Campus of Shadows

I'm ending 2021 on a High Note.  The two significant ladies in my life were going into town the other day, so I got them to drop me off at the University Campus, where I proceeded to walk around with the TiTAN 4x5 pinhole.  Normally this requires a tripod (it has an effective aperture of f/201) but I didn't fancy lugging the big old thing I have around with me, so I took a small desktop one from about 40 years ago.  Ach, who am I kidding.  More like 45 years ago.  I wasn't exactly sure how this would pan out, since it's only about 8 inches tall but I thought I'd be able to find walls or similar to set it on.  As it happens I was able to use rubbish bins and planters so it worked out OK, just.  I think I might treat myself to a new, travel tripod in the January sales (are there such things any more?).

Ironically, the best shot of the afternoon came from one where I had to kind of hand-hold the gear on a post which wasn't quite big enough to take the tripod feet.  I think it was about a 20-second exposure.  Campus of Shadows is of course a nod to the insanely talented Alexey Titarenko.

University of Ulster building, on pinhole.  Fomapan 200 rated at 50, developed in HC-110 1:50 for 6mins40s on the Uniroller base.  Foma 313 paper.

As this is the last post of the year I get to make my annual statement about this place, which is now 5 years of showing only scans of darkroom prints.  I don't think it's been a memorable year in terms of my photography but in my defence other things took precedent - getting Missy through her A Levels (I was #1 Maths Tutor) and then off to Uni before embarking on a number of home improvement projects that had been put on the long finger for a while.  Now that those are out of the way and Missy is settled and happy at Uni perhaps I can give more attention to where I'm standing when I've a camera in me hands...

Still in the moment

Christmas seems to start earlier every year.  This year, like last, it felt good to get the tree up and the house decorated early December, if only because there was little chance of doing any celebrating outside of home.  I found these three wee ones adding a little festive cheer on a side table so I snapped them up on the Hasselblad for you:

Enjoying a sing-song at Christmas time via FP4+ and Foma 133 paper.
60mm lens and extension tube, 1 second exposure at f/4.

The only downside to getting the tree up early is that you've had enough of it well before the Twelve Days of Christmas are up.  Most years we find ourselves tearing it down on or around January 2nd and I expect this year will be the same.  For now, however, we're still in the moment - although the thought of eating any more turkey is rapidly losing its appeal...

Merry YouKnowWhat

Well it's that time of year again.  Seems to go round quicker than ever these days.  Hope you have all your shopping done and got everything Ship-shape and Bristol fashion, as they used to say once upon a time.    I was going to add something about visiting friends and family but that's not really to be advised given the current state of things.  I suspect we're all hoping 2022 brings a bit of normality but it's not looking great, is it?  A few of us from the Photo Club did meet up (outside, briefly) last week and it was really good to see some familiar faces again.  I think that's the bit that I enjoy most about the Club - just getting out and about with like-minded and friendly people. 

Anyway, today I give you a print of one of the many objets adorning our Christmas Tree.  I leave all that kind of thing to my wife, who each year somehow manages to out-do herself from the previous year - and that's saying something.  

FP4+ on the 'Blad, with a 60mm and extension tube.  1 second exposure.  Dev'd in HC110 1:31 for 9minutes and printed on Foma 133. 

Wherever you are in the world I hope you have a Happy, Healthy and Peaceful Christmas.

It's the little things

It's the little things you notice - the coat draped over the back of the seat, the trainers sitting at the bottom of the stairs.  Indicators that a certain person is back in the house.  Yes, Missy arrived home for the Christmas Holidays on Friday evening, in good spirits in spite of a 12 hour journey up to Scotland and across on the ferry.   

This morning she's away for a walk on the beach.  There are a lot of things in Oxford but no beaches, so perhaps she's missed living close to the sea.

Anyway, pretty much everything is going well in her life - she loves her course and loves Oxford.  The only thing she doesn't love is sharing with 5 others...who all seem to be majoring in Partying, Staying up Late and Drinking.  Thankfully, Missy was never really interested in any of those subjects.  She says it gets a bit tedious when they're banging on her door at 4am...about 5 nights of the week.  Then when she's getting up at 7 or 8am, there are bodies and devastation everywhere.  I think it's just been bad luck - apparently her kitchen is the biggest around, so it has become the focal point for anyone and everyone who wants to 'socialise'.  Anyway, the good news is she's arranged to move to different, quieter Halls when she returns for the second semester at the end of January.  Fingers crossed that will solve this particular problem.

If you don't know where this is you haven't been paying close enough attention to the last few posts.  This one I managed to keep at the original 4:5 proportions.  I was pleased the sea didn't end up completely white, as I thought it might on account of the size and strength of the waves that were breaking. Same particulars as before - Fomapan 200 rated at 50, dev'd in HC-110 and printed on Foma 133.

The Not-so-secret Beach

I don't know if there's a name for this little cove at Ballintoy - the Photo Club guys call it the Secret Beach.  Only nowadays it's not so secret - even on a cold December morning there were folk (other than us!) there.  That's not a problem in itself, of course - the beach is there for all to enjoy - but they do insist on leaving unsightly footprints in the sand.  People, eh?

Pinhole shot, cropped from 4x5 to 6x12 proportions.  That's Rathlin Island way in the distance, behind the twin outcrops of Sheep Island. I would have liked a little more sand in the foreground of this shot but it was just a mess of distracting footprints. Technical details same as the last shot (see previous post).  A lot of burning in of the sky was required to get the detail shown here.

Breaking News

My wife alerted me to a story in the local press last night. The local Council plan is to redesignate the car park to enable charging, ostensibly to provide better management of the limited spaces available. There’s also talk of electronic signage up on the main road to indicate availability down at the harbour, as well as a ‘Park and Ride’ facility. At the minute visitors have to negotiate the very windy, narrow road down to the harbour and then if the park is full there’s no option other than to turn and go back up. Obviously this is not ideal.

It was only a matter of time before something like this was suggested, I guess. As I’ve been saying for a while, Ballintoy has become a product of its own success. All I know is that when it comes I’ll resent having to pay for something I used to enjoy for free.

