Zorki again

With IlfordPan400 loaded, this is a nice wee camera. How about these snaps from a local beach?

GOOOOOD weather

For a change. So, Eve & I plus the doggies took off to the southish west of the island a took some snaps while we strolled in the sun. Nice to have quietude and peacefulnes. Chatted wif a surfer waiting for the tide. then sat a while to wait for the footy match !!!!!! Nofin happened

A few snaps

A new walkway in t/middle of Lewis. A lovely spot for a stroll [before the midges get out].

Up the track below twards the peat cuttings and a lochen, you'll find a few wrecks of vans and cars. i suspect they were taken here to shelter from the rain while the good people of Tolsta where cutting their peats.

Finally got round to scanning a few negs. This time from the Zorki 6 rangefinder which i have now grown to love. The weather is somewhat variable for those of you who are reading away from the Isles but with B&W there is always something to snap.
Since you ask, I'm not looking for that ultra-sharp, perfectly composed image but rather something that speaks to me, raises some sort of emotion.

Crakin day

Despite the variable weather - sunshine one moment, snow the next, Eve & i have had a really nice day. Firstly we followed the dogs on a walk down the Creed to the sea where we shot some film. Its such a wonderful spot and it was lovely to see so many people out enjoying the fresh air and the brightness. Then on the way home we noticed the tide was waaaay out so, we stopped at Gress and walked out to the rocks where the seals live. Then it snowed again and we came home and lit the fire.
I decided to make some cyanotypes; here's one of a friend of my sisters - Ron. The print is dark and moody and toned with coffee!

Big Neg

I took the Agfa 6x9 down to Huishnish too; this on FP4 /R09. If you ver get a chance to go along this little road -go. Whatever the weather it's a dream

Old film, new image

Ere we are; Dodgy old film I bought for 3/9d a hundred weight, a Voigtlander Bessa RF 6x9 camera and a play on PS to get this image ready for a cyanotype neg. Only thing is; i like the image as is so printed in on t'inkjet.

Instant gratification

Eve & I took off for the south of Lewis and onto Harris this last weekend taking us and the dogs - Frank and Rocky The Terrible - to Huishnish. A wonderful place to arrive in - despite the intermittent rain - after a fantastic drive along from the 'main' road from Tarbert.
I did take a B&W snap or two but the Fuji Instax took a ride too - especially for George in the USA.

Made a camera today

.. from a box-file, a bit of tin-fol and some gaffer tape.loaded it wif old Kodak paper and hey presto we have a shot :-)
I post this so that the villagers in Tolsta know what I was doing pointing a box file threateningly at Eve !

A few sites worth visiting

The web is a wonderful tool and there are so many fantastic things to see photographically. Here's a few i visit;
Blogs;
www.slowlight.net/blog - Pinhole
www.two-muses.com/
http://terrorkitten.com/iblog/

Forums;
filmwasters.com - the best
www.apug.org - analogue photography mafia
www.nelsonfoto.com


Collaborations & other nice stuff
/www.filmwasters.com/collaborations
www.andrewsanderson.com/
parkeharrison

apologies if I have missed something important. I look at others too but these just came to hand.
If you are Outer Hebrides or even Tolsta based, look at the island Flickr group - and join in the fun.

A little bit of colour

In the pinhole that is.
Yep, found a roll of Fuji 160 so ran it through the Franka NoFix pinhole while the sun was almost shining. Makes a change but I think I'll stick to the B&W.

A print

The other day while the sun was shining in between the sleet/snow showers, we took the doggies for a stroll near the top end of Stornoway Castle Estate oop the River Creed. Just be the car park these birch trees fascinated me. I shot some colour film in the pinhole and shot a couple of frames of B&W.
Taken wif the Zorki6 just back from being caressed into life by Oleg in Russia and using cheap but good IlfordPan400 film sloshed in R09 - a Rodinal clone.
Now, I have read manys the times on sites such as APUG [see link on sidebar] the the scan bears no resemblance tot he print. well, I never beleived them but this one is case in point.
on old opld kodak PolyPrint RC/VC

Pinhole magic

I'm really enjoying this pinhole world of photography. The images please me no end - a sort of pictorialist feel that the camera klub hate. :-)
Since the weather has been so very changable today with warm-shine and driving snow later, i wasn't sure how the images would turnout. Still, here's the first two from Garry beach.

I'm hooked

hooked on out-of-focus images from pinhole cameras. Goodness knows what the Lewis camera klub is going to think when I present images like this one. Taken wif the pinhole camera -Franka noFix 6x6, Perutz film and a long soak in R09 @ 1:50. Rather overdid that as i was distracted as Moira, my neighbour wanted to show me the veg patch she has arranged fr us. the sun was shining and the views over the Minch were outstanding. So, I stayed and chatted, gazed over the sea and then, remembered the flippin film. 39 mins instead of 13 - oops!

While I have my foot up...

I'm playing around with cyanotypes and what have you. Here's a nice tea-toned image [well, I think its nice] from South Lochs way. And another of our local Post Office - now thankfully saved from the cuts!

Toe update

Down Meavig way

.. as if anyone was reading this!
Has a surprisingly good night with the toe shielded between two strategically placed pillows. Even been for a short stroll down the village in the sunshine. Just as well really since I have to do a little work this evening.
Have a new pic to show tho. A film-scan from a roll of IlfordPan400 that i ran through one of the kiev rangefinders.

Toe trouble

Just back from the good folks at the hospital who have been soothing my big toe after it burst like a ripe tomato. Not surprising really since i had dropped the new multi-fuel stove on it while taking it out of the packing!
So, might be a bit short on new photees for a day or two, but, it will give me more time to do some more cyanotypes.
My old Zorki has just come back from Oleg in Russia where it has been receiving a cla - and now it seems just sweet. Film is loaded bu will have wait a few days now till i get out again.

