Flotsam

Hi folks, yes I know, slapped legs and so on - I HAVE been remiss, but maybe time off can be quite a good thing.

FB has always been an 'occasional' as they used to call magazine-type things back in ye anciente dayes of printing - albeit this year it has been very much so.

The reasons for my tardiness were detailed in earlier posts, but hey, look, I haven't stopped; I still look at who is reading this and whilst riddled with guilt and wringing my hands, think:

"Ooooh - I must get some more FB done."

So there, I am slowly moving forward, with the emphasis on slowly.

Aftermath Of A Winter's Storm

Anyway, I surprised myself recently and actually spent a whole afternoon (wet and windy, with squall and some sun) printing. 

It was sheer heaven actually. 

Just 5x7" RC prints, all popped in the newly-gifted Leitz easel - a thing of great joy and comfort for reasons I don't understand - a Beard is better - but that being said it is so darn simple just to plop a bit or paper in there and go. 

It's beautifully made too; a little bit corroded in places, but is solid. 

It holds the paper well - none of this lifting of the border edge setters, or paper slipping underneath them as often happens with the Beard - it's just slide it in and go.

I was printing some results from recent walks.

"Wot? We fort you hadn't been takin' no fotograffs?!"

Well, I haven't, at least not seriously (as in going out to actively seek them) however, I will, these days, load a 35mm camera (in this case the M2 with 35mm Summaron) and just carry it with me on weekend constitutionals with t'missus. 

As my Dad used to say:

"The things you see when you haven't got your gun."

It applies to cameras too.

So there we were, a strollin' along, looking at fings and generally having a very nice time, when I noticed something.

This was probably one of the lowest tides I'd ever seen on the Tay, and really if I'd been paying attention I'd have spotted earlier that there seems to be a newish Dundee ritual of chucking what look like perfectly good bikes in the river.

We'd passed at least another two before I started noticing them - it took time for my brain to process things - I'd never make a good sports photographer.

So here's two of them - they'd probably make a really nice series, but remember if you're here and start doing them, I've got first dibs, right?

Bike 1

Bike 2

I was struck by the yucky, seaweedy, muddy contrast against the hard angularity of the bikes and it brought to mind a picture I had taken about 4 or 5 years back in the aftermath of an incredible Winter's storm in the Grampians.

Aftermath Of A Winter's Storm

Understandably, this just looks like a pile of wood and stones, but to understand how it became so sculptural, one has to get the lie of the land right. 

This was taken at the point where a tributary of the Whitewater runs into it. 

To get to this point, the waters gather themselves from a mountainous plateau of peat bog and hard rock and gullies.

The height of the plateau averages around 2500-3000 feet above sea level; it is a vast, mostly featureless water-gathering area.

The rains saturate the land; it is a place of storm, sun, wind, but rarely if ever 'low' water levels.

Everything then descends: both underground and overground.

It falls through deep-cut gullies and channels; it runs beneath the moss and hillsides, giving the traveler on a clear and sunny day the feeling that the earth is forever in motion and life cannot end.

Here and there the run-offs join and co-join and force their amassings into deeper gullies of rock and boulder, Scot's Pine and impenetrable brush. 

And then, by pool and bend, the gathering puts a brake on itself and becomes a feeder, neither loch nor burn but something inbetween, where a deep pool forms and becomes the final point of exit into the river. 

It was at this final point that I took this photograph.

The weirdest thing about this is that about 150 metres upstream there's a stalker's bridge.

It is so old and rickety, that it would be easy for the burn that runs underneath to destroy it utterly and without thought, were it in spate. 

The flotsam here though had not come from the gullies above that bridge - there was too much and it was all too big; so I can only surmise that we're looking at such a force of rain falling, concentrated into the space of about 150 metres, that it was strong enough to bring this lower stretch to some form of extremis.

Strong enough to move considerable quantities of trees and rocks and deposit them as if they were nothing.

Such is the power of our planet. 

Respect it.

The photograph was taken with the Hasselblad 500C/M and the humble 150mm Sonnar - a truly remarkable lens and your cheapest option with Hassie lenses. 

It is the out of focus qualities coupled with the incredible detail that I like best about this photograph. 

And it is also easy to see why a 150mm Sonnar is probably the best Hasselblad lens for portraiture - I think the aperture was about f5.6.

Film was Ilford FP4 (developed in Pyrocat-HD) and I was on a tripod - no, not me, the camera.

And that's it folks - briefer than a tight-fitting pair of Y-Fronts.

Nature eh - who'd have thought it.

Take care and till next time, remember:

Pease Pudding Hot

Pease Pudding Cold

Pease Pudding In The Pot

Ugh!

Actually, this being said, I haven't had Pease Pudding since about 1973 whilst staying at my Grans. I bet I'd love it these days.

Keep taking the pills.

H.

Tunnel Vision

Well folks, a mercifully short one today!

Y'know, there I was farting around with digital colour stuff recently, and I would enthusiastically go out and make a few photos and come home and view them on screen and they looked nice and that was that.
None of them have ever been printed.
Same with holiday things too - see my recent posts about holiday cameras for all the boring detail . . .
You know, since acquiring a 'digital holiday compact' about 11 years ago we've only printed ONE set of photos whereas when we used to send the film off, despite the groans, we always had something to file away!

Anyway at the same time I was thinking about upgrading digitally, I was also reading a book by William Boyd called 'Sweet Caress', whose main character, Amory Clay, is a female photographer (! I know, who'd a thunk it !) . . and there was one bit in it, that hit me like an ice-pick between the eyebrows . . 

She said (semi-retired and photographing her growing family) that when colour processing and colour film started to become more readily available and cheaper to use, she couldn't see things in colour, only black and white.

"Amongst the few pictures I did take some were in colour - Kodachrome slides, expensive but becoming the norm. However even as I could see my pictures reflected the world as it was I somehow wanted the world as it wasn't - in monochrome. That was my medium, I knew, and in fact I came to feel it so strongly I wondered if, as the world turned to colour photography, something vital was being lost. The black and white image was, in some essential way, photography's defining feature - that was where its power lay and colour diminished its artfulness: paradoxically, monochrome - because it was so evidently unnatural - was what made a photograph work best.
  I would carefully rewrap my cameras    - my Leica, my Rollei, my Voigtlander - and place them back on their shelf in the cupboard and, as I locked the door on them, I wondered if I'd ever be a proper photographer again."

© William Boyd, Sweet Caress, Pub. Bloomsbury, 2015

And like a seagull coming down and crapping all over your bag of chips, there it was . . ME DEFINED.

I am a monochrome photographer.

Suddenly the fartiness and cobwebs blew away and I thought, what on earth was the point in chasing a digital dream in colour, when I only, truly, dream like early Ai - they were making them back in the 1960's y'know - that is comprehensively and completely in BLACK AND WHITE.

Boyd (not a photographer, though he'll often jemmie in a Leica or Nikon into his books) has somehow managed to nail something so firmly and perfectly that I (as someone who takes a fair number of photographs) has had to stand back and think.

Thank you William.

I've enjoyed the majority of his writing over the years since discovering Armadillo back in the 1990's,  but since Lorimer Black (of Armadillo fame) I've never empathised with a character of his like I did with Amory Clay - even though we are of different sexes (well, we were last time I looked) . .

It's funny recommending books - does anyone actually read any more???

All I can say, is if you don't mind a bit of swearing and sauciness, and enjoy the living of other lives that good writing can bring, give it a shot.

Chinese Gentleman Plays Tale Of Tale's Game "The Graveyard"
V&A Dundee, June 2019
Leica M2, 35mm f3.5 Summaron, Ilford FP4+

The above was shot on FP4 at f3.5 on the Leica. I think I was braced against a wall - exposure was about a half a second. It was pretty much dark darkness, and I thought:

Bollocks, I'll have a go with the Summaron wide open and see what comes out. 

It was one of those Noctilux moments with not a £3000+ piece of glass in sight!

There's a lovely quality to the f3.5 Summaron that isn't as contrasty as the f2.8 version - it somehow lets light breath.

It was processed in my new mix of Pyrocat from Wet Plate Supplies. I am standardising down a few minutes from my usual, so now I agitate everything to 14 mins (Constant first 30 secs, then 4 gentle inversions every minute) then let it stand to 17 mins. Seems to work fine.

It was printed on some really really old Kentmere fibre - I'll tell you how old it is, it was made in Cumbria before Ilford took them over!
The paper is fine and still fast and gives super blacks - the print will outlast me and somewhere down the road if it doesn't get skipped someone will wonder what on earth was going on in 2019 (I always write printing details and dates on the back of my prints in 2B pencil).

Were I of a different bent I'd have said:

"Well the camera was stopping me taking the picture because it thought I was wrong, but I hunted through a few menus and managed to over-ride it. What you are seeing is a RAW file on a screen. The bloody lens was hunting all over the place though and the Chinese man, concentrating on leading the old lady around the graveyard, started to get really annoyed when my focus assist light kept going off."

And where's the charm in that?

Anyway, trousers firmly nailed to the flagpole.
Never say die.
Black and White tattooed on my bum.
That's me.

I'm In The Phone Booth (It's The One Across The Hall)

So qouth Ms. Harry when I was but a tender bit of a lad and she was the one girl that every boy at Lockerbie wanted to date. They were heady days, were them 1978/79 days - all exams and hormones and in my case (woe is me) pain and loneliness.

But anyway, enough o' that guff, I think that was the point in time that the British Phone Box became cemented in my being. Jings it was expensive to actually own your very own wired phone in your own house; we had one at home, but I had to really think (and ask permission) if it was OK for me to phone Steve in London on a Saturday afternoon . . . and even when I could it was for a restricted time . . . London was a long way away!

And then I moved to this Lost City on the East coast of Scotland. Being but a poor student, I had to rely on phone boxes for saying hello to all the parts of my family that were roughly a billion miles away (well, they might have been in real terms). 

Yes I wrote letters, frequently, received food parcels from my Mum, received letters from Steve and not so much from the rest of my family, but if I really wanted to speak to someone that wasn't paper, then it was load up the 10p's and head to the nearest phone box. 

I guess you can say that I became acutely familiar with that strange mixture of stainless steel, and business cards, scratched polycarbonate windows and the delightful tangy whiff of the end of an evening well spent inside the box . . . 

(Why do guys pee in phone boxes? Probably the same reason they sometimes pee in their own wardrobes [true story . . not me] anyway, it's utterly disgusting, but when the next nearest box is a mile or so away, you put up with it . . .) 

The bog standard phone box became a feature of my life - a wee lifeline home.

So, a number of years back (after I'd given them up and had owned my own actual phone for a long time) it occurred to me that with the relentless march of personal communication these doyens of British public life were falling into a massive state of disrepair. 

I started looking at them seriously and realised that neglect was really nibbling their edges, so I started photographing them. 

Now obviously I could have made them formal, straight up and down 'portraits' but that wasn't in the slightest what interested me, because (rather like that heady mix of burned cheese and brick hard pasta at the end of a lasagne, or the wonderful carbonised pieces of meat and onion in the bottom of a cast-iron griddle after a well-fired steak) the interiors of these boxes were taking on a superbly gnarly, crusty 'air' of abandonment and reflections and light. 

They were like small worlds of utter strangeness that, though being a part of the general everyday scene, were, in themselves far apart from anything normal. 

It was this I saw and started to photograph.

I think I might well have been the first in this obsession, because I've quite a ton of photos of these worlds now, probably enough to have an exhibition with, and, more importantly,  I've not seen anyone else doing the same thing . . . stick that in yer pipe and smoke it. 

You read it here first, so don't go nicking my ideas.

Well, recently I've been a bad lad actually - no photographs taken with the M2 since last June which is just terrible isn't it. 

I'd loaded a film (FP 4) last September with a view to taking it to Edinburgh, which I did, but wanting to enjoy the experience and not just keep stopping to take photographs, I managed a scant handful, came home again and carefully stored the M2 away with the film still in it.

And months passed.

A few weekends back I thought I really must do something about it, so, a trip to the home of golf and use the film up, which I did. Results were developed in the now standard for me Pyrocat-HD.

But before I show them, I think I have also discovered the very best way to hold a Leica (in my opinion).
Up till now I've used a wrist strap mostly, and because of the relative lightness of the camera that worked really well.
I've also used a standard strap over my shoulder carrying it at about hip height, which didn't work so well, but then inspired by Ernst Haas and this self-portrait with a Leicaflex I started thinking differently:

Ernst Haas - Self Portait, New York, 1971

I really tightened up the length on my Domke Gripper strap, draped it around my neck and it worked like a charm.

Chest height is good, because you can simply hold the camera as you walk and stop it banging around, but it is always ready to go and not too far to move from chest to eye. 

With your camera fully around your neck, it sort of makes you look like a tourist which is also good. Plus if you get to look even a tenth as cool as Ernst Haas in that photograph then all is right with the world!

This is the way forward to me - I know it sounds basic, but comfort with the camera and also how the camera looks to the outside world is an important thing.
Like this you look a bit of a putz and less of a threat and I really don't think anyone would take you seriously . . . at least that's my opinion.

Anyway, enough of the obvious, here's a few boxy pictures - I've photographed this particular box many times and it always turns up something interesting - this time it's where UV is cracking all the film stickers on the box/booth.

Don't Fence Me In 1

Don't Fence Me In 2

I wanted to find more pictures of this box, but since changing over my system all my filing of scans has gone to pot, so I didn't find them, however I did chance upon these two, which were taken in Edinburgh (about a year ago with the M2 and the Canon 28mm; film was TMX 400 and it was developed in 1+50 Rodinal.)
I love these two, especially the last one, which gives me the idea of a sort of space age rendezvous, and I have no idea why!
One thing you'll notice when taking pictures of phone boxes is that to get in tight, you need a wide-angle and you will also be restricted by the dimensions of the box (ie. the framework of the box will nearly always intrude in some manner, be it a reflection or the thing itself) but it's worth it - focus on your point of interest  inside or outside the box and let happenstance take the rest of the photo . . the results are nearly always interesting.

Don't Fence Me In 3

Don't Fence Me In 4

Well that's about it. I've spared you hours of reading this time!
No doubt phone boxes are in danger in your part of the world too - document them if you have them - they'll not be around for much longer.
And tell them Sheephouse sent you!

TTFN, . . . .

" . . . thus spake Billy Fury, ten years ago . . . ten years ago, that's a long time ago. What is happening now, that's an interesting question. Now what is happening now . . . I'll tell you what's happening now . . . urgh, Jean Jeanie flies on her own man . . . 

We're getting rather frustrated with one thing and another, this is the solution . . . 

Violence, violence, it's the only thing that'll make you see sense . . . "

OK you need to be a Mott The Hoople fan to get that last bit . . . 

Working From One End To The Other (And All Points In Between)

Well folks, the festives are upon us again - so he's blocked up the chimley, nailed don't-land-here-bird-pokey-spike-things to every available landing surface and yer Sheephouse has been finally relaxing and imbibing plenty of Woods Old Navy rum and typing - and rather like an avalanche waiting to happen and thinking what the hell will he round things off with, he thought:
'Yes, dammit, heck . . . well, why not? A summary of the year . . . yesh, thash a good idea' (hic).

In much the same way, Basil Rathbone exclaims "My dear Watson, you astound me . . ." in The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes (1939) . . . (none of this modern BBC stuff here, oh no, I like my Sherlock in tweed and pipe) so I wonder why I haven't done it before.

Ed's note: Look, I've had to read and re-read this a number of times . . . there's a lot of pictures, and it does come across like one of those yearly round-robbin (as in Look-at-all-the-wonderful-things-we-special-people-got-up-to-this-year) Christmas cards you used to get from folk at your Mum and Dad's church . . . but I don't think he means it like that. It's more of a kick up the pants to himself . . .
The Light waits for no man, and soon, very soon, the last glimpse you get of the world is that coffin lid closing and the flare of gas jets, so let it be more of a salutory, Dickensian-style, "Get Thy Finger Oot Whilst You Still Have Time."

Sub-Ed's note: Look this is supposed to be the Festive Season . . . it's not that bad, so grab a bagel and a cup of Java and let's get on with it!

I suppose the supposition is that the life of a blogger and especially one that writes about oooooo, photography, is an exciting round of gear, gottle-of-gear, adoring followers, Tweets from the WHITE HEAT of Photogblogging, Farcebook posts, more gear and people thinking you are the second coming of Ansel.
Well, I'm sure Bruce at the Online Darkroom would agree with me that it is nothing like that!
Us poor bunch ("poor bunch" being distinct from the whatsisnames and whatsisnames, you know who I mean . . whatsisname) tend to write about The Process rather than Yer Actual Gear.
Who gives a shit about how people actually use tools these days -  it's ALL ABOUT THE TOOL isn't it . . isn't it? Certainly seems that way from where I am standing.

