Some Photographs Of The Same Thing

Well,  I'll not say it's boring, but it is quite a change for me.

I've rarely photographed (some might say slightly obsessively) the same thing twice - it's just not really in my remit.
Certainly I'll visit the same places and re-photograph them, but the same thing? 

Well no. 

But this thing was different.

Hasselblad SWC/M

It's quite unusual to find a large piece of deep water marine equipment just sitting on the ground, waiting for something to happen, but such was the case with this. 

You maybe saw it recently in the post about Frankenstein.

I've no idea quite what it is, but one thing is for certain - it's from some Brutalist Planet, where things are made tough and look the same too.

To my eye there's something that I find fascinating about it and I can't quite place it.

Is it because there's an air of Chris Foss about it?

If you're not aware of Foss, he's a SF book illustrator, whose amazing flights of the imagination made a deep impression upon the (slightly) young Sheephouse. 

Look him up  - there's plenty of examples around - and then tell me if you think our subject wouldn't be out of place in one of his paintings!

So yeah, maybe that's why it caught my eye - it's just a shame it has been fenced off.

It wouldn't look out of place in the foyer of the V&A as an example of Design and Functionality, but instead here it is, sitting by the gates of a scrapyard waiting for the end. 
I'll be sad to see it go.
When I was thinking about (and photographing) the Frankenstein piece, this, to me, became an allegory for The Modern Prometheus.
Something created by man, not 'beautiful' in the conventional sense, but BEAUTIFUL in its own right, yet now cast away.

Stupid I know, but I like to think that maybe Mary's spirit was governing things.

Anyway, enough of my musings, without further ado, here are:

 Some Photographs Of The Same Thing

Rolleiflex T

First up is the one I posted before. 
This was taken with my Rolleiflex T - a camera that seems to (strangely) get a fair amount of stick, and yet, what's not to like: it has a single-coated Zeiss Tessar, optimised for f11 and the typical Rollei practicality, where everything has been thought through incrediblty well. 
That it sat in their line-up inbetween the Planar/Xenotar configured top of the range boys and the lowly Rolleicord, seems to be largely ignored these days. 
A lot of vendors sell Rolleicord Vbs for a heavier premium (because they're 'newer') and yet, optically many would argue the Tessar has an edge over a Xenar.

Don'tcha just love old optical terms!

As with most (well, in my experience) TLRs (apart from the likes of the 3.5/2.8 E's and F's) the lens works best in the happy smiley people range - i.e. from about 3 feet to about 15 feet. 
It's not really a landscape camera though it DOES produce excellent results used as such. 
Actually, for all that, the majority of landscapes I've taken have used a TLR and I've never really complained about the results.

However, when I invested in my Hasselblad system I truly realised what I had been missing!

Still, this being said, I've no complaints with the T. 

It has been a good friend for years.
What the shot clearly shows is that it is entirely easy to operate a Rollei handheld in low-light situations - this was just about sunrise on a Winter's dawn and 1/30th at f5.6

Hasselblad 500 C/M, 60mm Distagon

I was so enamoured with it, that I went back the following week, this time with the 500C/M and the 60mm Distagon affixed.

I love the 60mm Distagon - it's an incredibly sharp lens with virtually no distortion.

Here's what Zeiss say in their literature:

Distagon T* 60 mm f/3.5 CB

The Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 60 mm f/3.5 CB is versatile wide angle lensto be used with all current Hasselblad cameras. The stunning optical performance recommends this lens for a wealth of demanding tasks in commercial, advertising, and industrial photography, to name just a few.

Detailed interiors with people,groups in particular are a hallmark of this lens. In candid wedding photography the Distagon T* 60 mm f/3.5CB is an indispensable tool that can be used wide open whenever ambient lighting conditions ask for it.

I found it rather telling that in a visit to the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin, alongside his trusty Rollei, there was also a 500C/M with a 60mm C Distagon attached.

Nuff said. 

It doesn't seem to be a too popular lens in the Hasselblad V line-up - no idea why.
The film was HP5 at EI 200 and exposure was definitely happening - it was bleedin' BALTIC . . . nah, 1/30th at f4.

