Well, That Was A Quick One Wasn't It.

Eheu !

You'll need to look up the above - best place to start is How To Be Topp by Ronald Searle and Geoffrey Willans - one of my favourite books.

Anyway, firstly a Happy Seasonal Season to you all - thanks for reading and putting up with some bonkers off-kilter photography related stuff!
As I've said before, this is an Empire Of One, so I can write whatever I like, but if you've enjoyed what you've read, Thank You - it is very much appreciated.

Anyway, in common with recent years, this is a photographic run-down from me.
I certainly took more pictures this year, but not quite enough . . . but isn't that always the case?

It's been a weird and good year - weird from the point of view that I purchased two (very good) secondhand digital cameras, and weird from the point of view that I no longer own either of them!

I've not bought any film related stuff this year simply because I've got it all and any further expense seems rather daft.

I also managed to cement a few things in my mind:

I'm not in the slightest bit interested in digital photography.
Quite a statement eh?
And even though writing this and holidays etc render it semi-necessary . . . I just can't get excited about it.
Not quite sure why, but anyway, that's just me.

I'm also not really a 35mm photographer either.
Never one for doing things by halves, that's another quite a statement.
Even though 35mm film has been used this year I have barely used any of my 35mm cameras at all, which again is kind of daft when you think about it, seeing as I own 6!

Suitably A-tyred

Yes, I know the above photo belies what I just said, but the reason it has been slipped in here is because I like the image and thought it would be a good one to head up the thumbnails at the side of the page.

Despite my semi-aversion to 35mm photography, I was really tempted around the start of summer to go Bugger It! and purchase a dual-range Summicron with some funds I'd released from selling guitar gear.
Unfortunately I didn't.
And that's not like me at all - but something stopped me.
It was pretty significant too, because the DR was something I've wanted for a long long time, but anyway, that's for further down this page!

So, without further ado, grip your zimmers, here's a really boring round-robin of my year!

JANUARY

Well, I started how I meant to go on, and that meant ACTION!
I loaded a roll of Tri-X (probably the last time I'll use it as it is now too expensive!) into the F3 with the 28mm AI-s and off I went - 25 photos in around an hour and a half.
It was major FUN - there's a lot to be said for Nikon's old Automatic Indexing System - it just works and very reliably too.

Seabraes Yard Walkway With Willy Wonka, Dundee

I enjoyed it so much, that later in the month I used another roll!

Broken Seabraes Yard Bridge, Dundee

Seabraes Yard Lift 1, Dundee

Seabraes Yard Lift 2, Dundee

All the above are scans off the negs - never got as far as printing that lot . . .

Early in January the weather was truly dreich and 'orrible up here, but that didn't stop me - I loaded the SWC with some HP5 and whilst out for a lovely walk with t'missus, blasted through 12 frames.

Unfortunately, whether it was too much rum imbibed or a genuine fault with my light meter, the film was well-underexposed. I was gutted!

View From Seabraes Bridge, With Rain And Bonus Gloom

That's a scan from the print - I had to use Pot-Ferry to bleach back the highlights a bit, but even then it was exceptionally difficult to print.

And so started a period of doubt about the Gossen - I wasn't sure about it even though I re-tested it against meters I knew were working (the F3 and the Sony A6000, and Lux on a piephone).

FEBRUARY

On a lovely crisp morning's walk, I was so impressed with the light on the way back, that I went home, loaded the 500 C/M with HP5 (my new main squeeze - thank you Dave Lee Roth) and went out again, toting the 150mm Sonnar - worra lens.
It helped me make what I think is probably one of the best people pictures I've taken - not that I take many people pictures, but all the same.
It was of well-known Dundee grafitti artist C-Gul.
He's a really nice chap and is very amenable to having his portrait taken. I generally bump into him about once a year.

Monsieur C-Gul esq.

I also finished off another roll of Tri-X that I'd started at the end of January - again the F3/28mm AIs combo worked perfectly.

Time Dilation, Perth

At the end of the month, I'd planned a mountain trip, but a dodgy knee stopped me, so instead I went (nearly) to Balmerino along the Fife Coastal Path.

The whole adventure was detailed in 101 Uses For A (Nearly) Dead Sheep.

Quiet Riverside Morning, Wormit

MARCH

You know what, nothing photographic happened in March apart from some printing, so here's a scan of a print to fill up the blank space.

Hall Of Light - Trainworld, Brussels

The above is another of my Brussels photographs - it was taken with the F3/28mm AI-s combo - of all my prints of recent times, this is the one I have hanging in my study - there's just something about it.
If you're ever in Brussels, and even if you DON'T like trains, this is one of the very best museums in the world . . .

