Return To Sender

Good morning folks I trust everyone is well and keeping fit and getting themselves prepared for Winter, because it is coming!

Oh yes, as they say around these parts "The nights are fair drawing in" . . . you can sense it early mornings too, apart from the lesser levels of light, there's also that Autumnal feel to the air.

Hard to believe that we're only just a wee bit along from the Solstice and we've already had a proper storm.

Anyway, Winter - photographically it's a time of year I tend to prefer. 

I like the HARD shadows and the angle of the Sun. 

It can make for quite dramatic compositions.

But in the meantime, and until it sets in properly, we have sun and rain . . . and wind.

Thankfully my large portion of decoration is done for a bit. 

I must have painted the best part of 250 m² of wall and ceiling and actually had to deal with a hallway containing ten doorways and one large walk-in cupboard and their associated woodwork! 

At such points (and at such an age) your body starts to complain a bit - not sure if any of you have suffered from Roller Grip, but it is ferking painful and has manifested itself in something that frankly feels like the start of an arthritic joint on the knuckle of my index finger. 

Combat Decoration is a young man's game, though I actually see now that I probably could've done it for a living. 

(If I do say so myself) I do a nice clean job and after half a day's practice my freehand cutting with oil paint is very very neat indeed; but as an occupation I think it would have been purgatory and in all honesty I reckon it wouldn't have just been the wallpaper that was hanging. 

Anyway, I am done now I can get back into the darkroom.

Tower Bridge

I actually HAD to restart printing because I wanted to show stuff at the DCA Forum and I literally had nothing to show. 

Normally I take along carefully crafted landscapes; printed usually 8.5" x 8.5"' on 9.5" x 12"'' paper and they really work for me; even when I had to move down to 10" x 8" paper, the level of craft in them was still the same. They're something I am proud of.

But time was of the essence, and considering I hadn't used a MF camera since May, And I had to take something . . . out came a new toy. 

An Agilux easel - the Agimask 75 - all metal. 

Made in England. 

Goodness knows how old . . . . 

The (Newly Painted) Flat Black Bit Is The Upper Frame Edge

I was given it a while back, so gave it a go and was going to pass it on again (as I thought it was fairly worthless) but looking at it closer and with a different mindset, I thought gosh that's actually perfect for postcards or 6" x 4" paper  . . . . and you know what, it is! 

It's one caveat is you cannot adjust the side of the border on the top left edge. 

You are always going to be a fixed couple of millimetres of border and so you have to adjust the sliding L-shaped bit accordingly. 

But it is solid and it works pretty well - certainly better than say a small Durst frame; it's one main problem is that the gripping edge of the top L-part shape of the frame is a hammered aluminium with a pretty shiny looking finish. 

Given as I was printing from very overexposed negatives and obviously had to expose them for considerably longer than one would normally expect (even at f11) I was consequently getting shine off the aluminium which was resulting in a line of darker exposure on the print. 

So out came the ever handy tub of Tamiya Flat Matt Acrylic modelling paint (if you need to touch up matt bits on cameras, this is good [but not perfect as there can sometimes be a mild sheen] however base it against the outrageous costs of optical matt paint and I would say it isn't half bad). 

Anyway, a couple of quick coats along the offending bits of metal and a blast with a hairdryer and we were good to go.

And you know what? It worked a treat and a great deal better and easier  than my LEITZ wooden easel from the 1950s. 

I used to use that for postcards but I found that the spring metal grippers actually used to slide out of position and I wasted a huge amount of paper even after doing daft things - like custom cutting a L-shaped frame of card and taping it to the board, and crafting rubber bungs to shove in the side 'oles to stop the mechanism moving. 

So from now on, Agilux it is.

I do profess a deep love for postcards - to me they're a beautiful way of presenting a 35mm negative - small enough to enquire a closer look, but not so big as you loose the effect, or go, ooooo, that's not sharp at all. In other words, in a world full of hyper-real photographs that are razor-sharp from front to back, the postcard represents a small piece of lovingly crafted ART that is good to hold and good to look at. 

If you're a committed 35mm photographer - try printing some - it might just surprise you. 

You can also add a proper stamped back too (what a shame Ilford stopped printing a proper postcard back on this paper).

And on with the pictures.

Normally (if you've read this load of old borrocks long enough) you'll know that I tend to mostly produce landscapes. 

It is highly unusual for me to take pictures of people and when I do, they tend to just be in the scene accidentally. 

Well when I was on holiday last year (amongst the cut and thrust of London) I had little choice but to include people - often lots - and I quite enjoyed it! 

I think it is an area I shall pursue more . . . the lifeless urban shot is over - bring on the folks!

Mostly they were taken with the old 1958 Canon L2 with the 1950's 35 mm rangefinder Nikkor - a superlative lens, just the right amount of coating and very sharp (in 35mm terms). 

Although again, as with all things, there is a caveat and that is that it is very difficult to adjust the Aperture, but Hey Ho, it is almost a "set it and forget it" lens anyway.

Oh and they're all scanned off of prints made on 6x4" Ilford Portfolio - Pearl finish - as nice a paper as you could wish. 

The chocolatey tone is imparted by Ilford PQ Universal developer at 1+9 . . . not Selenium.

Soho Square - Everyone Was High Or Drunk . . 
Apart From The Chinese Girl Playing

The Globe

Piccadilly

Tower Bridge

Holborn

Horizon 22

Sadly at The Forum, I didn't get too many comments, though one was:

"They look old!" 

Yeah I suppose they do - never really thought about it like that.

I enjoyed printing them though - some 20 cards over two mornings - not too shabby - I am slowly bringing myself back to life - fingers crossed that things improve . . they couldn't have been much worse to be honest.

You can stick that paintbrush where you couldn't fit a 5 litre tin of Emulsion . . . 

Till the next time - remember An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away . . . especially if you throw it hard enough.

H xx