A Good Sesh

For the uninitiated in Dundee drinking culture, a "sesh" is basically a large amount of time spent down the pub. It's nothing like it used to be, but certainly does happen.
Maybe the same word is used elsewhere in Scotland . . . I know not. My drinking life began here - you'd need to speak to my pal Tzchic (NOT Chic, it's got a hard glottal 'k' on the end) about the niceties of what it was like back in the day. Quite something by all accounts, and maybe somewhat sadly for a balanced culture, the people he sesshed with are nearly all long gone . . . but that's another story or three (over a few pints).

Anyway, so, there I was, with a hillwalk planned, and  typically, I go on the MWIS site, and what do I find for the Angus Glens?

"White-out down to glen level".

Great.

So I called that one off - it is pointless risking things like that - the long and winding road to Glen Doll can be challenging when it is dry, so in a snowstorm, well, you're more than likely to run off the edge (there's no snow posts) or hit one of the massive ruts that are starting to appear.

(Not sure where anyone is in the country that reads this, but Tayside and Angus has some of the most shocking roads I have ever encountered, and they're only getting worse . . I think our next runabout should be a tractor or a Sherman tank actually.)

Anyway, no hillwalk, so . . .

Plan B?

Yeah, head over to Fife and do the rail bridge from the other side . . so there I was, ready to go, everything packed, and what happens, yep, just as the weather reports predicted, the sleet turned to proper big snow flakes bang on time for me leaving.

Allied to the shiteness of the conditions, the thought of operating a largish camera in freezing (or sub-zero) conditions is definitely not my idea of fun.

I got the message, turned tail, said feck it, AND HIT THE DARKROOM.

In hindsight, this was a sensible move!

A GOOD SESH

I've had a plan to do a bunch of 35mm prints for a while - I tend to stick to one format when printing simply because it's a mini-faff to change the lens and lens plates on the DeVere  - so, it was out with the Vivitar 100mm and in with the modernish 50mm f2.8 Nikkor in a recessed plate.

I gathered a bunch of negatives from my files (and their contact prints to keep me right) popped into the darkroom and off I went.

Oh and I forgot to mention - having been desperate (but time poor) to print on fibre paper for quite a while now, I thought:

Well, it's snowing - you've got the whole day you old fart . . get on with it.

So I looked out some ancient, and I mean ancient fibre-based paper.

Adox Vario-Classic.

It's so old it was discontinued in 2009 (!) and I'd had it a year or two when it was discontinued, so that makes it around 12 years old - not the most ideal of circumstances for the making of (hopefully) fine prints.

I wondered how contrast would be, so cleaned a negative, shoved it in the carrier and did a test strip on bog standard, un-filtered, nominal Grade 2..

Adox Vario Classic
Unfiltered Grade 2.
Exposure in 4 second increments.

And you know what . . well, you can see it can't you - the test strip was like looking at different gradations of a photo of a mud fish, sitting in mud, making a mud-pie . . in other words it was a tad muddy.

That's a big problem you can hit when using old papers.
Goodness knows, the way the world has gone with digital sweeping away that whole cash-cow of really, truly fine printing papers, there can't be many boxes of the old ones left any more, and those that are left well . . speak to Bruce at OD.
He has a box of Agfa MCC which is like opening a packet of grey mud inhabited by the denizens of mud city by all accounts.

I've tried the usual adding of benzotriazole to the developer and that has never worked for me - there are some workarounds on this, but to be honest, they all seem like a complete faff, when you could just go and buy a box of fresh paper.

Broadly speaking older GRADED papers, tend to survive very well if stored cool. Multigrade though can be a different matter.
Again, broadly speaking, I've found in my limited experience that old MG papers benefit from being exposed with filtration on the hard side - it just adds a tad of sparkle and lifts it above the mud.

But what about a box of paper with no instructions about filtration, and even no info at all on the web about such filtration - such was my luck with the Adox.
As far as I remember there were no such instructions when I bought it, and I seem to remember, even contacting Adox, such things weren't forthcoming, so I basically printed the majority of the box on that un-filtered Grade 2.

No wonder I never liked it!

Darkroom Life is a steep learning curve sometimes and, going on Ilford's own words, MG papers should generally be expected not to act like Graded papers . . in other words and to cut a long story short . . if you're going to use MG paper (even fresh stuff) expose hard.

As you can see from the test strip above, the natural cut of the jib of the Adox seemed to be mud - it was certainly a good deal muddier than I last remembered it and I was afraid I'd be spending a whole day producing prints that made me go 'Ugh'
So I threw caution to the wind and used the instructions for Adox MCC, dialling in an 'approximate' Grade 3 with 40 units of Magenta (in Kodak units used on the DeVere).

And . . . .

Weird Day
Nikon F, 24mm f2.9 Nikkor-N, Tri-X, Pyrocat-HD

By jingo, it worked! 

That's a pretty close Grade 3 - I was elated actually.