Ballintoy on pinhole

Well the good news is that we did get to Ballintoy on Thursday last.  I had the 'Blad all primed and ready to go but when I lifted the bag to go out the door I had a sudden change of heart and took the pinhole instead.  Probably a good decision as the light wasn't great - a bit flat and dull - plus the pinhole bag is a whole lot lighter.  We had a good couple of hours wandering around before the cold got the better of us and we called it a day.  We timed it well, as the first spots of rain started just as I hit the main coast road on the way home.  This was probably the best of the shots, looking West towards Benbane Head/Causeway:

Ballintoy on the TiTAN 4x5 pinhole - about a 30s exposure if I remember correctly.  Fomapan 200 rated at 50, developed in HC-110 1:50 for just shy of 7 minutes (Uniroller, continuous agitation) and printed on Foma 133 paper. 

As you might recall, I've been having problems with the Unicolor drum roller on account of the gasket leaking like a sieve.  A fellow film-shooter friend from Belfast offered to 3D print a new one for me.  I was a tad sceptical (I know nothing about 3D printers) but he printed it with TPU, which is some kind of flexible filament.  It's not a perfect fit but it's very close and on this run I lost only a few ml of developer over the 7 minutes - not enough to have any effect on the 4 negatives.  So we'll tweak the design a little and try to see if we can get a better fit but so far so good.  If it lasts as even half as long as the original gasket I'll be a happy chappie.  My friend has used his 3D printer for a whole dose of film-related gear since he acquired it a couple of months ago - including printing a winding knob for a Bronica, various film holders and fixing his tripod.  Impressive!

More of the same

Another one from last Saturday's excursion to the Whiterocks - this time looking East towards the Causeway/Benbane Head:

Stormy day at the Whiterocks.  Hasselblad, 50mm.  FP4+ in HC-110, on Foma 133 paper.  A straight print, which would probably benefit from a little dodging burning in of the marram grass in the foreground, as it's a bit too prominent.

I was due to go to Ballintoy today (Wednesday, as I write this) with a Photo Club colleague but the forecast was not good.  On Tuesday we had our second storm of this winter, although it wasn't as bad here as it was on the West Coast of Ireland, where quite a few homes lost their electricity  (70,000 or so).  This morning wasn't actually too windy but this afternoon it's beginning to pick up again so we might be in for a rough evening.  Anyway, we've tentatively re-arranged our meet-up for Thursday but I'll make a last minute decision in the morning.   If I do go, it won't be for long as it's unseasonally cold for the time of year - around 5 degrees (Celsius). I wonder how long I need to be there to shoot my 12 shots on the 'Blad without being too wasteful…

Stormy weather

On Saturday we had another day of strong winds so I did the only sensible thing and headed out with the Hasselblad and 50mm Distagon. FP4+ was the film of choice.  

The Atlantic is of course hard to ignore at any time of the year - and particularly when the seas are big - but it’s a dangerous old place and I don’t get too close. Just a couple of weeks ago there was a group of four photographers who had to be rescued from the rocks at the Causeway, on account of an incident in stormy weather.  So on Saturday at the Whiterocks, just East of Portrush, I stayed up by the car park - although I spied a few people walking on the beach.  One advantage to being higher up was being able to include the marram grass as it was being buffeted by the wind.  Obligingly the sun came out for a few seconds and lit up the grass:

At the Whiterocks beach, Portrush, looking out towards the Skerries.  With a 10-stop ND filter this worked out about a 30 second exposure.  Developed in HC-110 (1:31, 9 minutes) and printed on Foma 133 paper.

Basalt at Ballintoy

Basalt rocks at Ballintoy:

Ilford PanF Plus50 in the 'Blad, on Foma 133 paper.

Portstewart Strand on pinhole

We've just had our first storm of the year (Arwen) and it was a biggie.  We had a ton of branches down around our house and a whole shed-load of detritus spread over the yard.  Thankfully no structural damage.  Hopefully we won't see too many more like that.  

A couple of days before it hit I ventured down to Portstewart Strand for a dander with the Walker 4x5 pinhole.   It was very windy, but safe enough as the tide was well out.  Anyway, I hiked all of, oh, 30 metres up the dunes and set up the tripod beside a big cactus-like plant that was, like me, getting blown about something serious.  Two sheets of film and twenty-four seconds later and I was done - camera and tripod went back in the car and I took myself down the beach for a walk.  It was bracing...but nice all the same.  Well, the hailstones weren't that nice truth be told but with the wind so strong the shower was soon over.  A rare moment of common sense came upon me shortly after and I turned for home and the relative safety and tranquility of the darkroom:

Up on the dunes of Portstewart Strand with some Foma 200 rated at 50.  Developed in HC-110, printed on Foma 133 paper.  I've the second sheet still to develop as I'm not too sure about times with HC-110 and the Uniroller yet.  This one I gave 6m 40s, with 1:50 dilution and I'm going to give the second sheet a tad longer to see if a bit more detail comes out in the foreground.  1:50 is not a normal dilution for HC-110 but it sure is easy to work out the relative quantities...6ml for 300ml in this case.  But I have a problem.  What used to be a small leak on the drum has turned into a major leak - I got about 50ml back in the measuring jug afterwards - I was surprised there was no streaking on the negative.  There are actually two gaskets in the Uniroller - a weird plastic affair which fits under the raised portion of the lid and a deeper set rubber o-ring.  I'm still trying to make sense of the various articles on 'Uniroller gasket repair' on the various forums - everyone has their own solution, it appears.  Mostly they say that over time (we're talking a tad over 40 years in this case) the plastic ring hardens and no longer does its job.  I've used a smear of petroleum jelly and up to now that's been OK but clearly there's been a fundamental change in the situation and further action is required.  I know there are many ways to develop 4x5 sheets and if I can't get the seal issue sorted then I'll have to look into what's out there.  I've tried tray processing and it's a bit painful - I'd prefer a daylight solution.

The pinhole did a decent job of capturing the movement of the grasses and shrub.  I wonder what the Hasselblad would have made of it.  Worth a return visit to find out, I reckon.  
  

Holiday Cottage, Ballintoy

Years ago I used to think this little cottage at Ballintoy was the perfect place - relatively hidden away in a place of outstanding natural beauty.  Not now, though - whether through fame via Game of Thrones or just word of mouth, Ballintoy is one very busy little place these days. There's a very windy road down to the harbour itself...almost single track in places and some 180 degree bends. There's a sign on the main road indicating its unsuitability for large coaches and motorhomes.  Of course there's always someone who doesn't think that applies to them - last time I was there a guy had managed to manoeuver a huge motorhome down to the harbour.   I've no idea how he managed that...if he met any traffic at all on the way down or back it would be chaos.  Motorhomes seem to divide opinion - unless you own one most people seem to loathe them.  I don't know whether it's pandemic related but this last couple of years we are seeing way more than usual on the roads around The Liberties.  And bigger than usual.  I don't envy them driving around some of our more scenic routes.  Portrush has a dedicated motorhome park within walking distance of the beach & town which seems like a good idea.  Then when they come to Portstewart they try to park on the Prom and take up about 3 car spaces in an already congested area.  I'm sure things like that go a long way to explaining why some people aren't very keen on them (or their owners).

Ballintoy on the 'Blad, probably 50mm lens.  PanF 50 in ID-11, on Foma 133 paper. A bit of burn-in on the sky, otherwise a straight print.  The walking path passes just in front of the cottages so there's not much privacy, in spite of the remoteness of the location.

If you click on the image and zoom in on the sky you'll see it looks like I've cleaned the negative by rubbing it over the floor.  I suspect that's due to this being developed in one of my last batches of ID-11, where some of the powder was undissolved, or had become separated from the solution.  That happened a couple of times to me and that's the reason I've now switched to HC-110.  

More is Different

We had some art on display in The Liberties a while back...at Flowerfield Arts Centre in Portstewart (here, in an earlier post).  Entitled More is Different, these larch sculptures by Sara Cunningham-Bell explored form in relation to one another, how they enhance one another and how they are inter-dependent.  I wasn't sure what to expect but I thought they might make an interesting photoshoot.  When I saw their shapes, I knew I was in for a challenge...they were very tall and narrow, not what I was expecting at all.  Anyway, armed with an Olympus OM4ti and a Zuiko 85mm and with the help of some HP5+ I channeled my inner Fred Picker and this is what came out:

More is Different sculptures at Flowerfield, September 2021.  On Foma 133 paper.

I'm pretty sure were he still alive Fred P would be taking me to the cleaners with these efforts.  It took a fair bit of wandering around trying to visualise different angles and viewpoints...looking at the sculptures themselves and trying not to get intrusive backgrounds etc.  I guess normally I would focus on the near object and let the far object fade into out-of-focus but I reckoned if I did that here, the far sculpture would just fade into obscurity, so as you can see I did the opposite and focussed on the far one.

I must admit I enjoyed the challenge, even if the end result was a little underwhelming.  If anything it reminded me to look at the options, whatever is in front of me.

Oil Cans

These old oil cans have sat untouched on the windowsill of one of our outhouses for at least 40 years:

Oil cans, on HP5+ via the M6 and possibly the Canon 50mm f/1.4 ltm.  On Ilford MGV paper with a cupric sulphate bleach/sepia tone.

The place to be seen

Walking around the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford for the second time this year and it was obvious that for students, the place to be seen is lounging on one of the eight recessed niches of the ground floor of this fabulous building.  Every niche was taken up with bodies of some description.  I wonder if originally there may have been statues on the plinths but I can't see any evidence of that from an online search:

Student days - nothing to do and all day to do it.  Lounging around the Radcliffe Camera in 2021.  OM4ti/85mm, HP5, HC-110 on Foma 133.

On the other side of the coin, even Oxford isn't immune from homeless people, although I didn't see as many in the centre than I've seen in other cities.  Perhaps they are 'moved on', as it doesn't sit well next next to the obvious wealth and heritage of the Colleges.  This guy had an unusual hand-written card:

Wealth vs poverty.  Living in Oxford ain't cheap - it's one of the most expensive cities in the UK in which to live.  I don't usually take shots of people in vulnerable situations but this guy's hand-written sign caught my eye, as well as the obvious difference in circumstances to the students lounging around the Radcliffe Camera (which is just about 50m up the passageway you see here).

In the couple of minutes we were there I saw one guy hand him a sandwich and a drink.  While the sign might be good for getting attention, I reckon it probably isn't long before he has a dozen sandwiches & coffees reached to him, as I think people prefer giving food and drinks rather than hard cash.  I guess because people are worried they might spent the cash on - shock, horror - alcohol or drugs.  Although I think if I were living on the streets I'd be tempted to dull out the reality as much as possible with whatever I could lay my hands on. 

Sometimes I'll give money - but not as often as I should.  When I used to frequent the Rheumatics Hospital in Bath there was ample opportunity to go out and walk around the town and in recent years it seemed you couldn't walk ten yards without being asked for money...usually in the form of 'Big Issue' sellers.  Big Issue, if you don't know, is a Foundation which started 30 years ago, creating a magazine which homeless people, long-term unemployed and anyone in need of extra cash to avoid falling into debt can buy and then re-sell on the streets for a small profit - they describe their model as a 'hand up', not a 'hand out'.  It's been enormously successful.

Update: I’ve just re-read this post and I’m not very comfortable with it, so I edited it. I think the words I used weren’t appropriate. 

River Roe on Pinhole

For the second visit to the Roe Valley Park last week I ditched the 'Blad for the 4x5 pinhole, so things were considerably lighter.  That was good, as it's a bit of a hike (for me) from the car park to the part where we can get down to the water's edge, by Sir Thomas Philip weir.  If anything the water was even higher than a couple of days earlier...even standing on the path - with a stone wall between me and the water - was a little daunting.  The negatives didn't come out great, due, I suspect, to my unfamiliarity with using HC-110 to develop Fomapan 200 sheet film.  This is taken from pretty much the same spot as the last shot - the main difference being the much wider angle of view of the pinhole (and the longer exposure - a couple of minutes in this case).  I like how the water came out - the long exposure really captured the essence of the fast flow:

Fast-flowing waters of the River Roe.  Walker pinhole, Fomapan 200 on Ilford Classic fibre paper.