Hasselblad 500 C/M, 150mm Sonnar

Still thinking about it, I went back AGAIN the following week.
What with everything being fenced off and all that, I felt I needed something longer. 
And what did I have? 
Yep, the 150mm Sonnar.
I've detailed it many times before - it's a bargain of a lens for a Hasselblad - sharp as a tack, creamy out of focus and relatively useable at f4.5 maximum aperture. 
The beauty with all the Zeiss Hasselblad lenses is that you really can shoot them wide open and get very useable and distinctive results, so even though I was shooting unfiltered Ilford SFX at EI 100 and was operating pre-sunrise (the exposure was 1/125th at f4!) I was still confident in my ability to photograph things relatively wide open
. . . and that was just my trousers . . .  nah, just joking.

Hasselblad SWC/M

I had a break of a week or so, but I found it was still on my mind; so, not wishing to leave things out, I headed back yet again. 
This time I was toting the SWC/M with that luscious 38mm Biogon. 
It is a lens that can really do wonderful things to light, and I'm not sure what it is - it just seems to be a great translator. 
Suffice to say I love it - it may not be the ideal lens for everyone, but I find if you get yourself into the Super Wide Zone mentally, it is all you could wish and a whole lot more.
The film I took with it, was FP4+ as it is all I had left - not exactly ideal for the light levels I was encountering.. 
I tried to approach each frame like I was making a sequence of photographs - I'll let you see the rest next time, but in the meantime, the pictures of the Marine Monster will have to suffice.

Hasselblad SWC/M

And that was the last of them - should I go back with every other camera and lens I own or would that be over-egging the pudding? 
The latter methinks.

So, job done. 
Hope you like the photographs . . . and if you don't, well I can dig it (as they used to say). 
They're all 800dpi scans off of prints as usual - Ilford MGRC for speed and convenience. 
However I will say that as scans of prints I think they're fairly ghastly. 
Certainly in the SWC/M shots the slight vignetting from the lens (the weather was so terrible and I was getting 1/15th of a second at f5.6!!) has been heavily over-emphasised. 
The prints whilst not brilliant - more works in progress - look considerably better than the scans - but then again isn't that always the case. 

Anyway, 'nuff excuses - over and oot the noo!

TTFN and don't forget to post those letters. 

In Search Of "The Modern Prometheus"

Well, there I was with nothing more than the old Rollei T in my hands and the thought that I really should use him more than I do. 

Oly The Rollei has been a friend in my life since the 25th January 2003 (oh the power of keeping notebooks!) when I was pushed into the remembrance (by my brother) that at one time I had been dead serious about photography. 

He was alluding to my degree course at Duncan of Jordanstone College Of Art and my friendship (yes I can call it that, and indeed so could all his students) with Joseph Mckenzie (father of modern Scottish Photography - not my quote) or just plain JOE as we called him.
A giant of a character who railed against the mores and attitudes of the narrow-mindedness of the institution that was DOJCA his whole life. 

"The Ruby In The Pig's Arsehole" was what he called the Photography Department, and it was true.
No making of little me's by him,  no sir - he gave you wings to fly. 

Anyway, that's been detailed before. 

Suffice to say Oly The Rollei was a sound purchase and has stood me well through hundreds of films.

This is an intereactive post, in that it requires you to click links - if you're OK with that, please proceed!

Prometheus 6

Anyway, enough of technicalities, I've had a thought to do a small photographic portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin for a while.

Who's SHE? I hear you ask.
Well, better known as Mary Shelley, she spent a small portion of her formative years (1812 and again 1813) in Dundee.

"I wrote then—but in a most common-place style. It was beneath the trees of the grounds belonging to our house, or on the bleak sides of the woodless mountains near, that my true compositions, the airy flights of my imagination, were born and fostered."

If you read the preface to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein she says as much, about her days spent dreaming and observing the 'drear' banks of the Tay.
It was a very different city in those days too; the town expanding exponentially from it's post-medieval port status, to full-on Industrial Centre.
The influence on a young and imaginative mind must have been immense.
She could draw from the sites of witch burnings; plague pits; haunted lanes; a smelly and bloody whaling industry; mills; smoke; a burgeoning (and racially disparate) population; slums; death and dirt.
Oh and mountains!
The ways of a young imagination with such things to play upon it, can only be drawn from reading the book.
It must have been profound.

Her base was a large house (demolished roughly around the 1860's) called The Cottage. It was owned by the industrialist Thomas Baxter and looking at maps, must have been a typical, moneyed, house of the time with decent grounds.
All that is left of it and its grounds now, is a small plaque on a very large wall that puts a full-stop on a small street called South Baffin Street (y'see, Dundee's whaling heritage is all around - we even used to have an East and a West Whale Lane).
South Baffin is quite unusual in that there is no resident's parking, just a couple of forlorn benches plopped in the middle of a street of tenements.

