Concrete Cathedral

So, there I was, early morning, wide awake, an itchy trigger finger and some film to use.

I'm not sure about your city or town, but mine is pretty much deserted - even the seagulls have pissed off and gone inland, and seeing as we have a population of Cannibalistic Seagulls urged on by their gluttony for the Lost Kebab Meat generated by large urban conurbations, that really says something.

So what do you do when you're wide awake at 5 on a Summer's morn . . well, you go photographing!

The Curly Car Park (or Doughnut depending on your age) is actually know as Bell Street Car Park. 

It's a bog standard 1960's Concrete Brutalist piece which I actually rather like. 

My father-in-law's car was stolen from here back in the 1990's, and I have never parked here myself.

Fashinating Capitain, you'll be saying. 

Well, yes and you know what is even more interesting than that . . .  

Woosh woosh woosh, wot's that sound?

Ah, it's the Sheephouseticon whizzing you back to the early 19th Century, for in 1834 (on the same site) was built The New Howff.

Now The Old Howff (or actually just Howff these days) is a slightly world famous, dead interesting (no pun intended) medieval (and onwards) cemetery in Dundee . . 

However it became rather full of bods, so you know what The New Howff is?

Yep . . a New one. 

Or at least IT WAS until (as was typical of Dundee at the time) it was destroyed by the Council's Planning Department with the building of an inner ring road and then the Curly Car Park was planted on top in 1962.

Incredibly, approximately 10,000 souls were interred on this patch of land until they stopped selling plots in 1882. Despite that, actual burials went on until the 1930's.

I actually had no idea of this until I started researching when the Curly was built.

This City is stranger than you could imagine . . f'rinstance I have a proper pint glass etched with the logo of a Temperance hotel . . . as they say in certain parts . . go figure.

Whilst most of post-war Britain underwent this destruction of a 'dirty' past (sound familiar?) Dundee seemed to suffer disproportionately. 

Had the central chunk of architecture (effectively still most of a medieval City) survived, then it could have been like a small Northern York . . what a lovely concept.

The history is still there in places, but you really have to scratch and dig.

Anyway, on with the old and the new. 

First lets set the scene: 

The New Howff In 1885

The Bounds Of The New Howff Circa 2020

What I find remarkable is that the destruction has largely kept the shape of the Necropolis. 

It is sad though isn't it - it would have been lovely had it survived.

When the cemetery was dismantled the bones were reinterred apparently in a common grave in either the Eastern Cemetery or Balgay Cemetery - there seems to be some conjecture about this. However, I'm sure you can imagine that they were bound to have missed at least some. I've always felt there was a weird air to the place and this has just cemented it in situ.

As a photographer all I can say is that the light in there is truly beautiful, open and cathedral-like - if only Frederick Evans still lived, he could have turned the space into photographs of true beauty.

FILM #66/70

Ilford HP5 EI 200

1. 1/60th f4 ZIII

2. 1/15th f8 ZIII

3. 1/15th f8 ZIII

4. 1/30th f8 ZIII

5. 1/30th f8 ZIII

6. 1/30th f5.6 ZIII Accident

7. 1/30th f8 ZIII

8. 1/30th f8 ZIII

9. 1/30th f8 ZIII

10. 1/15th f11 ZIII Rested on ledge

11. 1/30th f8 ZIII

12. 1/30th f4 ZIII

Need a thread adapter for the 500 as the TTT doesn't fit!

Had to handhold the lot   - go back with the SWCM - the space is amazing!

The camera was a Hasselblad 500 C/M with a 60mm Distagon. Metering was my old Gossen Lunasix 3S and film was HP5 at EI 200.

It was developed in Pyrocat-HD for 18 minutes - 14 of those with gentle agitation of 4 inversions every minute and then 4 minutes standing time.

I took the Leica Table Top Tripod, but forgot that it only has a small screw and the Hasselblad has a large insert, so they're all handheld.

I am sure I can be forgiven any converging verticals because of this - it really wasn't that easy. 

