Moving on (updated)

So, enough of those boring people shots and on to some exciting Still Life.  The last couple of weeks have not been very clement here in the North East Liberties of Coleraine so I set up some stuff indoors.  Previously I've used an old desk in the garage, with natural light coming in from a side window (which worked quite well) but it was too cold for that so I used the landing area upstairs in the house.  The light coming from a skylight window didn't look so good, I thought, so this was more of a few experiments on whether my ideas for arrangement were worthy (or not) of consideration.  I'll probably move out to the garage again when it warms up a bit in a month or two (hopefully!).

FP4+ via the OM-1 and 50mm lens.  HC-110 on Foma 133 velvet paper (phone snap).  The edges and the pages of the bible were burnt in after the main exposure.  

I doubt it will come as much of a shock to learn that Roman Catholics have much more interesting stuff to photograph than Presbyterians :)  The inscription inside the flyleaf of the bible shows that my father gave it as a present to his mother in 1947 but all the other artefacts are from my wife's family.  The box it probably the most interesting thing - it belonged to her mother's grandmother, so is probably late 19th Century.  It's a Sick Call box, or Last Rites box and contains a card with instructions as to how to prepare for the priest's final visit to the person who is moving on.  Along with that are candle holders and other small items including a cruet for Holy Water, a Crucifix and silver trays.  The card on top, the goblets and the rosary beads weren't part of it - I added those in to the scene.

The scene could be better lit and I'm not convinced that the two goblets add much - this may well be a case of 'less is more'.  I think the card on top of the box could do with being stronger, so a little burn-in there too might be appropriate. I like the bible being open but as it sits here it kind of leads the eye out of the scene so I'm not quite sure what to do about that.  Sometimes it helps just to leave the print lying around for a while so I guess I'll do that and see what gives.

Update: I spent Sunday morning toning the prints I made from this series, using home-brew thiourea toner from a recipe in Tim Rudman's Toning book (Rayco formula).  Here is the new version: