Dark Lochnagargh!

Warning - lots of reading and plenty of photos - if you are fine with that, please continue, if not, well I am sure there's plenty of other distractions out there.

But if you don't mind reading a bit and seeing some scenery . . welcome to Scotland!

Well there I was, egg on my face and an itch in my soles to put some miles in.

It's an urge y'see - the need to thrash one's body with a day out hauling heavy weights into the wild . . also commonly known as hillwalking!

Or in my case, pshaw . . . lightweight gear? Och no . . a day in the wilds with (usually) a bunch of camera stuff.

There's no two ways about it, I am a masochist.
I never seem to learn.
But the thing is, it's enjoyable; you get really hot, your heart thunders like a train for hours, and you'll get soaked (inside and outside your clothes) scorched, dehydrated, hungry; you'll become tired, elated, alive, exhausted and full of beans, all in a space of hours.

Add in the final element, THE UNKNOWN, and you have a recipe for a life-enhancing experience that helps you deal with the commonplace, every day, 9-5.
Well that's how I see it.

My companions on this trip were (I know, I know it IS a bit mad, but I'd rather be prepared than wish I'd bought something along):

Hasselblad 500C/M
Hasselblad 150mm Sonnar + Hood
Hasselblad 60mm Distagon + Hood
Hasselblad SWC/M + Hood (Shared with the Distagon)
Gossen Lunasix S (with spot attachment)
Hasselblad Quick Release (attached to Arca plate)
Gitzo GT3530S CF Tripod
Arca B-1 Ballhead
Panasonic digicam
Jerven Fjellduken (basically a cross between a poncho, cape and bivvi bag - a weird Norwegian lifesaver)
Kata HB-205 Backpack
Water
Lunch
Whistle
Map
Compass
Emergency Knife
Spare Paracord
Cable Ties
Blister Treatment Stuff
Buffalo Special 6 Shirt (does away with the need for layers - just wear next to skin like a cross between a shirt and a jacket. Beloved of UK Special Forces it has seen me through more shite weather than I can tell you.)
Lowe Mountain Cap
Polyprop Beanie
Pertex Mitts
Wrist Gaiters
Rohan Uplanders (trousers)
Wool Headover
UV Buff
Double Socks
Altberg Defender Boots

Anything else?

Oh yeah . . me.

I know that looks like a lot of stuff - obviously I was wearing the clothes (but not all the emergency stuff) but to be honest you prepare for trips into the wilds (albeit only 5 or 6 miles from a Ranger station) because you just never know.
This is Scotland after all and Winter might have started to go (it was the start of April I did this walk) but it can still rise up and bite you in the bum - the old (well, it's quite new actually) saying always rings in my head:
Fail to Prepare, Prepare To Fail.

I have often been astonished by people up mountains wearing jeans, tee-shirts, trainers and a light jacket - the weather can turn on a sixpence and a sunny day become cold and wet in an instant.  
By not wearing and carrying the right gear, and at least having a modicum of COMMON SENSE with regard to what you are doing,  you're being SOCIALLY IRRESPONSIBLE.

Y'see, what happens (should it all go shit-shaped) is that Other People have to come and find you.

Speak to any Mountain Rescue person and they'll tell you that being ill-prepared in the mountains can kill.

Anyway, surprisingly, everything just fitted into the Kata pack. Phew!

It was designed for the broadcast industry, but it does a large MF kit pretty well, and, above all else, the harness and shoulder system are super-comfy!

Oh and it is very well protected - formed padding at the bottom, top and sides - it also keeps out rain surprisingly well (as I was to find out later)!

Anyway, this is the kit:

Tripod, Bag, Cameras . . . Fjellduken

Cosy Hasselblad Nest.
500C/M (And Film Back) On Bottom, Accessory Tub To Right Of It
SWC/M (And Film Back) Vertically To Right
Distagon and 150mm Lens Hood On Left, Film Above Them
Light Meter In Central Portion
Wide Angle Hood and Panoramic Adapter, Top Right Corner

Fjellduken In Its Stuffsack- It's A Bit Bulky
This Packed Into One Of The Pockets On The Pack.
If You were Caught In A Storm, This Would Save Your Life.
***Issued To Norwegian Armed Forces***

Arca Plates Too Expensive?
Too Many Hasselblads?
Attach Old Hasselblad Q/R To An Arca Plate And You Have A Universal System
For All Your Hasselblad Needs.

*** No Tittering At The Back ***

Who'd Have Thought You Could Have Done All That From One Simple Sheet Of Nylon?
I Can Justify All This Silliness From The Point Of View That If It Could Potentially Save My Life In Extreme Conditions, Why Question The Look.

© Photographs courtesy Varusteleka in Finland - One Of The Greatest Army Surplus Shops In The World

Anyway, ONWARDS!

It doesn't look too bad does it . . it WAS a bit difficult handling the bench at altitude though . . .

The pack balances surprisingly well, and the tripod was carried in my hand as it is light and not as heat-drawingly icy as my old metal Gitzo - what a difference! I have a Zing neoprene pouch to cover the Arca simply because it is a precision instrument and is better off without the stray scree and rain that being exposed might provide.

Anyway, enough of this, Bachnagairn I thought. It's a wooded area a good few miles away from anywhere (in a Southern part of the Cairngorms National Park - more about the park by clicking this link) and on a route up a Munro or two, those being Broad Cairn and Cairn Bannoch - you can also, if you have the legs, get over to Loch Muick which huddles under the long dark shadow of the mighty Lochangar - a proper, serious mountain . . . not that all mountains aren't serious places, just that this is imposing and not a bit frightening when viewed from the Broad Cairn side of Luch Muick.

Here it all is on a OS.

We start at the Blue P (Lower Right),
Walk 4 Squares Up And Two To The Left,
Then 1-And-A-Bit Squares Up To Corrie Chash . . .
And Back!
The Blue Line Which Delineates The Edge Of Each Square Equals 1 Kilometre (Left Or Right, Up Or Down).