There, that's better isn't it.

APRIL

Ah, well some people would call it unlucky, but me? nah, brilliant. I started a 4 day working week, which initially was novel, but at the end of the year proved to be an absolute panacea to my adult working life - everyone should do it. Time is the most precious thing we don't own.

Suitably bouyed with enthusiasm, I hit the mountains!

The whole adventure was written about in Pastures Unknown

And here's a pic from then.

Wild Party Going On

At the end of the month, with the early morning light improving, I got up pre-dawn and hit the town on Easter morning.

The light was astonishing, but what sealed it to me was a group of Christians standing beside the River Tay and reading bible passages at dawn. Were it not for the fact that they were dressed in modern garb, drove Hyundais, and were standing next to the V&A, you could literally have been removed in time back hundreds of years.

It was humbling, moving and awe-inspiring all at the same time.

Easter Morning Prayer, V&A Dundee

I did a fair amount of printing in April, courtesy of new found freedom, however I soon replaced that with a list of jobs I had been putting off for years . . .

MAY

Did some more printing in May, but no photographing, so here's a print made then . .

Vandalised Gigantic Poster, Brussels

This was made the year previously on the F3/28mm combo, in Brussels no less. All the black faces have been picked off - nice to see they have racists over there too (he said ironically).
Truth be told, this was a pissing spot for drunks, so I guess anything would have been 'done' anyway.

JUNE

June was a mad month.

My son suddenly declared he'd need a camera for an upcoming European road trip - 8 countries in a few weeks no less - he's braver than I was at his age.

Film flashed through my mind, and I thought how about a Nikkormat - cheapish, hands-on and reliable . . but then, when he declared he wanted to use ONLY colour my thinking changed.

Anyway, after a wee test out in Perthshire to see how it would handle things, I thought I'd entrust him with the Sony A6000.

Therein lay another problem - I'd only used it with an adaptor and manual Nikkors, and he declared he wanted something with a zoom!

OK old bean I thought, have the shirt off my back why dontcha, you young 'uns . . etc etc . . 

Now I know what you're thinking, prime lenses only that's the sort of man I am, and despite my having explained it all to him, about compromises with zooms vs, tip-top imaging with a prime, it was no good . . so I ended up getting the kit lens for the Sony, the 16-50 zoom - to give it its correct terminology:

Sony E 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 OSS

It was cheap at WEX with a year's guarantee, and you know what . . it's alright!

Riverside Bridge, Seabrae Yards, Dundee

And that left me with a conundrum.

We were going to Rome.

I was supposed to be taking the F3/28mm, our 11 year old Panasonic digital compact, and also the Sony, except now it was no longer in the equation.

So I started thinking digitally and the upshot of it was, I purchased a great condition Nikon D300S with  a 18-70 f3.4/4.5 zoom as my travel camera and married it up, because of bulk and weight, with the Leica M2 and a collapsible Elmar (1932  vintage) and also the old Panasonic digi.

When I initially got the D300S I did a shoot-out with it and the SW . . the SW won of course, but the D300S was no slouch.

DJCA Alley, Dundee
Nikon D300S and Zoooooooooom

DJCA Alley, Dundee
Hasselblad SWC/M And Shoe-Leather Zoooooooom

I thought the D300S would be the dog's bahookies - the ideal machine for getting all that colourful Roman stuff!

And whilst it was a fine (really fine actually) photo-making machine, my goodness, it was like schlepping an anchor around in 90 degree heat . . in other words I quickly began to hate it.

Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II - Panoramic Terrace Lift

See what I mean - no issues with colours or sharpness, and it was fortunate we had it, because halfway through the holiday, we left the Panasonic behind on a bench and despite heading back for it 20 minutes odd later, some thieving Roman git had had it.

I will say, if you go to Rome, whilst it is a lovely place, don't do something like this, because the Roman Police department will give you no help at all, and neither will the locals.

So that was that, our holiday camera gone and it had all the sensible pics on it too.

The D300S was employed and ended up taking the rest of the holiday snaps.

The Vatican On A Quiet Afternoon

Fractured Holiday View

Plastic Seagull, Rome

On the whole, I like the results from the Nikon, but by comparison, the M2 was a revelation and easily the most fun to use 35mm I've ever toted around.

It was just so damn instinctive and quick and quiet and svelt.

In other words PURE JOY.

Stuffed Swans Trapped In The Vatican

When we got back from Rome, we still had anudder week, so I used the M2 with the 35mm Summaron. Here's a pic taken in tiny light onboard the Unicorn in Dundee.

