Portstewart

There is a small (but growing) band of film users in our wee Photo Club and the other evening we headed out for a shoot. Nowhere very ambitious - just down to Portstewart. The early evening sun was lighting up the Promenade nicely and I shot this on the Hasselblad with the 250mm Sonnar. On a tripod, of course - I doubt if that combination is hand-holdable. HP5+ rated at my usual 250iso and developed in ID-11 1:1 for 13mins.

Portstewart Prom, August 2019. Adox MCC paper.

I burnt in the sky a little (too much?) and added a vignette to the corners&edges, as well doing my usual thing for the black borders so there were 5 steps to making the print. That’s a lot for me, but I was pretty happy with the result. 

Parody

The train ride from Belfast back to The Liberties isn't particularly exciting but you never know what you're going to see out of the window (remember this time), so I carry a camera at the ready - particularly when we're getting close to a station.  This was Ballymoney and I liked the lines, particularly good since the sun was out.  We sat there for a good few minutes and as I held the Yashica T4 to my eye a couple of people walked over the footbridge.  Then I saw this guy on his bike and I thought 'Yup, that's the one'.  As luck would have it I caught him nicely between the uprights of the safety barriers:

Ballymoney Train Station, 2019.  HP5+, ID-11, Adox MCC fibre paper.

I kind of looked at this for a while & then it hit me. It's an upside-down parody of Cartier-Bresson's most famous shot at Hyeres - this one.  I know, not quite in the same league.  Ah well, one can but hope and carry on...

This one

So it's GCSE results day here for you-know-who and it's been a busy morning going up to the school, collecting results and enrolling for the next big adventure (A Levels).  The girl done good - we are all immensely proud and I just had to dive into the darkroom this afternoon to print this shot of her - taken last Christmas in Dublin on HP5+ in the wee Yashica T4 point'n'shoot thing and printed on Adox MCC paper:

Missy, growing up too fast

I didn't want to change places with her this year - the new exam format is just plain nuts.  A few years ago they decided to move away from continual assessment so now pretty much 100% of the assessment is exam-based.  Over 4 weeks of exams and since most subjects have 3 papers that's coming up on 25-30 written exams.  For 16 year olds that's a big ask.  They never stop tinkering with the education system in the UK and I doubt they ever will.

The end of summer

I know it's only just past mid-August and that title might seem a tad inappropriate but it feels like there's a definite change in the air here in The Liberties this last couple of days.  In the house I've been wondering about putting on an extra layer and 'putting the fire on' in the evening has already been mentioned.  And the real indicator - in the darkroom the ambient temperature of the chemicals has dropped from a perfect 20 degrees to 18.  I'm holding out for another couple of weeks on the fire front, though - and not just because the chimney needs swept.  No, once that game starts it's pretty much a nightly occurrence until May.  I don't mind so much bringing in the fuel (we use smokeless fuel in our multi-fuel stoves) but it's the daily cleaning and the huge amount of dust generated that I'm not so keen on.

Over the weekend we've alternated between torrential downpours to blue sky & sun. September can be a lovely month here in Ireland and it's usually a good time to be out and about with a camera - the light is a little clearer (less haze), clouds are getting more interesting and with a freshening wind the sky changes frequently.  I'm ready for it.

It was a busy old summer, what with GCSEs, short break in Valencia and then hosting family from all parts of the world.  While it's great to have people around for a time it's also nice to get the house back to ourselves.  We've just over a week to get the place ship-shape before the school runs start again and then it's back to that routine for another while. The Brother went back to the States yesterday, armed with several more prints for various walls - some for his home and some for his office.  These you might have seen before, but they're now mounted and finished off - it took a full day to get them prepared.  They just about fitted into Brother's suitcase, wrapped tightly in some mount card for protection, which I'm told worked as intended - they arrived intact.

First off we have my Brother's wife Kim, in pensive mode as she posed in the front porch last August:

Next up a shot from downtown Chicago by the lake - as the light was fading.  I think they were Skyping with their eldest daughter - Kim was impatient to get the phone out of my Brother's hands :)

Liam, on the left, is a good friend and colleague of my Brother.  He's another Irishman - from Cork originally - so they share a lot in common, including liking a small libation after work on occasion:

Finally some more of Brother's work colleagues:

I like this last shot a lot, printed in lith developer.  Sean in the foreground is probably talking to Brother just to my left and Michael in the background looks deep in thought, as befits a Philosopher.