My 2B pencil scribbles on the back (what d'ya mean you don't do that? It keeps you right - get a good result and you have a master print to refer to should you need to make any more y'berk) read:

Adox VC, GR 3 (?) 40 M, 20 sec, f8, + 6 edges. HC 110 in developer.

Ah, the last bit - I can hear the nits jumping from your scratching.
Well, that last bit is a salient point.
I use Kodak Polymax; it's a good developer . . usually.
However, halfway through my current big bottle, I've found that solids have developed in the bottom of the bottle and any developer mixed up from it lasts around 2 sessions at the most.

In the past (and you'll laugh) when I've noticed developer/print emergement time starting to slow and not wanting to have to exit the darkroom and make up some more chemicals, I've adopted the guerilla tactic of (cue embarrassment) squirting neat developer into the tray.
What can I say.
IT WORKS, noticably upping the emergement of the image and also, to a flat image, adding a tad more contrast.
You should try it.

Anyway, there I was with the above print, and (given the high silver content of the Adox) it was taking forever, to start to cog - I think I was on near enough 4 mins - luckily I had the safelight off - but enough was enough.
I tried to squirt some Polymax into the tray and discovered the fecking solids jammed the mouth of the bottle tight!
Oh the drama, and in the dark too! 
What did squirt out, missed the tray altogether and splattered me.
And then it hit me - a thought once spotted somewhere - using Kodak's HC 110 as a paper developer.

I haven't used it as a film developer in a good few years now, but I still had some in a well-sealed air-tight bottle, and seeing as it seems to be a glycol-based developer, I thought it should still be OK, so (still in the dark) I found the bottle, whipped the top off and dumped a bit in the tray.

And it worked.
Using my wee safelight torch (Jings they're expensive these days) I saw the image proper, emerge tout suit.

I was, to say the least, chuffed.
Jabber ✔✔

Whether the HC 110 has made any difference to the tonality of the print or not, I know not, but it did bring the image to completion.

Anyway . . . extremely pleased that I'd got way more than I was expecting, I piled more meat in the mincer . . .

 . . . Next! . . .

March Of The Seed Heads
Nikon F, 24mm f2.9 Nikkor-N, FP-4, Pyrocat-HD

The eagle-eyed will have seen this one before.
It was a lovely hot day in Fife and me and t'missus were on a picnic - the seed heads looked utterly manic to me - even though they're still, there's enough movement to make them look like they're on the march.
I wish I could have got that lower bit of hedge out of the way, but that would have involved tearing my trousers on barbed wire.

I love the feeling the single-coated Nikkor has given to the scene - it is a very fine lens.

Print notes:

Adox VC, GR 3 (?) 40 M, 28 sec, f8, + 6 edges. HC 110

I was a happy bunny ✔✔ actually - spurred on, with a quick visit to the living room for a cup of java, I continued.

 . . . Next! . . .

Dreams Flow
Nikon F3, 28mm f2.8 Ai-s Nikkor, Tri-X, Pyrocat-HD

Sometimes (as seems to be my experience of 35mm) you use a whole film . . and only one image strikes you as worth printing, and such was the case with this one.

It was a heck of a windy day and me and the wee one were out for a walk in lovely Perthshire. I saw this pool coming up, dodged off the path, slipped a bit in the mud and took the photograph.

Little did I realise that the water movement, wind movement and happenstance would dress the frame in such a way as to give it a dream-like quality. 

Look at those leaves on the right bit of water . . they look like they've been carelessly strewn by a Faery Queen. 

The 28mm Nikkor has done a sterling job - pretty good levels of detail for a fast film.

Print notes:

Adox VC, GR 3 (?) 40 M, 36 sec, f8, + 6 edges. HC 110

To paraphrase Nigel Molesworth's Christmas Present list:

Happy bunny again?
Oh YUS! ✔

  . . . Next! . . .

Fay's Pool
Nikon F, 24mm f2.9 Nikkor-N, FP-4, Pyrocat-HD

Ah, the mighty Fay - I never intended to copy her, but, well what else can you do with a similar day and the same subject matter?

MY Print notes:

Adox VC, GR 3 (?) 40 M, 26 sec, f8 base, + 6 edges + 4 lower right quadrant. HC 110

And now how it should be done:

Fay Godwin, Belstane, Druidic Gathering Place, Fife

She probably wasn't using a Nikon though . . . and to be honest, her photo knocks mine into a cocked hat!

When was the last time you saw someone wearing a jaunty tifter, cocked and ready for action?
Hmmmm . . . . . thought not.

Still I wasn't going to let this put me off.

Happy ✔✔

 . . . Next! . . .

