This photo is a potential competition entry under the theme of “shiny”. The vase is quite shiny so it should fit but there’re still a couple of weeks until the deadline yet, so I’ll wait and see if I find anything better before then.
These plastic flowers
In a shiny golden vase
Sit in the sunlight
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Fomapan 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 12mins @ 20°.
Taken on 26 February 2021
Although I didn’t spot it at the time of making the photo, the concrete post on the left of this image appears to have a somewhat shocked expression, like I’ve caught it in some sort of compromising incident and it’s now aghast at being photographed. It has a vague look of V.I.N.C.E.N.T, the flying robot from Disney’s 1979 movie, The Black Hole about it.
Shocked looking fencepost
It seems strangely animate
Caught on camera
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Fomapan 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 12mins @ 20°.
Taken on 26 February 2021
This is one of the shelves in my shelving unit. It’s not very tidy or well organised. The truth of the matter is that I have too much stuff for the space I have, or at least I need to have a proper think about how it’s all stored. I guess I could alter the height of the shelves so that the books could be ordered differently – while some are grouped together by author / subject, it’s hardly an effective library cataloguing system. I was also somewhat bothered when I saw that the dust-jacket of From Uncertain to Blue was being distorted bt the book above (a copy of Uncommon Places by Stephen Shore, should you be interested). Don’t worry though, I’ve sorted that out now!. 🙂
I have a couple of other shelving-units / cupboards with shelves in them but a lot of the space in those is filled with stuff that could either be chucked, go on eBay to raise a bit of spare cash, or re-arranged and put elsewhere such as in the loft (some of the stuff I’m reluctant to get rid of is also stuff I don’t look at very often).
The photobooks are going nowhere though!
Disorganised shelf
But still full of interest
Not a bad problem
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Fomapan 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 12mins @ 20°.
Taken on 26 February 2021
A few weeks ago (although I would swear it wasn’t that long ago!) I posted a picture of a structure built of sticks. Today I have another couple of photographs of the same twiggy building plus a photo of another, neighbouring edifice.
I’ve still not come across anyone actually building these things – not that I spend that much of my time wandering through the trees – and I’m still curious as to whether their construction is some sort of organised activity, or just groups of kids making dens? Few of the trees around this area are suitable for treehouses, so perhaps these make an alternative?
The other option is that the second of the three little pigs has decided this would be a good place to build a fortress against the Big Bad Wolf. I didn’t see any wolves, just a few dogs being walked. Nor did I make any attempt to see if I could huff and puff and blow the house in.
Mister Wolf is here
So little pig, little pig
Please let me come in!
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Fomapan 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 12mins @ 20°.
Taken on 26 February 2021
Merry Christmas everyone. Whether you celebrate the occasion or not, I hope you all have a very happy day!
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 50mm f/2.8 MC & Cinestill 800T. Grain2Pixel conversion.
Taken on 11 December 2020
In direct continuation from yesterday’s post, the four images today were made while crossing Renishaw golf course. The golf course borders the farmland where yesterday’s photographs were made, the two areas split by the River Rother, and a metal-framed footbridge spans it’s flow.
The golf course was, as you might expect, shrouded in the same fog as the farmland. As golf courses have been closed due to the lockdown, no-one was playing – although fog might not be the best conditions for golf anyway I suppose, pandemic or not – and the course was empty of all but the occasionl individuals and small groups out walking in the murk. If you look carefully, you might be able to see some of them in the trees at the other side of the fairway.
As I followed the footpath through the course I noticed these neat rows of fallen leaves, presumably raked by the groundskeeper.
My final shot beore leaving the golf course was this signpost.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 50mm f/2.8 MC & Fujifilm Superia 100 (expired 2008).
Taken on 7 November 2020
I got up early on the day that I made this photograph as I was hoping that there would be some mist. Across the road that runs in front of this Aldi supermarket (to the right of this scene) there is a meadow. The near half consists of an area where livestock graze sometimes – I’ve seen both cows and sheep in there when I’ve passed by. The fields border Renishaw golf course, and the River Rother forms a second boundary line, beyond which is further farm land where the ground begins to rise out of the valley.
When there is low-lying mist here at sunrise, it can look very beautiful (even if there is a line of pylons in the distance). Alas, on this morning, the hoped-for mist had let me down. Not wanting to return home completely empty-handed, I decided to make a picture of the Aldi. It’s not the most glamourous of scenes, but it has it’s own commercial charm. Plus, the pastel shades in the pre-sunrise sky behind the store were a treat.
I took three shots of the scene, which is unusual for me. I rarely bracket my exposures, preferring to try and maximise the number of unique images I can get from a roll of film. However, given the fussy nature of Velvia 50 when it comes to exposure and my slightly limiting (for this scene) incident meter, I decided to use a few frames to ensure a good chance of a decent result. It was a good decision as the first two images were very underexposed. This third one could have done with a bit more light in the foreground too, but I think it just about gets by with what it has.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Fujichrome Velvia 50.
Taken on 22 October 2020
Just a few days ago I said that I was at the end of my autumn colour images for this year. Well. turns out I’m not – I forgot about this roll of Velvia 50 that I shot on a walk along the Chesterfield Canal near Thorpe Salvin a few weeks ago.
