Holiday Snaps

Since it's proving challenging to do any real printing right now, I'm going to show some 'holiday snaps'.  Prepare yourselves for a shock...colour.

Somewhere along the Amalfi Coast, Italy, 2018

I can explain, I think.  As you know, pretty much all of my creative juices go into B&W film, home processed and printed, but I do have a weak spot for colour transparencies.  Takes me back to me youth, I guess, where from time to time and as funds allowed, I used to sneak the odd Kodachrome into the OM-1.  Can't do that these days of course, but there's Velvia, which has its own unique properties. Hard to think Kodachrome was 25 asa (or 64) -  that seems so slow.  Anyway, about 5 years ago I happened to be in a photographic shop in Belfast and before I knew it I was walking out with 4 rolls of Velvia. Hmm. Missy was astounded I'd spent £40 on four films but I assured her they would last me a long time.  I think there's still one in the fridge but since the datestamp shows 2017 so I think I'd better use it up fairly soon. 

I took one roll with me to Italy this summer and fired it through the M6 as fast as I could (24 hours) so that I could get back to my usual suspects (FP4/HP5).  The slides came back from Peak Imaging a couple of weeks ago and am in the process of setting up my Kodak Carousel projector from back in the day for an evening's entertainment.  I wonder if the bulb will still work - and for how long.  I'll let you know...

Chasing my tail

I'm chasing my tail these days.  Struggling to get near the darkroom at the minute for a variety of reasons...start of the school year, too much to do in the garden and a looming medical procedure (tomorrow!) to try to improve my hearing, which is very poor right now.  By 'very poor' I mean almost non-existent.  But, I'm going in with a Positive Mental Attitude, which is my usual MO.

In the meantime I bring you one from a while back - the view from the top of mountain known as Binevenagh, between The Liberties and Derry/Londonderry. This one is looking East, towards Kinbane Head and the Giant's Causeway.  On a good day it's possible to see Scotland across the water, and even as far as Jura.  This was not the case on the day when this was snapped up, as there was a thick layer of cloud:

HP5+ on Iford Warmtone Fibre paper

Having spent a large part of the summer in hot and humid conditions and looking at perfect blue skies (more of than another time) it has been a welcome relief to get back to the Emerald Isle and decent temperatures (15 degrees C/59 F) and interesting skies. Much more pleasant - for this Irishman, anyway.

Positano Man

I snapped this gentleman up as he stood on the balcony in the famous little town of Positano, between Sorrento and Amalfi.  I could have a good guess at what he was thinking, as he looked out to the sea, for in the bay down below were more than a few 'pleasure craft'.

Positano, via HP5 and Ilford Warmtone paper, toned

Now we're not talking rowing boats here, no siree.  We're talking big, very expensive toys.  The biggest had its own helipad, complete with helicopter.  Several jet-skis buzzed around it, clearly part of the deal.  Next to it, a little way off was a much more modest craft - probably only worth a few million, rather than a few tens of million pounds, euros or dollars (doesn't make much difference at this level, does it). One could almost feel a little pity for the owner of the smaller craft, who probably thought he was doing pretty well until the larger craft came along to spoil his party.  My boat is bigger than yours, eh? Almost...

Capri

Capri, in the early morning mist, from the hills above Sorrento:

Capri, Ilford Warmone RC paper, toned

Up Vesuvius with David Hurn

We were away for a bit, as you might have guessed from the lack of posting recently.  I'm not an easy traveller these days, but we did a bit of searching around for destinations from our local airport (Belfast) and decided a direct flight to Naples would be do-able.  We stayed just outside Sorrento, about an hour's drive away.  A very nice part of the world, the Amalfi Coast.  Yes it's fairly busy at this time of year, but since the whole region lives for tourism it never really felt uncomfortably crowded - the infrastructure is geared to cope.

Although I carried the Leica with me I didn't really snap that much.  It's been a tough 12 months in the McNeill household and for once I was happy just to relax and enjoy being in holiday mode. I did press the shutter a few times, though...

One of those times was as I ventured up Vesuvius.  I didn't make it all the way to the crater - the cinder path was slippy enough in places so I chickened out and stopped with Missy for a while, doing a bit of people watching.  As this shot composed itself in front of me I was reminded for some strange reason of David Hurn:

Up Vesuvius, Naples down below, David Hurn in my head.  HP5+ on Warmtone RC paper, 10"x8" print.

