had nesting with the blocks of cheese in the fridge, so I'll use that . . . and . . . I am going to be doing the unheard of for me . . pushing it to unheard of speeds AND over-developing . . .

Yes, I know!

Look it's alright, I'll wait whilst you go and sort that mess out in your trousers . . . I must admit, mine are in a similar state too . . TERRIFYING isn't it.

See you in a min.

There's that's better - not sure how I'm going to explain a full-on brown-trouser moment to the missus, but I'll address it later on over a pot of tea . .

Anyway, bless me barnacles . . I hate to imagine how this is going to turn out . . . but sometimes you just have to go for things.

So, film? - CHECK.

Ready to go? Well, not quite, because thinking about it, my main problem is that I don't live in a vast urban sprawl, just a smallish city on the East Coast of Scotland (there simply aren't teeming hordes of people so preoccupied with their lives that they don't notice someone taking their photograph). If I were to achieve anything, I would have to approach this my way, or risk the long arm of the law again (a long story, best viewed here). So really, people snapping is probably out, which is just as well.

And are there any tips the pros can add to my excursion? Well, according to Joel Meyerowitz, who often photographed with Garry Winogrand:

" It's a difference in the ASA at which you're shooting. We were using Tri-X film pushed to 1200 ASA, whereas the normal rating is 400. The reason was to be able to shoot at 1/1000th of a second as much as possible, because if you made pictures on the street at 1/125th, they were blurry. If you lunged at something, either it would move or else your own motion would mess up the picture. I began to work that way after looking at my pictures and noticing that they had those loose edges, Garry's were crisp. (Robert) Frank didn't work that way. His pictures were much slower. You could see he was working at 1/30th and 1/60th and 1/125th."

Now there were several things about this statement that had me worried and scratching my head, so I grabbed my trusty light meter, pulled up a pot of tea and had a think

Firstly:

"We were using Tri-X film pushed to 1200 ASA"

Now maybe you're thinking the same as me . .1200 ASA? OK, so Tri-X's box rating is 400 . . . shouldn't it be 1600, and put the 1200 down to a crazy old brain recalling stuff incorrectly? Well, the more I thought about it, the more confused I got, and then, like a wet cod around the face it hit me . . of course . . they were experienced photographers, so they'll probably have gone for the fact that Tri-X's actual speed is nearer 320, so + 2 stop push that and you have 320, 640, 1280. That was as near a good enough explanation for me, 1280 it would be.

Then:

"The reason was to be able to shoot at 1/1000th of a second as much as possible, because if you made pictures on the street at 1/125th, they were blurry."

Now, to me there is a massive problem here - this is Scotland. There's often no way in a million years on a bog standard East Coast day you can achieve 1/1000th of a second and get anything useable. As you can see from the meter reading below (taken on the morning of my excursion) a reading for a rough shadow placement achieves an EV of just short of 12. Even at 1280 and using that as a placement for a Zone IV shadow I would be operating on f2.8 . . and as the more astute of you have seen, I no longer have that option.

Postcards From A Scottish Sitting Room

Man's Best Friend

So, basically I would have to forgo my usual Z IV shadow placement and fly by the seat of my pants on either a ZIII or even heaven forbid a ZII shadow . . och well . . life is interesting. I concluded from this that I could probably manage 1/250th at f8, or 1/125th at f11. This was starting to look a lot like:

The Garry Winogrand Experiment  

The Bog Standard Bloke With A Wide-Angle Lens Experiment

or even

The (Shit) Bog Standard Bloke With A Wide-Angle Lens Experiment 

Yep, things were looking more dire than a lone redcoat at Rourk's Drift. Well fortunately for me (and you) things perked up a bit by lunchtime . . the haar lifted and the sky was quite bright even though there was no sunshine . . come heading out time, I took a few more meter readings and came up with:

So that was better.

If I took chances and trusted my processing I could achieve a Zone IV, III or even II shadow placement and hopefully everything would work out alright.

Could it be your intrepid fruitcake photographer could achieve his goal of 1/1000th at f8?

Would he be able to grab shots of passers-by with a smile on his face and no fear of a bloody nose?

Well?