The water was in a terrible hurry to get to the sea that day.

River Monster

Another shot of the turbulent waters of the Roe Valley Park:

River Monster, baring its teeth.  Roe Valley Park, via FP4+ & HC-110 on MG Classic Fibre paper.

This was tricky to print...difficult to retain detail in the dark areas while trying to get some texture showing in the lighter parts.  I can't say I totally succeeded with the latter, in spite of a mega-long burn-in.  I thin there's a little more detail in the negative which could be teased out but this was the last sheet of MG Classic paper I had, so I left it there.  

I added a yellow-green filter for this shot, which lightened the foliage and at the same time darkened the water.  It looks more like a cinder path than a fast-flowing river:

I wonder how many years it took the river to channel through the rock.  It's a fair walk down from the main path to the river's edge - and a tad muddy at the minute, compounded by the fallen leaves. FP4+ on Foma 133 paper

Roe Valley Park

The Roe Valley Park was always a favourite of ours to go for a country walk and last week I ended up there twice, once with my fellow film shooter David and a few days later with some Club Members.  It's about half an hour drive from home...and I really should go there more often.  It's very good for the soul, although less good when you've a Hasselblad, two lenses, spare back, a bunch of filters and a tripod with you.  On my second visit I took the pinhole.

After all the recent rain there was quite the flood on, as my grandfather would have said.  He loved the Roe and as I've written before we spent many an hour there when I was a teenager, trying to entice some fish onto the end of our lines (with very limited success, it has to be said). The River Roe wends its way from the Sperrin mountains in Country Tyrone and empties in the Atlantic just under the table-top mountain of Binevenagh.  (Note: at about 1200 feet I'm not sure it really qualifies as a mountain as in Kilimanjaro meaning of the word but it's a rather lovely bit of rock all the same).  I used the 150mm lens (roughly 100mm equivalent in 35mm parlance) with an ND filter to see what would be captured and this is what revealed itself to me yesterday in the darkroom:

At the Roe Valley Park, late October 2021.  Cropped from the square to 35mm proportions. FP4+ in HC-110, printed on MG Classic fibre paper.

Pumps

I know I'm not the only photographer out there thinking about documenting the demise of petrol stations - particularly those in country areas, which seem to be disappearing rather quickly.  This one is in the village of Moss-side, on the way from Coleraine to Ballycastle and I'm surprised it's still standing, albeit it in the rather dilapidated state it is in.  It's been a few years since anything was pumped here, I reckon - 4 Star petrol, which contained lead, disappeared from the UK over 20 years ago:

Moss-side petrol station, 2021.  On FP4+ in HC-110, printed on MG Classic and thiourea toned.

A quick search informed me that in 2001 there were 270 people living in Moss-side.  It's a rather sad little village right now and there is little reason to stop, except maybe at the newer, larger petrol station which has a small food supermarket inside, and there's nothing particularly unique about that as far as I can tell.  I think that is now the only shop in the village.  I'm not even sure there's a local school any more.  It's hard to see much of a future for villages like Moss-side - there must be few employment opportunities for any young people born in the area, other than agriculture on the various farms round and about...and even there I doubt there are many openings.  The fact that the petrol station above is still there is probably due to the fact that it costs money to tear it down and no-one is queuing up to develop the site, so unless some government money comes in to tidy the place up it will probably be there for another while yet. 

More old stones

 From our walk around Bonamargy:

Via the Hasselblad/50mm, on FP4+ in HC-110 (1:31 for 9 minutes in case you were wondering), printed on MG Classic fibre paper.

I think there's a better shot/print in this than I've managed here, and I shall endeavour to capture it next time I am there.  The inclusion of part of the gravestone (bottom right) adds a little context to the scene.  Who knows, next time I might even capture the ghost of the Black Nun, which is said to walk around the walls of the friary.  Sister Julia took to living in the friary after it had been abandoned in 1641 and was something of a prophetess, according to the story.  It is unclear whether she was murdered or slipped and fell to her death, but she is buried by the entrance to the building, by her wishes, so that visitors would have to walk over her grave as they entered to worship...a testament to her humility.  

This one required a little dodging of the interior, which I didn't want to go to black.  Still, the outside stonework here (and in the print above) is a bit lighter than I would like it.  I elected not to re-print either of them, since I wasn't 100% happy with the focus.  Another one I shall re-take next time I'm there.

Bonamargy Friary on FP4+

Bonamargy (what a great name - it means 'foot of the Margy river', apparently) Friary lies just East of Ballycastle, about a 20minute drive from Chez McNeill.  I met my fellow film shooter David there last week for a morning's entertainment.  And very good it was, too.  Access is limited, so we parked at the Golf Club, with fingers crossed they wouldn't actually hit us with a £100 fine like the notices suggested (they didn't).   Five minutes later we crossed the third fairway (part of the golf course appears to be built around the friary) and entered the walled abbey through the graveyard.  This was taken as we were leaving, when the light was rather nice and soft:

Entrance to the friary, on an October morning in 2021.  I had the 50mm Distagon on the 'Blad and at first look I thought I managed to provoke a little flare with the light coming through the trees.   I can't be sure, though - I think it may just be the light hitting a branch.  The stone on the left is dedicated to all the unknowns buried in the grounds. Up until recently I always reached for RO9 when developing FP4+ but I've found that 9 minutes in HC-110 dilution B (1:31) does just as well and that's what was used here.  Printed on the luscious Ilford MG Classic fibre paper and very lightly toned in a weak home-brew thiourea mix as per Tim Rudman's recipe for Rayco toner, which just warms the print every so slightly.