Anyway, I digress.

Sometimes don't you just wish you had a time machine?
I suppose you do own one if you use your imagination, but all the same . . .
Looking down on the myriad of satellite dishes (Oh how 90's Dwarling!) strewn over the tenements, it was hard to get myself back to a time when a young girl would have looked out on relatively unspoiled Firth!
As I stated before, Dundee was a very different place then.
If you look at the OS at this link and then scroll in till you see Camperdown Dock - The Cottage is around the one o'clock mark up from there.
As you can see, to the left of the map are to be found the sprawling docks and the remnants of a medieval walled City.
To the right of the map you see open strath and scattered houses and factories.
Lots of open fields.
That process of the slow creep of the City outwards, is still ongoing.
Landscape becomes managed and culverted (as indeed it has always been).
Picturesque land becomes lost and built upon and before you know it, all that is left are the old names.

The area that also concerns us is Stannergate.
This still exists and it was at this point where the culverted  burns entered the Tay.
On the old map, there's a promontory, but this is now buried under modern reclaimed land. Apparently the promontory was where Mary would sit and think and dream and watch all the flotsam of a working port go in and out.
Now it is the site of industry with a deep water port (owned by Forth Ports) and a substantial Rig Decommisioning Area.

Even though you can't get near the actual Stannergate foreshore itself, you can get relatively close enough, and indeed if you stand there at low tide, and close your eyes (ignoring the incessant car roar) you can sort of feel the movement of the estuary; the holding back of land; the chanelling of springs and burns and rain-water courses; the turning of the tides and the planet.
Indeed, I'm not sure what it is, but it has something.
My father-in-law, born and raised in Dundee city centre back in the '30's when it was proper poor said his mother used to take them to the Stannergate for a holiday.
It's only a couple of miles from the centre, but, at the time would have been beyond (just about) the smoke and industry of one of the busiest and hardest-working cities in Scotland.
With the nearby 'Grassy Beach' and the delights of Broughty Ferry further along the coast, the cleaner air blowing off the estuary and the un-sprawled-upon fields, must have been a panacea to a population familiar with grime and stoor.

So that's set the scene a bit hasn't it.
From South Baffin to the Stannergate is a short walk and on my first exploratory expedition (serious and with camera in hand) I didn't make it.
Initially I wanted to get a feel for the place, so I started at Broughty Ferry Road, walked to the top of the steps at South Baffin St, back down, along to the Roodyards Burial Ground (site of the ancient and long demolished St. John's Chapel [a well-known shrine from the C15th and Hospital of St John The Baptist, also from that time] though the site is documented as being a plague site for the disposal of corpses).
From there I made my way down the deserted and neglected Roodyard's Lane, crossed the main road and headed into the docks.

I've photographed the docks for years and always find something interesting - it's that sort of place.
You also tend to be ignored even with the likes of a 5x4 set-up, which is very nice indeed.

Anyway, back to Mary.
I struggled, I really did.
That she was here is fact; but to draw a line between her and modern Dundee is pretty much an impossibility.
Certainly it was for me, camera in hand, wondering what to photograph.

And this is what I did - as usual, you get the whole contact and notes, and then some prints.

Film #66/64

Ilford HP5+ EI 200

1. 1/4 f5.6 ZIII South Baffin Street

2. 1/2 f8 ZIII South Baffin Street

3. 1/2 f4 ZIII South Baffin Street

4. 1/8 f8 ZIII Cemetery/Roodyards Road

5. 1/15 f5.6 ZIII Cemetery/Roodyards Road

6. 1/30 f4 ZIII Rolleinar 1

7. 1/4 f8 ZIII Rolleinar 1

8. 1/8 f8 ZIII Dock Street

9. 1/30 f8 ZIII Sign

10. 1/60 f5.6 ZIII Rolleinar 1

11. 1/30 f5.6 ZIII Object

12. 1/30 f5.6 ZIII Scene

Pyrocat HD 5+5+500ml 22℃

Usual agitation. 14mins, stand to 17 mins

Lots of camera shake - no tripod, should have used cable release.

Forgot hood a couple of times hence flare. The drilling thing looks amazing on neg. They're not great though - could do and will do better.

ALWAYS USE THE HOOD!!

