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!

Big Bunny

Morning friends. Well, firstly can I say that no one is more surprised than me that I have sat down and written this. I thought I was gone. I had no motivation for writing anymore FBs. I think I shall put that down to my weekly regime, it was too much. Trying to come up with something that is interesting to yourself (never mind a possible larger readership), every single week for a year is quite an achievement, not least to say, punishing.

It burned me out and made me feel that it was all rather pointless.

I suppose, it is pointless really.

I know none of my readers properly, though I will say a hello to you if you have made it a habit to read and comment, but at the end of the day, I am here at my wee desk in the early hours of a Scottish morning, and you are out there in the big wide world, and the distances between us are gulfs.

I thank you for your efforts in reading FB, you didn't need to really, but it is appreciated.

What my regime did do for me though, is hone my writing skills. I feel a far more confident and flowing writer than I did at the start, and to that end I have revisited several writing exploits I started a long time ago and have decided I should do something with them. It seems pointless to leave them languishing in drawers and folders . . all I need to do now is find the time and the concentration to complete them . . but I'll get there (though I have said that before).

Anyway, that is another thing. FB was pretty much always about FogBlography and it still pretty much  will be, so let me have a brief detailing about everything that has occurred since I hung up my keyboard just before Easter . . .

In a word nothing.

I haven't made a single photograph.

Now fortunately for me, I recognised something within in myself which has happened three times before in my life . . extreme passion burn-out. Sounds serious doesn't it, and you know what . . it is. VERY.

A brief aside into past-times again:

Burn-out 1:

From the year dot, I was an amateur artist. I drew all the time. It was a hobby which consumed me like a flame, and in a typical Sheephouseian fashion, whilst I wasn't brilliant, I was a solid plodder. You just have to look at pictures of me when I was young to realise that me and speed were not bedmates. So what did I do with my wonderful hobby? Yes, I went to art college. And as detailed many times before, it managed to snuff my love of drawing out as if it were no more than a small candle in a gale. The people I met were so talented and arty (quite a number of current high-falootin' major Scottish artists too) that my solid plod of line and form were as nothing against these folk. Also the whole feel of being in a mincer never did quite leave me, and pop! . . .one day it was gone. I haven't really picked up a pencil in anger since graduating in the mid-80's. I burned out, locked the door and have never returned.

Burn-out 2:

Music. Did I tell you I can play a guitar like ringing a bell? Yep, from the age of 13 when my Mum and Dad finally relented and bought me one, I was obsessed. Not a minor obsession either, but a full-blown, honest, down-to-earth whopping one. I spent vast amounts of hard-earned cash. I spent whole months of my life practicing, and I became pretty good.

It is easy to learn the guitar these days, but in those days it really wasn't.

Good players were few and far between and if you ever did meet up with another one it was more akin to Gunfight At The Rock N' Roll Coral. I kid ye not.

Anyway, for all the years of effort, you know what, the inevitable happened. Burn-out. And I have never gone back.

I stopped playing seriously when I met my wife and realised that there was more to life than sitting alone with a lifeless lump of wood and metal and trying to coax it into something akin to the flames I was feeling inside.

I haven't really picked up a guitar in anger since the early 1990's.

I will occasionally, but it is just for a quick strum and flail over the strings, check out me Al Di Meola chops, and back it goes into its case again.

Burn-out 3:

Fogblog.

Yep.

Too much, and I could feel it coming, so that is something else I have learned: if your pleasure starts to feel like a chore or a duty, stand back.

Drawing felt (at the end) like something in the world I hated.

Guitar playing felt (at the end) like a desperate attempt by me and my bandmates to persuade people how great we were . . in a word it became a chore.

And FB too. Yep a total chore, every week, like cleaning a toilet. Hence I have held back.

So where does this lead us now?