Some extra stability was provided by the Optech Pro Strap I use - it has enough flex (being neoprene) so that you can push down on the camera at the same time as supporting it in the normal Hasselblad manner. This brings your neck into the equation too (it being where the strap is!). 

It's a technique I've used for years with the Rollei and mostly it sort of works.

I started at the bottom, went to the top then came back down, but I have resequenced the prints as it works better.

Oh and I asked permission of the security guard too!

Also, because of the nuttiness of our times, there are currently no cars parked there . . worra bonus!

Concrete Cathedral 1

Concrete Cathedral 2

Concrete Cathedral 3

Concrete Cathedral 4

Concrete Cathedral 5

Concrete Cathedral 6

Concrete Cathedral 7

I don't know about you, but I think the light is astonishing - it was around 5.30 and the sun had been up for around 40 minutes.

There was almost something cathedral-like about it, from deep shadow to bright sun and a slight morning mist caught on the floors, slanting Jacob's Ladders, wells of extreme darkness . . the whole lot really, but in car park form. 

I took the photos quite quickly - can't have taken much more than 40 minutes - and was home and packing my third cup of tea before the house was roused. 

And that's it.

Maybe you've got something Concrete and Brutalist near you - go and photograph it - it could be rewarding.

Oh and I nearly forgot to add that these are all straight scans off of the original prints, which were on Ilford MGRC at Grade 3 - they were straight prints with a little burning, but on the whole no faffing at all. 

I don't know why (well I do, because I bought a bulk 250 sheet box) but it seems to be becoming my regular go to paper these days; though I really should get my finger out and use some fibre-based stuff. This being said, you do get a really decent print off of MGRC and it is so damn quick to print and process . . . well.

I suppose that just points the finger that I'm a lazy sod . . .

I also need to mention that after years of not using it, I am now also using the timer that came with the DeVere - it is a wonderful old thing - a DeVere Electronic Timer. It is all Tan metal, Chicken Head Knobs and Bulk. 

Up till now I have been counting elephants, but, like all elephants they were becoming unruly and wandering . . . so . . . it is also hard to fit one on an interplanetary craft.

Sheephouse to Earth, over and out!

Infradig Daddio - Hepcats and Hacked Filters

Well, there I was, time on me hands and wondering what on earth possessed me to buy 20 rolls of expired Ilford SFX (albeit at the equivalent of £4 a roll).
I remembered that 17-odd years back, I'd gone through a phase of shooting it when it was around £3 a roll or given away with boxes of paper, but it's metetoric price rise (currently cresting approximately £12 a roll!) had put paid to me using it . . until now.

Allied to that, could I find my old Ilford gel filter material? 

Could I 'eck.

Well, all I can say is determination and much digging through boxes of stuff paid off. I found it! The only problem was, was that years back, in a thrift frame of mind, I'd decided to make my own IR filter using said Ilford gel, and a nifty Bayonet I Skylight Filter, so what I was left with was a 75mm square gel, with uneven roundals cut out of it . . . . but did I let it phase me? 

Did I 'eck!

After some careful unscrewing, trimming, re-screwing and cleaning - basically undoing the filter glass holding ring thingy, taking out the glass, putting a trimmed round of gel in, adding the glass and screwing up the ring holder again, I was ready to rumble! 

By the way, if you've never used it, I can highly recommend V-Vax Products ROR (Residual Oil Remover) - it does a great job of cleaning all that nasty greasy stuff you deposit all over everything, all day, every day.

By 'eck!!

It was a lovely sunny afternoon and I made my way to a sort of semi-secret spot I know . . . I say secret, but it's been a home to rough-sleepers in recent years, though sadly they always seem to be rumbled and their campsites trashed - I've discovered three trashed sites in recent months. 

Kids? 

Mental problems? 

Who knows, but the desperation of such actions certainly lends an air of melancholy to the places.

Bloomin' 'eck!!!

Camera was the old redoubtable mid-60's Rollei T; tripod my old Gitzo Reporter 224; meter the Lunasix 3S.