The print looks like it has been lithed, but it's the result of extreme bleaching in pot-ferry - to me it looks like something washed up after a nuclear disaster and has a poignancy I can't place.

Tiny Light, HMS Unicorn, Dundee

JULY

Y'see that D300S?

It developed a noise or two (weird hums n' stuff) . . so I sent it back to WEX and they were superb about it letting me exchange it . . for . . anudder digi-cam - a Fuji X2ES with a 27mm Pancake.

It was more expensive, but is easily the nicest digital camera I've handled.

Intuitive, VERY lightweight, light on sub-menus (unless you wanted to) and relatively unfootery.

A camera with some thought put into it.

It also took a cracking picture too - I was delighted.

Victorianised Dell

Have These Students Got Nothing Better To Do, Part 1

Have These Students Got Nothing Better To Do, Part 2

I also finished processing my Roman films in July and was astonished at what a brilliant little lens the ancient Elmar was.
Honest, just about the cheapest Leitz-branded lens you can buy.
I use mine with a Voigtlander adapter as it is a screw-mount one.
I also used it with a Fison hood and it was a royal pain to change aperture, but it just made me approach things differently - think before you shoot and be prepared.

Quiet Graveyard

Look at the creaminess of those greys - quite unlike anything else I own.

AUGUST

Y'see that Fuji?

Guess what . . . it developed an occasional hum when the shutter was operated, so, not wanting to saddle myself with a faulty camera, I sent it back, got a refund and decided there and then that digital photography was not for me.

I simply couldn't be arsed to be honest, even faced with some excellent pixel-peepin'-poppin'-and-a snappin' sharp images from the Fuji - they just did nothing for me at all, so I nailed my trousers to the mast and said nah.

The Sony is now our holiday cam, simply because with the loss of our dear old Panasonic, we have nothing else . . well, I still have my ancient Olympus MjU . . !

So, in celebration of my new-found freedom from having to think about something else, I mounted my ancient Canon LTM 50mm f1.8 - the "Japanese Summicron", on the M2, and you know, I think that seems to be a pretty good description

The below is a typical pic.

As they say round these parts in a West Country accent:

"Look a tha' bokee on tha'"

Tyre Dump, Spokes, Dundee

The Canon was probably the second cheapest lens I've bought for Leicas - it was originally going to be mounted on the fungusy IIIf!

However I loved it's rendering of detail, greys and the dread bokeeee so much, that it made me think  there was actually no point in buying a DR Summicron.

The money would be better employed elsewhere, and so it was.

Near the end of the month, I was all set for a hillwalk, but somehow talked myself out of it (well, actually it was gale force winds that did the talking) and ended up photographing the footings of the Tay railbridge instead - a slippy shitey journey, but semi-worth it, even without anywhere on my tripod to attach the camera . . .

Tay Rail Bridge Footings

And at the end of the month I did actually get to do a hillwalk, albeit one curtailed by mist and cowardice.

It was all detailed in Fun With Rocks And Mist (Again).

Quiet Glade

SEPTEMBER

Gawd does all he do, is go on holiday?

Well no, but we had a few nights in Edinburgh and it was really wonderful.

The weather was half decent for a start, and as an added bonus, I spared the missus all the usual:

 "Hold it, can you wait a sec"

moves and didn't take a film camera.

The Sony sufficed and actually got some semi-decent images.

Whisky Galore!

Quiet Morning

Shop Display, Edinburgh

Who Are You And Why Are You Taking My Photograph?

Remember these are all taken with what is effectively a budget lens for the Sony - none too tardy are they!

I especially like the last one - I was randomly snapping the bloke behind the bar, but fortunately the chap with the audio-guide looked directly at the camera!

And that was it photographically for September.

OCTOBER

The weather in October was mostly ghastly tbh and photographically the only thing I did, was accept an invite to a gallery opening (Printspace in Newport) to see the Edinburgh Lo-Fi exhibition which I enjoyed, but could have done with some more photographs! Printspace is a really nice gallery and shop run by Sheila and Alan Borthwick who used to run the Tayside Scottish Photographers Meetings. You can have a butchers at this link

It got me thinking that I should really start rummaging through my prints and getting myself together - empetus for the Winter months.

But in the meantime, here's another print from the archives . . gads that blank page stuff is awful isn't it.

Ghost Discovered In Abandoned Tent

The above was taken a couple of years ago with the Sonnar, beside a campsite (in a cutting). 

The tent had obviously been rendered useless and had been chucked over the fence into the cutting. 

It looked totally incongruous in the gloom, so I photographed it with the 500 C/M and the 150mm Sonnar. 

This is a pretty good demo of the Sonnar's qualities. 