All shots on the Hasselblad & Ilford HP5+ dunked in ID-11 diluted 1:1 for 13 minutes, should you be interested in such matters.  I usually expose HP5 at 250 iso.  My other go-to film, Ilford's FP4+ I expose at 80iso and develop in RO9 1:25 for 9 minutes.  Both these scenarios usually give me negatives that are easy-ish to print in the darkroom, assuming I get the exposure more or less correct.  I've taken to carrying a small Sekonic light meter with me wherever I go (one that fits neatly in my shirt pocket which means I can take an incident light reading without too much pfaffing around). I like this approach, since it means I can ignore any information in the viewfinder of the camera and just concentrate on composition.  Nine times out of 10 this works well, the only caveat being if the subject is back-lit or I'm standing in shadow and then a bit of compensation is required. 

My American Niece

As my brother's visit is entering its last few days, I've been busy mounting a few prints for him to take back to Chicago for his wall.

This is his eldest daughter who I snapped up in their kitchen last year.  The strong summer light was mellowed as it passed through their screen doors.

Ilford HP5+ on the 'Blad, Adox MCC Fibre paper

A girl called Chloe

Chloe is one of Missy's friends.  We had a short break before the madness pleasure of family commitments and Missy wanted her friend to come along, so she did.  We flew from Belfast to Valencia - city of Culture&Arts and wacky architecture.  I didn't really warm to it, though and I haven't quite figured out why - apart from the fact that I thought the food was poor and it was way too hot for me (I know, I know, who'd have thought southern Spain would be hot in the middle of July?  I was out-voted, you see).

I didn't take many photographs and those that I did were spectacularly poor.  My head simply wasn't in the game.

Anyway, this is Chloe on our first night, dining al fresco somewhere in the back streets where the locals were hanging out.  Much preferable to the main drag where - shock, horror -  tourists and paella restaurants abound. I think it was using the 21mm Voigtlander lens on the M6 but it could have been the 35mm f/2.5 Summarit - you know, the "cheap" one that renders so nicely on film (and that I should use more than I do.  In fact, I should really get rid of all my other 35mm cameras and lenses bar the M6 and the Summarit because that's really the perfect combination for 99.9% of the photography I do).  Cropped to square as you can see coz I like the square, particularly for people:

A girl who goes by the name of Chloe, somewhere in Valencia, 2019.  Ilford Warmtone RC paper.

East Tyrone

Well our Japanese guests have departed so the house is feeling a little empty and a little quiet.  You forget how much energy the under-5s have.  We only ever had one to contend (Missy) but with two it's survival mode from 7am until whatever time their batteries run out - at least 12 or 13 hours.  And boy can they move fast...

On the plus side we had fantastic weather so we were able to get out and about a little.  We did a little historical visit to Killowen Church in Coleraine where my cousin found her grandfather's name on the Roll of Honour from WW1, so that in itself was probably worth the trip for her.  Then we spent the afternoon in Portstewart watching the kids run mad around the park before we got the obligatory ice creams.  Looking around, it seemed like everyone - and I mean, everyone - on the Prom had an ice cream that day.  It was warm, though...

Anyway, since I haven't been near the darkroom I'm afraid it's another from the Cycle Sportive for today's print.  Hopefully the last. East Tyrone, by the way, refers to the county of Tyrone, which lies a bit south and a bit west of The Liberties.

Ilford Warmtone RC paper

Tyrone is one of the 6 counties that make up Northern Ireland - the others being Antrim, Down, Fermanagh, Armagh, and Derry/Londonderry.  Population about 1.8 million, in case you were wondering.  A far cry from Japan, with a population of 126 million in a land mass about 27 times larger.

Full House

It's a full house here in The Liberties - brother from Chicago and cousins from Tokyo.  Ah yes, we're an International House here, y'know.  Come to think of it, we must be almost half way between Chicago and Tokyo - not far off, anyway.

So it's a short post today - another from the Cycle Sportive, complete with wonky borders:

Ilford Warmtone RC paper

I'm off now to look after my guests.  As the man said, I'll be back...

Ladies did it too

Rode their bicycles, that is - at the NW200 Cycle Sportive:

Ilford Warmtone RC paper

This probably warranted fill-in flash, as it was somewhat against the light.  But I don't really do flash.  My bad, as they would say.