Stupidly, I forgot my Ilford reciprocity tables and I don't use a phone these days (too much faff) so the majority of exposures were based on total guesswork.

I was in deep shade all the time - the area is like entering a vast and deep glade with trees towering around you, banked on one side by cliff edge (yes . . in Dundee!). 

It is quite a place. 

Because of the heat of the day, the air was really humid and accumulating in Hot Steams. 

I didn't come up with that phrase - Harper Lee did in 'To Kill A Mockingbird'. 

Basically these hot patches of air (you surely must know exactly what I mean) signify the presence of restless spirits.

Believe what you wish, but they certainly leant an air to the place.

Flippin' 'eck !v

As usual, I'll detail the exposures after the contact.

Film 66/71 Ilford SFX ISO 12

Before I start - when using a Rollei for infrared, because there's no mark for it, always put the focus point (on the focus knob) forward to the f5.6 mark - it works. 

Oh and for all SFX - box ISO is 200, adjust to ISO 12

1. 1 second, f11 - MISTAKE!

2. 55 seconds, f11  - Guessed - bloke started chatting!

3. 1 minute, f11 (40 seconds f8)

4. 1 minute 30 seconds, f11

5. 7 seconds, f8

6. 8 seconds reading - took to 35 seconds, f11

7. 1 second, f5.6

8. 1 second, f 11 MISTAKE!

9. 1 minute reading - took to 3 mins, f11

10. 15 seconds - took to 25 seconds, f5.6

11. 120 seconds, f11

12. 1 minute reading - took to 3 mins, f11

Pyrocat-HD, 5+5+500ml, 21℃; Gentle agitation (with Paterson agitation rod) to 14 minutes, stand to 18 minutes.

Good results considering the reciprocity was all guesswork.

Use ISO 12 all the time.

You're reading the exposures from the bottom left up and then bottom middle up, then bottom right up.

As you can see, the exposures were wildly long in a lot of cases, and this gave me my other worry - the Rollei T is totally prone to internal flare especially with anything less than half a second. Fortunately I'd remembered the hood, but all the same, I thought that with times like these the whole film would be a mess . . . well, I guess the deep glade helped a great deal, and the filter too obviously.

The filter gel by the way is no longer manufactured by Ilford, but you can get similar IR gels from the likes of Lee and if you have a Rollei and don't fancy paying a thousand pounds for a Rollei Rot, then using an old UV the way I have and cutting your own is the way to go - there's no detriment to image quality. The gel is safely held in the filter holder, protected at the front by glass and at the back by the lens cavity . . 

No doubt someone will chime in about using a UV combined with a IR, but the results speak, so without getting super-technical . . .
Oh, and there's a lot of f11 isn't there - optimum setting for a Rollei T's Tessar!

Also, on the advice of Darkroom Dave's website, I changed the box speed of ISO 200 to ISO 12 - the combination of all this and developed in Pyrocat-HD has given me some wonderfully easy to print negatives.
Jammy 'eck!

Dream Sequence 1

Dream Sequence 2

Dream Sequence 3

Dream Sequence 4

Dream Sequence 5

Dream Over

David M, regular commenter and welcome reader of FB, said I take a lot of pictures of gates and windows and things because I am (sort of) channelling my own (self-made) barriers (sort of). 

Here's his quote:

But there's another series embedded and it's about barriers. The expanded metal gates, the fences, even the hanging banners. Even the dark shadow across the path in the distant view of the V&A. All some kind of barrier or obstruction between the camera and the objects or path behind. 

It's hard to say for me really - I think he could be right and it is the sort of philosophical debate I'd welcome over a pint or two in front of a cosy fire (it the pubs ever survive this torpor)

Anyway, at the end of the day the whole exposure guessing worked so well for me, that I've just purchased a proshade for the Hasselblad and a Lee IR filter . . . can't wait to use it on the SWCM (and I'll take my reciprocity tables next time!)

Oh and the prints were a piece of cake to print - no faffin' all Grade 3 with Ilford MGRC. 

I love it when a plan comes together!

Till next time, Sheephouse to Earth . . . over and oot!