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.