Monday 3 February 2020

Back on the farm

So last weekend I was out with the Sheep Man again, to take some snaps of the lambs getting their first shearing.  It seemed indecently hasty, since these are the lambs that were only born at the beginning of September, but I was quite surprised to see the size and weight of them.  They'd been outside eating good County Antrim grass as well as nature's milk from their Mammies so they'd all put on a good few pounds in the last 4 months.

Here's Graham 'corralling' them in to a smaller pen, ready for the sheep-shearer to do his thing:

Getting them in, January 2020.  Hasselblad, Delta 3200 on Ilford Warmtone fibre paper.
Unfortunately the light wasn't great in the shed - even worse than last time since the main doors were closed (on account of the fact that the sheep might run out).  I was relying on flourescent tubes and some natural light coming through perspex sheets in the roof.   I had Delta 3200 loaded which I needed to expose at - you guessed it - 3200 iso.  I'd had good results last time with stand development (albeit it for film exposed at 1600 iso) so I did that again, but the results this time weren't so good - low in contrast and not so easy to print.  I'm not quite there yet with this film/developer combination. 

More to come of the shearing over the next while...

5 comments:

  1. That looks quite good for such challenging lighting conditions. Very clean for such a high ISO. I'm looking forward to the rest of the photos in this series.
    Are the lambs kept inside after shearing so they don't get cold?

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    1. I’m also very impressed by the lack of grain in this film, Marcus. When I get my process down pat then it’ll have a permanent place in my dedicated film fridge (how sad is that?) alongside HP5 and FP4.

      Yes, the wee pets are kept indoors for a few weeks after shearing. Apparently their coat grows back pretty quickly though. The next assignment is getting them coiffured (?) for showing - I’m already looking forward to that. (As you can probably tell I’m really enjoying this ‘pet’ project).

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    2. Oh ho ho . . . . 'pet' project.
      Having a fridge full of film is better than having a fridge full of fizzy drinks and beer. Some may disagree . . . .

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  2. I might have missed what developer you have been using for your Delta 3200 film, Michael. Will be glad if you let me know, or I might stumble upon the answer by reading further on down your blog. Who knows...
    So, you got lambs being born in September huh...? Over in Norway the lambs will be born some time in the middle of March, or thereabout. Usually born inside, and let out when there's no more snow and sleet in the air or on the ground. Easter time is usually a good time to walk around and see the little white balls jumping around in the fields around my area. Further north it's a bit later, naturally.
    Nice project you have taken on here. I really like it. I look forward to the rest of them coming.

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    1. It's somewhere in the blog, Roy - but after trying DD-X in the normal way (and not being impressed) I read Andrew Sanderson's blog about stand developing DD-X at 1+9 for 45 mins and that seemed to work well when shot at 1600. This last roll I shot at 3200 and that didn't come out too good (thin negs) so I'm still learning about it.

      Usually our lambs are born around February time or early March (like yours) but Graham seems to have lambs being born from September until May, for some reason I haven't quite figured out yet.

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