The thing I would say about the walk to Bachnagairn is, you are lulled into a false sense of security by the relatively easy going at the start - wood and grass (a deviation from the long forest track of years back since the bridge was washed away - though it has now been rebuilt - the forest track is still punishingly shite) but getting increasingly boggy, till you're on lost tracks amidst peat and rocks (opposite Moulzie farm) and then you get back onto a landrover track which goes on for quite a way till it gets rockier and rockier.

This is not a place for footwear for the casual walker - it needs something heavy-duty.

Imagine a river bed full of stones.

There.

Easy, yes?

Now remove the water.

Got that?

Good.

Now you can imagine what the 'path' is like. It's rough and relentless full of stones of all shapes and sizes, and I actually think it could well have been a glacial runoff at some point, until millenia of erosion created the river, the South Esk, which flows fast and clear from these peaks. 

The path slowly ascends (for around 3 and a half to 4 miles) some 900 feet. I found that surprising when I got it on the OS site, but tis true and bloody feels like it actually! Add in your camera gear and water and it's a good workout.

Anyway, I got there - had a wee breather in amongst the pine and heather and bog, marvelled at how the river (mountain run-off . . and lots of it) had gouged a tight, deep canyon through the stone over millenia.
The river starts it's downward course just below Craig Of Gowal as Burn Of Gowal.
Gowal (Gobhail), in gaelic parlance, sort of means fork or junction or possibly like a pair of legs akimbo, so I am sure if you can imagine a mountain with its legs akimbo and a powerful course of water issuing forth . . well, all I can say is that the locals who had to provide pointers to the original map makers of the OS must have had a little fun for perpetuity!

Anyway, from there, I ascended another 770-odd feet in over just around 1 and a quarter miles - well, put two and two together . . .
Chuffin' Steep is what I'd call it, but I wanted to get to the delightful Allan's Hut.

It's called a hut but actually, it is a rough stable/shelter for mountain ponies which are still used in these parts. Sadly there were no ponies there this time - just the hut and a nice bench and views of Lochanagar in the distance and Broad Cairn close by.

The last time I had sat on the bench was 12 years ago, and at that time all I was carrying was the Rolleiflex and The Screamin' Chimp (a tripod) - incredibly lightweight stuff, but then I needed it for a 14 mile round circuit down to Loch Muick and back along The Capel Mounth. Could I do it these days? Well with lighter boots, quite possibly. Doesn't half shag you out though!

Anyway. look we've walked all these miles together and we haven't even had a tea and pee break yet.

I have been a little remiss and not told you about the dalliance I had halfway to Bachnagairn on an island in a river, but I didn't want to spoil the tension.

So, OK here's the full journey, there and back in two sets of contact prints. The first was taken with the SWC/M, the second with the 500 C/M with the 150mm Sonnar.

Hasselblad SWC/M, Ilford Delta 400 (EI200), Pyrocat-HD

Hasselblad 500 C/M/Zeiss 150mm Sonnar, Ilford FP4 (EI80), Pyrocat-HD

Sorry, what was that at the back Jones 1?

You what?

EH?

Erm? Oh yes, the missing bit in the first contact print?

Erm . . .well, y'see . . . . 

I only went and forgot to take the bloody lens cap off under the shadow of Dark Lochna . . gargh!

I think you could have heard the screams over in Banchory actually - I could certainly hear them echoing back from Lochanagar!

Anyway, with the SW the solution is simple - treat use of the camera like you would a LF camera - check everything twice before using.
This being said though, I wouldn't have left the lens cap at home even with a filter on the lens, simply because you can never have enough protection for a chunk of scratchable glass.

I was so pissed off with myself, that I took a picture of Allan's Hut, (by hand and full of camera shake) packed the SW away, harumphed and stomped like a big baby, walked to Corrie Chash, had a bloody good look at Loch Muick, all elegant and deceptively easy to get to. Got fed up again and decided to save my energies for the woods at Bachnagairn.

I did however, make an executive decision that because I was using the SW, I'd take no wide pictures with the Distagon, and instead use only the 150mm Sonnar. 

This proved to be a good decision.

The 150mm is the cheapest lens you can buy for a Hasselblad. Don't let that put you off - OK, mine is a later CF version, but for VFM it is one of the world's greatest optical bargains.

For a start, everything just looks so beautiful in the VF with it - seriously. The out of focus areas are a melding of softness and an extreme transformation of light that makes you want to look at it all day.

And then there's what it does in the translation.

OK, so we're on our way home now then - see, that wasn't too bad was it - you don't even smell like a wet sheep yet!
Anyway, our walk in prints. All made by me, in my guerilla darkroom, with paper and chemicals.
I suppose you could call them test prints as I've done them on RC as opposed to something nice and fibre-y, but they turned out well, so if I don't get a chance to print them for perpetuity, at least I will have copies . . . Oh and where you read Dektol, it isn't powder Dektol, just liquid Polymax, which is, apparently, the liquid version.
I'll also do a bit of talking under each picture, if you don't mind, just so's you don't get confused.

The first lot were all taken with the 150mm Sonnar.

The Famous Hut Of Allan.
The Hills Behind Surround The Walk Home.

A bog standard 'portrait' of The Hut. 

1/8th, f32. Shadows on ZIII. MLU, Cable Release and Tripod.

Straight print, no burning or split trouser printing. Ilford MGRC Pearl, Grade 3, Kodak Dektol.

Consequences Of A Winter's Storm.

The bleaching of the branches was such that I had to take a picture of them.

1/4, f22. Shadows on ZIII. MLU, Cable Release and Tripod.

Straight print, no burning or split sauce printing. Ilford MGRC Pearl, Grade 3, Kodak Dektol.

The Woods At Bachnagairn

I prayed for a roll of colour film at this point - sadly I had none. In colour it was truly astonishing. I chose 1/30th because I didn't want smokey water, nor frozen in time, I just needed some movement. Unfortunately the bit above the lowest run is visually disturbing, but the Sonnar has imparted, I think, an air of old-timey-ness to this, to the extent that it could have been taken in 1918, not 2018.