Bonamargy was originally built around1500 by a certain Rory McQuillan but those pesky folks from the rival McDonnell Clan took over in about 1588.  There's a sealed vault somewhere inside which apparently holds the coffins of several Earls of Ulster, including the main man himself, Sorley Boy McDonnell (him of Dunluce Castle fame and on the receiving end of the massacre of his children and faithful Clan members at Rathlin Island).   The name Sorley Boy is an Anglicised version of Somhairle Buidh (Mac Domhnaill).  Somhairle is itself a Gaelicised form of a Viking name, meaning Summer Wanderer, of the yellow hair (son of Donnell).  Hope you are paying attention as I'll be checking later...

The ruins of the friary are rather spectacular, I have to say - well worth a visit if you are in the vicinity. The stonework in particular caught my eye:

Superb stonework makes up the friary walls.

I need to return to Bonamargy some time with a tripod thing - FP4+ isn't the fastest film on the planet and to be able to hand-hold the Hasselblad meant shooting at f/4 or f/5.6, which isn't the best idea when you need a bit of depth of field.   There is some restoration work going on at the minute (and for some considerable time, the locals tells me), so there's a bit of scaffolding around parts of the ruins.  I stood and watched a couple of workmen for a while - they were re-pointing some of the stonework and I could see they had replaced at least one window arch as well.  I hope they do whatever needs to be done to weather it so that it blends in a bit more sympathetically, as at the minute it sticks out like a sore thumb. We shall see...

Brown's Café and Camp Coffee

It takes a while in any new place before you suss out the best places to go for a cup of tea and a bun.  Generally I try to avoid the big chains on the High Street - I'd rather give my hard-earned £ to a local establishment.  Besides, the big chains are just so achingly boring - the same fare pretty much in them all, and extortionate prices to go along with their baristas, flat whites and lattés.  I stopped drinking coffee a couple of decades ago so I never had to learn what all these new terms meant.  In my day, I just drank black filter coffee - much simpler!  One of the best and most reliable coffees, I'm a little embarrassed to say, was to be found in McD's.  I've no idea if that is still the case.  

Funnily enough the other day I found myself thinking about the coffee in the hospital in Bath I used to attend - the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases (see here).  When I first was an in-patient, in 1983, the only coffee you could get on the wards was this odd concoction which went by the name of 'Camp Coffee', which was a thick syrup that came in a glass bottle containing, I read, sugar, coffee essence and...wait for it...chicory.  You just added a spoonful to boiling water and in case you were wondering Yes it tasted as awful as you might expect.  I guess it made financial sense and England was always a nation of tea-drinkers so there probably wasn't too much complaining about it from the patients.  Besides, generally speaking in the UK it's a brave soul that criticises anything to do with front-line services in the National Health Service.  Managers and politicians are fair game but we all know that on the ground, in the operating theatres and on the wards everyone does their best, given the resources available to them.   And that last bit is, of course, the issue.  The last report from the Office of National Statistics shows that healthcare spending in the UK in 2017 was the second-lowest in the G7 group of large, developed countries and about the median in OECD countries.  My guess is that since then we've gone backwards in comparison with other countries and I doubt we're ever going to catch up without some radical reform.  And I'll leave any more thoughts on that for another time.

Back in Oxford, fortunately we happened upon the Covered Market, just off the main drag.  It's a treasure-trove of small, independent businesses - everything from hand-made soap to cheese shops and places to eat.  Brown's Café did us nicely for tea and a late breakfast:

Shadowy figures in the Covered Market.  OM4ti/85mm/HP5 via HC-110, on Adox MCC.

Brown's must be doing something right as they've been going since 1924.  I'll have to make sure to visit during their centenary - their apple pie looked the business. 

As you can see the shop next door sells fancy cakes and they did look rather special.  You can gawp through the window and watch them at work, as we did for a few minutes.  There was an older couple in front of us.  My wife told me afterwards the lady turned to her husband and said 'Why would I want to buy one of those when I can make one just as good at home?'.  The husband replied something along the lines of 'Yes, dear'.  Sometimes it's good not to be able to hear too well as I may have had difficulty keeping a straight face with that one...

College Entrances

 I think you could spend quite a while photographing Oxford College Entrances.  This is Magdalen (pronounced Maudlen), just along the High Street.  It dates from 1458:

Magdalen College Entrance in 2021.  OM4ti/85mm, via HP5 & HC-110.  Cropped from 35mm and printed on the lovely Adox MCC fibre paper. Yer Man there has obviously clocked me, standing on the opposite side of the street. I had been standing a while, waiting for break in the traffic and spotted him a way off, striding purposefully along.  I was fortunate to get him on his own, without other distractions.

Brasenose College Entrance, dating from 1509:

This is actually a more typical scene in the city, with the bicycle exiting stage right.  Bicycles are ubiquitous in the city and would appear to be the preferred mode of transport, particularly for students.  You have to be careful where you leave them, though - we saw quite a few notices along the lines of  'Bicycles left here will be removed'.  I guess the metal locks they use can do a bit of damage to the railings, which are rather lovely and definitely worthy of a photograph in themselves, although that will have to wait until next time...  

Mural

Another mural from Belfast, which we happened on by chance as we walked around the Cathedral Quarter (which is the cool part of the city nowadays, with a smattering of restaurants and bars).  This one was big - really big - but strangely was tucked away behind a small car park, between apartment blocks and warehouses, out of sight.  

I was lucky to get the seagull in the shot.  Pity it wasn't a dove (I'm guessing it's the dove of peace in the artwork), but there you go.  So close to being a masterpiece...again:

Belfast Mural.  Cropped to square from 35mm.  Yashica T4, HP5 on Foma 133 paper.

We're just back from another trip to see Missy in Oxford.  It was a late flight and we weren't home until midnight.  I'm a bit rusty when it comes to booking flights, since the last couple of years have been 'stay-at-home' years.  Usually I just pick the cheapest option but a late flight is a waste - it just feels like you are hanging around all day waiting for the inevitable.  An earlier start would have been better - just get up and get on with it.  

