Stormoway

The toon doesn't get much of a look-in when snappage from the island is shown. This despite the fact that cruise ships disgorge their inmates into the place on a regular basis from now till later in the year. Here, are a few iconic images of contemporary 'stones' around the place.

Away

Off island at present with my dearest delightful Eve. Soon be back from the mainland.

Grand day for a stroll on the beach

As is the way here, as soon as the weather perks up, there's a rush to the beaches. I counted two people this day - pretty rammed really.

Will she get home safely?

Imagined seascape.

It arrived here on the paper from goodness knows where but it speaks to me.

On Adox FB

It wasn't me

Places to portraitise up.

This is one of them

Barking mad

There it is; inspired by the nasty doggie that bit me.
PQ developer
Tetenal fix
Paper glue
Bleach/ sepia
Kodak FB paper

Not all sunshine here in Spring

We got wet. Toots and I. Toots was collecting pixels with some ancient electronic device, fannying around and everything so missing the light. Oh deary me. He is co-authoring a book which seems to include a lot of concrete things so that's why we were - sorry, he was - collecting concrete infused pixels.

Up at the road to nowhere we were and no snow in sight - despite that effect here from the Foma400 film in ID11.

William and Charlie

William is the one with the knapsack I might add here. Wouldn't want you to get the wrong idea. Not sure what happened to Charlie since this was 2011 when I shot the both of them with a Kiev60 [with a leaking shutter]. That was back in the day and everything.

I still have the Kiev 60 and bring it out to play when I am feeling strong and the light is low. It's a f2.8 lens - if that means anything to you - so it works well when the light rays are less than fullsome. Must try and resolve that shutter issue really as the lens is lovely. I mean, look at that sheeps legs. Eh? Lovely aren't they?

Just so you know how lucky we are to live here, the rain/sleet/snow is battering the window as I write, blown as it is by the gale that comes in from Greenland. Not sure the lambs are enjoying it at all.

Walking with Toots

I took it upon myself to encourage Toots to leave the confines of his beach opposite his house and come to one of 'our' beaches. Only, we spent most of the time taking a portrait of the Bridge here on the 'Road to Nowhere much'.  looking out over Garry beach. It's an early concrete bridge built under the auspices of Lord Leverhulme by local men in the main. The road to Ness was never finished, it is said because of the locals having a disagreement about land with the Lord. However, it is a nice stroll for a mile or two along the coast on a track to a fine bog at the other end. Traverse this bog and you too could walk to Ness. By why you ask? I have no answer.

Acid rain over Penguin Mountain

Made this Sunday morning thinking about dearest Eve as she was out cycling in the drizzle that was. And no, I didn't have bad dreams in the night, I just 'realised' this image as it were. Love this process as the images make more sense to my warped mind than most others.

Of course you need to have the details;
Penguin Mountain - imagination
Acid rain - bleach/sepia
PQ developer
Tetenal  fix
Shower gel
Agfa RC paper.
Luck.

Retro

Yes it's Foma retro 320 film again - shot at 640. A suitably retro but effective iconic island bus shelter poses. Again.

I have nothing to say

Is it a Masterpiece ?

And no it seems my tooth was not broken !

Oof; I may have broken a tooth

Polypan again

The sun shone the other day. Bit of a shock as it happens though the warmth of the day didn't really match the brightness. Our proposed expedition in the wee boatee didn't materialise as neither Eve or I could face the cutting wind. But we did take a cool stroll on the beach at Gress on the way back from Stormoway and the boat.

Of course I had a camera with me. Who do you think I am? The Zenit 11 given to me by Alex Boyd was loaded with some of the Polypan-f film I have. I like it . It's cheap. The stuff has no anti-halation layer and it is very thin. But it is cheap. Have I told you that?

Despite a light leak on some frames, overly aggressive flare on the lens and freezing hands, these snaps are really ordinary.

Too hard on the shutter

Multi-exposures. Like em or hate em. Me? Not won over to either camp at the moment. I might have to experiment more .
Tried this in the EOS 500n the local very kind pharmacist gave me. How lovely she is..

Pano 2

The other side of the car park from the shot. Perfect for a Monday.

Pano

Want a panorama?
Put 35mm in an old 6x9 camera and shoot.

This was from the test roll.

A sense of place

I have friends who hate this sort of snap crossed as it is by wires for communication. Only, I feel that wires and telegraph poles that are very obviously all over the island and sometimes in the most odd locations like a little island in the middle of a loch, give the snap a sense of place. It depicts, to some extent what it is like to be here, looking and everything. 

This is one such snap.

It was a tad drab

I have a pal who exists in England and everytime I show a less than sunny shot of this island he calls it bleak! Bleak? It's far from that even on a dull day.

Surely one can't see bleakness here. That is a lovely pole after all. The clouds are nice - although it did rather fed me up a bit as the rain lashed down from time to time.

See, boats and everything. Proper portrait of a place on the island. Granted the wind blew me off level, but I like that. Trust me.

Ghent

Ghent, Gent or whatever you call the wonderful place that is an epicenter of cycle racing in Europe. Europe, remember that?

If you haven't been there , go. It's a lovely place and I rather miss not going recently. It's somewhat further away for us up here on the isle. We were last there - always there for the Tour of Flanders sportive and pro races. I took this, some years ago with a Voigtlander Bessa 6x9 rangefinder and cropped the neg for this lith print made the other day. Always liked this portrait of a bridge at night.

2012

A policeman's life is not a happy one [usually].

Snapped with me Holga at the Olympics 2012, Londinium, Richmond that is. Lith printed the other day on old Bergger paper.

This was one of my little grab snaps between Maestro Toots' meanderings. I used an old Minolta 505si and Rollie Retro 100. Not the ideal film but it is what I used.
the shoot gave Mr Toots some fine negs and the proable show at an Lanntair in the future is sure to be a wow. Or something.

Did I tell you?

Been helping Mr Toots play at photographising some tootie things up for a forthcoming little expo Mr Toots has. He was shooting Med Format [RB67 don't you know], me snapping between times on 35mm just because I can.

See, the very domesticated Mr Toots ironing a backdrop - that he didn't use. But could have.
Oh we had such fun. In the darkroom too.

Admiral Hales attempts cpr on a Yamaha 200 o/b

It still didn't work without kippering the fish still in the harbour water. Not for the want of a good mechanic either

No. 1 sheeps

There they were, them sheeps posing for me with my Kodak Cresta  camera. By the tractor. Ex-tractor.

There again

Kyles of Scalpay.

Lady Matheson Memorial

Lady Mary Jane Matheson was an immigrant from Quebec who married a drug dealer - