A change of plan

As you know, I've been working on the big darkroom refurb since before Christmas.  Like all such projects it has taken longer than expected, but it's coming together at last.  The sink has been screwed together and is about to get sealed, painted and varnished.  Hopefully it'll be reasonably waterproof - that's the whole point of it, innit?  The support base has also been made.  Next step is to get Buff the plumber in to hook up the water and sort out the waste.  It took me a while to work out why he is called Buff - let's just say he's quite Big, reasonably Ugly and could lose a few pounds.  Building site banter.  A decent sort is Buff.  I'll try to capture him on film for your amusement.

Which leads me to the Big Issue.  Being away from the darkroom for a while has given me time to think - and meanwhile the negatives are piling up waiting to have light shone through them onto photographic paper.  But I'll never get them all printed, and that means a lot of 'quality snaps' will never see the light of day, which is hard to accept.  The only sensible thing to do is to do what everybody else does, scan them and blog about them.  Yes yes I know I made a big thing about this blog being 'printed photographs only' but this way there might actually be a bit more blogging done.  Hopefully my faithful readers (i.e., you) will understand.

I'll be sticking to some of my principles, you'll be glad to hear.  I'll only be posting scans from film, for example, and that means only black&white.

So here's a scan from a neg I developed only yesterday.  It was taken on my latest acquisition - a lovely little Franka Solida 6x6 'folder' from the 1960s.  Small enough (when folded up) to fit into my coat pocket - I think it will be coming with a lot in the future.  I'm just loving these big 6x6 negatives.

This one was taken up the country the other day - just off Seacon Road, which if you are from around these parts you will know to be between Coleraine and Ballymoney.  A very muddy track it was too - too muddy to explore where the lane leads to.  I think there might be an old house at the end of it, which will be explored another time.  The trees are lovely at this time of year - not a leaf on them but getting ready to explode with foliage.  A month from now this scene will look very different.

Country Lane, Seacon Road, Ballymoney

On HP5@400ASA developed in DD-X, if anyone's interested.