1/30th, f22. Shadows on ZIII. MLU, Cable Release and Tripod.

Straight print, no burning or split brain printing. Ilford MGRC Pearl, Grade 3, Kodak Dektol.

The Woods At Bachnagairn 2

Could have done with a tad more exposure.

You could spend all day taking pictures of the runs of this river. I was stood midstream to take this.

1/30th, f22. Shadows on ZIII. MLU, Cable Release and Tripod.

Straight print, no burning or split Groundhogs printing. Ilford MGRC Pearl, Grade 3, Kodak Dektol.

Consequences Of A Winter's Storm 2

I was heading back and I saw this at the side of the South Esk - some hell of a storm run-off had deposited it and it reminded me of the bones of a mythical creature of some sort. The sun was out and I really wanted to isolate it. Amazingly this picture is at f5.6 and 1/500th. You might not get it from the scan, but the print has a 3-dimensional quality I've not really seen before. That is the magic of the 150mm. 

It's sharp as a, well, sharp thing.

1/500th, f5.6. Shadows on ZIII. MLU, Cable Release and Tripod.

Straight print, no burning or split milk printing. Ilford MGRC Pearl, Grade 3, Kodak Dektol.


And then we get onto the SWC/M - again, comments underneath (if that is alright with you):

River Place

I liked the shapes of the pools on this island in the South Esk. Sadly the horizon is well off, which I find visually disturbing - och well, there's always next time!
1/15th, f22. Shadows on ZIV, Cable Release and Tripod.

Straight print, no burning or split (ting headache) printing. Ilford MGRC Pearl, Grade 3, Kodak Dektol.

Old Bones Of Trees And Stones

This was taken on an island in the middle of the South Esk. I was 'attracted' by the way the tree's reflections mixed with the striations of the rock. It clearly shows how the Biogon handles things delicately. I can't quite define it, but delicate is definitely the word I would use.

1/15th, f22. Shadows on ZIV, Cable Release and Tripod.

Straight print, no burning or split those loons again? printing. Ilford MGRC Pearl, Grade 3, Kodak Dektol.

Big Balls (Of Rock)

Yep, these were two boulders, around 9 feet tall each of them. The SW was right inbetween their gap and I liked the play of light on the hills. You encounter glacial deposits all over this region - it is just like they've been dropped from the air - goodness knows how many thousands of Winters these stones have seen, or how many weary travellers have rested in their lee.

1/125th, f22. Shadows on ZIII, Cable Release and Tripod.

Straight print, no burning or split dates printing. Ilford MGRC Pearl, Grade 3, Kodak Dektol.

Quiet Pool In A Quiet Wood

Absolutely my favourite photograph from the whole day and the last one taken too.
One doesn't like to blow one's own trumpet, but from a personal point of view, it is, I think, my most favourite landscape photograph I have ever taken. The camera was dead level btw - any leaning trees are leaning trees!
1 Second, f22. Shadows on ZIII, Cable Release and Tripod - Hat Used As Rain Cape.

Straight print, no burning or split (ah yeah, at last!) GRADE printing. Ilford MGRC Pearl, Grade 3, Kodak Dektol.

It had started raining an hour before, slightly at first, but if you've ever been in the Scottish mountains you'll know that such rain can quickly soak everything. Fortunately I wasn't too far from tree cover at that point, but drip-lines under trees are just that. 'Modern' conifer plantations are too densely planted to walk through comfortably, so you have to stick to the drip-line. 

It gets pretty soggy pretty quickly. 

I'd spotted this pool on my way out and was determined to compare the SW with the Sonnar, but as you can see from the Sonnar contact, I misjudged reciprocity and underexposed (mainly because the rain was falling quite heavily and I didn't want to get anything soggier than it was already).

Fortunately for me, the SW version came out great.

It shows to my mind, perfectly, the way the Biogon handles fine detail. Remember this is a 400 ASA film! 

I was super-close to the pool, water was falling on me and the camera, but I dunno, the camera has captured that indefineable 'something' one always searches for in a photograph. 

The eagle-eyed might well spot a peculiar triangular lump of trees in the top-right corner . . . this is some Bushcraft persons' shelter, minus the person.

And that's it all really folks - hope you have enjoyed yourselves.

I headed off as storm clouds gathered over the hills - the tops became enveloped and obscured with mist and snow and in the glens the rain got heavier and heavier - I made it just in time. Phew!

So, an hours' journey to get home along lonely roads with farmhouses huddling down in the dreich afternoon; I unpacked, set cameras and bag to dry; boots hosed down, with newspaper stuffed inside; my sweaty clothes peeled off; I jumped in the shower, had a mug of coffee and a Blue Riband, and then sat tight and waited for tea time. 

I was hoping it would be something lovely and delicious. 

My missus was doing the cooking, and it was.

TTFN - remember, these boots were made for walking, and that's just what they'll do . . . one of these days . . . you might be a decrepit old git and unable to lift your legs thus rendering you a sedentary lump in the middle of the common room, slowly becoming covered with the detritus of an old folk's home; till all that is left is the husk of who you were, covered with bits of other people's skin, particles of food, false-teeth impressions, elastic stockings, incontinence pads, tufts of hair, and a lone, creaky voice, asking 'Are We There Yet?'
Carpe Diem Folks, Carpe Diem!

Close Enough For Murder

Well there I was, a dental appointment and nothing more to do than walk home, so I planned ahead, took the SW and thought I'd have a go at getting really close, as in . . 

Da-Da . . 

Close Enough For Murder . .

Gee Boss - You're SO Handsome

I know, it is a bit stupidly dramatic is that statement, but well, with the above I really was close, as in the minimum I can focus with the SWC/M. 

