Finishing in the Mountains & Digging into the past

  My previous post was regarding the prints i made from a roll of film i shot whilst away on holiday in Glencoe, Scotland... and so is this post!  This week has been one of those wonderful weeks where Jess has had a lot on in the evenings, so i've been pretty much left to my own devices.  An we all know what that means don't we - key out, gate open, electric cable in, red light on!

  On the roll i shot there were two more prints i wanted to make.  I may end up printing some of the other frames at some point in the future but at the moment i don't find the "subjects" particularly interesting on one of them and the other one is ever so slightly out of focus (dammit)! 

  I started off in my usual manner on my first print - test strips, proof prints etc but after an hour or so i couldn't seem to get a decent looking print.  I knew i wanted to lith print the other two so i decided to try and lith this first one as well.  I mixed up some LD20 (15A, 15B, 10 old brown and make it up to an 800ml solution).  For the first print i decided to dig into my mini-stash of Orwo BN118 which is a paper i know nthing about except i have used it on a few prints previously and it tends to give a nice brown colour overall with not very much infectious development (much like Agfa Brovira which i'm a huge huge huge fan of).  Previous prints i have made on this paper didn't really have many highlight tones so i was interesting to see how it would handle the sky in this shot.  I did a test strip, determined the correct exposure, added 3 stops, exposed and started developing.  Eventually i pulled the print, stoppped, fixed and rinsed as usual, gave it a little dunk in selenium toner (1:9) and this is what i got:

  Not the greatest print i've ever done i reckon but a good start.  The paper has handled the highlights well (not that there are tonnes) and the shadows are nice and gritty.  To be honest the composition and light on this shot isn't the best but not much i can do about that now is there?!

  My next print was one i took on the road to Glencoe.  There's a huge layby on a sweeping bend of the road which was practically made for tourists.  I was there for about 45 minutes and i think at least 5 coach loads of people came and went in that time, compact cameras a-flashing.  I found myself chuckling when i pondered how their images would turn out.  For some reason people's holiday photos just amuse me - "here's a lovely landscape with my wife stood in front; here's an interesting statue with my daughter in front, here's a hedge with my brother in front".  Bizarre how most people seem to think shots are improved by having family members stood in front of them.  I think it may stem from my parents who overload on holiday photos, every single one having my mum or dad stuck right bang in the middle of the scene!  Anyway - back on track!  I did two exposures at this scene, one standard and one using a cheapo 10 stop filter i got off ebay/amazon (i can't quite remember).  After inspecting the contact sheet i decided to print the long exposure one (seriously, the exposure was like 8 minutes or something - i'd give you an exact figure but my notebook is buried in the under-stairs cupboard and going in there is an undertaking that requires at least half a day and a hearty breakfast, neither of which i have), predominantly because the sky had a better looking shape and also because there was a huge drying mark on the standard one.  I decided to use my precious precious supply of Fotospeed Lith paper for this print.  This paper is long gone but i got 20 sheets on ebay months ago and i'm saving it for very special prints and this felt like one of those.  In my mind i pictured something dark with emphasis put on the lake and sky.  I chose an exposure accordingly and started to develop.  When the time seemed right i pulled the print, processed and selenium toned in 1:9 again.  This caused a boost in the blacks as usual which resulted in some slight loss of detail in the foreground landscape - i expected this though and it was what i wanted.  I wanted the foreground to look almost blocked up so as to add further emphasis to the lake (which took on a lovely pale lilac type colour).  Here's the final result:

  I think it works well and i like the pale pastel tones taken on by the highlights.  Now if only Fotospeed would bring the lith paper back out (only 16 sheets left)!  On your screen you may be seeing some brownish areas in the dark foreground, that's just come from scanning - the print wasn't entirely flat and so some light got in, a bit of a pain but i'm not going to rescan and edit it all over again - just imagine everything in the balck areas is entirely black!