But gear does come into it (to a greater or lesser extent) and I can completely confirm that acquiring new (old) stuff is an addictive and expensive buzz but also enormous fun and an integral part of what we do.
I think I've come to realise that I rather like having a ton of daft old cameras around - it aids the creative process, by giving things a new edge, and with the exception of my almost total neglect of 5x4 this year (and with around 250-300 sheets to use) I think I have explored the fringes of my wee collection quite well.

However, at the end of the day if you've nothing to show for it . . .

Anyway, maybe my idea of a summary isn't so good - yes I've bought a number of photographic aids this year, but if the truth be told I have done precious little photography and almost no printing - a lot of the stuff here is scanned from contacts (gasp!!) - to be honest I have not had the time to have a good darkroom session since around May.
That's appalling, but it has been my reality this year.
Never mind - what you'll get in what follows is periods of stasis and general other stuff, interspersed with intensive bits of creativity.
In fact so polarised is it, that I think my end of year report could read

" . . . Sheephouse . . . shows willing, could do better."

Anyway, here goes, hold onto your hats and watch a semi-creative year unfurl before your very eyes!

JANUARY

I started with optimism. Spent all my Christmas money, and more on an Arca B-1 ballhead, which was a total revelation to use along with the Hasselblad. Yes it was a few years old, and yes it came from the same family of the infamous Arca lockup (google it - plenty of info) however mine is a later model in which the problem has been sorted out (the PMF B-1) - it was boxed and in 'as new' condition from those lovely chaps at Ffordes and it grips heavy loads like a bulldog on your nadgers making using the Hasselblad a total cinch on top of ye anciente Gitzo Reporter.

Having just about survived Storm Gertrude (a neighbour's roof had a whole 3.5 foot by 1.5 foot Victorian chimney pot embed itself into it from about 60 feet up) I marshalled myself at the end of the month with an expired 2010 roll of Neopan 400, and went out on a dreich and overcast afternoon to produce this.

Film 66/18 - Expired 2010 Neopan 400 (EI 200) in 1+50 Rodinal. Hasselblad Panoramic Adapter

FEBRUARY

Took the M2 and Canon 28mm f3.5 to Edinburgh and took some snaps, but didn't develop the film for quite a while.

MARCH

(Almost) not a sausage done.

APRIL

Developed photos from February and a handful from March - to quote my diaries:

 "Total shite - worst photos I have ever taken"

See what you think (these are probably the best!):

Film 35/40 - TMX400 (EI 320) in 1+50 Rodinal

Film 35/40 - TMX400 (EI 320) in 1+50 Rodinal

Seriously thought about binning 35mm altogether.

Took the Hasselblad out and in a brief moment of Dad free-time I had a total blast with the Hasselblad handheld!

Film 66/19 - More Expired 2010 Neopan 400 (EI 200) in Rodinal 1+50

Film 66/19 - More Expired 2010 Neopan 400 (EI 200) in Rodinal 1+50

Had a rethink about 35mm and bought a super-cheap (sub £55) 28mm f3.5 Nikkor and an ancient CCS Gladstone bag (it was really cheap [30-odd quid] and in brilliant condition. It holds all my MF stuff comfortably and was a bargain compared to a new bag (CCS no longer exist, but their bags are stil laround - not made in the Far East, but here in the UK).
So it was that fully loaded and me and the missus off for a short long-weekend to my favourite place. It held the Hasselblad, Leitz Table Top Tripod, Rollei T AND the Nikon F3 with the 28mm Nikkor and a 50mm Nikkor as backup + notebooks, books, film, reading material etc etc - it's like the tardis of bags.

Action Man - of course, I could reveal my location, but then I'd have to kill you.

Film 66/21 -TXP 320 (EI 320) in Pyrocat-HD - eventually developed in May

Film 66/21 -TXP 320 (EI 320) in Pyrocat-HD - eventually developed in May

You can't get an idea of the sheer sharpness (and atmosphere) from these scans, even at 3200 dpi off of the contact sheet - take it from me they're SHARP AND ATMOSPHERIC!

Film 35/41 - Tri-X 400 (EI 320) developed in 1+50 Rodinal
It never struck me at the time, but these are like two Ents.

Film 35/41 - Tri-X 400 (EI 320) developed in 1+50 Rodinal

Film 35/41 - Tri-X 400 (EI 320) developed in 1+50 Rodinal

You know, for all the pixel-peepers say "Oh you've got to get the 28mm f2.8 Nikkor as it is soooo much sharper . . oooh, look at those pixels" the f3.5 is what the likes of Don McCullin and his 60's/70's compadres used and you know what - it is no slouch, especially on film.
A very cheap, solid, but decent performing lens!