The good news is that Missy is settling in OK.  She looked tired, though.  Her halls are noisy which is good and bad.  Good in that there's always stuff going on which hopefully mitigates the fact that you are away from home and missing all of that.  Bad in that it can be difficult to get a good sleep at times, since there's always somebody blasting out music at all hours of the day and night.  If the wardens get a complaint she says they will visit and ask for it to be turned down, but it's a half-hearted request and they don't enforce it too rigorously. 

And now I'm away to develop the one and only film I shot on the trip.  It was another quick-in-quick-out visit, just two nights so there wasn't a lot of time for anything other than trying to feed Missy up as much as possible and re-stock her larder.  We've one more visit planned before the Christmas break.  I think after that we might not be needed quite as much.  The second semester is broken by Easter so it won't feel like such a long stint and by then she'll be much more comfortable with the whole Student Thing.  It's a big change for her and she is one of the younger ones, only just turning 18 at the start of the summer, so she's doing well.  She's off today on a field trip, which will keep her busy.  Something to do with trees, apparently.  Sounds good to me!

Winch

I'm guessing this is used to haul in the nets, which means there must still be a few fish in the seas around Portrush:

Fishing net crane on an overcast day in Portrush.  Benbane Head in the distance.  OM4ti/85mm/HP5/HC-110/Foma 133.

Dominican College

On Tuesday I said a formal Au Revoir to my fellow Governors at Dominican College, Portstewart and bowed out.  It has been a rewarding experience and hopefully I was of some help in moving the school forward.  I was fortunate in that my tenure coincided with a major expansion of the school (due in part to another school in the area closing) as well as the school reaching its 100th birthday so it was an interesting and challenging period and there was plenty to do.  Dominican College must have one of the most dramatic locations around, perched as it is on the edge of the cliff overlooking Portstewart Bay and out towards the Inishowen Peninsula & Donegal.  We used to meet in the front room which has magnificent views from its three large windows...I must admit there were times during Governors Meetings it was a challenge to concentrate on the matters in hand rather than the matters out there.

Dominican College, Portstewart, Binevenagh in the background.  Donegal lies away to the right, just out of shot.  On the Yashica T4&HP5+, on Foma 133 paper.

There's nice grain in this print, due to the fact that it was taken on the diminutive Yashica T4 point and shoot camera and enlarged to a good degree in the darkroom.  The negative was lacking in bite but in those cases I significantly underexpose under the enlarger and use a heavily diluted developer - with patience the mid-tones and highlights come good.

Before I became a Governor I had no affiliation to the College and although I no longer have a formal role to play any more, I will always think fondly of the place and the people in it.  I feel fortunate to have been part of it, if only for a few years.

Lines

This scene in Portrush caught my eye the other day.  The guy half-way up the steps just turned in my direction as he paused for his dog (hidden in the bushes). 

Portrush, 2021.  OM4ti/85mm, HP5+ in HC-110 on Foma 133 paper.

I'm not sure he adds much, if anything, to the shot - given where's he standing he's not that noticeable. I might have been better waiting until someone was walking down the centre part of the steps, between the two sets of railings.  Or maybe no-one.  Patience was in short supply that morning.

I like the 85mm focal length on 35mm cameras but for the way I shoot it's as long as I want to go these days.  I'd sometimes think I'd like to try something between 50 and 85 but there ain't many about.  I'm not a big fan of zoom lenses - I seem to work better with one camera/one fixed lens combination at a time.  Leica do a 75mm and while I'm sure I would enjoy playing with it their 75mm lenses are all relatively new and therefore somewhat unaffordable.  Besides, I think the Leica works best with wide-angles and 50mm lengths. I've an older 90mm for the M6 which I picked up a few years for not too much money but it doesn't get a lot of use. 

Portrush East Strand

 Like the song says, Oh it is nice to be beside the sea-side:

Portrush East Strand, September 2021.  The surf was up and there were about 20 surfers in the sea at one point, as well as a few walkers.  That's Benbane Head in the distance.  It's a straight print, the sky was really lovely with heavy cloud.  I thought at one stage we were in for a downpour but thankfully it stayed dry.  OM4ti/85mm, on HP5 developed in HC-110 and printed on Foma 133 paper.  The negs came out pretty yucky, low in contrast (due to my inexperience with HC-110) so I was printing this at maximum grade 5 but I was happy enough with the way the print came out.

I liked the funky handrails for the steps leading down to the beach but I didn't quite them the way I wanted them, although that became clear only in the darkroom.  Ideally I would like a little more space under the bottom curve and no pavement showing on the right.  I'm not sure it's possible - perhaps it might be with a different focal length lens.  Next time I'm there I'll have a closer look.

Observe the view

If I'd had 20p with me I might have been tempted to try this viewing telescope out but for now whether it works or not remains a mystery.  It's in Portrush, looking out towards Benbane Head (Causeway Territory), which you can see in the distance.  Taken last Wednesday morning, on the OM4ti/85mm lens:

Portrush Viewing Telescope, 2021.  On HP5+ in HC-110, on Foma 133 paper.

I sincerely doubt whether the coin box is emptied daily - or even yearly.  

Belfast in Covid Times

I found a few shots from our recent Belfast tip trip lurking in the Yashica that I took to Oxford a couple of weeks ago.   This was in one of the covered markets that have sprung up over the last few years - necessary given our weather here in Ireland, where it has been known to rain the odd time. These two young people were well masked up, even though they are pretty much outdoors:

Shoppers in Belfast, 2021.  Yashica T4 with HP5+, printed on Foma 133.

I suspect if I went back to that place today hardly anyone would be masked.  A couple of weekends ago in Oxford, which was really busy downtown, hardly anyone was masked, which I found a bit surprising.  While I wasn't too concerned when we were outside in the open air, when we ventured into into Westgate Shopping Centre I did put my mask on.  But I was definitely in the minority. 

Just in case you were wondering, Shopping Centres and me don't really mix, apart from the fact that they can be good places for a bit of people watching.  On this occasion I was out-voted but it was kind of necessary in order to get a few essentials for Missy's room. The good thing about a lot of the modern shopping centres is that while they are covered to a degree there's usually a good dose of fresh air wafting about.  In the case of the Belfast's Victoria Centre (not the one in the shot above) the designers have taken a novel approach and while it looks like a shopping centre in fact there is no roof covering at all.  Perfect in the summer but in the winter it's freezing cold to walk around and then when you enter a well-heated store you are way over-dressed and the whole experience becomes quite unpleasant.  Best avoided at all times, if you ask me...