Well, now dear reader I am going to leave you on tenderhooks, because this has become far too wordy and boring and stuff, and I haven't even gone into the niceties of developers (oh boy that's a fun one - more fun than catching yer nether-regions on a barbed-wire fence I can tell you . . and yes . . I have . . .well nearly . . about 35 years ago - tore the arse out of my jeans and very nearly achieved eunuch-hood). 

So to that end (if you can bear the tension) until next time . . anon!

Och alright - you've twisted my arm - below is a scan from the negatives, so please excuse any artefacts like that faint horizontal line . . that's my flatbed at work.
Exposure was 1/30th at f16 and the film was developed in HC 110, Dilution B for 16 minutes.

I think it has the tonality I have been after for a long time.

Abandoned Building. University Of Dundee, April, 2014

 

Investigation On The Third

Greetings land-lubbers . . . well another week passes on the high seas and yesterday's dreams become yet another wave cresting a far-off horizon.
But I am troubled. Yer Cap'n really doesn't know why he wastes time with this 'ere Blog he really doesn't. Checking the ol' stats it appears that for every legitimate reader there's a dozen robots. And you know how I feel about them. So swab that deck before I kick the bucket over - I be in a mood and it is hard to get out of it.

***

This week's FB was going to be about something lightweight after the taxing excursions into square-ville of the last couple of weeks, but you know, I am not feeling so inclined . . so I'll still be square for one more week! Normal service will be resumed soon.

Last weekend, geed on by my own lyrical waxings about square photographs, I broke out the Rollei after not having used him in about 4 months and decided to see what I could see in a revamped dock area.

Years back it used to be warehouses and docks and now, because someone thought it was a good idea, it is housing and a hotel and shops and dentists and surveyors. Quite a change from the old docks of yesteryear and setting the scene nicely for the upcoming V&A.

The Tay is a wonderful and beautiful river, and as it enters the North Sea it widens to become something huge and powerful. It is tidal at Dundee and this partly explains the cities history as a major (and now semi-minor) port. The port was established in the middle-ages with a trans-continental trade in all things Scots but went on to become a major whaling port and from there into the Jute centre of the world.

The expanse of Dundee's former extensive dock area is hard to find these days as, when you come down off the Tay Bridge or when you come in via Riverside Drive and the Railway Station, the land you are moving over is actually largely reclaimed and was once dock.
You are moving over the memory of water.
Dock Street was just that, a street next to a dock

1928

1966

(1928 - this clearly shows the extent of the old docks - the red dot indicates the roof of the Caird Hall [and NO, it doesn't really have a big red dot on its roof . . I only say that because that is the sort of question I would ask].

1966 - less than 40 years and most of it is gone - the incoming spiral in the bottom right quadrant is the East-bound run-off from the newly built Tay Bridge. [Although un-credited, I do believe this to could be a Joe McKenzie photograph as he said that he was commissioned to photograph the road bridge from the air when it opened.])

Strangely, the river seems almost sanitised by its interaction with the edge of the city centre - to get a feel of its power you have to move upstream to the Rail Bridge and be patient as the traffic thunders past.

This is the best point to see the tide on the turn and it is really something else. As you can imagine, the bulk of the waters coming downstream on Britain's seventh longest river meeting with the power of the sea is not something to be taken lightly. Strangely though there isn't a mighty battle -  the surface of the river stills to an almost mill-pond calm that belies the fierce energies and currents moving under the surface. The tidal estuary current and the onward-flowing river forces meet and mingle and become something else, something that is changed and yet the same.

Photography can be this way too.

I spend a lot of time thinking about my craft. I think about images and technique, about cameras and light, about the upward-spiralling cost of making my little art pieces, about formats and film and permanence.

I find myself inspired by light and surroundings and I like my weekend mornings because I can usually get up early (especially at this time of year) and get out and photograph. I am very lucky, because I have an incredibly understanding wife who doesn't mind my early morning looning around and I can really immerse myself in the whole photographic process. I generally decide format the night before, pick up a camera and go. It is pure pleasure and a very fine way to spend an early morning.

During my excursions, I am, to put it poetically, transformed by light. I see something and I react intuitively to it. I know my craft and in having already put in the hours and hours of reading and photographing and developing and printing I am at the 'Joe Pass Stage', namely "learn it all and forget it all".

It frees you to react.

And when intuition doesn't work, sometimes I'll ponder and move around a bit and see how the subject looks in the viewfinder from a different perspective.