Ah yes, the sage words "Always Use The Hood"!
If you own or are contemplating an old Rollei, and, like me, rather like shooting into bright light sources, then get a hood.
You can see it in the lower section of frames 4 and 8 on the contact. basically, if you don't use one, the following frame will be ruined by a band of flare. It used to frustrate the heck out of me because I had no idea what was causing it. I bought a Bay 1 hood, and it stopped. All the other frames above I am using the hood in similar lighting and there's no flare.
Save yourself heartache - USE A HOOD!

Anyway, here's the results - they're all 800dpi scans off of my prints made on Ilford MGRC for speed and convenience. It probably is a slippery slope for me  - I can bang out a bunch of prints compared to the care I have to use with anything fibre-based. This being said, the results are fine and they work for me as a visual stimulus, as in:

"What are you going to do wiv all them prints then?"

"You gonna just stare at them wiv your jaw open, droolin' on yer jumper ? Or are you actually goin' to get off yer fat arse and do sumfink?"

Ah yes, the visual arse kick.
It'll be the latter, deffo.

I sort of put these into a slight sequence - not sure if it works or not.

Prometheus 1

Prometheus 2

Prometheus 3

Prometheus 4

Prometheus 5

Prometheus 6

And that as they say is that.
Hope you've found it interesting. It's amazing what local history you can find in Britain if you dig even a little bit.
I've had fun doing it, improved my knowledge and, semi-inspired, have gone on to explore the area further with a bunch more films which I'll be posting in subsequent, er, posts.

If you get a chance, or maybe you are intimately familiar with it, read Frankenstein. I initially found it difficult to approach, but when you start stripping it back, and discovering the influences that brought it into being, and indeed the influence it had on fiction full stop, well, I think it is pretty remarkable.

That's it - TTFN and remember, never drink the vinegar from a jar of pickled onions.

Last Film Of The Decade

Fol-de-role! And a Jolly Green Giant of a New Years Greeting to you from the home of New Year . . Auld Scotia!

Well a new decade is upon us - in the forthcoming one, we'll achieve world peace, harmony, have turned around about the environment, be on a Universal Income and all in all everything will be tip top and super.

I'll be either dead, alive but nearly dead, alive and surviving, alive and independently-limbed, alive and non-independently-limbed, or in a concerned, bewildered and horrified torpor which sees me drifting around from environmental to humanitarian disaster, trying to do stuff.
I might well not be living in the country (a dream I have had my whole life) . . but hey-ho! I'm not discounting it - who knows (where the wind blows)?

What is likely is that I won't be working any more - having achieved state retirement age - unless the bastards have put it up exponentially - in which case, my old adage of:

It used to be WORK and DIE. Now it's WORK, INSERT YOUR OWN CATHETER and DIE

will be true.

Will Alec Turnips (son and all-round good egg) have spawned any sprogs before I am too old to pick the blighters up? Who Knows??

Will we still be able to buy film? Will you have to auction your kidneys to buy a roll of Tri-X in the UK? Oh, sorry foreign readers . . IT IS LIKE THAT NOW!
Ah, that's a good question though isn't it.
It leads to the thought, what would you do if you couldn't?
For myself, I'd stop photographing entirely. I totally cannot be arsed with digital and prefer the process that traditional picture taking brings to the table.

Which rather brings me to the whole point of this first FB of a new decade . . . the last film taken in the 2010's. I had to mark it somehow, so we'll get to that further down the page, though I couldn't resist chucking this photograph in.

Quiet, Haunted Lane

Anyway, if you can't be bothered reading and just like looking at the pictures, please feel free to scroll downwards.
And if you're from 2030:

Careful with your Cormthrusters . . you don't want them getting caught on your Space Suit.

Well, here we go - looking back to the start of 2010, I was writing in my journals long and lustily about the weight of my Sinar!

"8/2/2010

I weighed myself with all the big gear - it worked out I was hauling 4.6kg (nearly 11lb) of tripod and head, which probably explains why it took me nearly 3 hours to reach the top of the Shank (of Drumfollow). I weighed 15 stone 9.25 lb with all my stuff AND NO BOOTS! 26lb of extra weight. So after much deliberation I decided to buy another tripod"

Not only did I buy another tripod ( a Gitzo Series G224 Reporter and G24 head - which stood me in good stead for 8 years and I still have) I also bought a Wista DX from a chap called Mike Pirrie for the grand sum of £300. It was in boss condition, and had started out in the States by all accounts until Mike had bought it. The Wista is a superb camera - a true triumph of form and function. I used it a hell of a lot.
My last quote from the end of February 2010 reads:

"Had to take my new set up for a field test, so went to the Western.
It's quite a different camera to use - the GG is VERY bright. You have to be more aware of the standards and everything being parallel (compared to the Sinar, which is like a brick shithouse). . . . But at last I am relatively free from the tyranny of weight and bulk!"