David Hurn, if you don't know, was the guy who did the Barbarella shoot with Jane Fonda.  Yup, you know now!  And he also did the famous Sean Connery shot as James Bond.  A nice story to that one as well.  The shoot was all set up, everyone in place ready to go but no-one had remembered to bring a gun. Not just any gun, of course, James Bond's gun, a Walther.  As luck would have hit, Hurn had in possession a Walther air pistol, which was subsequently used for the shoot. He told the director that the art people would be able to shorten the barrel before final printing so no-one would ever know it was an air pistol and not a proper, James Bond-style gun.  Of course that message got lost in the post, so to speak - hence the abnormally long barrel on the gun that ended up on the poster. I wonder how many people realised....

A Magnum photographer, at the height of his powers David Hurn gave up the London life to live in Wales, where his roots lay.  For the next few decades he set about documenting ordinary life in that part of the world and a fantastic job he did of it, too.  Along the way, he amassed an amazing collection of photographs by well-known people, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eve Arnold, Bill Brandt, Bruce Davidson, Martin Parr.  This was long before photographs were deemed to have any monetary value - he says he simply knocked on the doors of photographers he admired and asked for a print.  OK so he had a calling card but even so that's a great story.  Anyway, next time I'm in Cardiff I'll be heading to the Museum of Wales, since that is where he has donated his collection.

Oh, you can see the shot of Hurn's that I was thinking about, when I was nearly at the top of Vesuvius, by clicking here.  It's the second image on the page, at Tenby.

A confession

I have a confession to make: I've had enough of Mr Blue Sky.  I'm longing for rain and clouds.  Well, maybe not the rain bit but the clouds, yes. I know in a few months I'll be regretting that statement but I find the current weather so unsuitable for the type of photography I like to do.  So I'm digging around in the negative files for something interesting to print:

Portstewart Strand, via the 'Blad.  Ilford Warmtone Fibre paper, 11"x14"

I'm also finding myself moving away from RC paper towards using fibre papers more.  Agreed there are some very nice RC emulsions out there - like Fotospeed VC Oyster, Adox MCP, Kentmere VC Select and Ilford Warmtone.  These all tone rather well and the short washing times are a real bonus - as is the cost compared to fibre paper.  But every time I use fibre paper - particularly the one used here, Ilford Warmtone - I find the prints are just so much nicer to look at. There's a depth, or subtlety to the tones that draws me in.

While we're at the confessions, there was a ton of spotting to be done on this print, which I haven't completed yet.  So I cleaned this one up using the power of software.

A wave of heat hits The Liberties

Yes folks it's official: there is a heatwave in Northern Ireland.  Not often I can write that, now, is it?  We've had the most clement weather since the start of May - temperatures reaching a heady 30 degrees the other day (86 degree Fahrenheit if you prefer) and very little rain.  As a result, we have a hosepipe ban in place - the first since 1995, apparently.  The upshot is that we're not allowed to use a hosepipe to water our gardens, clean our windows, wash our cars, or clean our boats (eh?).  Some rail services have been cancelled as the tracks are so hot they are in danger of buckling.  Things are, it would appear, rapidly descending into chaos.

The good people of The Liberties aren't used to this fierce heat - seriously, we're not.  We can (obviously) handle rain, wind and storms but heat? - no.  Tempers will flare.  There will be road rage and probably fights will break out over shopping trolleys.  We're in for a tough time until the weather breaks - which, I guess, will not be that far away...

Now the restrictions on water usage don't, surprisingly, make any mention of washing fibre prints in one's darkroom but it would be a tad irresponsible to do so at the minute.  So it might be RC prints for a while, I think.  Not that the darkroom is a particularly pleasant place to be in right now, mind you.  I did venture in the other day (just before the hosepipe ban came into effect) and the ambient temperature was well over the magic 20 degrees, so the chemicals were all a bit livelier than usual.  Still, I managed to get one print made - just to remind myself what clouds look like:

Sunset over Inishowen.  Ilford Warmtone Fibre paper, 11"x14"