Have you been up this road?

I may be still on the mainland

I'm off - island

I am not there

I am currently between here and there.

I'm off to see sisters two so I'll miss the little art-chat with Stubbs here in An Lanntair. Miss the coffee and the delightful staff. Stubbs is the another of my art contacts. Oozes art and art info. Is a delight to chat to, spend an hour or so with. That's why I snapped him  up with the little Soviet rangefinder [Zorki6]/

I'll miss Toots too as he's back on the island from his holiday gaff. I'll be back soon too.

Sun, sea and sod all else

Sunday didn't quite work as intended.
The Mechanical Paddling Device on Freyja refused to play so we couldn't get off the mooring without risking a grounding.

Tell a sea-pooch a tail

Or tale.

Of course I like it

Not as much as some mind, but more than others.

I have this thing

As I came back into the room, this snap was staring out at me on the pooter screen. This colour film scan from our little recent hol [along with the requisite finger] came up on the screen saver. I like that screen saver that sifts through my snaps and picks one to show for a few seconds before losing it for ever. Only, I found this one

I think it may have been stuck

I was out over Callanish by the pier which is at the end of the little road that goes on from the stones car-park. I was minding my own business holding a camera like I do. Digesting the scooone and jam I'd had earlier in the visitor centre don't you know. The scooone was a little dry as it happens but the jam was ok, Once I'd wrestled the little packet open that is. The coffee was fine.

I'd gone there for a little change of scenery without a long drive. I like to look at what some areas call Grockles. They are here you know, camper vans and coaches, in cars too. Looking, drinking coffee, that sort of thing. They look a bit like the ones that were here last year too - although I suspect they aren't the same ones. If they had to pay the hotel prices my employer paid for me on a recent work trip to the southern isles up here, they wouldn't come again that's for sure. I didn't even have any hot water in the room I stayed in.

Anyway, there I was, colour film loaded in whatever camera I had with me - and it was a nice one, when this boat from from,,,, no I shan't tell you. This boat came in ever so slowly against the rapidly falling tide that was rushing out of here then stopped. Just there. It's not where I'd have stopped but I suspect there may not have been enough water to go any further. Why did they go there? No idea.

.

There it is again

Nothing like milking a nice idea, even if it is executed badly.

Another snap from the same roll of film transposed optically and chemically onto paper. I love the flaws in this - which is just as well really. Influenced obviously by wabi-sabi and all that.

Shell suit you?

Not as nice as the tulip snap but different. Again with the close-up lens held in front of the camera lens which was stopped down a bit. Printed on Proof paper.

A bit achy as I write this just after the qi gong sesh. Great to be back at it even if it alternately sunshine and a little bit of snow! Still, the first cruise ship of the year has come in to Stornoway!

on RC

Another print this tyme on some Silverprint proof gloss. Bit light but I like it anyway.

I might explore this more. I might.

Fine day

Sorry, just a phone snap of the print - which I really like. I mean, REALLY LIKE. It's a tulip - or was anyway. Taken on medium format with some close-up lens held in front of the lens.

The day started with a couple of hours in the darkroom - knocking out a few of these prints. What fun I had. Then in the evening we were off with our good pal Catherine to the Mission House Studio in Harris for a wonderful musical soiree with the Red Note Ensemble and Kuljit Bhamra. Not sure why they come over here to play but I am so very pleased they do. Make a point of thanking them for coming every time.

Contemporary is where it's at. I thought I heard essence of Mahavishnu, Kronos, Eberhard Weber and Sabba the cat on a flying carpet between Harris and Morroco. It was so very lovely.

The hosts were perfect, the venue too not forgetting the terrific minstrels.

Thank you, thank you.

I just thought I'd show you this

Rock.

The sun is shining - although a tad breezy and cool. I shall go out for a walk, breathe the air, look at the clouds and feel the coolness.

There you are

Apologies for the terrible dust covered scan but I wanted to show you this.

I told you if I didn't commit to everyday I'd have time for the darkroom. And this is a print to prove it. On Fomatone fb with sepia.
Eh?

People

I should do this more often.

Snap up people and all that.

First up, a nice Uist crofter I met out on Flodday. Right nice fella; fisherman and sheepsman. On a quad since you ask.

I took the snap on a work trip with the old Zorki6/Industar61 combination sporting Foma200 rated 400. as I do.

Same roll I find C Robertson Esq, photographist. Snapped up in the stylee of someone in my mind.

I like people pictures. Sometimes however, I don't have the verve or whatever to take them.

I've built a rodney for my own bac

Ever day or at least 'almost' every day I get to post a snap. Good or bad, thoughtful or not, I have felt [note past tense here] that I needed to ad something to keep me amused. Well, I think I may have come to the point where I have lost my amusementitis. I've been thinking about the point of it all, the commitment and everything and maybe have thought about considering the possibility of a change of mind.

I mean, I went out especially to have a cup of tea and a scooone [with butter and raspberry jam] so that I would be in a requisite place to finish off a roll in the pinhole camera. It's a pinhole camera I threw together years ago and I think it's falling apart to be honest. The snaps I took yesterday have 'ghosts' and leaks on them. Still, the scooone was ok.

That's what happens when you feel the need to shoot all the time. I don't have time to visit the darkroom so much either. It will have to change. I may just have to miss a day or two from time to time.

You won't mind will you?
You will come and visit again won't you?
Pretty please.

You know that old camera I used recently?

From the same film as before. Eh?

The camera cost £1. I had a bargain.

A beach

It's not an island beach. Is it easy to tell from a bad snap?

I snapped up with the Kodak Cresta

Yes, a Kodak Cresta. Bought for a British pound in Edinburgh a while back in a charity shoppe.

I love it. Just the right amount of adjustments - very little - and just the right amount of sharpness - none. Although the latter maybe due to the operator.

Still, I took this ]cropped] snap of Mrs Up Yours which as it happens I rather like. Has some oomph or something. I think.

The day she got off her backside and played in the darkroom

Sheeps in The Crofter's shed

Lith on Agfa MCP [rc] paper. Old old paper.

Cat in a spaceship

Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim
Agfa Vista 200
Her Highness Henrietta Cartier-Bresson

Dolphinium

There he is, just as I told you earlier.

On the edge; faces doing what they don't usually do

The second image from the project. Only, the face seems to have reverted to it's usual. But I'm sure you get the idea - and the idea is everything isn't it?

Look, I've been island hopping these past few days - working on my days off and everything. What more can you expect?

That may have led to me leading you and myselves astray. I was tired when I wrote yesterdays epic. Yes, I have been messing with Toot's 8x10 and no, these images from my On the Edge project are not from the 8x10. Rather these emanate from a 6x6 Bronica.

Right, we know what I was trying to say now.

The man who forgot how to smile

This is the one. I think he has wind here. Can't be a smile surely?

Mind you, it does look like I have glazed his face with a blowtorch. Not sure how that happened. Doesn't matter though as the 'smile' is about unrealistic as the 'tan'.

We'd been out playing with Mr Toots' 8x10. This is my start to my project "On the Edge; faces doing what they don't usually do". What do you reckon, a good start?