I was also at pavement height and given it has an eye-level viewer, I had to trust the lens scale and so on. You can actually see the reflection of the lens hood in the bottom of the photograph - it is the dark object in the central third - that's because it was rested against a window, and the camera canted up to take in this awful poster on a BT shop window! 

Incredibly (to me) this was taken handheld at 1/15th and f16 . . . no cable release. 

On the lens scale on the SW this gave me a hyperfocal guesstimate (at this distance) of between just under 12" (0.3 m) and 14" (0.35 m) . . . so, 2.5 inches to get it right!

Personally, I don't think any other lens in the world could have done it as well.

I'm not sure what it is I like about it either . . .

Is it the fact that her tombstone teeth match the jambs, mullions and transoms of the reflected windows?

Is it that she looks more pleased than a very very pleased person?

The way the chap appears to be floating in clouds?

Or is it the way her hair has been rendered?

Whatever, this is a scan from an actual print, which was onto Ilford MGRC Pearl, developed in Kodak Polymax. 

I like the tonal qualities a lot.

But on with the main thing - so there I was, fresh and clean, scraped to within an inch of my gums and in Dundee City Centre . . . I walked up Reform Street, avoided the rowing junkies, past the boozers in The Counting House, turned left into Ward Road, popped into The Howff (an ancient city graveyard dating back to medieval times) but decided there was nothing there for me, so I popped out, headed along Ward Road again, and I took some pictures.

This Is A Contact Print

It lasted literally 30 minutes and I had finished the whole film; it sort of looks it too, with little regard to composition, just on-the-fly snaps, all centred around the old BT building, which takes us up to frame 4.

Ugh, Sisters Are, Ugh, Doin' It For, Ugh, Themselves, Ugh

I am not sure what it is that I dislike about these horrible window posters.

Is it their cheesy grins?

Is it the whole 'empowered sisterhood' thing that is so cleverly and endemically marketed for women these days?

I dunno, but by frame 5 I had had enough and moved on to more posters advertising BT TV stuff.

Hmm, Ward Road . . . Very Interesting!

And in frame 6, well who's that peeking out at us?
Yes, it is the great Scots actor James McEvoy - I know he's got to live, but superhero films from the man from State Of Play and The Last King Of Scotland?
C'mon James, you can really act man!

The BT Portal

Anyway there I was contorted and squatting and attracting the attention of a lazy security bloke, so I decided enough was enuff and off I went, only to spot the weirdness of frame 9. 

It was like a warped Universe all in one spot:

Football 

TV 

"Legends" 

"A Different World"

And light reflecting from over the way, though to be fair, I didn't even know it was there till I developed the film and found it on my shoulder, like a bluebird of happenstance . . .

This is my second favourite of all of them - it's a basic reflection photo, but there's a lot going on and the semi-opaque window frosting has added an air of otherworldliness to the photo . . well it has to my eyes anyway.

Anyway, fed up of being stared at like a freak with a strange box, I packed up and headed towards home and some more traditional shots.

Old Mills Die Slowly

Frame 10, and the entrance to a mill, vandalised nicely.

There's a grey message sprayed across all four doors that looks to me like an overlay on the negative - that's weird as well. 

I was close to the doors - less than 6 feet (!) - and I slightly canted the camera - you can see that at the left side in the verticals - it makes things a little 'off', but I like it anyway.

Dundee used to be full of old mills, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate now - it is a crime - cultural destruction of the same sort as happened in the Middle East only this time by men in suits bunging handy backhanders . . .

It isn't as bad as what happened in the 1960's but it still shouldn't be happening - you'd think, in 50 years, we would have learned something.

Anytown USA? Nah Mate - It's Dundee

And finally my final shot of the day and third favourite. The sunlight was incredible - it was so good it wasn't even Scotland - reminding me of the light gifted to some of the great 60's US landscape photographers. 

The place was at the junction behind The Verdant Works carpark. 

If you're ever in town, go and visit it - it is a Mill, and has been semi-restored to give the full history of Jute and it's place in the rise and fall of Dundee - money well spent in visiting it - it's outstandingly interesting.

So there I was, like a primed mullet, teetering on a wall, stared at by drivers and nosy-parkers (geddit?). 

I got my verticals about right and snap - 1/125th at f16. 

It is razor sharp.

And feeling very smug, that was it - another 15 minutes to get home, but I was pleased at how intuitive the camera had been to use.

So where does that leave us in Part Three of this exploration of the Hasselblad SWC/M? 

Well . . . if you have the money, or have robbed some grannies of their life savings, and are in two minds, I would say (if you're sure you can handle the fact that you really have to re-think your approach to everything, and don't mind not being able to see what you are truly doing) go for it. 

Get one. 

Even if only for a few months if you don't get on with it - it does make you think. It isn't a camera to be taken lightly - it forces you to concentrate on the photo-making process in much the same way a Large Format camera does, except this doesn't necessarily need a tripod, or dark slides, or a dark cloth, or a mule . . . 

And that's all until the next episode, where many miles are walked and a schoolboy error renders a bunch of frames useless.

Oh, and remember, Bingo starts at 5.30 sharp. There's tea and biccies too, and if you are very lucky Michael (remember him?) is coming back with some more sounds of the 60's - he's got Pet Clark records and everything!

Shitbangers . . where did I put my Small Faces CD?

Lost In Space (Three Wider Part 2)

Morning again, and today we'll continue with my ongoing attempts to learn the Hasselblad SWC/M (that is if you're still interested and haven't been locked up [yet]).

As I said before, camera-wise, it is an oddball, but also a supremely capable camera so long as you use it like you mean it.
What do I mean by that?
Well folks . . . read on!

My first attempts with the camera were, bar one photograph, pants (British, not American either). i.e. the scubbiest pair of soiled Y-Fronts, found wind-blown [literally and metaphorically] and pressed against the furthest wire fence of some lost recreation ground in the back of beyond . . . in other words, they were unbelievably awful.

Truth be told, initially I found the camera incredibly difficult to get my head around.

