I was interested to see how this would turn out, truth be told. Missy and I have taken recently to team up on short road trips with the camera. I've given her the little Sekonic light meter to use - so she reels of the appropriate shutter speed and aperture while I compose and shoot. Seems to work well so far. On this particular day we ended up driving past Portrush and onto the Coast Road, which would eventually take you to Belfast if you were so inclined. But we pulled into a 'viewing point/picnic area' a couple of miles down the road which I knew had a decent view of Dunluce Castle (that's the ruined Castle bit from the title) and the Giant's Causeway (that's the World Heritage Site bit). There was only a couple of other cars (and the obligatory camper van) there and I ended up pulling in fairly close to one of the cars. I was vaguely aware of a young person, or persons in the car and noticed it pulled out almost immediately after I parked up. Missy told me the couple in the car had been kissing - kissing, I tell you! I'm sure they were probably thinking 'Alone at last' before some old dude pulled up and exited his car with a big old film camera in tow and ruined their moment. I'm pretty sure they're not reading this blog post but if they are and it was you then I humbly apologise...
But I digress. As I got out of the car I realised (a) it was absolutely freezing and (b) it was blowing a gale. A proper gale it was, too. I quickly staggered over to the edge of the picnic area and propped the 'Blad against a wooden fence post to try to get some stability but I didn't have high hopes at 1/125 of a second. In the end, it looks reasonably sharp in this 9.5"x12" print:
 |
| Dunluce Castle and The Giant's Causeway, Adox MCC paper |
If you're wondering what's going on with the sky it's the same issue as with the print in the last post. This dark band appears down the centre line of some of the negatives on this roll. A bit of asking around would seem to suggest that it could be the result of uneven development. How this could happen in a 120 film developed in a Paterson tank I don't really know, other than the possibility that the film might have detached itself from the spiral grooves during the loading process. I don't remember anything particularly unusual as I loaded it, mind you - but it is possible. The banding is less noticeable in some negatives and in other negatives it doesn't appear at all, so clearly not all the film is affected, which might rule out other possibilities such as exhausted fixer.
I've never had a problem before with loading a film but I guess there's always a first time - and of course it would happen on a film which had a good proportion of masterpieces on it. Typical, eh?
It's a masterpiece for sure, Michael! Well, looking a bit away from the annoying bit, of course. See further thoughts elsewhere :)
ReplyDeleteApart from that, this really gives me reason to start looking for tickets to get over soon. What a fantastic landscape you got!
Haha cheers Roy. Yup we got the amazing North Antrim Coast landscape right on our doorstep. It's hard to keep your eyes on the road at times, but the small, windy roads demand it, or else...well, you know, gravity, cliff edge etc etc ;)
DeleteThe young couple should wait until they're married to be kissing anyway, haha. When my mother was young she thought that you could get pregnant if a boy did as much as put his hand in a girl's back pocket. It's amazing what ideas can spread in a very small, isolated, consevative, religious fishing village where sex education was probably considered the work of the devil.
ReplyDeleteI get the dark band down the centre of 35mm Foma film sometimes. Or dark areas. Not that often and not as severe as your case, though.
Your folks sound like good Protestant Brethern types, Marcus - the sort that still have in plenty in Northern Ireland. And yep, sex education wasn't on the agenda when I was a lad. But somehow things were figured out, eventually ;)
DeleteMy parents were Salvation Army, but my mother grew up in a village with churches such as Jesus Only and so on in it. Girls can't wear trousers, skirts have to cover the ankles, no short hair, and so on. I met some of those girls who were friends of my cousin when I visited my mother's hometown when I was young. They looked like good church girls, but you wouldn't believe the filth that came out of those mouths. :) Or maybe you would, haha.
DeleteI kind of know what you mean, Marcus ;) Ankle length skirts seem a bit excessive, though. All that repression - especially for teenagers with raging hormones - is bound to result in some sort of kick-back.
DeleteA colleague (who grew up Catholic) once told me that him and all his mates spent their time trying to get off with Protestant girls, since you were more likely to get somewhere with them. In those days I guess the lack of contraception for Catholic girls put the brakes on going too far.