Downhill Beach

Well the good news is that I actually managed a photo walk yesterday afternoon with my PhotoClub Buddy David.  He had his Fuji 690 with him and I had the 'Blad.  We went to Downhill Beach, the one that the Mussenden Temple towers over.  The beach has a wonderful setting, with Donegal as the backdrop.  It stretches for something like 10 miles westwards to Magilligan.  Eastwards there is quite an amazing set of rocks and small stacks and when the tide is out (as it was yesterday when we were there) you can walk all the way over to Castlerock Beach.  I don't think you can do that at every low tide - perhaps it is especially low at this time when the moon is near its closest to Earth (aka Super Pink Moon, or just Super Moon).   We chickened out actually doing the walk to Castlerock as the tide was on the turn and we didn't want to risk getting stranded in Castlerock, as it would be heck of a walk back to Downhill by road.  But we got some nice shots of the rock formations, which I've started printing this morning.  

This is the first shot I took yesterday, printed on MGV paper.  The stream you see here is different almost every time you see it, due to the shifting of the sands by the wind.  (Note: I've updated this from this first version this morning now that the print has dried):

Downhill Beach, April 2021.  Hasselblad/50mm/FP4/RO9.

World Pinhole Day

It was yesterday, I believe.  How did that come about, eh?  I mean, there isn't - as far as I know - an International Body for Pinhole Photography.  Just word of mouth, I guess - or 'it went viral' to use common parlance.  However it happened, I like the concept.  Everywhere, all over the world, people with pinhole cameras out and about.  Fantastic, really, when you think about it.

Unfortunately this wasn't taken yesterday, but it is a pinhole shot.  From the superb Walker TiTAN 4x5 camera, Fompan 200 and ID-11, I bring you Portstewart Bay, with the Inishowen peninsula of Donegal in the background:

Portstewart Bay, on MG Fibre classic paper.

There's something very addictive about pinhole photography.  I guess it's photography at its most basic - just a simple aperture, a light-tight box and some light-sensitive emulsion.  Throw in a long exposure and some magic in the darkroom and you've something rather unique and interesting at the end of the day.  What's not to like?

Glass's

One you've seen before but re-printed this afternoon.  I wasn't sure I was going to get anything done this week since as explained previously I'm in A Level Maths Tuition mode.  The end is in sight though - only 2 more  assessments and then Missy is done and dusted.  I'll be done by then too...

Anyway, I had to get a print done for the monthly Print Exchange I do with fellow members of the online Film and Darkroom User Group.  It's a great group, the forum is very active and members are extremely helpful and generous with their knowledge.  There is little evidence of egos, a welcome difference to many other online groups.  Anyway, I decided to re-print the little shop in Bushmills, this time on the lovely Fomapan 133 Velvet fibre paper.  The paper suits the olde-worlde feel to the shot, I think, and the whole thing is enhanced by a bit of vignetting added under the enlarger and a light sepia tone.  I made up fresh bleach and toner solutions from the raw chemicals, according to a recipe in Tim Rudman's wonderful The Master Photographer's Toning Book.  

Glass's in Bushmills, 2021.  On Fomatone 133 Velvet paper, home-brew toned.

Right now I'm going out for some much-needed fresh air as it looks like Spring has finally sprung in The Liberties.  See y'all Monday.

That's all we need

Around the back of the Ramore Restaurant in Portrush we came across these missile silos, cleverly disguised as ventilation conduits.  They didn't fool me for one minute, no siree:

'Ventilation conduits', Portrush 2021.  Via HP5+ in the 'Blad, on MGV paper.

From the way the clouds are formed it looks like they'd been fired not long before we got there.  I can only speculate as what the target was.  Perhaps one of those new £million+ pound second homes over in Portstewart.  We can only hope, eh? 

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for people getting on in life and doing well.  A bit of ambition is good.  But when is enough enough?  Never, would increasingly seem to be the answer.  On that note, here's a real feel-good article about a man who knows what he likes and is content with his lot.  Happy, even.  Just the thing for a Monday morning, I reckon - to realise that for most of us, all we need we already have, if we just open our eyes and pause for thought.  Sermon over. 

Lansdowne

 Looking over Lansdowne, Portrush towards the East Strand:

Landsdowne, Portrush, March 2021.  On MGV paper.

I liked the symmetry of the curve of the road and the beach in the background, which are almost identical - although unfortunately not visible very strongly in the print.

The building centre stage is the old Portrush RNLI Lifeboat station, which dates back to the start of the 20th Century.  It was restored a few years ago but has lain vacant ever since.  Just recently the Council (who own the building) decided to renovate and convert it into a restaurant, which they will let to a suitable tenant...the hope being that it will generate some income.  I guess the digger out front means work has started.  