It is a scan off a print made on Ilford Grade 2 Galerie (RIP).

On a sad note (for me) Mr. Malcolm Thompson died. Malcolm I have known for years - he ran a small but busy lab (Studio M) and has taken photographs all his life - in latter years he taught B&W at the DCA. I'll always remember him as a passionate jazz fan who was grumpy and kind all at the same time - he also took some very fine photographs, and even with Parkinson's disease which meant he had to sell his 5x4 camera, and found his Rollei SL66 too big to use, still took photographs with whatever lightweight device came to hand.

R.I.P Malcolm.

And the other sad note alluded to above is that I discovered Ilford had discontinued Galerie - the best fibre paper ever made. I can understand the financial aspect, but all the same it was gutting.

Luckily I still have a box of 100 sheets of 8x10" Grade 2. 

To be used wisely methinks!

NOVEMBER

OK, it's a run-off from another holiday at the end of October/start of Novemember, but the main photographic thing I did was detailed in The Crunge

There was another film taken at the end of the month though, but I am just not sure what I feel about the images - they were pretty rough and quickly taken AND I haven't contacted or printed any of them yet  . . .

This being said, despite having had a wee break from thinking about cameras and photography, I can feel it building again.

DECEMBER

Well, that's where we are now and as this is being published, we've hit the Solstice and are on the up-ramp to lighter nights - WOOHOO!!.
Anyway, I'll wind this ramble up - if you have time off lined up . . what are you waiting for? Get out there and take some photographs - you know it's good for you!
And remember, it doesn't matter if nobody looks at your photos, so long as you are enjoying them and learning something and training your eye all at the same time, that's all that counts.

Misty Night In The Garden

And The Same Scene Reversed

The above illustrates my old adage about taking a picture of a scene or whatever and then turning round - the scene behind can often be as interesting.

Anyway, on the whole, don't you think that photography has become pretty much meaningless in today's world?

That's why we need to start thinking about it differently.

Thinking about why we do it and what (if) any purpose there is to it.
It does seem like a mug's game; an expensive (and getting more expensiver) game that only means something to you, the photographer.

Actually, just reading that again, I wonder what really is the point in it?
I mean (and not to piss on your chips or anything) actually, is there any point? 

Is it just an amusement to while away the hours till death? 

What does anything mean to anyone outwith your social circle anyway?


I suppose, just like any creative pursuit, it is almost impossible to quantify.
We do it because we want to, because it gives us pleasure, and hope; twisted narcissism and satisfaction!
So, far from going all nihilistic on you, I'll just say, if you enjoy it, DO IT.
Hang the expense and hang the pain in the neck when things go wrong - and with printing and taking they often can do!

Talking of which (finally) welcome to The Hairiest Print In The World (Retouched).

Have You Finished Yet, Y'Old Git?

I found this whilst rummaging and love the imagery - Alec Turnips was all knackered after a long walk, and was patient (just about) enough to let me take his picture.
It was made with the old Rollei T at f3.5 and just shows what an incredible lens a Zeiss Tessar is.
I've retouched it a bit on the Mac but it really is an incredibly hairy print, made a long time ago when I was farting around with anti-static brushes on negatives.
The bloody thing (and it was a really good one) deposited more dust than it removed. These days, using the Astrid Ioniser as my baseline, I find a scissor wipe with my first and second finger removes pretty much everything.

Anyway, that's enough - you're knackered and need a break too.

I'll leave the final words to Mr. DH Lawrence. A man who knew a bit about writing.

I've known this poem since buying Mott The Hoople's Mott album in 1973 - he got it right:

A Sane Revolution

If you make a revolution, make it for fun,
don’t make it in ghastly seriousness,
don’t do it in deadly earnest,
do it for fun.

Don’t do it because you hate people,
do it just to spit in their eye.

Don’t do it for the money,
do it and be damned to the money.

Don’t do it for equality,
do it because we’ve got too much equality
and it would be fun to upset the apple-cart
and see which way the apples would go a-rolling.

Don’t do it for the working classes.
Do it so that we can all of us be little aristocracies on our own
and kick our heels like jolly escaped asses.

Don’t do it, anyhow, for international Labour.
Labour is the one thing a man has had too much of.
Let’s abolish labour, let’s have done with labouring!
Work can be fun, and men can enjoy it; then it’s not labour.
Let’s have it so! Let’s make a revolution for fun!

And on that note, thanks for making it this far. Have a fantastic Christmas and a positive, happy and  totally creative New Year.
TTFN, and remember sprouts are supposed to be eaten, not hidden under a rug, in a plant pot or in someone else's pockets . . .

Tot quot, clot!