Here's a photo taken with that setup:

Grave Detail With Light Frost - Western Cemetery, Dundee

It was with the Wista, the old Kodak 203mm Ektar with the Bumblebee Prontor shutter and Foma 100 sheet film at EI 50. It was developed in Barry Thornton 2 bath. The stonework was placed on Z VI and the reading was 15 secs at f45.
With reciprocity that was up to 60 seconds!
And that's the beauty and importance of keeping exposure notebooks!

I quite like it.
The old Kodak Ektars, whilst 'press' lenses, are really fine art marvels - mine is the British version which fits a Copal 0 shutter too, should the Bumblebee ever decide to fly away.
Anyway that was a photograph from a batch of 4 from how I started the decade.

And here's the last 5x4 I took - we have to rewind back to 2016 - May.
Bloody hell - it only seems like 2 months ago - I am far older and uglier nowadays.

Who Are You And Why Are You Taking My Picture?

This was the Wista again but with the 90mm Super Angulon. I'd got lucky with that lens and got a boxed, late-made one with a filter for a relatively paltry amount - it's a cracking lens.
Seeing these again has cemented an idea for this year - I'm going to start using LF again, but will be more selective and also use a different developer to Pyrocat - the thought of waiting around in the dark for something to emerge is almost too much for a sane brain to contemplate. Maybe Microphen might do the trick - thanks for the tip Bruce.

Anyway, in between LF in 2010 and my last film something dramatic occured, and that was the acquiring of what I really think is one of the very finest cameras made - a Hasselblad.
It changed me photographically.
I realised that FOR ME and MY PURPOSES it was pointless farting about with so-so cameras and 'extinct' systems - if you are serious about taking pictures, please consider this - the lens is the most important element, followed by the camera system to back it up and a plentiful supply of stuff to help you with your choice and to my mind, the V System was a no-brainer.
Finally being able to afford one was probably the most exciting thing ever, photographically speaking, for me.
Actually taking it out and getting used to it was a thrill that is still with me.
I love it.

So, on the last day of the decade, I knew I was going to take the 500 C/M and the 60mm Distagon (which I haven't used in a while) out for a wander.
I initially thought I'd get a lift from my wife on her way to work, but the sun doesn't rise till 8.46AM around these parts at this time of year and the realisation that I'd have to be making really long exposures in really cold (sub-zero) weather in an unknown part of town, made me think twice.
So I hunkered down and waited for the sun and headed off to my old stomping ground of the back of the Art College.
The sun was really low, but very beautiful and making images that thrilled me was a breeze.
It put a real spring in my step and, having examined the negs I can honestly say that I'll probably print every image on the roll - an all time first!

Film 66/63

Dundee, 31/12/2019

Ilford HP5+ - EI 200

1./ 1/125th f8 ZIII - Shed Bike

2./ 1/60th f8 ZIV - Bike

3./ 1/60th f4 ZIII - Prejudice

4./ 1/15th f8 ZIII - 180 Degrees From Prejudice - House

5./ 1/30th f4 ZIII - Bath

6./ 1/60th - 1/125th f8 ZIII - Liberty Tree

7./ 1/30th f8 ZIII- Me

8./ 1/250th f5.6 ZIII - Girl

9./ 1/60th f11 ZIII - Palms

10./ 1/30th f8 ZIII - Dark Wullie

11./ 1/60th f5.6 ZIIII - Wrestle

12./ 1/15th f4 ZIII - Spex Pistols

PHD  - 5+5+500 22℃

Usual to 14 mins then stand to 17 mins.

Really Happy With This -They Looked So Exciting Through The VF. 

Hasselblad 500 C/M + 60mm Distagon.

ALL Handheld

Sorry, but I started showing the contact prints for every film last year and I am going to go on, hence the above.