It wasn't just that handheld and with that viewfinder, things took on a slant that I could only equate to trying to compose with my old Agfa 6x9 box camera; it wasn't just that I forgot to set the focus either, it was more - could I justify the expense? I am in debt for a couple of years because of this - have I done a wise thing?

After film 1 was processed, I have to say I was a bit aghast and underwhelmed, apart from 2 frames - the best of which was the dog from the last post - the rest were a mish-mash of poor composition, focus mistakes and off-kilter perspective . . . however, that chance picture of a dog taken into the sun convinced me that the camera could do far more than I realised
So I did what I always do in such circumstances.
I thought about it a bit.
You see, the problem wasn't the camera, nope it was more basic than that - it was me.
When I began to realise that and that any approach to using it had to come from my perspective (sic) then things changed.

Enter Film 2.
It was a cold and misty 6AM down on Dundee's waterfront - currently a large area of building work surrounding the 'jewel in the crown' - the new V&A Museum of Design.
I've photographed the area for years and have found it frustrating that I have been unable for a while to do my favourite city centre walk, from Tescos Riverside, along past the Discovery, keeping to the sea wall (it is an estuary though) and along, under the road bridge and onto the old dock area ending up at the Nynas refinery.
It's a good walk, especially in the early morning when your companions are mostly birds and the odd runner.
But like I say, I can't do it because of the building work, so, I parked in the first space I could find, picked up the tripod, and headed into the mess of hoardings and fences, Do Not Enter signs and bollards.

This is what it used to look like courtesy of my Koni Omega - a bloody fantastic camera and lens actually - not loved at all by any photographers anywhere these days, but quality second to none. It's the cheapest route into 6x7 and if you can get over the film advance (not as frightening as it looks) and rangefinder, then you have an incredibly capable machine with a superb lens.
Anyway - the building you see below is the now demolished leisure centre - the new V&A sits right on top of where it was.

That pile of rubble on the right is the remains of the hotel where I spent my wedding night!

Below is the first frame from Film 2. OK it is a poor composition, but I was hobbled by fences and so on. The V&A is the thing that looks like a ship's prow in the distance. The weirdness in the sky is the mist which was patchy and kept coming in in waves.

V&A Dundee From The Road Bridge Footings 2018

Ocular Balancing Act

This is a twat's-eye view of that viewfinder.
That oblong on the left is a mirror, which reflects the bubble level on the camera body. You may just see, in between it and the main ocular window (OK, round bit of glass) a small circle of lightness surrounded by a red circle - the red circle isn't on the camera btw . . . .

Got it? well that is a round hole in the rubber eye-cup that you observe the mirror (and bubble level) with. So basically you have to balance your eye between making sure the bubble is right in the middle of the reflected level (delineated by a black circle printed within the bubble level itself and observed through a tiny hole in a bit of ancient rubber) and the scene you are composing through the viewfinder!

Does that sound hard?

Well, remember when you were young and you'd get these small perspex puzzles with say, oh a picture of a rabbit, but with holes around its perimeter, and the puzzle would be filled with ball-bearings and all you had to do was get those into the holes?
Well, the SWC/M is almost EXACTLY the same, except it has one ball-bearing (the bubble) and one hole (the black circle in the bubble level).
Add in composition and being handheld too, and it really is like an episode of The Krypton Factor!

Fortunately, and once you get your head around the fact that you only need to adjust the camera and not your head and stance, i.e. tilt the camera to centre the bubble, not your head, it starts to become second nature.

Anyway, on with the show . . . .
Tantalisingly THIS is a view (in part) of the V&A Dundee.
Don't look much do it?
But in actuality, it is a beautiful building that opens up interesting new vistas as you walk around it - I would love to have got closer, but I was nose against the security fencing and some burly security guys wondered what the hell I was doing . . . you'll have to wait till September when it opens.

V&A Dundee, With Security Fence Installation

Film 2 was partly how I had hoped it would be, using it on a tripod and with careful levelling.
It gave me the sort of experience (and quality of image) I'd had from a 5x4, but without the pain in the arse. 

But, you really need to centre that bubble level, unless you're intentionally exploiting space and perspective.
And you also really need to get in super-close.

The zero distortion thing which is often written about with regard to the lens, is something to behold - I can see why this camera has been used by a lot of architectural photographers - lemme in to the V&A with only natural light, pleeeeeze, pleeeze!

Yes there are equivalents out there, but somehow, the Biogon defines the space.
Actually, the word that keeps coming to mind is dominate.
I haven't put my finger on it yet, but it has strangely helped me produce two photographs that have immediately gone into the top ten photographs I have ever made, and for only having been here for a short while, that was something.
I love it - what can we do together in the future?
Oh for plenty of spare time and limitless film and developer!

SWC/M in situ. Gitzo CF Tripod, Arca Ball-head, Arca plate. As stable as having a pair of concrete boots fitted and being embedded in one of those piers.

Twat's-eye View Part 1

Twat's-eye View Part 2

"'Ere, oo put that bridge on me 'ead?"

I was so chuffed with this last photo - it looks Russian if you know what I mean - I could print it better too - there's still some detail in the more exposed distances, but on the whole, yes, I like it.
It was a long exposure - about 30 secs allowing for Zone III on the tarmac and reciprocity on Delta 400. Pyrocat-HD, looked at this, sniffed, laughed and did its business - the negative is semi-tanned. Had I been  using a 'real' film it would have had a better tanning.

After I'd developed Film 2 I was pleased, but I was also still a bit perplexed about the camera.
Mainly because its cost kept running through my head, so again, I thought about things for a bit, did a bit of internet searching around and came across a renowned American educator called Neal Rintoul, who had made extensive use of the SW.
He had a 'contact me' bit on his site, so I did.
I asked him whether it was a totally different frame of mind to use the camera well, and he sent me a nice reply which he's said he doesn't mind if I publish, so here goes:

"I am happy to reply.

