Years ago I used to think this little cottage at Ballintoy was the perfect place - relatively hidden away in a place of outstanding natural beauty. Not now, though - whether through fame via Game of Thrones or just word of mouth, Ballintoy is one very busy little place these days. There's a very windy road down to the harbour itself...almost single track in places and some 180 degree bends. There's a sign on the main road indicating its unsuitability for large coaches and motorhomes. Of course there's always someone who doesn't think that applies to them - last time I was there a guy had managed to manoeuver a huge motorhome down to the harbour. I've no idea how he managed that...if he met any traffic at all on the way down or back it would be chaos. Motorhomes seem to divide opinion - unless you own one most people seem to loathe them. I don't know whether it's pandemic related but this last couple of years we are seeing way more than usual on the roads around The Liberties. And bigger than usual. I don't envy them driving around some of our more scenic routes. Portrush has a dedicated motorhome park within walking distance of the beach & town which seems like a good idea. Then when they come to Portstewart they try to park on the Prom and take up about 3 car spaces in an already congested area. I'm sure things like that go a long way to explaining why some people aren't very keen on them (or their owners).
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| Ballintoy on the 'Blad, probably 50mm lens. PanF 50 in ID-11, on Foma 133 paper. A bit of burn-in on the sky, otherwise a straight print. The walking path passes just in front of the cottages so there's not much privacy, in spite of the remoteness of the location. |
If you click on the image and zoom in on the sky you'll see it looks like I've cleaned the negative by rubbing it over the floor. I suspect that's due to this being developed in one of my last batches of ID-11, where some of the powder was undissolved, or had become separated from the solution. That happened a couple of times to me and that's the reason I've now switched to HC-110.
As a caravan owner, I’ve never quite understood the rationale of a motor home. Many tow a small car behind them which seems to negate the point of a motor home completely. They are becoming huge though, as are caravans. We always think we are the poor relations now with our 20 year old 2 berth, and meagre estate car when others have a brand new 6m van towed by a Range Rover. Gone are the days when you went camping because you couldn’t afford anything else.
ReplyDeleteDo the particles on your negs not come off in the final rinse? A rhetorical question I suppose but it must mean they get stuck in the emulsion pretty well.
I agree. You'd need at least a bicycle or ideally a moped or something - otherwise you'd soon get fed up driving a big motorhome around, I reckon. Especially somewhere like Ireland or Scotland, where the roads are small and usually windy.
DeleteThe costs of these things nowadays are mad - a new smallish VW Camper starts around the £50k mark! You'd need to be getting some serious use out of it to make it worthwhile.
I think the issue with this particular film was that parts of it weren't developed - so it's not so much particles on the neg, rather undeveloped 'holes' in the emulsion, so to speak. I usually don't have too much of a problem with dust specks - using a diffuser enlarger (rather than condenser) helps as well, since only really big spots would be visible in the final print.
I have a condenser enlarger, but I don’t get (cough) any dust spots on my negs! ;)
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DeleteI don’t worry too much about slight imperfections. I was lucky enough to see some Ansel Adam prints in the flesh a few years ago. Ok maybe not his most famous prints, but a close examination showed small dust & hairs. I mean, I like it when a print has no imperfections (it’s what we try to eliminate, right?) but it doesn’t bother me too much if it does.
I swear by my Tetenal Spotting pens.
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