The Long Silence

  The title of this post has a two-fold meaning.  Firstly, i haven't uploaded a post in absolutely ages,  and i'm sorry about that.  The past few months have been hectic and i just haven't been able to get into the darkroom to do any printing at all.  I was hoping to finish the series this post is dealing with off and upload all the images together, but as it looks like i won't be back in the darkroom for (what feels like) eternity i thought i had better upload the first part now.

  This post is about one of my favourite photographic subjects - abandoned places.  Regular readers will know that i love to get into abandoned buildings and take photos.  A few months ago i finally found my way into Whittingham Asylum, a large complex of buildings not far from where i live.  This place is without a doubt the biggest explore i have done and it was amazing.  I barely scratched the surface of what was available to see and i ran out of time before i had even covered a quarter of the complex.  I definitely need to go back.  And soon.

  For me, urban exploration photography is all about texture.  Peeling paint, rotting wood, crumbling walls etc all catch the available light and enhance the texture of photographs.  When inside i shot a roll of old Portra 160NC and a roll of Ilford FP4+.  When home I developed both rolls and decided to start printing the colour first as i hadn't done any RA4 in a long time.  It didn't go too well as i kept getting light leaks on my paper (it was a sunny day, there must be a hole in my shed letting light in that i need to plug).  I got one print that i liked as shown below:

  I decided to ditch colour for a while and concentrate on the black and white roll.  The problem was that what with the roofs missing from parts of the buildings, there are areas of extreme highlights on some of the walls.  Some of the shots i took are unusable because i just couldn't retain highlight detail.  I printed a few of the other frames but i just wasn't happy with what i got.

  I decided to try some shots in lith, but i didn't want the extreme contrast you get with some papers like Slavich Unibrom - that would have resulted in even more highlight loss.  I decided to use some Agfa Brovira (G3) i had recently come into as I knew it would give a nice even development but still retain that nice lith look.  Brovira has a "softer" lith effect than some other papers and highlight detail can be retained much easier.

  I mixed up some LD20 and made the first print, which took about 25 minutes to develop:

  After a good wash i toned in Selenium 1:5 for a few minutes which altered the highlight colour from a pale yellow to a slightly pinker hue which i preferred.  Normally i use a 1:9 ratio to avoid a pronounced colour change but still affect contrast, but used 1:5 as i wanted a colour change on this print.

  I then decided to print the chair photo mentioned earlier (i shot it on b&w as well as colour, just in case).  This took 45 minutes to develop, fortunately i had my stool and stereo with me (possibly the 2 most important items in any darkroom)!

  As before i toned in Selenium 1:5 but i cut toning short once the highlights were being reached (selenium toning starts in the shadows and moves up) to retain the yellow hue.  This image is naturally contrastier due to the light coming in through the windows and i think the cool greys of the shadows works well will the warm highlights.  The straight print of this is nowhere near as good as the lith version in my opinion.  Sometimes an image just needs lith.

  I have still got a few more frames to print which i will hopefully be able to do this weekend, failing that next week.  As soon as they're done ill get them uploaded and posted here.  In the meantime keep printing and ill see you again soon.

Climb, Shoot, Fail, Win!

  I used to rock climb a lot when i was young and single.  I’ve travelled all over doing it – France, Spain and even Switzerland.  As soon as i started going out with the fine lady who is now my wife though i kind of got out the habit.  It’s probably been about 2 years now since i properly climbed and most of my strength has gone and great expansion has taken place on my midsection.  

  I went out a few weeks ago with the lovely Gavin Grey for a trip to a crag i hadn’t been to before called Thorn Crag – he wanted to climb and i wanted to shoot him doing it.  I decided to pack all my climbing gear and have a go at some easier stuff to see how it felt.  A short drive north led us to a tiny rural village where we unpacked the car and started the 40 minute walk up the hill to the boulders.  Despite many hours spent in the gym lately i was still shattered about 10 minutes in, but then again i was carrying my bouldering mat (a large mattress like device which is good for landing on when you fall off rocks), my bag full of climbing gear AND my camera bag loaded with my Bronica system!

  It was absolutely worth it though – the place was deserted and there was no sign of anything man-made.  You couldn’t even hear traffic.  It was so pleasant to be out with a good friend in the middle of nowhere.  We started climbing and shooting, Gav sending a V6 pretty sharpish and me happily shooting away.  A little later we moved round to a beautiful V5 route called Elemental.  After getting some shots of Gav on it i decided to pull on and have a go.  I nearly did it on my first try – i just dropped the last move as i didn’t grab the hold right. I sent it on my next go – i was so chuffed!!  The rest of the day was spent with Gav on a V7 called Mothership Reconnection – fortunately he managed to top it out on his very last go!

  As i headed home i couldn’t wait to get the film developed.  I had shot both colour (Portra 160nc) and black and white (HP5+).  I could do the HP5+ as soon as i got home as i had the chemicals and so when i got home that’s what i did.  Well, kind of.  As most will know 120 film has backing paper on it.  Now i am going to tell you all the secret to developing black and white 120 film.  Listening carefully?  When putting the film on your developing tank reel in your changing bag don’t ever pull the film out instead of the backing paper.  I was furious – an entire roll lost!! Livid was an understatement!  Eventually i calmed down, but even now im still gutted that i lost all those shots.  A few days later i ordered some C41 chemicals and developed my colour roll and i was really chuffed that this picture came out exactly how i wanted it to:

I guess we live and learn...

Flashy...

  As my new flash (a vivitar 285) had been sat in my bag unused for weeks i finally managed to get my wife to pose for some portriats for me.  This was my first venture with proper flash photography and it was highly enjoyable.  Mistakes were made though, i need to use my reflector better as most of the shots had a great big shadow off to one side.  But we learn through mistakes so it didnt bother me too much.  I like some of the shots that came out though:

  Portra is such a good film.  I hadn't used it for portraits before but the skin tones have come out great, ill be using it a lot more in future.  I had a fiddle in photoshop with one of the images, turning it into a cyanotype.  I can't decide whether i rpefer this or the original, what do you think?

Loughrigg

  Dont go hiking in a blizzard.  I booked a Friday off work to go for a hike in the Lake District mountains with a friend i hadnt seen for ages.  Unfortunately Friday was the day the snow decided to hit hard.  We decided to risk it and head out anyway which turned out to be a good decision as once we got past Lancaster the snow eased and the skies cleared.

  We decided to head to Loughrigg as it is a relatively low fell and an easier walk.  We had only walked a quarter of a mile or so before the path opened up onto a lake with a distant mountain reflected perfectly in its glassy water.  This was definitely a shot to be taken.  We then kept following the path as it began to descend towards the summit.  Whilst the valleys were clear the peaks were snow capped and just as we got to the summit the sun started evaporating the snow creating a glorious mist.  The views were astounding.  We took a break and had some food  whilst we stood and took in the horizon.  Landscape spread out for miles, rolling hills and blue waters surrounding us.  I took as many shots as i could before we began our descent down some icy steps to the car park.

  The walk only took us a few hours and was around 5 miles in total but it was thoroughly enjoyable.  It is so satisfying to be in a beautiful country with a great friend.