Well actually, I do rather enjoy FB, and I have missed it. Stopping felt like turning off a creative tap, so here we are again, and for the moment folks, whilst it won't be a weekly thing, I think I will approach it as more of an occasional, like that jar of Gentleman's Relish that you dip into every now and then.

I hope that is alright with you chaps.

Don't go throwing yourselves off of tall buildings or anything . . .

Right, in my break I have become a tad gear hungry again, however, that has manifested itself in one way . . . Try and make the most of what you have. I am feeling like I need to slim down my camera collection - you can only compose one frame at a time, and spreading yourself over so many formats can only mean that you dilute yourself in some way. However this doesn't mean that I am giving up on the Leica and the Nikons, the Rollei, or the Koni, but I have felt rather bad about neglecting my Large Format cameras (yes, ridiculously two . . a Sinar F and a Wista DX) so I feel I should get out and about with them again.

I also have rather a lot of film I stocked up on before Kodak made it nearly impossible to afford film (£75 for a box of 50 sheets of Tri-X these days) so I have to use that up.

I have also made a small purchase (well, actually it is pretty large). I have always struggled to carry my LF gear, shoe-horning it into the only rucksack I own (a 25 litre Deuter) and to be honest it was pain to use, and left little room for anything else important like lunch (I slimmed my hillwalking lunches down to dry oatcakes and dried fruit!), so I put my money where my pain was and bought for the grand sum of £39 from Ffordes, one of these.

Wista DX, Light Meter, 8 Film Holders, 3 Lenses, Loupe

Ready To Rumble
That's a Gitzo Series 2 Reporter tripod

It is a rather old Tamrak Summit 777 rucksack, and it fits the bill handsomely. I can now just unzip one compartment and everything is to hand . . what a relief!

Very well made (in the USA), great zips and a solid feel, and even though it is roughly 12 years old, and has been used, it is in fantastic condition still. Tamrak rather gets overlooked with regard to its bags, but I can tell you that they are second to none. Great build quality and comfortable.

So that is me, all packed up and waiting for a clear weekend, and I hope to detail some trips in detail soon as it were - we shall see. Stay tuned and all that.

Whilst I am here and on the subject, I thought I would show you what a lens which is universally disparaged, can do. 

People go nuts about lpm and all these crazy sharpness tests, and to be honest it is great to be reading about things like that, however at the end of the day it is all about the picture. If your composition is off, and the subject is dull then what is the point?

So to that end, here's a bottom-feeder of a LF lens.

The tiny 90mm Schneider Angulon f6.8, is either loved or hated. I actually love mine, it is tiny and sharp enough if you stop it down to f22 and beyond. If you are looking for a Large Format lens to start out with and you like wide angles, then they are about the cheapest thing out there, regularly selling for around £100.

As you can see it is small - that is a UK 50 pence piece, and it is on a standard Linhof/Wista lens board.

Mine is a later model and it is single coated.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Late 1964 Schneider 90mm Angulon f6.8

And to prove the point, this is what it can do. 

The scan isn't great, but the print is as sharp as you could wish for. Certainly you have no room for movements, but when doing landscapes like this you don't really need them.

The Suicide's Bridge
Ilford FP4+, EI 50
11 Minutes, HC110 Dilution H, 20 Degrees Centigrade.
Ilford Galerie, Grade 2.

As you can see the lens has given the photograph a lovely 'airy' quality in the way it renders the distant foliage. I am not keen on 'smoky' water, however in this case it is quite muted and not in yer face. It has also managed to convey some of the mournful atmosphere of the setting. Whilst I am unaware if anyone has actually committed suicide from this bridge, it sort of had that melancholy feel to it, hence my title for the photograph.

So folks, again thank you for reading, and whilst I might not see you next weekend, I will see you along the trail sometime soon. 

If you want to shout words of encouragement like 'Get Off Yer Arse You Lazy B.' in your best Brian Blessed bellow, then please feel free. 

Leave a comment at the bottom.

It is nice to know I am not just propelling this out into the dark . . 

Take care and God bless.