Going Bananas

Well we are still pretty much housebound here in The North East Liberties of Coleraine, apart from our daily walk down the road.  This situation will continue for another few weeks, I think - until the numbers of people hospitalised with the virus starts to drop.  There's talk of schools not opening again until after Easter.  Then it will be a mad dash for assessments (i.e., exams) before closing again for the summer.  The last 12 months have been the strangest time for everyone under the age of 80 but Missy's last couple of years at school will be memorable - albeit for all the wrong reasons.  

So, what to photograph?  Only one thing for it, really - anything lying around that looks remotely photographable.  Today that means bananas:

Bananas, 2021.  Ilford Delta 3200 on MG Classic fibre paper, thiourea toned.

The sunlight coming in from the left side was a tad strong that day - at this time of year it's either feast or famine with regard to the sun. Usually famine, it has to be said - we're getting a lot of overcast, rainy days with yucky light.  I toned the print in my home-made thiourea toner and the result was quite good, I think.  The only thing I would do again would be smooth the cover that the bananas are sitting on - the creases in the foreground are distracting, as are the indentations in the background.  I quite like the texture of it though so I might try this one again.  Taken on the 'Blad with, I think, the 60mm CB lens on it - and this is almost full frame so I think I probably had an extension tube on it as well.

I tried a tight crop to see if it would improve things.  Not sure - possibly: 

There are more to come in this series, you'll be delighted to hear.  Possibly a lot more.  And if things get really bad then there's always tulips, a la John Blakemore.  Actually I doubt there's much point in photographing tulips, as Mr Blakemore has set that particular bar extremely high.  But you never know, it might be fun to try.