The roll was tricky to meter with confidence. Given that I don’t have a spot meter (just a reflective setting that’s has a pretty wide angle and no meand to accurately point it) I almost always use incident readings instead. Incident metering usually serves me very well, but a canal withich has irregular tree cover along it’s banks makes it difficult to match the light falling on the meter with the subject unless it’s pretty close by, or you’re sure it’s in the same levels of light.
As a result, quite a few of the images on this roll are poorly exposed, and the ones here are probably the best from the canal-side walk.
Of the four, the sycamore leaf below is the best I think (even if it did keep attempting to blow away in the light but irregular breeze!).
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Fujichrome Velvia 50.
Taken on 24 October 2020
A photograph of a woodland road today, taken on one of the rolls of Fomapan 100 that I’ve been having problems with. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts (such as this one) I’ve been having issues with white speckles of debris when using this film. I ruled out my development process and chemicals – both worked fine when developing other film stocks. I also tried omitting a chemical stop-bath, replacing it with water, and also adding a pre-wash of the film before developing. Nothing seemed to work and the speckles still stubbornly appeared when I developed each roll of Fomapan 100.
Then, a month or so back, I came across a post on the Photrio forum which seemed to detail someone having the same problem. It turned out that other people suffering the same difficulties all had film form the same production batch. One person in a linked post had contacted Foma themselves and been advised that the cause was a harder than usual anti-halation layer on that run of film and that a specific development process might help. I tried the process myself, but still ended up with the smae spots on the negatives, albeit possibly slightly less pronounced than before.
I decided to contact Foma myself and they replied with some similar instructions, although this time I noticed an additional stage that involved a wash of the developed film in an ethanol / water mixture before the final wetting agent stage. I’ve not tried this process as yet and, I suspect, probably won’t – mostly because ethanol seems quite hard to come by, at least at a price that isn’t prohibitively high. It would likely be cheaper to buy some fresh, unproblematic film, than attempt the ethanol rinse process.
I’m grateful for Foma’s response though, plus they sent me a few rolls of film as a goodwill gesture – two rolls of Fomapan 400, plus a roll of Retropan 320. I’ve never shot Retropan 320 before, so I’m quite looking forward to giving that one a go.
Should anyone else be suffering a similar issue when developing Fomapan 100, the instructions provided to me by Foma are as follows:
In case of your already exposed & processed negatives we recommend to you the following procedure to remove the residues of remaining anti-halo layer:
1) Prepare working solution in minimum with 40% of ethanol (optimally 70%).
2) Put carefully the films into spiral´s developing tank or a spiral with the film into similar transparent container with enough ethanol solution, with emulsion layer inside of the cylinder tank/container.
3) Keep the negatives in this solution approximately 45 minutes and make moderate movement each 4-5 minutes.
4) Wash sheets of the negatives in running water from tap for 2-3 minutes.
5) Make standard drying including wetting agent (FOTONAL).
If you may decide to use also other films from the same emulsion number, we advise you to follow this procedure of processing:
1) Exposed films put inside of the spiral´s developing tank.
2) Pour distilled water or water without minerals into this developing tank and keep the films in this solution for 20-30 minutes. Occasional inversion is convenient. This solution, ca. 600 ml, is possible to use in maximum for 2 rolls.
3) Immediately after pouring the water out you can fill the tank by developing working solution keeping standard conditions of developing, best using more alkaline developer, e.g. FOMADON R09.
4) After developing we recommend to stop process just by water bath, best running filtered water, in minimum for the time of 30 seconds in water´s temperature 12-18° C. Using acidic stop bath like FOMACITRO and others is not convenient in this case, because there are needed alkaline baths to help with dissolving the hardened anti-halo layer.
5) Standard fixing.
6) Wash the strips of the negatives in running water for 20-30 minutes (according to higher or lower temperature).
7) Use ethanol solution and other steps (1-5) as described in previous paragraph.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 23 August 2020
Back when I was a boy, horse chestnut trees such as the one pictured here, would have been bracing themselves for the soon-to-arrive annual attack of schoolboys desperate to harvest their fruit of conkers. Here in the UK (and maybe elsewhere, I don’t know), conkers was THE sport of the school playground come autumn-time.
For those unfamiliar with the activity, a conker is a hard, nut-like seed produced by the horse chestnut tree. They fall from the branches around October time. Or, as used to be the case, they would be knocked violently from the branches by thrown sticks and stones or pulled from branches climbed by brave individuals. Each conker would be safely cocooned in a heavy, spiky outer shell that, when ripe, would split to reveal the brown, polished, wood-like ovoid within. If you were lucky you would find a previously undiscovered tree that had dropped it’s fruit on the floor. Such rarity! Such treasures!
The game is played by making a hole through the centre of the conker and threading it with a length of thread – often a shoelace – and securing it at the bottom with a knot. Two opponents would then face off and take in turns to swing their conker with force, bracing the thread tautly across the top of the back of their hand, with the intent of shattering their opponents conker.
Dedicated proponents of the sport would engage a variety of techniques to harden their “team” of conkers to maximum hardness. Baking them in an oven, or pickling them in vinegar were both methods reputed to give a conker a shell that would challenge a diamond on the moh scale. Champion conkers would be given names and attain legendary status in the schoolyard.
These days the horse chestnut is in reprieve, the sport of conkers largely consigned to history by the youngsters of today. Part of this was down to a series of bans issued by schools fearful of children with conker fractured knuckles or missing front teeth, although nowadays it’s probably mostly because of videogames and the internet. Isn’t everything?
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 23 August 2020
Steel City Snapper photography 