There was a very good Scottish Photographers meeting at Alan and Sheila's in Perth at the end of the month - as usual, it was great to be able to talk and talk nothing but photography for an afternoon.

MAY

Bought a Pyrocat-HD kit off of eBay.

Had a fabulous time with the Hasselblad at St Andrews Botanical gardens, photographing their incredible collection of condensation, dried-on plant food marks (seriously!) and weird reflections in the hot-houses. If you're ever in St Andrews just go - one of the nicest Botanical gardens in Britain.
Vic the Hasselblad was handheld again - seriously - a total revelation about how to use a large, non-TLR, MF camera - I can imagine with the standard 80mm it would be even more of a joy to use.

Film 66/22 - TMX 400 (EI 320) in 1+50 Rodinal

Film 66/22 - TMX 400 (EI 320) in 1+50 Rodinal

Tested the newly arrived Pyrocat-HD kit on some sheet film . . hopeless results - operator error:

"What the feck is going on? . . Oh yeah, that's ANOTHER couple of quid down the drain . . . "
TXP 320 (EI 320) in Pyrocat-HD 1+1+100 - way too thin at that speed . . people used to say that about me!

Yeah I know I look like a Granny in the above - the lens was the 90mm Super-Angulon

Processed my MF films from April.

JUNE

Had been thinking about a Leicaflex as I so wanted to get a Summicron and it was the cheapest way, but after a few salutory emails from Ffordes about de-silvering prisms and an email from Bruce about perceived lens quality, I went mad, looked at as many old Leica photographs as I could find and finally bought myself a 35mm Summaron for the M2.
What a lovely lens - detailed in "Stepping Up To The Mark".

I tested the lens with a film I'd started using in the Nikon F back in mid-May, so I counted the exposed frames, rewound it and got back to the same point on the film in the M2.
Film was developed in P-HD. First two pics from Nikon end of roll, third a weird double 28mm Nikkor/35mm Summaron double exposure and fourth all M2/Summaron baby.

Tri-X 400 (EI 320) developed in Pyrocat-HD - 1+1+100

Tri-X 400 (EI 320) developed in Pyrocat-HD - 1+1+100

Tri-X 400 (EI 320) developed in Pyrocat-HD - 1+1+100

Tri-X 400 (EI 320) developed in Pyrocat-HD - 1+1+100

Holidays - hurrah!

I love UK-based holidays, because I can settle in to using where we are staying (usually caravans) as a base to explore the surrounding countryside and use my cameras to the point of exhaustion!

I took the Hasselblad and the M2 with the 35mm Summaron and loads of film. I've taken the 5x4 before, but (as detailed last year) using a changing bag is a total PITA, so this time thought, well why not use the Hasselblad for my 'serious' shots, and it worked a dream.

The Summaron shots were detailed in the post "Stepping Up To The Mark" from July and some of the Hasselblad ones are in "4K Burning Moggie" from September.

Here's some I didn't post:

FP4 (EI 50) - developed in Pyrocat-HD - 1+1+100

FP4 (EI 50) - developed in Pyrocat-HD - 1+1+100

You really do have to lose some speed with P-HD - EI 50 seems to suit FP4 well - my times and agitation were:
Constant and Gentle for 30secs
2 inversions per minute
Keep that going till 17mins, then let it stand to 20 mins.
Temperature was 20 degrees

FP4 (EI 50) - developed in Pyrocat-HD - 1+1+100
This was taken at twilight, wide open.

FP4 (EI 50) - developed in Pyrocat-HD - 1+1+100

FP4 (EI 50) - developed in Pyrocat-HD - 1+1+100

FP4 (EI 50) - developed in Pyrocat-HD - 1+1+100

FP4 (EI 50) - developed in Pyrocat-HD - 1+1+100

FP4 (EI 50) - developed in Pyrocat-HD - 1+1+100

FP4 (EI 50) - developed in Pyrocat-HD - 1+1+100

FP4 (EI 50) - developed in Pyrocat-HD - 1+1+100

FP4 (EI 50) - developed in Pyrocat-HD - 1+1+100

FP4 (EI 50) - developed in Pyrocat-HD - 1+1+100

FP4 (EI 50) - developed in Pyrocat-HD - 1+1+100

FP4 (EI 50) - developed in Pyrocat-HD - 1+1+100

I'll nail my trousers to the mast here and say that the 35mm f3.5 Summaron has that vintage look in spades - it's sharp, it's creamy, it's got GREAT (but subtle) contrast and above all it's damn pictorial - there's a pleasing quality that I haven't found with any other lens.
Just wonderful.