The Radcliffe Camera

The Radcliffe Camera isn't a camera in the photographic sense of the word - it's name derives from the Latin camera, meaning room or chamber and it houses the Radcliffe Science Library which sits pretty much at the centre of the Oxford University Colleges.  Last Saturday as we dandered around the town after installing Missy in her room down the road at Oxford Brookes I was surprised to see quite a few people in academic dress.  It soon became clear that there were graduations going on, which surprised me as most Unis have graduation ceremonies in July.  I think the later start might have been due to Covid restrictions earlier in the year, which have now lifted.  Anyway, later on in the early evening most of the families and new graduates had disappeared, no doubt to celebrate the big occasion and we more or less had the place to ourselves.  I snapped up this group of young people, which I'm guessing were, or are current students from the way they walked straight through the gates to the Radcliffe Camera, ignoring the 'Readers Only' sign.  They looked ready for a little celebration of their own, armed as they were with snacks and bottle of wine:

Whooping it up on the steps of the Radcliffe Camera, with All Souls College on the left.  Yashica T4, HP5+ on Foma 133 paper.  The buildings of the Colleges are mightily impressive.  Next time I visit I'll try to bring a proper camera rather than a point and shoot.

To the left of the Radcliffe you can see part of All Souls College, founded in 1438.  We peeked through the gates at the quadrangle and surrounding buildings, including the Chapel.  The view was just as you would expect - a little bit unreal.  All Souls College exists as a research College - apparently even Oxford Undergraduates are not entitled to enter its grounds.  Recent Oxford graduate or postgraduate high-flyers are invited to apply for a Fellowship through an entrance examination, which itself has an interesting history.  Once described as the hardest exam in the world, candidates used to be presented with a card which had a single word printed on it ('innocence', 'miracles', 'water', etc) and asked to produce a coherent essay on that subject in three hours.  Nowadays candidates are asked for four 3-hour essays over two days on various specialist or general subjects. That doesn't sound a whole lot better to me - I'd imagine you'd be pretty shattered after those two days.  Of the fifty candidates invited to apply, two are awarded a seven-year fellowship, which often sets them up for academic stardom, although typically not monetary riches - the stipend is a not overly-generous  £15,000 per year (although meals and accommodation seem to be included. The stipend does increase after the first two years). 

It's probably a bit late in the day for me to think about getting a Fellowship at All Souls but the good news is that the College is open to visitors, who can explore the College Front, the Great Quadrangles and the Chapel.  The bad news is that currently the College is closed to visitors until further notice. Covid again, probably.  Hopefully it will reopen at some stage and when it does, I shall endeavour to visit it and maybe even with a photo-apparat (if that's allowed).

The Turl

 The famous Turl Street in Oxford:

Turl Street, with Jesus College on the right.  Check out the chimneys - unusually tall and rather splendid. As you can see on the left, Turl St caters well for the thirsty academic.  HP5 in HC-110, on Foma 133 paper.

I'm not getting the results that I want from my new HC-110 developer with HP5 - I seem to be losing about a stop - these negatives were a bit lacking in contrast after 8 minutes of dilution E (1:47).  Salvageable, but I don't like having to print at Grade 5 since if you need a bit more local contrast anywhere there's nowhere to go.  The Yashica T4 reads the speed from the DX coding on the cannister and usually I've bulk-loaded some HP5 into 200iso cannisters to fool the Yashica into giving me that extra stop but on this occasion there was a proper HP5+ cannister inside so it was exposing at 400.  

This print is hot off the press this morning which is the first time in a while I've actually been in the darkroom.  We're still a bit bushed after the weekend and the house is upside down as we've a kitchen guy in doing some refurbishment of our cupboard space.  He was booked months ago and it just so happened to coincide with a week that we could have usefully spend doing not very much.  With luck he'll finish today and we can start to get the place back into shape, by which time there will be a hundred other things to do.  Does it ever stop?

Whiterocks and tears

This is the view from the East viewing platform at Magheracross.  Standing on it gives you a grand look at the limestone cliffs, with all their arches and stacks - the sort of stuff you would normally only see from a boat unless someone was dangling you by the ankles over the cliff face:

Looking down from the viewing platform at Magheracross on a dull morning in August, 2021. HP5+ via the M6, on Foma 133 paper.

The bigger picture:

Cropped to square from 35mm, on MGV Deluxe paper.   This area is known as the Whiterocks, for some reason ;)  The beach just visible in the distance leads to Portrush, about a mile or so away to the East and is a very pleasant walk on most days of the year.

Uni Update:  Yesterday (Sunday) evening my wife&I said Goodbye to Missy and left her to start her new life at Oxford Brookes Uni. We fly home today. Needless to say there were tears. 

Saturday was a very busy day, with a (very) early flight over from Belfast and a day of trains and taxis interspersed with getting Missy's room into some sort of inhabitable condition.  Restrictions due to Covid-19 meant us parents had only a one-hour slot on campus before we had to leave so it was a mad rush to get boxes unpacked, bed made and try to see what we had forgotten to bring. Then we took a taxi to a large supermarket and got a few essentials to start her off.  By that time we were all ready to collapse - my wife and I back in our hotel in town and Missy in her room.  Yesterday we met up for lunch and had a bit of a dander about Oxford - which is a fabulous city, famous for the University Colleges dating back to the 12th Century.  It's a busy place - though I tend to find all cities busy (and noisy) these days. Perhaps living in semi-rural Northern Ireland has something to do with that. I took the Yashica T4 with me to Oxford but didn’t do a lot of snapping…too much else to think about. We’ll see if anything worth sharing appears when I get the energy to do some darkroom work.  Meanwhile my wife & I will be busy trying to make sense of being ‘empty nesters’. Scary stuff.