  For regular readers of this blog (if indeed there are any) you may pick up on the vibe that i begrudge wasting chemicals - they're expensive and i want to squeeze everything out of them that i can.  Some would coll that anal, i call it thrifty!  I knew that would be power for at least one more print in the lith developer so i hit the negative folder hard in search of something to print from my past.  I eventually stumbled upon  roll of film i shot at Whitby Abbey a few years ago on my honeymoon (7th May 2011 - a real man remembers when he got married) and realised i had never really printed from it (at that time i was still scanning all my negatives - terrible)!  The whole roll was pretty much a write-off mostly due to lack of ability to not chop the tops of images off when using a Diana camera.  One shot looked great though (even if it is from the exact same angle that everyone seems to take pictures of Whitby abbey from) so i decided to lith it and see what we got.  I spent a few minutes pondering what paper to use (because as you should all know by now paper choice has a massive effect on final print in lith).  As i was feeling somewhat devil-may-care a decided to use a sheet of my even-rarer-than-fotospeed-lith tapestry paper.  This is a textured "art" paper that liths incredibly well and when put into selenium toner will give at least 3 colour splits.  I have used one sheet before to create a watercolour style effect - see here for details.  I decided to give it a go with this print as it was somewhat heavier on the shadows and lower midtones than i have previously lithed on this paper, i was interested to see what i would end up with.  I determined exposure, processed and dipped into the selenium toner (1:9 again) and as expected colours kept changing from the shadows up through to the highlights.  I kept the print in the selenium until i got a nice cool grey in the lower mids and lovely pale pastel yellows and lilacs in the tones of the sky.  When using this paper previously i would paint the toner onto areas i want to alter the colours of but i thought this print looked fine as it was so i left it to dry (keeping in mind that when wet it is a yellowy colour but would dry-down to a salmon pink tone).  Once dry i was pleased with how it looked:

  Again - scanning problems!  Because this paper is heavily textured it wouldn't render the blacks actually black so they have the kind of look you get when you're trying to scan through dense colour film.  Again, just imagine that the shadow areas are solid black! 

  So, a successful darkroom session from which i learnt the following things:

• I hate scanning
• Lith printing continues to rule

  All i need to do now is actually go out and shoot some more film (it's been 2 months since i've even touched my camera - naughty me) so i can crack on printing.  Perhaps in the meantime i should go back through my old negatives and see if there's anything i've missed.  until next time - happy printing!

No, No, No, No, NO, NO, NOOOO!!!

  I went out shooting at the weekend.  Which turned out to be a very bad idea.  A very very bad idea.  I discovered last week that a section of coastline not far from me had lots of wooden coastal protection.  Coastal protection = photographers delight so I decided to head out there on Saturday (along with Jess who, as it was sunny, decided to leave the house).  We had a lovely walk but alas it was too sunny and I only shot two frames.  The tide was a little too far out as well so there wasn’t really much to photograph as I was in a long exposure mood.

  I decided to head back at sunrise the next morning when the light would be a bit flatter and the tide would be all the way in.  I woke up Sunday morning wide awake, grabbed my gear and shot out of the house.  Half an hour later I was parked up and walking through the dunes, it was drizzling a little but I thought I’d endure, I could always run back to the car if conditions got worse.  I setup and shot 5 or so frames, keeping my eye on the tide as it turned out I had arrived just before high tide so the water was coming in fast.

  On the 8^th or so frame as I was setting up the water came shooting in up the side of one of the coastal protection barriers and headed straight for my bag.  I ran back and snatched up my bag only to turn and see my camera ditch sideways into the sand. ARGH!  I ran back and up-righted the tripod to find my camera encased in grit.  I dusted it off and re-seated the tripod just as the tide came sweeping in again and half inundated my camera bag. ARGH AGAIN!  I ran back, rescued the bag and moved it further inland just as my tripod decided to blow over again and ditch my camera into the sea. 

AAARRGGHHHH!!  I ran back, rescued the camera and ran inland.  Well, the water had washed off the sand which was nice but water and cameras are never a good mix.  Fortunately there are very few electronics in my Bronica.  I grabbed my gear and decided to head home.  I split my SLR kit up and put it on the passenger seat of the car with the air blowers on full.

  When I got home I used a brush to dust off as much sand as I could and left the gear to dry.  It’s still drying now and every few hours I dust off any loose sand.  Handily the squeak on my 80mm lens has disappeared but alas my 50mm makes a horrible grinding noise when focusing.  It looks like no water got into the camera body or the film back which is a bonus; it’s just the 50mm lens that seems to have taken most of the damage.  Ill dry it and clean it as best I can but time will tell if any salt remains inside to cause any damage. 