JULY

Despite showing the pics from June last month, the holiday ones were processed in July . . carefully!

Went for a 12 mile hillwalk, carrying no camera gear but the Leica M2 and Summaron and Leitz table top tripod - it was a revelation and I rather like the cut of the jib of a Summaron as a landscape lens - a joyous tool to carry and use and as I've said before, want a reliable companion tripod but can't be bothered with a big 'un? get a Leitz table top - brilliant wee things.

Loch Esk
Film 35/46 - TMX 100 (EI 50) - Pyrocat-HD 1+1+100

The Sedge At Loch Esk
Film 35/46 - TMX 100 (EI 50) - Pyrocat-HD 1+1+100

 

Leica M2, Leitz 35mm f3.5 Summaron, Leitz Table Top Tripod

The Mythical Wild Man Of The North (caught in reflective mood)
Film 35/46 - TMX 100(EI 50) - Pyrocat - HD 1+1+100

Film 35/46 - TMX 100 -PHD 1+1+100, EI 50

And this is what Storm Gertrude did to a bridge in a glen back in January - the bridge was solid as a rock, but nature had other ideas!

The flat concrete bit is bolted to a boulder that must weigh a couple of tons, the bridge was bolted to the concrete with concrete piers too. All gone - I kind of wish I'd been there to see it.

Ed and Sub-Ed's note: Non-photographic, essential stuff coming up.

Discovered my chimney was in a state of disrepair . . . basically the flue for the old boiler that was present when we moved into the house, was a steel pipe, dropped down an (unknown to me) chimney. The flaunching (a word I'd never heard till this year) had perished and basically the top of the chimney was wide open to the elements! OK, so it's an old (1888) chimney and has been dealt with in an awful way by intervening generations . . so, me being me, and bouyed-up by last years use of hairy lime putty to bed in my front windows, I started investigating and reading and eventually got some NHL (Non-hydraulic Lime) 5.
This is lime, the stuff they used to use before cement ruled everything - it's a time-consuming but benevolent mortar mix. It is also hydroscopic, so unlike cement (which is utterly waterproof from both sides) lime mortar allows moisture to pass from its interior to its exterior! This was just what I needed considering the fabric of the chimney stack had become damp.

Eek! Slate covers old chimney and flue is below.

So, work was required, and that meant me!

AUGUST

After a quiet statement to myself of "Holy Bungos" I got started and rebuilt the exposed part of the stack with the NHL - I used a premixed version from Conservation lime - it was very nice stuff and really does improve your muscle tone trying to mix it!
The hardest part was stopping it drying out too quickly in the really hot weather we were getting so I was hopping up the ladder three times a day with my plant sprayer and spraying it down and then covering it over.
With lime they recommend you use hessian sacking to cover it with because it stays moist, however I didn't have any so had to make do with painters exterior masking tape (the orange stuff) and those giant blue Ikea bags which are really rather good.
Anyway after 8 days of this regime, I was ready to expose my work. And it seemed to have dried fine, it is however no wonder modern builders rarely use it - it's so time-consuming, and these days no one has the time do they?

Anyway, at the same time of doing this I thought I'd use a roof coating to go over the felt. We have about 18sq metres of flat stuff - and economy was the name of the game; so after HOURS of debate and study I settled on a product by Scotch/3M called Scotchkote. It is a range of coatings, all designed for industrial purposes - they're breathable and come in a range of systems ranking from 5 year before first maintenance right up to 25 year! I was impressed by this and also by some feedback from industrial roofers, so I put my money where my brain was.
I went with the 5 year (Polytech LS 657), because it was the most economical.
But this ties into next month . . so . . and still no photography done . . .

Flue still there, but now upper section is rebuilt with lime.

Oh and I liberated some pensioners of their pocket money, went mad and bought myself a guitar.

SEPTEMBER

Well, what a beautiful month! The weather was something else at the start.