The SWC is a whole different mindset. And yes the vf is just a facsimile, not so very accurate, especially when in close. I also don’t agree with the infinite DOF idea with this lens. Out of focus is possible and even desirable sometimes. You will find you get pretty good at judging how far away things are and hyperlocal distance is your friend. I had a colleague who believed that focus didn’t matter with the SWC. But then, when looking at his pictures you could tell he was sloppy and imprecise.

So, some of it is the subtlety and the beauty of how it renders.  For instance, it is seeing up and down as much as left and right. This often isn’t apparent as there could be sky up there and pavement or something not so crucial below. But it is there.

Hold it in front of you then notice how  close to your feet it is seeing in the bottom of the frame.

I would always think that shooting with the camera was intuitive. Far more than with most cameras, as you’d have to take it on faith that it was getting what you intended. I got pretty good at this as almost never cropped. I used it with the  6 x 4.5  back for a while, as Harry Callahan did. But I didn’t like it much-trying to convert it into seeing a normal rectangular frame seemed almost a perversion.

How does one get good with the SWC? Shoot with it, tons of film, daily and in truly unexceptional surroundings-around home- at work. Another friend bought one - I was responsible for many many buying them, I am sure - and he shot it every day walking to work and walking home.

The level: a key part as it is whether you make a picture that simulates normality or not. Stand in front of something and keep it really level and it deceives as it looks pretty good, straight lines straight, no barrel distortion and sharp in the edges.

Most people would never know. Take it out of level or tilt it slightly and all hell breaks loose. Both were tactics I used often.

Don’t know if you’ve seen this or not

https://www.nealrantoul.com/posts/the-hasselblad-superwide

Also, look to Lee Freidlander as he was a later convert. And, of course, Callahan- on the Cape but also in Peru.

Finally, shooting with the SWC is mostly intuited or automated. Figure the exposure, set aperture, look up, guess the distance and where you want to set the focus on the lens scale, look through the vf, know whether you want it level or not, if you want level set bubble level in the middle (very important that it be right on!). 

Ah, the Superwide. I was wedded at the hip with that camera.

As you get going send me some pictures. Would love to se them.

Hope this helps.

Neal Rantoul"

This was great advice, so I asked him some more questions and he very kindly replied again:

"As a teacher, I found that students would often want to emulate me. As I was exhibiting often locally, they’d see my work and want to make pictures like what they’d seen. If they had money then would come the question about how I made my pictures look like that and then about the SWC.

I would say and still believe that the camera is for “experts”. And would caution them to be really serious and conscientious in using it. It can be so very subtle(particularly if used level). But with really substantial experience and hard work (students seldom had the discipline) could be a wonderful tool.

I also believe that the  wider the lens the greater the expertise that is needed.

Not for everyone, the SWC.

I would be honored if you chose to quote me.

The only suggestion I would have for you about the pictures you’ve shown me is to get closer. Pictures can easily become too passive if made with the camera. Everything receding into the background is never good. I think I learned more about working closer and making comparative statements from foreground to background with the Superwide than any other camera I used. Most of the time I was working with it I was shooting in 8 x10 as well, which is a whole different thing altogether.

Best,

Neal Rantoul"

Hmmm - the phrase "get closer" rang around and around in my head, so for film 3 I did, and went from this (the last frame on Film 2):

Phone Exchange - Dundee Waterfront

To this on Film 3:

Technician's Tea Room - DOJCA

This was more like it!
My sort of photo completely.
I was weirdly pressed up against a window at the back of the Art College for this last one. I guessed focus, took a deep breath and managed 1/15th at f11.
Distortion?
Nah, there's none.  
What a lens.

And that's it for now folks - there's a part 3 coming in which a scale and polish at the dentists turns into an intensely creative 30 minutes of shooting fun.

Take care and remember, you can only play 'Kick Out The Jams' on the carehome stereo system after the rest of the residents have listened to that 'Cilla's Golden Hits' CD.
You know it makes you happy.
What a lovely afternoon, listening, dancing, tapping your toes, drinking tea, reminiscing about Tony Blackburn and Ed 'Stewpot Stewart' and Junior Choice on Radio One on Saturdays.
You're a popular chap with the old ladies . . .well actually, you're the only chap still left alive!

GAAAAAAAAARRGHHHHHHHHHHH! 
Are you ready to kick out the jams muthahubbards???

Well, This Is Three Wider.

Lovers of great comedy will excuse me for paraphrasing the mighty Nigel Tufnel from Spinal Tap, but I couldn't resist it; y'see, up to now, the widest angle lens I have ever used was a 24mm Nikkor, which is a bloody fantastic wee thing and has quickly become my semi-normalised (if there is such a thing) POV.
Well, this is Three Wider.

Curious?
Read on!


You know sometimes, you see something, but it doesn't register for days, weeks, months or even years later? Well, I've had one of those moments recently and boy did I follow through with it.

I can't remember where I first saw a Hasselblad Super Wide camera, but it was love at first sight, and little did I know, in those pre-internet days, that the camera was the embodiment of optical quality par-excellence.
It was an expensive camera when I first saw one back in the early '80's and it remained so for its whole life. I, of course, instantly dismissed it as being far too expensive, and I never bothered looking at them - they were beyond me.
So there I was, one early Saturday morning (it was raining outside in that typical East coast gloom you get around here in the Winter) with nothing to do, save drink tea and look at cameras (as you do) and I saw one on Ffordes website at a not too bad (though still punishingly expensive) price and thought:

Wow - that looks like a semi-ideal walkabout camera. 

I had been thinking about a 'proper' Rollei for such uses for a while, but I liked the cut of the SWC/M's jib, and I filed it in my mind.

It's an odd-ball (but then so am I) and specialised to the point of perverseness, selling to architectural, aerial, copy, documentary and just plain curious photographers. 

I was I think, baffled by how little it could do, and I guess that was what salted down in my subconscious for a few days. But I couldn't get it out of my head, and one morning I came to the conclusion:

Feck It. 
Not getting any younger. 
Could be dead in a few years.