Neptune Reclining (and a busy weekend beckons)

 The Turia Fountain in Valencia:

Neptune, taking a well-earned rest after a busy day at sea.  Looks like he has life sussed, if you ask me.  Captured on HP5, printed on Foma 133 paper.  I like this paper - it's resin coated so it's a lot less expensive than fibre paper and has much shorter wash times.  I prefer it to Ilford's new deluxe RC paper, which I'm finding a bit too contrasty/harsh for my tastes, although from what I read on the forums I seem to be in the minority here.
If you google "Turia Fountain, Valencia" most of the shots you see are taken from the other side of the fountain, and the backdrop then consists of rather lovely old Spanish buildings (including the Valencia Cathedral) and not the rather ordinary looking blocks of apartments you see here.  Which means, of course, that the residents of these apartments have the most lovely outlook.

To say things are a tad busy at the minute is a bit of an understatement, for in two days' time we fly to Birmingham and from there take a train to Oxford, which will be home for Missy for the next few years as she embarks on her University course of choice: Biological Sciences (Zoology) at Oxford Brookes Uni.  On Monday my wife and I shall fly home to a very different house for the next 14 weeks while Missy begins the Great Adventure, which kicks off with a week of fun and get-to-know-you events known to all as Fresher's Week.  It's exactly 40 years since I did the same and not surprisingly things have changed somewhat in that short time ;)  I set off on my own with all my gear packed into two suitcases (no wheels, of course, in those days).  Missy, on the other hand, will have two doting parents alongside to help get her installed in her Uni halls, sort out her 'first food shop' and do a million other things.  There are already four (!) large packages sent on by post (or direct via online shopping).  In spite of the accommodation costing an arm and a leg virtually nothing is provided other than the basic infrastructure, so we have had to sort out duvet, pillows and bed linen as well as cutlery, plates and cooking utensils. I know in some countries it's common to have a 'dining plan' whereby students never have to think about cooking for themselves but we don't do that in the UK.  No, here the norm is that students fend for themselves from the off.  Most likely Missy will buy some of her meals at the various cafes and restaurants on campus and supplement that by doing some food prep in her kitchen, shared in this case with 5 other first year students.  It's going to be a big change for our daughter who, let's face it, hasn't really had to fend for herself up to now.  Of course Mother and Father will be available at the press of a few buttons, day or night.  Forty years ago it was a weekly phone call home from a communal telephone box, usually on a Sunday evening.  Everything else you figured out by yourself.  I loved every minute of it - although those phone calls home were sometimes a nuisance :)

Humble Pie

Oh Yes, a good serving of Humble Pie for my breakfast this morning.  After my recent post about 'not leaving films in cameras for too long' what do I go and find lurking in a camera?  Only a film from a couple of years ago.  That'll teach me.  In my defence, I must have taken the film out and then for some unknown reason re-loaded it, since the last half of the film was doubly-exposed.  Not nicely doubly-exposed, either - the frame spacing was inconsistent so it's all a mess.  What was I thinking, I wonder...

Anyway, there were some shots of the old town of Valencia on the first half of the film.  Here's one with a pigeon in it: 

Downtown Valencia, 2019.  HP5 in HC-110, on Foma 133 paper.  That's the 15th Century bell-tower of Valencia Cathedral in the background, by the way.  You can walk up to the top - all 207 steps, apparently.  We didn't - it was very hot and a trudge around the town at street level was all we could manage.

The Stones

Not the Stones that have been in the news recently on account of the demise of drummer and natty dresser Mr Charlie Watts.  No - these stones, wot I snapped up while they were resting on my mother's windowsill:

Stones, August 2021.  Via Hasselblad/150mm with extension tube.  FP4+, RO9 on MGV paper.  I would have liked a little more texture on the white stones but I like the way the others came out.  So if I print this again, I'll do a small burn-in. 

I'm guessing every now and then a stone catches her eye and she places it on the windowsill by her back door.  And why not, eh?  The different textures are rather nice, I think.

Titanic Workers

A mural from the the famous Sandy Row in Belfast depicts the Titanic Workers, many of which came from this working class area.  The Titanic is Belfast shipyard's most famous export by a country mile - for all the wrong reasons, of course.  There are a lot of murals around this part of Belfast and I snapped up a few while I was there but I've come to the conclusion they aren't the easiest things to get a decent shot of.  I cut most of the letters out of the frame since the workers were the most interesting part of the mural to my eyes, not the word Titanic.

The history of the Harland and Wolff shipyards is interesting in itself and while it is well known that the workers were overwhelming Protestant this article scratches beneath the surface of that headline.  Anyway, to the masterpiece!

Belfast Mural, 2021.  Yashica T4, HP5 printed on MGV paper. 

Check out the paint tins - and the dog! On the right, just above the workers you might just be able to make out a sketch of the Titanic Museum, which is designed as four pointed hulls, 38m high, the same height as the ill-fated ship.  Also, I didn't notice at the time but it looks like there's a hidden door to the building on the right.

A Grand Entrance

This one was lurking at the start of a film which finally got finished last week.  It's always nice to come across some shots you've forgotten about although generally I try not to leave a film in a camera too long.  The OM-1 that I acquired some years ago has some marks on the chrome runners inside the back of the camera, due, I was informed by the guy who serviced it, to a film having been left in it for a very long time.  Must have been years, I reckon.  The marks are still visible even after the cleaning but don't cause a problem.

Anyway, here we are at the entrance to the Downhill Demesne sometime earlier this year, with the sun casting nice shadows of the impressive ironwork gates:

Entrance gates at Downhill.  M6 on HP5+ in HC-110.  Foma 313 paper.

Shooting contra-jour is always an exposure balancing act - do you meter for the highlights, or the shadows.  The former and you'll risk the shadows going to black, the latter and you'll risk blowing the highlights.  I'll either take a couple of shots and bracket or I'll go somewhere in the middle and hope for the best, as I did here.  Assuming your negative holds detail in both shadows and highlights the trick then is to get it on the paper in some sort of acceptable form.  In this case, there's a still a hint of detail in the stone arch and the highlights aren't paper-white, so while it isn't going to win any awards I'm OK with the print.