  I decided to develop my film using PMK Pyro, praying that it would have some good shots on.  Alas, on removing the film from the tank it was almost transparent.  I’m not sure what happened, it looks like it didn’t develop fully.  My guess is the Pyro was dead as it was a very old stock solution, but I can’t be sure.  So now I am left with a potentially knackered camera and no pictures to show for it.  Damn.

But here’s what I learnt from my day of tragedy:

1. heavy tripods are a wise investment
2. sand and seawater do not compliment camera gear
3. PMK Pyro solutions need to be used up quickly
4. incoming tides move in rapidly
5. cameras take a long time to dry out
6. hats are useful for covering lenses
7. it is hard to keep filters sand and water free when it is raining and you're on a beach

Hopefully you will learn a lesson from this tale of woe.  Keep your gear dry and avoid wet and windy beaches.  Right, message sent - i'm off tripod shopping...

 

PPPP (or, In a Preston Park Photographing with Paul)

  As many regular readers of this blog will know i live very close to one of Preston’s largest parks.  This park is brilliant as i can walk straight through it to work, cutting my daily commute by half.  Last Wednesday was a truly beautiful morning, the sun was low in the sky, the dew was still hanging on the cobwebs and the mist was rising from the river.  I promised myself that the next day we had weather like this i would be in the park with my camera

  Well Thursday was a horrible day, the clouds had rolled in and the rain was coming down at every conceivable angle.  Friday followed suit and all the rain was causing the river to rise a bit too high for my liking.  As i was coming to out of my slumber on Saturday morning though i noticed a strange warmth to the room accompanied by an orange glow from behind my curtains.  Sun? Surely not! YES!!  After seeking permission from my loving wife (sometimes she reads this blog – i must dish out the flattery) i leapt from bed, grabbed my bag, stocked up on film and hit the pavement running. 

  Just like the previous Wednesday the morning was clear and warm with rising mist and hanging dew.  I couldn’t wait to get into the park and start shooting, especially as i had a few new bits of gear to try out.  I had won a 150mm S lens for my Bronica SQ-A a few weeks earlier on EBay for an absolute steal and today would be a great time to try it out.  Also i had managed to grab hold of a Pentax Spotmeter V which i was dying to try out.  For those of you that don’t know a spotmeter basically lets you take a meter reading of a tiny part of your frame.  Do a few of these across your shot and you can see how best to judge your exposure.  Armed with my new and old kit i power-walked into the park and got shooting.  I called a friend who lives nearby (even though he is an evil digital shooter) and got him to meet me inside as sometimes it’s just nice to have a bit of company.

  We had a great time, there were plenty of nice shots to be taken, especially with the dew evaporating in the sun.  I tried to focus very carefully on my use of filters and on my metering.  I have always struggled with metering.  It should be very simple but for the longest time i have never been able to get exposures i am happy with using my incident/reflected meter.  My new spotmeter was a joy to use though.  Having done a fair bit of reading up on the zone system i was prepared on how to use my new meter to its full potential.  It was so easy to use and get accurate readings from.  For those of you unfamiliar with the zone system ill probably be writing a post on it at some point soon in the future.

  Anyway, on with the narrative.  We walked up the river taking some photos of the spiders webs hanging between the undergrowth and then headed over the footbridge to take some photos of the mist rising over a farmers field.  One handy thing about the spotmeter here was that i could see how much more exposed the sky would be compared to the foreground and then apply the appropriate grad filter.  A simple thing but a joy to do.  We then carried on up the river towards Waitrose where we stopped for supplies before heading back into the park to shoot the trees and leaves as the sun had risen higher in the sky.

  All in all we spent about 3 hours wandering the park, up and down the slopes and through the muddy puddles.  Then we headed home for food and a sit down.  We ended up spending the rest of the day playing risk, watching dvds, developing film and doing some printing.  Im pretty happy with how my prints came out.  The one of the triangle shaped web was a pain to make and i wasted so much paper but i got it how i wanted it in the end.

   Its really nice to look back over the roll you have shot, developed and printed and know that at every single step you were making something for yourself .  I really love the feeling that you have made something with your own hands that is unique to you, even if no one else gets to see the finished product.  Im thinking i may print some of these photos on bigger paper and maybe even try some subtle toning but thats another post for another time...

