Hydrangea and a milestone

We've a couple of Hydrangea shrubs in the garden and a few weeks ago their leaves were turning colour rather splendidly.  I ventured out with a tripod, a Hasselblad and a 150mm lens (I think) with a dark red filter on the front of it.  

Hydrangea leaves in autumn 2020.  HP5+ in ID-11, on MG Classic fibre paper.

The leaves themselves were turning dark red, hence the use of the filter which I knew would lighten things considerably.  It's a shame there's a gaping hole in the foliage lower left, which once you've seen it is very distracting. I didn't notice at the time as I was concentrating on getting the large centre arrangement in the middle of the shot.  Ah well, sure it's only 11 months until I can try again...

Oh yes, the milestone.  Well since this is the 31st December 2020 it marks 4 full years that I've been showing only scans of darkroom prints on this place.  Stopping scanning my negatives was the thing that really helped my darkroom work improve - as well as my ability to read a negative and make suitable adjustments to how I expose and subsequently develop the film.  The negative, of course, is the important bit in the process - screw that up and you're in for a hard time in the darkroom.  Scanning masks poor negatives, in my opinion.  Don't get me wrong, it's amazing what software can do with a poorly exposed/developed negative but that's of no help whatsoever when you take that negative into the darkroom and try to print from it.  Anyway, let's see what 2021 brings.  Have a good New Year everyone, wherever you are.