So I talked it over with my wife (as supportive of everything as ever!), spoke to the esteemable Steve Byford at Ffordes, thought some more, swallowed hard and bought it.

It was one of those moments.

As you'll know from reading FB I've used a fair number of cameras over the years and have a small collection of choice cameras which I enjoy using, but these days I find myself drifting increasingly away from 35mm (simply because I'll never print a tenth of what I photograph) and even 5x4 (because it seems like a young man's game: requires determination and grit and decent eyesight . . not to mention patience and a great deal of core strength - certainly that is the case of hauling one into the wilds!)
I think back to the simplicity of my early days of photographic rediscovery, when it was just me and Ollie The Rollie T and how simple everything was.
The powerful drive of only 12 or 16 shots on a roll of 120 film seems to be the embodiment of ease-of-use, supreme quality and a considered approach to photographing all kinds of things.
I am not saying I am giving up other formats, far from it, but for general day to day use, Medium Format seems to be my Ideal Format.

Yeah, so skip the guff Sheepy - worrabout th'camera la?

Well, the box arrived, beautifully packed, and there, nestled in the bubble, was a camera that was all Hasselblad, but not that much bigger than a 500C/M with film back but no lens attached.
In other words it is smallish and compact - at 6-and-a-half inches long, this is about half the size of a modern SLR with zoom.
It felt considerably lighter than a 500C/M, and handled really well, only the strange viewfinder (like an old Dickensian Shoppe Window [you know the sort of thing, all distortion]) caused me some dismay initially, but I sort of knew from the moment I picked it up that this was the machine for me.

It is basically a 6x6cm version of the famous Rollei 35 and other zone focusers . . .
Optically, Wide (with a Capital Waah), the 38mm f4 Biogon is a lens borne from aerial mapping and the equivalent of 21mm in 35mm lens terms; its supreme quality married to a light-tight box with an interchangeable film back - about as simple as they come, yet simpler than an Olympus Trip (because that has a light meter of sorts!)

You could even say it is more basic than even the cheapest 35mm compact from back in the day because it doesn't even have the luxury of frame-lines for parallax compensation in the finder - yet for all its shortcomings, it is a camera which a lot of quite well-known photographers have said 'defined their career'.

Actually, the camera's lore is hard to get over:
Harry Callahan and Lee Friedlander to name but two.

Apparently, back in the 1970's and 80's pretty much every single SWC/M was assembled by a single person - Florence,

I know nothing about her save that her skill and craftsmanship and attention to detail served to float several thousands of these cameras out into the world, to be appreciated, used and loved. 

It is strange thought actually, but I suppose no different than other small quantity cameras, except I have no names for the Gandolfis and Alpas and Wistas of this world. Nor names for the skilled that used to work in the larger factories like Leica and Nikon, Pentax and Olympus et al.
A single model of camera being assembled by just one person is quite unusual, so, Florence it is.

Flo is no spring chicken - she was made in 1982, but that (to me) has a happenstance to it - it was the year Joe McKenzie properly took me and my compadres under his wing and started teaching us how to print and see the world.
There were a few marks on the body, though it was the older (1978) film holder that had sustained the most damage, but as I later found out, both body, lens, shutter and film back had been serviced recently, which was reassuring.
The optics were beautifully clean externally, but I found a small mark on the inner elements which worried me a bit, however after having words with Ffordes (who assured me everything was fine) I was determined to test her out - the mark was worrying (not fungus, as lens had been cleaned . . . the loose finger of a careless technician maybe???).
If I could provoke that mark into action that would be a bad thing, because my problem was that me and Flo had already bonded. Little did I know when I opened the box, that this Optical Orphan was looking for a good home, and like a bowl of cat food to a lost kitten on a Winters night, my warm greeting was enough for the camera to decide, I was the one that would look after it!
So, provoke I did . . . and you know what? could I heck get it to produce any veiling flare (the sort you get with haze or marks on inner or rear elements) at all.
Shooting into bright Winter sunshine produced a modicum . . . just like I would have expected with any camera as you can see from the results below.

Hasselblad SWC/M, Ilford HP5, Pyrocat-HD

The flare on this is as expected with the sun in the frame, but the big chunk at the lower right is a result of me holding the negative in its sleeve up to window and snapping with Sony A6000.
It is not a product of the camera.
So, Round 1 goes to Flo and boy was I excited by now!

More next time, as I try to get my head and technique around a camera that is seemingly so  simple, yet also incredibly hard to use . . .

Incredibly for FB, I am going to leave it there for the moment . . . I know you're getting tired and the nurse will be here soon with your tablets and so on . . and look, tonight, there's entertainment!
A memory therapy thing, so it's you, thirty old ladies and a charming singer called Michael, revisiting the great toe-tappers of the 60's!!
He's promising medleys from Dusty and Tom and The Bachelors and Freddie and the Dreamers and every wonderful hit from the era you can think of!
They said there might even be dancing.
Me? I'm staying in my room and putting on In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.

SWC/M, Ilford HP5, Pyrocat-HD, Ilford MGRC.

Get Out Your Toys And Play.

Years ago, well, decades actually, I had the great good fortune to be permanently seated the opposite side of a crude cubicle wall from an inspiring person. Her name was Louise and she had the most strange (I thought at the time) way of dealing with the creative doldrums. 

It was simple. 

She used to say:

 "Get out your toys and play
 

Ah the doldrums, that flat patch of sea situated between your eyes, where whisps of Sargasso weed languidly drift by with the detritus of life.

Look, there's a bottle floating by with a message in it . . .

Quick, what does it say?

Come on open it . .

That bottle looks decades old, look, it's no longer clear, the glass has become blasted and frosted with a superb patina.

It's amazing how that cork has stayed intact.

Have you got a corkscrew?

Great!

Now, what does it say?

Gosh the papers a bit crumbly . . .

Oh!

Well, what does it say?

Ready?

Yeah.

"I can't be arsed!"

Yep, such is the case with the creative doldrums. 