In the background you have the White Rocks - although they were a tad grey on an overcast morning in March.  Just above them lies Royal Portrush Golf Course where The Open was held a couple of years ago.  Easy to see why it's a popular links course, giving its setting - although it's not cheap.  If you have no affiliation to the Club but just turn up to play a round it'll cost you £240.  Ouch.

Dunseverick Castle

My daughter and her boyfriend enjoy driving around the country and finding new places to explore.  I guess they must have seen the sign for 'Dunseverick Castle' one day as they drove around the coast and made a plan to come back and investigate.  They were all set up to make a day of it...probably had thoughts of exploring ancient ruins, complete with baronial halls and dungeons.  They were, I seem to recall, quite disappointed when they arrived:

 

Dunseverick Castle.  On the 'Blad, 250mm lens, HP5+ and Ilford MFV paper.

You can get closer than I did here - this shot was taken from the road - but it's a steepish slippery climb down the grassy bank and I didn't fancy it.  I don't think they did either.  Anyway, as I said in an earlier post, the Castle is historically significant but unfortunately this is all that remains.  I guess the rest of it fell into the sea at some point.  We're lucky, I suppose, that anything remains of it - I'm sure the foundations must be steeped in blood given the history of the place.  If it wasn't your fellow Celts from Ireland trying to wrest power from you it was those damned Scots who seemed to be forever making war in this part of the world.  Or the Vikings - let's not forget them.  Then the English got in on the act and things just went from bad to worse.  Perhaps things haven't changed as much as we'd like to think they have in the last couple of thousand years...

At the water's edge

 Last of three pinhole prints from last week's visit to Dunseverick:

Dunseverick, water's edge

I haven't been out this week with the camera yet - a combination of poor weather and Missy's impending A Level exams.  Oh, well, technically speaking they're not exams, they're 'school-based assessments'.  No, they're exams, and the school is making up for lost time by bombarding the students with them for the next 4 weeks.  Way too much, if you ask me (they didn't) but you have to deal with the system you got and so there we are.  As well as chief potato-peeler in the house I'm the official A Level Maths Tutor so it's been a busy time and is likely to stay busy for the next month.  Then everything stops for a few months until the results are released by the Exam Board in August.  It'll be a very long and nail-biting wait for everyone.

That was, in case you didn't recognise it, my way of telling the legions of readers this blog gets (that means you) that perhaps they should temper their expectations for the foreseeable.  I know, I know, expectations are already near rock bottom but there's always scope to lower the bar that little bit more...

Still there...

At Dunseverick, that is.  Only this time looking East towards Fair Head, Rathlin and Bonny Scotland (though the latter two seem to have disappeared in this shot...):

Same old: Pinhole shot, via 4x5 Fomapan 200 rated at 50, tray developed in ID-11 1:2 for 11 minutes and printed on Ilford'sMG Classic fibre paper.

The 'look' that I'm getting from these pinhole shots is quite different to my usual and I'm liking it.  Don't know if or how that might influence my work with normal cameras but I guess that's the exciting part of this journey.  Something I read (or most likely re-read) recently caused me to stop and think - usually no bad thing and something that I could be doing with a lot more.  This article about the great Harry Callahan appears on Erik Kim's site and is well worth 10 minutes of your time.  Mr Callahan, let's not forget, had a quite incredible 38 exhibitions at New York's MOMA.  If you want, you can edit out Mr Kim's thoughts  and just cut to the chase with the article itself (the middle bit) although since I'm about to write about HC (albeit briefly) perhaps that's a tad disingenuous.  

There's so much to like about the way Harry C thinks and writes about his photographic journey...his feelings of inadequacy in the presence of renowned photographers, the revelation he experiences when he first meets Ansel Adams' work - and just as interestingly his subsequent movement away from that.  But two things in particularly stand out for me - his view that sharing our own feelings is a valuable thing and that every day is a photographic adventure.  

Dunseverick

Just past the Causeway lies a rather spectacular little cove that goes by the name of Dunseverick.  Dun means fort, by the way - both in Irish and in Scots Gaelic.  Once upon a time Sobhairce's Fort lay at the end of one of the 5 great highways of Ireland, Sobhairce being a High King and therefore quite important.  We're talking some 1200 years BC, by the way - the highway ran from Dunseverick to Dublin.  Hard to believe now since Dunseverick is only a few houses while Dublin, well, is a tad bigger.  There's not much that remains of the Fort but the area itself is rather special -  I doubt you would ever get bored with the place.  On Tuesday if you turned towards the East there was a good view of Rathlin Island and Scotland beyond.  This is looking West towards the Causeway/Benbane Head, via the TiTAN pinhole and Fompan200:

Dunseverick, on MG Classic fibre paper

There was a lot more light around on Tuesday than would appear from this shot, in case you were wondering.  As a result, exposure was around the 2 second mark.  Somehow I managed to move the camera - or the wind blew it - so there's a nice drop shadow visible on the headland.  Anyway, it's a pinhole, so anything goes...