And when that still doesn't illicit anything, when I doubt everything, I have a little mantra that I use:

'Is this the world's most boring photograph?'

And you know, quite often, that little phrase halts the process just enough so you can think, 'Well, I've taken loads exactly the same as this and I haven't printed a single one.' And then I move on.

The world is ever changing, like the river. I am a surge of tidal movement and I am one with that world.

(Call the prose police . . . a crime has just been committed . . what a load of blarney eh?)

At the end of the day I just enjoy taking photographs for the simple fact that I am, to paraphrase Garry Winogrand: "curious to see how the world looks photographed."

Sometimes though, things look so incredibly strange that you are compelled to release the shutter no matter what your head and heart say. Such was the case with the photograph below.

I had been wandering around in a bitter wind and I had 3 of the Rollei's 12 frames left.
I saw these reflections and wandered closer and was struck by how three planes were fixed in one place: the doors and stairs on the far side of the centre; the reflection of the dock and the double image in the window. It wasn't an obvious subject at all. But my photographic-self got the better of me and I ended up making it anyway.
I don't think it would have worked half as well as a rectangular photograph (see how I managed to lever in the square theme there) - being square it has contained the space and concentrated the eye on the clear way through to the doors on the other side, which were just slightly off from the Rollei's lens axis.
It actually looked incredible in colour and I wish I had been using that, however this was Fuji Acros 100 at EI 100, developed in HC110 Dilution G for 19 mins at 21C. The exposure was 1/30th at f8. I placed the shadows on Zone IV. The result is a very smooth and fairly well graduated negative though a tad underexposed. I think my EI for this should be about 80.
Now although that is almost the end of this week's FB, please don't switch off your sets yet . . . the bit below is relevant!
Is there metaphor for being able to see clearly through obstructions by intuition in this photograph? Sounds a bit 'art-speak' to me, however when I came home and was thinking about it, I was listening to the music I mention below, and it struck a chord.

***

Some people, at times, can have an insight into what you are thinking and in some cases the words of a song or a book can exactly mirror your thoughts.

The following are some lyrics, in the original Italian and also with an English translation, by one of my favourite musical artistes, Mr.Franco Battiato. On the surface the music is strange and very very Italian, and I don't mean 'When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's Amore' . . . .

Franco's music touches all bases, running the gamut from cloying Italo-pop, through to rock with a progressive edge, through to choral masterworks and lieder. In other words what I admire most about him is that as an artist he is a complete man. He isn't pigeonholed. He does what he likes and if you like it too, then that is great. It is a difficult path to tread at any time, but especially these days and he is lucky in that he has transcended the need to impress and has an accepting audience. 

The only thing I will say is that my ears and his have drifted apart in recent years, I actually prefer his albums when he was working with the programmer and keyboard player Filippo Destrieri.

Anyway, this track is off his album Caffé De La Paix.

Ricerca Sul Terzo (Investigation On The Third)

Mi siedo alla maniera degli antichi Egizi

Coi palmi delle mani

Dolcemente stesi sulle gambe

E il busto eretto e naturale

Un minareto verso il cielo

Cerco di rilassarmi e abbandonarmi

Tanto da non avere più tensioni

O affanni.

Come se fossi entrato in pieno sonno

Ma con i sensi sempre più coscienti e svegli

E un grande beneficio

Prova il corpo, il cuore e la mia mente

Che spesso ai suoi pensieri m'incatena

Mi incatena.

Somma la vista

Ad occhi chiusi

Sottrai la distanza

E il terzo scoprirai

Che si espande e si ritrova

Dividi la differenza.

◊◊◊◊◊◊

I sit in the manner of the ancient Egyptians

The palms of the hands softly resting on the legs

And the torso erect and natural,

A minaret pointing to the sky

I try to relax and abandon myself,

To lose all tension

And anxiety

As if I had entered a deep sleep

But with senses ever more awake and aware

A great sense of well-being

Pervades the body, the heart and my mind

That so often chains me to its thoughts,

It chains me.

Add vision

With closed eyes,

Subtract distance

And discover a third state of being

That expands and returns.

Divide the difference.

(Translation © Gerald Seligman/EMI Records)

http://www.battiato.it

I love that last stanza:

Add vision with closed eyes; subtract distance and discover a third state of being that expands and returns. Divide the difference.

Pure magic!

Ciao Bambinos. Stay Square!