Monday, 2 March 2020

Fancy gates

Another Italian shot today - this little courtyard scene was just opposite our rooms in Bergamo. Very fancy, eh?  I'd like gates like this, but they would be a little out of keeping with the way things are in The Liberties.  Plus some low-life would have them away in no time, such is the way of life these days.   One of my neighbours had an old country pump ('cow-tail') which his family had used to pump water from the ground not so very long ago.   He made a feature of it in his garden and even concreted it in to prevent someone stealing it.  They still took it, though.  He saw afterwards that they must have visited him for a few nights to chip the concrete away before they finally got it.  So I'm going to forget about fancy gates for now.

Bergamo gates, 2019.  HP5 printed on Ilford fibre classic paper

It is printed, as you can see, on Ilford fibre classic paper.  A bit of a story behind that.  I was chatting to Mr Karlsvik (author of this great blog) about Foma and Ilford papers and after a bit of toing-and-froing (as you do) I thought to myself, 'Hmm...I must try that Ilford Classic paper sometime'.  Then last Friday was a miserable day here in the Liberties and not the sort of day to venture outside to do anything much so I tidied up the darkroom a bit - you know the sort of thing, taking a look at what the paper stock situation was and so on.  And low and behold what did I find, right at the bottom of the drawer?  Yup, a box of Ilford fibre classic paper.  Not near full but there's a few sheets left in it.  I had no idea it was hiding there but after thinking about it I have a vague recollection of it being the very first fibre paper I tried a few years ago.  I remember not getting on terribly well with it and that's probably the reason for my shift to mainly Foma and Adox papers recently (and Ilford Warmtone fibre, but that's another story for another day).

Anyway, it was from the time when I didn't really know what I was doing so I was looking forward to printing with it again now I've a bit more experience of the whole darkroom magic.  So yesterday morning I printed a few negatives.  And low and behold it turns out it's a rather nice paper, as you can see above.  But then you probably knew that already if you've used it, of course... This is the glossy version, by the way...
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5 comments:

  1. Roy Karlsvik2 March 2020 at 18:27

    Well, I told you so, didn't I? :))
    It's a good paper for sure, even though I have yet to try the glossy version of it. I'm sitting here with the feeling that I actually ordered a box of the sorts a while ago from somewhere over the sea, but I'm not absolutely sure about it. Seems like I need to have a good tidy up in the bunch of paper I got inside my darkroom as well. There might just as well be a box of glossy Classic hiding in there somewhere.

    So they actually nicked your neighbours old pump, did they? Looks like you can't have anything to yourself these days without someone feeling the urge to go steal it. The same thing happened to my parents as well. It was not a pump of course, but it had more or less the same size and was well mounted and some work must have been involved to get the thing loose and thrown into the boot of a car. So yes, better forget about fancy gates and rather see too that you snap them up when around on holidays and stuff, just like you did in a very nice way right there in Bergamo.
    Your print seems to be excellent, of course. As per usual...!
    Thanks for sharing :))

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    1. Michael McNeill4 March 2020 at 09:53

      Ha indeed you did, Roy - and you were right! I see something in this paper that I missed first time around.

      Yes a darkroom tidy is a always a good thing to do on a rainy day - you never know what is lurking there, forgotten. I ended up transferring a lot of paper to a shelf in the family freezer (after I freed up some space there, of course - that's another thing that needs clearing out on a regular basis). The other thing that I realised soon enough was that I don't really need to order any more paper for quite some time - although when you read about a paper you've never used before it's very tempting to just order some to see what all the fuss is about. Bergger and Foma Variant papers are on my list next...ach, you see, it's happening already! :)

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    2. Roy Karlsvik6 March 2020 at 00:10

      I know... and it's annoying. But of course now as you have cleared away loads of paper from the darkroom you got a lot of room for more :))
      What's hidden inside the freezer will soon be forgotten, so I guess some Berger inside the darkroom will be in place at some point.
      I have never tried it myself either. I've seen a few scans, and they look good of course, but usually it's something you need to see and touch to get the right feeling of.

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  2. Marcus Peddle8 March 2020 at 15:32

    Looks great. Maybe you could electrify the gate to discourage thieves. And yourself when you forget it's electrified . . . .

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    1. Michael McNeill9 March 2020 at 15:49

      Cheers Marcus. Yes the use of electrified gates has a certain appeal...but knowing me the whole would backfire and I’d be on the wrong end of the shock lol

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