A lith print from a pre-lockdown trip out to Ballintoy. The sea was mesmerising that day - I could have stood and watched it for hours as the waves broke over the rock formations.
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| Sea at Ballintoy. Lith, Foma 133 paper. |
I'm hoping to get out there again this week with some fellow film-shooters, now that the schools are back and the weather has become more unsettled - two events which will hopefully mean there is space to breathe and enjoy the place.
I haven't used Foma 133 with lith developer before but their Classic 131 paper liths nicely so I expected this one to be fine, as indeed it was, giving the very warm tones you see here.
Saturday afternoon I took a run down to Portstewart Prom with the 'Blad, to so some street photography. It took a while to get there, as the traffic was fierce, it being a Bank Holiday weekend and all but I struck lucky getting a parking space slightly off the tourist trail which is only a short dander to the Prom itself. There was a huge number of cars driving through (nose-to-tail) but not too many people out&about - it was windy and a wee bit fresh, which maybe put people off. I wasn't complaining - there were enough to photograph and being around too many people isn't a great idea at the minute anyway. It's tough getting the balance right in these things but after barely being out of the house for 6 months it felt good to be outside and the strong off-shore breeze made me feel a little safer. The Hasselblad isn't the ideal stealth street-shooters camera and I did get a few (a lot) of funny looks but while people in this part of the world aren't exactly comfortable getting their image snapped they are also not prone to confrontation so I just kept my head down, avoided eye contact and pretended to look through them and not at them, all of which seemed to work. The negs look OK. I haven't printed any yet as I'm waiting for a delivery from Ilford with some new paper - they had a 10% off promotion this weekend. I'm going to try their new MGV RC paper, which is about half the price of fibre paper but should be fine for 'everyday' work. We'll see.
That photo looks very good in lith. I keep expecting some Victorian lady to step in front of the camera with a parasol.
ReplyDelete'Fierce' seems to be a common expression in Ireland. I remember the comedian from Black Books calling the weather 'fierce mild' in one of his standup routines, haha.
I'm looking forward to seeing more street photos.
Thanks Marcus - lith does give a timeless look to some shots, I agree.
DeleteThe wind's fierce. Yer man has a fierce temper on him. The heat's fierce today (not used too often that one). Everything can be fierce in Northern Ireland...especially the weather of course. It's a great expression.