Stuff going on

One from the archives for your amusement today, since there's too much going on at the minute to get anywhere near a camera or the darkroom.  I dunno.  I thought being retired and all that would allow me just to kick back and sip expensive wine while I think about...nothing much.  But I'm getting busier every week it seems - and that wasn't in the plan.  Probably like others in my age group (I turned 61 a few weeks ago) I'm caught between helping the younger and the older.  Missy is trying to tie down a Masters course, in between her temp job cleaning the Oxford Colleges, so I'm helping with that (the study thing, not the cleaning thing).  And mother is needing more and more support.  She wants to try to clear out 60+ years of hoarding, in spare rooms, garage and outhouses.  Probably a good idea, but it falls on me to do it - under her supervision, of course.  Ah well, it's nice to feel needed, I guess.  There's a lot of spiders in those outhouses, that much I can tell you.

Street scene, downtown Chicago

A place to reflect

Inside another Sardinian Church.  I remember it being a nice place to cool off from the heat as well as being quiet and peaceful.  The perfect place to sit and gather your thoughts.

HP5@1600, OM4ti on Kentmere VC.

Imagery

Finally got around to developing that roll of HP5+ that had been lying around for a year or so - the one with the '1600asa' sticker on it, which meant a heady 11minutes in HC-110.  Printed on old Kentmere VC Select paper, which I think is fine but the negative was poor - a bit flat it was.  It was taken in one of those fine old churches in Sardinia and shows, well - you know who:

Via the OM4ti I think, probably 24mm Zuiko

No prizes for spotting where I did a little dodging under the enlarger :)

Triptych

A cloudscape, three versions, via an old Pentax on HP5 rated at 1600.  Kentmere VC Select paper.  Take your pick!

Banksy

 Around various places in Portstewart we have a bit of Banksy-esque street art.  This one is located half-way up the cliff walk, just below the Dominican School where I was a Board Governor for a time.  It's kind of tucked away in an alcove which at one time would have been a conduit from the School Grounds to the public walkway but at some point this has been bricked up - either to stop school kids playing truant or to stop members of the public walking onto the school property.  Either way, they used the cheapest bricks they could find, which clash somewhat with the beautiful old basalt stonework of the retaining wall around the school.  

The work represents (I guess) a small boy playing hide-and-seek (he's doing the counting bit, covering his eyes as he faces into the wall).  It's the sort of art work that I've found difficult to make a decent photograph from up to now - the location means it's all a bit dark and dingy.  Anyway, this represents the most successful I've been so far:

Our local Banksy-esque artwork.
On old Ilford Warmtone paper, bleached back and re-developed in hot lith.

If you are interested in the process, it goes something like this.  (Note - these are phone snaps from the darkroom). First, make a normal print (develop and fix as usual), give it a quick wash and then immerse it in a solution of cupric sulphate (hence the blueish-greenish colour of the liquid in the tray):

The bleaching process is slow to start but eventually things get moving:

Once we get going, the process accelerates and before long there ain't much left on the paper:

As you can see, just a faint image remains.  I pulled the print shortly after taking this snap.  Another short wash and then into the lith developer and after another few minutes you have the final print as shown above and below again (borders were added digitally to the scanned image of the print).  All is needs then is another fix and wash before leaving to dry.  The nice thing about the bleach and redevelopment process is that it can be done with the lights on, since the print has already been developed and fixed normally.  This is a good thing - normal lith work (i.e., using lith as the first development stage) means lights off/safelight only and it can be challenging to pull the print at the right time, ensuring good deep blacks while still retaining detail in the highlights.  

Black and...more black

Still not quite where I'd like to be vis-a-vis my photography and darkroom work, so it's another blast-from-the-past today.  This week the weather has finally taken a turn for the better, so it's been a week spent in the garden/patio, which is always enjoyable if hard work at times.  My wife took delivery of a new planter this week - built by a family friend.  It's slightly over-engineered (I reckon it'll still be standing should The North East Liberties of Coleraine ever experience an earthquake) but that's no bad thing.  And of course it had to be stained black (my wife has an obsession with black - don't ask me where that comes from but we have black kitchen door fronts, black appliances - which cost more than the white equivalents, of course; black framed greenhouse - you get the picture).  And a new planter meant a trip to the garden centre to populate it.  It does look good though, I have to admit.  I shall try to make a decent photograph of it for your amusement - black and white, of course :)

A hot day at Montrose Beach, on the shores of Lake Michigan

Peace

Peace has descended in the house after 2 weeks of busy-ness.  Firstly with Missy's 21st celebrations and secondly with catching up and having conversations about What happens next.  Still to be decided but her wish is to continue in education for at least another year.  That all depends on her degree results, which are due...drum roll...tomorrow!  Fingers crossed she will get a good enough grade to make her wish happen.

I've not managed to do anything photography-wise or darkroom-wise this week, so here's another oldie from a few years ago.  Appropriate, since I was out looking at this year's crop of gooseberries the other day.  They're coming on nicely.  I shall try to do something involving a camera with them again, before the missus gets to making her gooseberry chutney, which went down a storm last year.

Gooseberries.  The very devil to pick but worth it...I think!