Crisis Of Faith

Penguin #41 (The Voyage Of The Discovery) Surveys The Future

Morning folks - that sounds a bit melodramatic and (as they say around these parts) up himself, but to be honest, it's not so much a crisis but more of an affirmation of intent.

I think the time has come for me and 35mm photogaphy to part company (almost).

Y'see, the thing is whilst I appreciate the convenience and portability of the medium, I've never really been a 36 or 24 frame snapper.
Yeah I could load my own cassettes and take say 12 or 15 at a time, but really, what would be the point in that?
For more ease, I could just fit a 645 back on the Hasselblad, or use the Rollei T's 16-on kit. And for all that there's some remarkably good 645 cameras still out there, you really would be hard-pressed to beat the Rollei for compact quality. 

And anyway, I find myself quite happy with 12 frames of 6x6.

And when I think about what I have just said, I have started to wonder why I actually need:

1 x Nikon F

1 x Nikon F 2

1 x Nikon F 3

1 x Original Nikomat

1 x Leica M2

1 x Olympus Trip (sorry Steve - you can have it back if you want)

1 x Olympus XA 2 (ditto to Bruce!)

1 x Nikon AF600 (legendary cult camera with outstanding 28mm lens)

1 x Olympus OM 10

1 x Pentax PC35AF (world's first autofocus compact camera)

And that's before we get started on lenses:

Nikkor 300mm f 4.5 (pre-Ai)

Nikkor 80-200mm Zoom (pre-Ai)

Nikkor 105mm (pre-Ai)
Nikkor 55mm Macro (pre-Ai - Self Compensating Type)

Nikkor 50mm f1.4 (pre-Ai)

Nikkor 50mm f1.8 (Ai)

Nikkor 35mm f2 'O' (pre-Ai)

Nikkor 35mm f3.5 (pre-Ai - K-Series)
Nikkor 28mm f3.5 (pre-Ai - K-Series)

Nikkor 28mm f2.8 (Ai-S - second version)

Nikkor 24mm f2.8 (pre-Ai)

Leitz 35mm f3.5 Summaron (M3 'specs' version)

Leitz 50mm f3.5 Elmar (made in 1932)

Leitz 90mm f4 Elmar (M version)

Canon Rangefinder 50mm f1.8 

Canon Rangefinder 28mm f3.5

Zuiko 50mm f1.8 

And then there's the accessories - lens hoods, filters, cases, bags etc etc etc.

See what I mean - along the way, things have got totally out of hand, and seeing as it is rare these days to lift a 35mm camera, let alone take a picture, something has to give.

The really sad thing is, I won't say it hasn't been Fun acquiring all this stuff!
There's nothing like the excitement of getting a real bargain of a lens (most recent was the Ai-S 28mm f2.8 Nikkor [late model] for £100) - given the prices on these things these days, I just couldn't resist.
But, at the end of the day, does it not just distract from the most important thing?

Er, which is Sheepy???

Image Making.

It's like in musical terms:
2 weeks to make an album or 2 years to make an album?
You get distracted along the way and at the end of it, for all the extra stuff that has gone into making that album, does it have the sense of immediacy and urgency that makes a great album truly great? Having more of everything thrown at something, doesn't necessarily mean it is going to be any better than a bare bones approach.

In image making terms, for me, I have a solid and versatile Medium Format collection.
I still can't do it justice, and even my long daliance with Large Format (in the form of hundreds of 5x4" negatives and TWO 5x4 cameras [!!!!!!!]) has not really equalled (to my eyes) the images I have made with that kit (be it 'professional' Hasselblad or 'amateur' Rolleiflex T).

So when I throw 35mm into that mix, I am way off the mark of where I want to be.
Not only that, I am dedicating time to making 35mm images, that to be totally honest, I would rather be making on 120 film.

So is this the last 35mm film ever from me?
Well no, simply because I can't ditch it all.
As Steve said to me with regard to collecting anything, you always have to ask yourself:

"Do They Make Them Anymore?"

And in the case of film cameras the answer is pretty much a resounding NO.

Certainly ditching the lot would be foolhardy should I wish to go back further down the line, but for the moment, how do I thin the herd?
Well, my Nikons I will keep forever - emotional and ergonomic attachment, ease of use and that 100% viewfinder - but the lenses?
Well as you can see, there's a ton of those, but for me in practical terms the longer ones can go.
Not the 105mm - it has, unusually for a Nikkor, separation, but strangely still takes an ultra-sharp, ultra-smooth photograph.
On the wide front I actually like them all, but how many wide-angle lenses does a man need?
So, I think maybe the 35mm f3.5 and the 28mm f3.5 should go.
They're both fine - the 35mm is a K-Series (basically the last iteration of a pre-Ai Nikkor . . . very highly regarded and apparently the wide if you like digital IR photography).
The 28mm f3.5 is fine too, but I am hoping the 28mm f2.8 (CRC, late Ai-S version) is better.

So, here's some pics from a film that has sat in the camera for a good few months - that just shows how inspired I am to shoot 35mm these days.
The first 2 were made with the 24mm f2.8 (pre-Ai) - it is an utterly superb lens.
The final 4 were made with the 28mm f3.5 (the lens that McCullin shot Vietnam with) - certainly no slouch either.

The Selling Of Myth

A Warm Spring Day At A Quiet Place

Penguin #3 (Mr. Sofishsticated) Fans

Penguin #3 (Mr. Sofishsticated) Alone (for once)

Penguin #57 (Touchy) Post Vandalism

Penguin #7 (Sid The Penguin)

"Yes, we know all this sheepy, where does that leave the Leica?"

Well, y'know, whilst I have enjoyed and often actually loved using that camera, it needs to be used more.

Mine saw a proper professional life before it reached me - ever seen brassing in a film chamber? Yeah, exactly. It still works like a total dream though - smooth as silk - but to be honest I've never truly clicked with the rangefinder as I find the 100% view I get through the Nikon's viewfinders suits me more. 

Leica's are wonderfully quiet in use, they really are - everyone should try one at some point (though you could experience the same with any of the great old rangefinders tbh -try a Canon or Nikon) . . . 

But here's the thing with Leicas . . . 

OK, this is a big one, because, contrary to popular belief:

OWNING A LEICA DOES NOT MAKE YOU A BETTER PHOTOGRAPHER.

Yes, they are wonderful, intuitive, image making machines, but no more so than say a Nikon F from the same period.

And the thing with Leicas, is that you are sort of are inducted into a club, where it often seems that keeping up with the Jones' is the only thing you can do:

"You what? You've ONLY got a 35 f3.5 Summaron? . . Oh you poor boy! Well you'd better go and get a Summicron hadn't you!"

It is mad actually, quite MAD. 

The madness has been cemented in my mind by the new Leica M10-P - no doubt a wonderful camera, but £7000 for just a camera body. I'm sorry, but even if you do go and buy it, it won't make you a better photographer. You could have the road trip of a lifetime (with a Rollei) for that money and come back with arguably better photographs.

So, and I find it hard to be typing this, because I thought I never would . . . the M2 will be going.

What will I keep from my Leica 'system'?

Well . . . strangely the humble Table Top Tripod and ballhead, simply because they are arguably one of the most wonderfully useful photographic accessories ever made.

So, that's a big chunk of aspiration and dreaming cut away. 

And the rest of the 35mm stuff will go too, or else just get filed away somewhere.

I'll put a full stop on this now before I say too much, but I'll leave my last 35mm image to the one below.

It was made, as were the rest of the ones on this post, with a Nikon - in this case, my old F with a 24mm Nikkor. The film was Tri-X rated at 200 EI and it was developed in Pyrocat-HD.

There's something about the look of this that reminds me of some Japanese horror films of the 60's . . maybe it's the lens  -I doubt I could have achieved anything better with any amount of expensive Leitz glass . . .

Seed Heads, Fife

Oh, nearly forgot . . . the Penguins? 

Maggie's Penguin Parade (plenty of info here) - a huge piece of public art in Dundee and Angus, encompassing 80 Penguins, all decorated differently, and all in aid of Maggie's Cancer Centres. 

It is probably the best, most engaging thing I have seen for a long time - there's always people collecting 'photos' of them . . . young, old, doesn't matter, they're all walking away with a smile on their face. 

It really is quite something.

Over and oot the noo.

Oh and if you have read this far, and have subscribed to Fblog before, sorry - you need to do it again as Blogger has lost all your email addresses!

Season's Greetings (But Why Is It That ALMOST Everything Chinese Made Breaks?)

Greetings playmates - we've made it through another year and onwards to the next one - I wish you all the best for the Seasons and also all the best for a rooty-toot New Year!

Now, a thorny problem - well I don't know if you've noticed but it is a global world we live in - yer large corporations (and yes camera companies, that means you too) are now far more concerned with shifting large units of something which is effectively the same thing as you have in your kitchen - in retail terms "white goods".
You know, the numbers game - X-number of boxes containing X-number of Consumer Products. All manufactured in lovely clean factories (mostly) in China.
The relentless march of new model X versus new model Y; cameras out of date whilst still languishing on retailer's shelves.
You know the sort of thing.
It's called modern commerce.

It pisses me off actually.
I mean, I look at my Leica M2 or my Rollei T or the Nikon Fs, or the Hasselblad or Wista or Sinar and think, Mein Gott - they REALLY don't make them like that anymore - these were mostly assembled by hand by a highly skilled craft force the likes of which you'll never see again.
I'm not denying that China (et al) doesn't have a highly skilled craft force - of course it does, but the problem comes from the oft-vanishing bottom line.
It isn't all cheap Far East though - you do get cameras manufactured in Europe (and America and Japan) - please stand up all you lovely tiny (and that includes Leica) camera manufacturers - now, no looking around the room, but lets say you could probably hold your Christmas party in a cupboard whilst outside on the street there's a multi-float parade going on from the Big Four. But that's the way the cookie has crumbled.
I do wonder how long the smaller manufacturers (and even the big ones) can keep going against the relentless onslaught of the phone though - yes certainly there's a small army of concerned photographers who will want a new Alpa (and I count myself amongst them) but really - could you honestly afford one?
Nope.
So how on earth do they continue to stay in business, when they can only be selling a tiny amount of new cameras every year?
There's a problem you see - the world is awash with old cameras and people continue to buy them. And if, like me, you love using old cameras, you must surely realise that what you are using was actually a pinnacle of mechanical engineering wrought tiny.
(Well, I'll add a caveat to that, they're MOSTLY that - obviously there were a lot of cheap cameras and they haven't really survived that well, but then again, even the humble, very very 'umble, Olympus Trip, is a damn fine ingenious and reliable piece of equipment. It goes wrong some times, but if you're handy with a screwdriver and feel a bit brave then it is fixable. So try doing that with your Panasonic Lumix or Samsung or Sony whatever, or Canon or Nikon - are these modern cameras fixable? - possibly, but tbh unless you like the idea of being a brain surgeon and rocket scientist at the same time I would say chuck it in the bin and buy another!)

But would you consider doing that with your M3, or your Standard Rolleiflex from the 30's? Would you feck - you'd get the little beauty repaired because not only is it a damn fine piece of engineering, it has a soul.
Like that bag of old soft toys you've still got tucked away a real soul. (I confess I have my 55 year old teddy bear (called Tedson) at home and whilst I don't cuddle him every night, I know where he is and sometimes go and say hello, because he has a soul, albeit imagined by me).
Call it Zen, call it Craftsmanship, whatever, but a lot of old cameras have souls - they're imbued with the hopes and dreams of great images by their previous owners.
My Rollei and Minolta Autocord are very elderly gentlemen who have had hard lives but still like a wander down to the shops with their flies open.
My Nikons are also reasonably elderly chaps who took up running years back and are still doing it.
My M2 is a retired watchmaker who has looked after himself and knows how to stay healthy.
The Wista and Sinar the same.
The Hasselblad is a newly retired surgeon, enjoying a more relaxed life.
You see - SOUL!

The Canon EOS 50D - whilst it's a VERY GOOD digital camera (same with the wee Lumix) has nothing there at all - they're effective machines produced in immense quantities, but they have little to make you feel affection for them.

OK, so you're wondering what the hell I am on - machines with soul?
Can it be possible?
Well only if you're seriously deranged like me, but for the rest of you, they probably just come down to reliable and unreliable.
And I can understand that POV, but you see folks because of globalisation we have a massive worldwide problem - profit versus build.
Y'see in a bid to maximise profits from all you young dogs hungry for the next gadget, albeit phone, camera, whatever, build quality seems to have gone to shit.
Though (truth be told) I haven't been on the end of an unreliable 'modern' camera, a number of 'consumer' items I have bought recently have been defective.
Samsung laptop? Screen gone to shit in 2 years!
GE flourescent tubes - supposed lifespan 15 years? 2 years and they failed.
The worst though is my ongoing tale of woe trying to find that most basic of artefacts - the electric kettle. There's not a single one for sale in the UK that isn't made in China - big names and small names - the whole lot, from Dualit, Kitchenaid and Smeg, down to the lowly Tesco Value - everything in between - fine upstanding names of post-War manufacturing -  Bosch, AEG, Philips, DeLonghi, Breville - you name them and they ALL outsource to Chinese manufacture, and the crazy thing is, the massive price differences for, what is essentially the same thing and no doubt the same innards (roughly) made in the same factories. After my 3 year old Chinese Breville kettle started delivering chunks of metal from its supposed "stainless steel" interior (in reality - stainless coated steel) into my morning tea, I started hunting.
It involved the world's most boring man activity of heading to my local retailers and lifting every kettle and looking at the labelling:
Made In China
Made In PRC
All essentially the same thing.
I wanted something European, but no luck.
So I gave in and bought a Bosch - 15 boils in and the thing still tasted overwhelmingly of plastic . . . 16 boils in and the lid failed. It went back for a refund.
Next up Lakeland. I've had a few Lakeland things over the years and they have all been decent. This was Made In PRC and ROHS Compliant - all very impressive. The kettle took about 5 boils to stop tasting of 'stuff' - fine, thanks goodness I thought, and came down on the Monday morning to a worktop covered in water from a leaking kettle.
Schiiite!
So that went back.
We then thought feck it, I did more kettle lifting and read more pages on kettle consumer reviews than anyone would want to do in a lifetime and ended up with a DeLonghi. It too is Made In China, but I am hoping that the massively inflated price for 'design' equates to higher QC.
You see QC (Quality Control) is, I think the one differentiating thing in Chinese goods - that and materials.
My brother has this fantastic joke:

"Did you hear about that fabulous new metal alloy the Chinese are using these days? Shit-ite!"

It's a cracker isn't it, but oh so true.

Several years ago I needed a crowbar - so I went to B&Q and surveyed the goods they had for sale - the once proud name of JCB had a range, I thought they sounded tough so I checked them out . . .
Not a single one was the same.
They all had a flex too them that was not appropriate for something required to be strong - in other words they were shite.
I looked at the labelling - Made in China - there was no QC, just a cheap piece of junk metal for bargain-hunting DIYers.
So I went elsewhere and bought a European made Gorilla bar - it was tough and did the job required, and it's still one of the most solid things I have ever used.

It's true though - in the hunger for ever-cheaper goods, that we, the money-wielding West are driving, quality of materials heads right out the window and in comes the shit.
And a huge amount is just that - SHIT.
And more fool you for buying it - and that includes me.
But you see it has taken a while to dawn, but I am now trying to take a stand - albeit a seemingly lone voice in a wilderness of consumerism.
If I can, I try to buy European or Japanese or American or even Vietnamese made.
If I can't I will seriously rethink about whether I actually need it - it's that bad.
Sadly it is unavoidable that you simply have to buy Chinese, but if you can, please try and look at where things are made.

You would think from this that I was against everything Chinese, but thankfully thanks to an Orient-loving Aunt that is far from the case.
I love my early 18th Century Chinese sword, and some of the marvellous export porcelain I got when my Aunt died.
I love my local Chinese supermarket because it is fun and weird and the food is superb.
I love the history of China, the resourcefullness and hardship and the transcendence of the human spirit, the uncanny ability to forge things.
The West owes China more than it can ever imagine from metalwork to paper to fireworks to tea, but sadly that is often forgotten.
China wants to be loved again, but what I hate is that we in the West are capitalising on that innate Chinese willingness to please, for any price.
We're guilty as hell in demanding of them a quick fix for our product-hungry society.
Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.

It's our fault a lot of shoddy goods come out of China, and yet and yet, isn't that pinnacle of craft and skill, Japanese sword and knife-making, based entirely upon innovation from Chinese techniques and knowledge?
Thankfully there are some superbly made Chinese goods - truly fantastic quality using decent materials - but sadly they do seem to be few and far between.

So as you can see, it isn't all anti-Chinese workmanship around my way, I appreciate their abilities as a nation, but when you hear the cry from my kitchen "This Fecking toaster CANNOT TOAST!" you'll know that another Western profit-before-quality white good has hit the fan!

Anyway, that's enough away from photography.
Here's something made on American film (Kodak), processed with British chemicals (Ilford and Fotospeed) printed on British paper (Grade 2 Ilford Galerie), also processed with British and French chemicals (Ilford, Fotospeed and Kodak) taken with  a German lens (1966-ish Schneider 90mm non-Angulon) on a Japanese camera (Wista DX) with a Japanese film holder (Toyo).
Oh, and the light was all Scottish (Dundee, under the lead-in part for the Tay Rail Bridge).

Just as a little adjunct to this - I know I have railed against Photoshop all my photographic life, but the adjustments to the final presentation of this print were done using that free version of CS2 that is out there, and you know what I was delighted with the ability to fine-tune the truly terrible auto-scan exposure I get from the cheap Epson scanner into something that looks more akin to what I have hanging on my wall.
It was surprisingly easy to get it looking right.

Anyway folks - that's it for the noo.
The Season is upon us, so before you force yourself to eat Mince Pie # 675 I will bid you a fond farewell.
thank you for reading this year and I'll set-to in the New Year with a more determined outlook - honest - refurbing those windows lost me a vast amount of light!
Be good, take care and until the next time, watch out for the normal people.