I chickened out at the thought of taking film through an airport, sold the Canon EOS and used the funds to buy a Sony A6000 and a Metabones Nikkor adapter, seeing as I have tons of Nikkors lying around like leaves off a tree . . . 

And guess what . . another holiday!
This time we scraped together all our spare change, robbed a few more pensioners and flew to Amsterdam and then by train to Brussels.

The shots were detailed in "Ogden's Not Gone Flake" published in September, but here's a few more.

Film 00100111001 - Sony A6000 + 35mm f2 Nikkor-O

Film 00100111001 - Sony A6000 + 35mm f2 Nikkor-O

Film 00100111001 - Sony A6000 + 35mm f2 Nikkor-O

Film 00100111001 - Sony A6000 + 35mm f2 Nikkor-O

Film 00100111001 - Sony A6000 + 35mm f2 Nikkor-O

Film 00100111001 - Sony A6000 + 35mm f2 Nikkor-O

Film 00100111001 - Sony A6000 + 35mm f2 Nikkor-O

They're two outstanding European cities with different (yet similar) cultures but they are friendly and beautiful places and so very different from the a-typical views people have of them:

Drugs and sex - Amsterdam
Boring - Brussels.

I took a lot of photographs with the non-PC Sony A6000 and a 35mm Nikkor-O.
OK - it's not film-based, but you know what, I was happy to use it and think the results are really excellent, though I've not printed a single one.
The Sony and ancient (1971) Nikkor give a colour quality that pleases the hell out of me - very 1970's but very crisp too.

During our holiday I replaced my blood with Belgian beer and felt better for it. I've been a beer enthusiast since well before the word "craft" came into the language and it pleases me to see so many guys brewing their own and starting micro-breweries. I did my own proper, non-kit home brewing back in the 1990's, but discovered I couldn't even touch the likes of Westmalle and Samuel Smiths, so gave up . . 

Came home and cleaned out the loft - an epic job.

OCTOBER

We got back, and the weather changed to 'orrible and rainy, so I steeled myself, waited for some decent weather (not so easy when all you have is weekends) and then started in earnest on coating the roof.
If you can imagine painting an unwilling, very hairy cat onto a flat surface, then that is what it was like, but it's all about technique and I got there.
It's pretty damn marvellous stuff too - you can apply it in falling rain and down to 0 degrees, though this isn't to be recommended from the applicator point of view -  we did have our first frost in October and kneeling in ice and applying stuff like this is not to be recommended - doesn't half make your joints ache!

It was a heck of a job, two coats and an embedment mesh in places too - got there though - phew!

The bit on the left in grey and white is my work - this was taken from the window of a flat for sale next door.

Near the end of the month an excellent package from Omar Ozenir arrived containing both copies of his self-published photo-journal Gözaltı.
It's great stuff and highly recommended - you can find it here - tell him Sheephouse sent you.

Re-discovered that I really love playing the guitar - it has been a 20 year break, as in nothing done, for 20 years, which, if you know me is highly unusual.
Basically looking at it with the benefit of hindsight, I think I stopped because there was nowhere else to go.

NOVEMBER

No real photography done, just a wee tickle out at dusk around the graveyard with the Sony

Film 00100111001 - Sony A6000 + 50mm f1.8 "K" Series Nikkor

DECEMBER

And the same again.
There's a roll of FP4 in the M2, there's film in the fridge and I just need time.
I am on holiday for Christmas so hopefully there should be some full-on camera usage going on!


And tha-tha-tha-that's all ffolks - I hope you found that interesting and not too dull -despite the lack of vast amounts of stuff, at least I have been trying to do stuff, with only commitments and lack of time getting in my way. Next year I am planning on doing more.

So can I, on behalf of yer Missus Sheephouse and Alex Turnips too, take this opportunity to wish you and yours all a fantastic Christmas and an even better 2017 and for the world, a little peace perhaps, that can't be too hard can it, not if you really want it to happen.

I'll leave my final thought to Bruce Cockburn from 1971's "Sunwheel Dance" and the track "Going Down Slow":

God, damn the hands of glory

That hold the bloody firebrand high

Close the book and end the story

Of how so many men have died

Let the world retain in memory

That mighty tongues tell mighty lies

And if mankind must have an enemy

Let it be his warlike pride

Let it be his warlike pride

Take care, be good and remember to keep eating your peas.