Anyway, buoyed up with how the negatives looked, I had a decent few hours printing on the 2nd of January, and here's the results.
They are all scans at 800dpi off of the prints which were printed on Ilford MGRC at Grade 3.
The weird thing is, that the contact is actually printed at Grade 2, but to get the same sparkle, I nearly always have to print at Grade 3.
It's probably something to do with the staining effect of the Pyrocat in contact printing as opposed to projection printing.
Anyway, here goes the prints - and with added descriptions too.

Quiet, Haunted Lane

When I finish my compendium of ghost stories, the above is going to be the cover - it has that feel to me. I'd taken the Prejudice picture and was quite happy with it, but then decided to turn around 180 Degrees and voila - the sun was shining up the lane just right and the house was veiled by flare from the backlighting.
It looked tremendously exciting in the viewfinder.

Ghost Of Bathing Student Wonders What Is Going On

Ah, those jolly students! The bath had been a part of someone's 'installation' for their graduate exhibition. It has now been moved off its display plinth and is being used as a saw horse.

The veiling flare from the strong sun coming through the roof bits made the wall face look like it was rising in steam off the bath - I know, I DO have a weird mind.

The print isn't too successful though - I think it looks better on the contact - that's one for a future session.

Sheephouse, International Man Of Mystery

This is the architectural building of Duncan Of Jordanstone - were it not for the fecking double glazing it would be an almost perfect reflection shot from my point of view. 

Double glazing really mucks up reflection photographs - I don't like it that much.

The light though has something almost sepulchural about it and my shadow gives it a certain air of mystery don'tcha think?

I am happy with the print on this - by the way, despite what people say the majority of the prints from this sessions were made at approximately the same exposure time of 32 seconds at f22. The enlarging lens was my Vivitar (Schneider) 100mm - a truly great lens.

I find once you get an idea of what the base exposure time is you can easily judge things from there. No Faffin'!

Palms - GTA-style

Yes I know, this IS Scotland . . but you see, some 10+ years back some brainbox decided to augment the delightfully quaint formal gardens opposite the Uni with a planting of palms. 

They also put some Lemmings on a wall in celebration of the coding of the game Lemmings:

Madly Addictive But Extinct

. . . and I now realise, the palms are maybe there to celebrate the coding of the game Grand Theft Auto. 

I'm just waiting for the Minecraft memorial in the Western Cemetery . . . 

The photograph shows what an incredible lens a Distagon is (IMHO) - coupled with the harsh light it's given it a weirdly off-kilter tonality I really like.

Dark Wullie Is Watchin'

And who doesn't love Oor Wullie? What d'ye mean you've NEVER heard of him?

He's a cartoon character created by Mr. Dudley D. Watkins, who also created Desperate Dan, Lord Snooty and The Broons. Printed by the mighty Dundee Institution D.C Thompson.

Anyway, this year we had about a billion cast sculptures of Wullie on what was called The Bucket Trail - look it up. 

They were auctioned at the end of the Summer and if you look closely there's one of the horrible little feckers staring right at you. 

Why horrible? 

The modernised Bucket Trail Wullie had no charm - you can read a brief history of Wullie on this link

Hello!

This was taken through the old revolving doors of Duncan Of Jordanstone - the girl looked quietly optimistic . . give her a 4 year degree course and we'll see then.

This being said it has no doubt changed a deal since I was there in the 80's. Then, it was like a mincer trying to produce artistic sausages. A lot of my compadres went on to become really well-known artistes  - och well, them's the breaks - insert words if you so wish.

This being said, if the stuff that makes up the current Seized By The Left Hand exhibition at the DCA passes for the state of modern art, then art is in a place I neither understand nor wish to understand.

The New Liberty Tree

This is the NEW Liberty Tree - why new? Well in an act of road widening back in the 1930's the Council cut it down.

The original Ash had the most fascinating history recounted on this link

At least someone has had the grace to reinstate one in memoriam.

I've been a little heavy-handed in printing this, but I rather like the stark contrasts. In hindsight I'd have moved in closer, cropped it a bit more and made the difference even more obviouser . . . obviously.

Anyway, that's it - my last film of the 2010's and I am pleased with it!

Who knows what the next 10 years will bring, or even whether I'll still be writing this, or whether any of us will still be around to sound a "Hail Fellow And Well Met" to each other.

No matter what it brings, I wish you peace, harmony, positivity and good fortune.

As a recent fortune cookie message said to me:

Your smile is a curve that can get a lot of things straight.

I can't really add any more than that.

Till the next time, TTFN, and remember to brush your teeth or else they'll run away to join the circus . .