Watch

This was my wife's grandfather's watch, which was given to him by his Army mates while serving in the Middle East.  He was from the South of England but was won over by a good Irish girl and settled in Derry.  The rest, as they say, is history.

FP4+ on Foma 133 fibre paper in Multigrade Print Developer

Taken on the Hasselblad, with a slightly wide angle 60mm lens and a 21mm extension tube.  The tube lets you get pretty close - this was almost full-frame and must be pretty close to 1:1.

Unfortunately, as you can see, the lid has sustained a bit of damage over the years - I had to resort to good old BlueTac to set it roughly in place.  It was a very temporary solution - from time to time the lid would start to close as the BlueTac gave way and given that my shutter speed was a few seconds that was not a Good Thing.  But it held long enough this time around.

Using an extension tube on the Hasselblad needs a bit more care and attention than on most cameras.  There's a sequence that must be followed - tube on body first, then lens on tube.  Reversal is the opposite and woe betide you if you remove tube and lens together.  The reason for all this palaver is that the shutter on the V-Series Blads is in the lens, so there is a mechanical linkage between the body and the lens.  This drive shaft allows the shutter in the lens to open when the shutter release button on the body is pressed.  The len's shutter must be cocked before mounting to (and from) the body and so the body must be cocked as well.  There are 'red dots' which must be aligned but the general rule is Keep body and lens cocked before removing (or attaching) the lens.  The easiest way to keep things right is advance the film to the next frame immediately after taking a shot.

I've nearly been caught out using an extension tube.  It's OK when mounting it on the body but once after a long session I found myself about to remove tube and lens together.  The tube is black, like the lens, so it's hard to notice.  I stopped myself just in time but I thought they should have made the tube a bit more conspicuous - bright yellow, perhaps.