It's a languid laissez-faire that creeps up on you and before you know it, weeks have drifted by while you lie in the sun like a beached whale waiting for something to happen. 

We've all been there. 

If you say you haven't, I don't believe you - it is a part and parcel of the creative process and affects everyone.

But there must be a way out.

Well, I think in part it is a sea of our own making.

And the root cause? 

Well, don't get me wrong, but I reckon you're trying to be too serious. 

With everything creative, there's that nagging thought - can we be taken seriously? 

Is our photography/painting/writing/music/whatever, of such a calibre that we are unafraid to present it to the world at large? 

Does it have credibility? 

Will people laugh at us/dismiss us/talk about us?

In other words, all this creative stuff I am putting myself into, will it make a mark on the world?

I don't know what made me think about Louise and her mantra, but the more I think about it, the more I think she had a point.

Creativity should be FUN.

Remember when you were young and hours could turn into days with the addition of some felt tip pens, or some balsa wood or Lego or just anything that distilled you, till all there was were the things in front of you and some creative endevour? 

Do you remember how that felt? 

I do. 

I had a jade Staedtler felt tip when I was very young. It had the colour of peacock feathers and produced the most beautiful lines in the whole world. I loved it. It occupied me for hours till it eventually dried up and I couldn't find another. 

Oh well, that was that creative world gone!

Next project? 

A gas mask bag for my Action Man, made out of plasticised leatherette; the sewing possibly the worst ever committed - I would certainly never get a job in a sweat shop - but there was something about it. 

I still have it. 

It's a stupid thing, but has a clarion call of "I did this!" to it. 

It was fun and hard to make. 

It took time, but it was all mine. 

Our lives are probably littered with such detritus - of no importance to anyone but us.

And that my friends, is where Louise comes in.

"Get out your toys and play!"

Her call, whilst enduring the flat hinterland of a Graphic Design Degree; where projects that should have been done and dusted in a couple of days, stretched into chunks of boredom that lasted weeks, whilst the creative urge was squashed, examined, discarded, reinstated, tweaked, tickled up and finalised to greet the world with a massive yawn. 

Ah yes, the wonders of a creative education at the time - I wonder if it has changed?

Y'see I think part of the drive behind adult creativity is that need to make your pee mark on the lampost of life - that drive to be recognised by other dogs. 

To say, This Is Mine!

Sadly though, for most of us, I think it becomes something other than the original urge to be creative in the first place. 

I don't know, but it is like a weird psychological thing of having to justify oneself. 

You know that line from Mark Knopfler?:

That ain't working

That's the way to do it

You play the geetar

On the MTV

Because you are being creative, it somehow isn't 'work' is it?

It's just you playing, but in reality it isn't proper play really, it's a knowing sort of play. 

The fun sometimes seems to have been left behind and it has become an artful way of making your creative output look somehow vindicated and serious, because you aren't allowed to play any more.

That ain't working.

The doldrums I think stem from this. 

You want your output to look good and right. 

You want it to look like a beacon of justification to a world who just thinks you are playing.

That ain't working.

You become so caught up in wanting everything to be just so, that the whole goal of creativity gets lost in a mist of seriousness and trying to produce something that matches your fine-tuned sense of what a world wants from the justified artist.

Of course, if your creative output doesn't quite match up to this 'serious' artiness, then (quite quickly) things can dry up.

It's an arse of a situation. 

I've been there plenty of times, not just photographically, but musically. 

If you'd asked me back in my 20's whether I was a photographer or a musician, I would have said the latter without blinking an eye. 

But things change. 

The total obsession with making music eventually turned from something that was fun to something that was deadly serious, and when that seriousness was treated by a disdainful world with shrugged shoulders and a hearty 'So What? So fuck!' then my creative urge stopped - it was like falling off a cliff edge. 

I barely played a guitar for 25 years.

"Get out your toys and play!"

Louise's wonderful clarion cry to cut out the bullshit and get back to creating for the joy of creativity - wow. The more I read it the more I think it is a joyous, life-enhancing cry against the psueds and arses who litter the worlds of creativity, demanding seriousness, dryness, concentration, dedication, justification!

That lot have spoilt it for a lot of people - they've turned the basic human creative urge into something that has to justify itself to its own ends. It's not about fun; it's not about the joy of taking a line for a walk or whistling a happy tune in the street - it's grim, psuedo-intellectualism.

I've seen it since I started Art College.

Anyway - you probably come along to FogBlog to read about photography and that's what I'll give you.

I've not been through that big a doldrum for a while (unlike fellow bloggers and pals Bruce, of The Online Darkroom and Marcus, of Marcus Peddle who have battled it recently) but I have thought at times, Is There Any Point To This?

And the big answer is no.

So why continue?

Well, it is hard to say, but I think my answer to you would be, it's FUN. 

I have no creative expectations whatsoever. 

Who the hell gives any consideration to a grizzled old snapper on the East coast of Scotland who likes wandering around and hearing the sound of a shutter whilst trying to look at the world in a different and more beautiful way?

I really don't care. 

I just do it for my enjoyment. 

At one time I might have had ideas above my station, but nowadays, nah - that's all bollocks. There's no 'Work' (that dread pseudo-intellectual word) or any of that shite here. This is me, a Leica M2, a 35mm Summaron, some Tri-X, hyperfocal guesswork, exposure guesswork, Pyrocat-HD, a bus, and a dreich City trying to improve its image with the world.

It was FUN. 

I didn't give a shit about the bus CCTV, my fellow passengers or the ticket person. 

I took out my camera and snapped. I played; got dirty knees and a snotty nose, and loved it.

"Get out your toys and play!"

A Bus 1

A Bus 2

A Bus 3

A Bus 4

A Bus 5

A Bus 6

A Bus 7

A Bus 8

And that's it folks.
Cut the bull.
Cut the expectations.
Pick up your toy of choice and go and get dirty.

TTFN - please remember that the clocks have gone back now and you are still one hour ahead of the rest of mankind.