All Welcome In Europe
Nikon F3, 28mm f2.8 Ai-s Nikkor, Tri-X, Pyrocat-HD

You know, for a free standing, relatively prosperous European nation, the subject of racism isn't too far from the forefront in Belgium.
Blame it on the oldies blaming the EU for free movement; blame it on a past that saw 15 million Congolese murdered . . the sudden departure of Belgian Imperialism throwing Congo, Rwanda and Burundi into chaos . . . whatever.
The society wears its social divides on its sleeves, unless you're young, in which case you see all races mingling properly and with good nature.
It's changing slowly . . . well maybe that's stretching things a bit.

Print notes:

Adox VC, GR 3 (?) 40 M, 22 sec, f8, + 4 edges. HC 110

The poster was on a large wall behind our hotel - I quite liked the fact that all the 'blackness' had been picked away by someone with too much time and energy on their hands.
It niffed terribly of urine next to it, so maybe it was some post-beer leisure time.

Bunny ✔✔
Jabber ✔✔✔✔

 . . . Next! . . .

Does Your A-i Love You?
Nikon F3, 28mm f2.8 Ai-s Nikkor, Tri-X, Pyrocat-HD

I took this in Atomium (in Brussels - it's an extraordinary place - really, you should go - you'd have a blast!) and rather liked the fact that this mirrored surface turned everyone coming up the escalators into some strangely formed bulbous robot.
Well, you can't beat your brain for entertainment.
My poor wife stood by whilst I was doing this - I truly believe my photographic actions baffle her sometimes.

Print notes:

Adox VC, GR 3 (?) 40 M, 24 sec, f8 base, + 6 top and bottom, + 10 left and right. HC 110

Look at the contrast on that - it's got that polished stainless steel look perfectly (to my eyes).

Happy ✔

Bunny ✔✔

 . . . Next! . . .

Leaving Time? 1
Nikon F3, 28mm f2.8 Ai-s Nikkor, Tri-X, Pyrocat-HD

Ah, Train World (again in Brussels) - one of the world's most extraordinary museums.

It describes itself as a "An Opera To The Train" and it is. 

I won't even begin to describe it, save to say, GO (if you can) - it'll explain itself when you're there.

Print notes:

Adox VC, GR 3 (?) 40 M, 24 sec, f8, + 6 edges. HC 110

This is one of my favourite 35mm photographs ever - I love the light and reflections in it.

The eagle-eyed might spot some lightness at the far left of the frame - this isn't a printing mistake - it's an edge effect caused by less than usual agitation during development.  - if you look into the photo it is also apparent where light meets dark in certain parts of the photo.
(Actually, every print on here exhibits some sort of edge effect - tis on the negative, it's nothing to do with the printing.)

Whatever - it doesn't detract from the photo to my eyes, and certainly beats digital perfection.

Big ✔
Happy ✔✔
Bunny ✔✔✔✔

 . . . Next! . . .

Leaving Time? 2
Nikon F3, 28mm f2.8 Ai-s Nikkor, Tri-X, Pyrocat-HD

Again, Train World - a ticket office with some examples of ticket collector's uniforms. I deliberately printed this slightly darker because it complemented the sepulchural reflections of the windows which make the print quieter than usual. The clock just sets it off to a tee and again I am a you know what.

Adox VC, GR 3 (?) 40 M,  22 sec, f8, + 6 edges. HC 110

Great ✔

Big ✔✔✔

Happy ✔✔✔✔

Bunny ✔✔✔✔✔✔

And that as they say is that. Of course there were a couple, well 3, spoils and sadly the last of their herd.

I have 3 sheets left - and I'll try and do something decent with them.

Oh and the one thing I forgot to mention is that printing these, I used an old Joe McKenzie technique which he called "setting the print". 

You see those bits where I say "4 edges" (sic)? Well that means an extra 4 seconds exposure to each edge of the print. It's quite a tight burn margin, maybe a couple of centimetres in from where the image of the film rebate sits on the paper in the easel (I always print with the rebate showing - it is rare for me to crop anything).
Joe said that he felt it made the eye settle itself into the print rather than looking at the edges - i.e. your eye is drawn into the print and doesn't search around for something to settle on. This was especially so when anything was mounted with white card.
Where the eye goes when it's in the print is another matter - at least the eye is looking at something and the brain is trying to interpret what it is seeing. 

Of course in the corners where the two exposures meet, you'll be getting an intersection with 8 seconds exposure . . . I'll bet it is noticeable now I've pointed it out 😉

It's all terribly esoteric isn't it!

Anyway, whether you agree or not, it's not often you get handed something from a master printer (and he was) - so try it if you like and if it works to your eyes, raise a glass to the memory of Joe McKenzie.
As far as I know I've not read about this technique being used anywhere before, but it's funny you know, sometimes, when I'm printing I can sort of feel the presence of Joe goading me on and keeping me right.
He was an exceptional educator and master craftsman - and yet again, I thank fortune for having been in the right place and at the right time to have learned the small (really very small in the pantheon of printing) amount of technique I learned from him. 
Worra bloke.

Anyway, that's all folks - remember to remove your teeth from that mug - they need it for afternoon tea.