Western Isles Bloggers

Rocky, sunbathing

It seems that this blog - such as it is, has been given a mensh on another blog all about Western Isles Bloggers. Very nice and thank you Silversprite . Actually, its an interesting piece even though it lacks photos - which I like and it has put in touch with some other blogs on the isles and that must be good. Of course, there is always the BBC island bloggers where there is an occasional very funny piece - although it seems like it takes months for new posts to be put up.
But, since this primarily a blog for photos, here's one I prepared earlier. [and I have got my Blue Peter badge since you ask].
Oh and out new multi-fuel stove arrived today thanks to Woody's boys. Looking forward to that burning in the Summer Parlour.

Nother pin

Here's the next roll. Something has happened to this old old emulsion on this very old film but I rather like the effect. Welcome your thoughts.

Pinholes

Across the road.

Some time ago I put together this pinhole camera constructed from the skeleton of a franka rolfix. It worked. But not very well. So, I did a bit of research and made a new hole. Now I have something quite nice. Only thing was, some gaffer tape that is crucial to the design to keep out unwanted light, had been taken off and not replaced so light poured in to the film via the hole where the shutter thing was. No wonder I had no images. I only realised this on the last fame of some Perutz film I was running through the thing - and here is that image.

me again

I rarely taken self-potraits. Indeed, I rarely let anyone take my picture but I did do the former recently - in the Kitchen at home wit natural light the KOWA6MM and some old Agfa colour film.

I like a bit a blur

Gorrilla rock

Uhhhh??

Windy Day on the machair

The local camera club are hung up on sharpness. Their PS button for unsharpmask must be worn out. With the Ilford Sporti you get variable sharpness - sometimes it is sharpish, other times not. Who cares? The results are just dandy. Here's some shot recently on Perutz100 film.

Colour

These colours are bright - when the sun shines!

'Road to nowhere' at the end of our village.

Surfer dudes just above our little beach waiting for tide! See the mainland mountians in the distance.

OK, I don't do much colour. It doesn't usually excite me and it is expensive compared to developing ones own B&W. But, I acquired some Agfa Ultra 50 and thought I'd run it through the Spotmatic which has a meter. Then it snowed!

My Neighbour

Passing the time of day

Inside the glasshoose

Glasgow

Been to Glasgow for a few days and stayed with MiLady McGlynn - whose info can be found on a link on this blog. Anyway, had a lovely time staying with Aileen and got to look around Glasgee a bit with Edwin a flickrer whom I met. Really nice time was had by all and many thanks to Edwin and Ailleen for making my stay so pleasurable. Having said that I was so pleased to be back on the island this morning to be greeted by a very hard frost, clear skies and my dear Eve. And I managed to have a little bike ride around the village to day as well - the first for months :-)
HEre's a snap of MiLady Mcglynn MBE on t'bus - or was it t'train??.
Kiev II IlfordPan400/ID-11

Sea Boot

When the sun shines - as it has for the last two days, the Outer Hebrides is an unbeatable place to be. The beaches here are superb and hardly anyone on them - even on a great day. I toodle down at least once perhaps twice a day to walk the dogs, peruse the shapes in the sand and appreciate the light. I found this boot yesterday - no doubt having fallen off a trawler in the recent storms.
FED with stuck shutter speed ERA100/R09

Morning light

You don't usually get to see bedroom scenes - but here's a scene that greeted me the other morning when I looked out the bedroom window. I grabbed the Hassie with some FOMA400 and here we are.

Its been cold

As you can see on the car windscreen. Still, the sheep must be fed and John the local councilor came along soon to do the business with his animals. Always a smile too :-) I presume that is a smile :-)
KievIIa IlfordPan400 / ID-11

A Grand Day

The weather here at the momment is just wonderful. Woke up to warm sun and a hard frost. The beach was frozen solid and the light stunning. I tok the Kiev IIa along loaded with IlfordPAn400 - which I have not used before but not finished the film yet. In the meantime, here's a snap from last year on the smae local beach.

Sporti

The Ilford Sporti is a fine if simple camera from the 1950s and sometimes it can produce fine images. In conjunction with sme very old film which I have been told is Perutz B&W film, the potential for failure is huge - especially in my hands. However, this roll, developed in ID-11 turned out just dandy - must have been the snow. This scan is dark but I think it adds to the mood.

Keen for surfin

I could hardly believe my eyes when I took off down the steep track that leads to our local beach. There is the make-shift car-park were two Irish surfer dudes awaiting the sea later in the day. It seems they had retreated here because of a big storm and this afforded some shelter for their van. They told me they had been surfin on the day of the storm and would again later that day. That's keeness for you!
Luckily they had a 4 wheel drive van to get out of the car-park otherwise they would still be there now.
Era100/R09 Kiev IIa

More Snow

Lots of it in fact. Nice for us - especially when the sun shines too but for the crofters its hard.
The turkey is just happy to be alive!
Kiev IIa/Jupiter 35mm APX400s/R09

Snow eh?

Yep, we had snow today and a big storm last night when unfortunately a trawler was lost - but the fishermen were picked up by the new Stornoway helichopter. I snook out with a box camera for Box Camera at work day on Flickr - my day job is walkng the dogs! I like box cameras as the choice is mainly where to point the thing although my Houghton Butcher does have 'B' and 'I' shutter settings pus three, yes three apertures - big, small and medium. Used FOMA400 in ID-11.
We have had more snow this afternoon and its going to freeze tonight. Just hope the roads are OK as I have to work this evening.
Music to listen while reading this