Runkerry Head

I finally got those last frames of FP4+ wasted and actually made it into the darkroom on Saturday morning.  I was a tad rusty, of course, but got something out in the end:

Looking out over Runkerry Beach towards the Causeway, which lies just beyond the headland
Blad/150mm/FP4+/Foma 133. 

I took this shot not far from the car park as it was ridiculously cold that day, with a wind that would clean you, as my mother would say.  My wife and I had intended going for a walk along the beach, but after about 5 minutes we both looked at each other and said 'Let's get back to the car'.  We shall no doubt return when the weather is a bit more clement.  June, perhaps.

Stormy weather

I'm pleased to report that the various things that have been keeping me from the usual nonsense on this place are gradually coming to an end.  I actually got a film loaded into the 'Blad the other day and got the shutter release pressed, oh, at least three times.  Impressive, I know.  I hope to press it another few times soon and then you might get to see some new stuff.  In the meantime, here's a oldie from a few years ago - Ballintoy, on a stormy day:

On a side note, we've had an uncommonly large number of pretty violent storms this winter.  Missy was booked on the Belfast-Liverpool ferry a few weeks ago and at the last minute decided that was not a good idea and rescheduled for a couple of days later.  Good job she did, as we read later the incoming ferry was unable to dock safely and spent several hours bobbing about Belfast lough waiting for the seas to calm down sufficiently to allow it to come into port.  Even when she did travel, it was still a pretty rough crossing but obviously she made it across OK, although she's probably thinking it's a mixed blessing, given the amount of work she has to do this final semester. 

Docks, somewhere

One from a while back.  In my mind this was Birkenhead docks from the rear of the overnight Stena ferry from Belfast, but the big ballast thing on the top of the leftmost crane says 'Belfast Harbour'.  Hmm.  Well sure it's either one or t'other, makes little odds.

Not much is sharp, even though I was resting the camera on the big steel thingmy at the back end of the ship.

Missy has just left us again, to complete her last semester before graduating later this year.  It was really lovely to have her home for a good long time - we reconnected and we were all sad when the time came to say goodbye.  It's going to be a year of change for her - come August she'll have to move out of her accommodation and that may well signal the end of her Oxford adventure. To where she goes we don't yet know - jobs are being applied for and there is vague talk of 'travelling'.  I said to her last week, Don't worry too much about the future - it has a habit of sorting itself out.  For now, all you can do is get the head down and get those grades up.  

What's on? Not much...

My talk last week at the local Club was well received.  I'd forgotten what a thoroughly decent bunch of people frequent the Club, so it was a really rather nice to be back amongst them again.  The lockdown over Covid obviously killed face-to-face meetings and it's been an uphill struggle for the Club to get people back. A struggle which I understand - once you get out of the way of doing something, it quickly becomes the new norm.

It was quite fun to go through my prints from the last couple of years and make a coherent presentation from them.  This is the shot that I kicked off with:

I remember taking this shot - there was lovely warm morning light coming in through the porch window and these beautiful soft shadows from a plant were being cast on the wall behind a old chaise longue thing that lurks in our hall.  Looking at it again last week I thought how much I still like this shot - the curve of the wooden frame of the sofa is just right for the scene and there's enough mystery about the shot to make it worthwhile looking at, I think - for a couple of seconds, anyway. 

Just letting y'all know it might be a-while before I have anything new to show on this place, but I'll endeavour to keep you vaguely entertained in the meantime.

Equivalents

I'm not doing much new these days, hence the lack of posting on this place.  The weather over Christmas has been horrendous and we're all pretty much house bound.  What I am working on is a presentation to 'The Club' in just over a week's time...the first I've done for a couple of years, so I thought I'd post some shots I'm using just to keep things ticking over.

The working title of my talk is 'Looking for Inspiration' and the goal is to suggest some practical ways of overcoming the photographic doldrums that we find ourselves in from time to time.  

You may be familiar with the work of Arthur Stieglitz, who was a photographer back in the early part of last century.  He took a series of shots of clouds - about 350 in total.  In his own words, "Through clouds [I wanted] to put down my philosophy of life—to show that my photographs were not due to subject matter—not to special trees, or faces, or interiors, to special privileges, clouds were there for everyone—no tax as yet on them—free."  He called his series 'Equivalents' and you can see some of them here.

I like clouds and we get some great cloud formations in this part of the world.  And the best bit is that you don't have to go anywhere special to photograph them - just look up.

So here are a couple of my Equivalents, taken over the last few years and all from the skies above the North East Liberties of Coleraine in good ol' Ulster.  As you can see, not too many are of 'just clouds' - I've a lot more shots where aspects of the land are included, albeit with the cloud formations still a dominant feature. 

Compare and contrast

Another lith print for your amusement today, of a shot you might remember from a while back.  I'll put the two print scans on this page to make the comparison easier.  Here's the lith print:

And here's the original one developed in Multigrade, on the same Foma 133 paper:

I liked the original well enough at the time, but comparing the two prints side by side the lith definitely takes the prize, for me.  I like the warmth in it.  Both the stone and the ironwork have responded better to the lith developer. 

Back at it

Some lith, for a change.  The shot you might remember from a while back (click here to compare it to a straight print):

Somewhere in Oxford.  Foma 133 in Moersch Easylith

The difference between using lith developer and good ol' Multigrade isn't vast on this paper.  It's the first time I've tried lith on the Foma 133 and it's OK.  It's not as warm in the lith as Foma's sister paper 131 and the look isn't as striking. Development was pretty standard by lith standards - around the 10-12 minute mark, at 27-ish degree temperature, but the infectious development part wasn't very infectious, if you know what I mean.  It just kind of got there, pretty uniformly slowly and not much signs of development speeding up as it normally would in lith. Still, the result is acceptable and it's nice to have another paper option which works in lith.

You may recall I’ve been to the Rheumatics hospital in Bath. It was good, I enjoyed the course, although I was pretty bushed after two weeks of stretching and hydro work.  It is kind of a weird time, being away from home and cast into the midst of strangers for two weeks.  Sharing breakfast, lunch and dinner….as well as group based therapy. There’s good and bad, I suppose.

The journey back didn't help the fatigue. Bristol airport is undergoing major works and the place is chaos.  Plus, the only road into and out of the airport from the Bath/Bristol side is also being redesigned.  The tailbacks in all directions were severe - what should have taken about an hour from Bath ended up being nearly 2 and half hours.  Fortunately I had noticed the traffic backed up when I arrived, so I got an earlier coach than I would normally have picked.  Even so, there were a few minutes near the end when I was starting to think I wasn't going to make my flight. I did make it, just, but it was a closer call than I would have liked.  It felt very good to be home.