Cave

From a visit to Ballintoy Harbour a while back.  There are a quite a few interesting caves along the coast here but not all are accessible on foot.  This one is easily accessible, although it's not particularly large or interesting but the chalk cliffs always come out well on B&W film.  I can't ever bring myself to go inside, though.  I don't consider myself claustrophobic but I find there's something a bit scary about caves.  Probably it's the knowledge that there's several hundred tons of rock pressing down just a few feet above my head...

Anyway, here you go - a print from a wee darkroom sesh yesterday morning.  This one on FP4+ developed in RO9 (1:25, 9 mins) on Adox MCC fibre paper in Multigrade.  Snapped up in an OM-1 with the standard OM 50mm f/1.8 lens - a cracking wee lens and as good a 50mm as you'll ever need, I reckon.  As you can probably detect, I burnt in the foreground slightly.

Cave at Ballintoy, FP4+ in RO9, Adox MCC paper.

I was using a new (to me) enlarging lens that I acquired recently - a Nikkor 50mm f/2.8.  It looks pretty contrasty in comparison to the older Rodenstock Rodagon lens I have been using for 35mm work but then the Rodagon came with the enlarger and had donkey's years of abuse at the hands of a wedding pro - the optics do look a bit tired.  So unless I deliberately want a softer look I think it might be time to retire the Rodagon and from now on use the Nikkor.  The only downside is that the aperture ring on the Nikkor moves in the opposite way to the Rodagon, which will take a bit of getting used to.  At first I couldn't figure out why the image was so dim when I had just opened the lens up fully to compose and focus...