Prints

  So i’ve been doing a lot of printing since getting my darkroom setup.  The only problem now is that i have almost run out of negatives i want to make prints off so i guess ill have to get back out with the gear and get shooting.

  I thought i would share these prints which i am pretty happy with, they were taken on a recent trip to the Lake District and are close-ups of a rotting tree i found fallen next to a river.  Im sure in ten years time ill look back and think they’re terrible but at the moment im pretty happy with them (apart from the occasional hairs that keep cropping up in a few places).  I’d love to hear what you think about them.

Borrowdale Camping

  A month or so ago i went camping with a small group of friends up near Keswick in the lake District.  Despite the flies and the dodgy weather we had a great time (especially since Jess had taken it upon herself to buy more meat than any couple could ever require).  Camping in the Borrowdale Valley is very peaceful as its basically a massive cul-de-sac bounded on all sides by hills and mountains.

  I had decided to take my Bronica SQ-A kit with me as i love it and Jess had bought me a huge Tamrac bag to keep it all in for our anniversary and i wanted to put it through its paces.  I really wanted to get some good mountain shots using some black and white but i brought a few colour rolls too for some general shooting.  Saturday morning was spent relaxing at the (very midgie'd) campsite.  The sun was shining and the bacon was tasty so i decided to load up some Fuji 64T II which i haD won on Ebay some time ago but never shot.  I got 15 rolls for an absolute bargain price and now seemed like a good time to use one.

  Later on we decided to go on a nice walk up the mountains (i forget the name of the one we went up).  Let me tell you now, medium format kits are heavy.  Especially when on a long hike up a big hill.  But i persevered, stopping to take a few shots when the light was right and the composition seemed good.  It was nice to just stop and take my time setting up the shot, choose what settings i wanted to use and think about how i wanted the final print to look.  We stopped just short of the summit as some were getting tired.  On the way back down my friend Keir and i lagged behind to shoot some photos of the river we were passing.  We found a really interestingly-shaped tree and fallen log that we spent some time shooting (im still working on the tree print-it is proving to be difficult to get it to look how i want it to) before re-joining our group shortly thereafter.

  All in all it was a really nice weekend and i had great fun shooting these 2 rolls.  I find it very peaceful to be on my own sometimes, taking my time and just shooting photos.

  I havent finished printg all my landscapes yet but here's my cross processed 64T II photos for you to look at.  I'm pretty chuffed with how they came out as a little research before-hand showed they tend to go very green/blue indeed but i think the colour cast on these is quite nice.  What do you reckon?

Return to Parklife

  TO THE PARK was the cry one lovely sunny evening a few weeks ago when my wife and i had finished all of the days chores with some time to spare.  Jess was in a rare film shooting mood and i wasn’t about to complain so we packed up our kit and headed to our favourite park – Worden.  It is a lovely large park and if you have read previous blog posts of mine you have probably seen shots from it.  

  The park is divided into several sections – football pitches, a wood, a miniature train area, a play area and the gardens area.  We only had an hour or so to play with before the light would be gone so we did some rapid-fire shooting, sometimes not even pausing to meter properly.  The flowers were just starting to bloom which made a lovely carpet for the trees to sprout out of.

  After developing the film i was very pleased with the results – the light is great on some of the shots.  Lets hope that when Jess finishes her roll her shots will have come out well too.

Is There a Doctor in the House?

  As mentioned in previous blog posts (http://www.twelvesmallsquares.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/decayed-derelict-and-abandoned.html) i am very much drawn to run down, derelict places.  I love the textures of peeling paint and thick rust and i spend hours online searching out other peoples’ photos of abandoned places and looking for local places to access myself.  Recently i got inside an abandoned hospital/convalescent home that isn’t too far from my house.  I spent a good 2 hours inside and had a great time.  Although it’s sometimes a little spooky to be in such places i absolutely love wandering round soaking up the environment and shooting as many photos as i can.  I must confess that i got a little trigger happy and shot 3 rolls of film whilst i was inside!  The weekend was spent developing, scanning and uploading, both to this blog and to my Flickr page (www.flickr.com/wilfbiffherb) but it was worth all the effort.  I’m so pleased with how my shots came out as i have always struggled a little with metering, but my exposures from this trip were spot on (well, in my opinion anyway).  I’m looking forward to a return trip sometime in the future to explore further and take more shots.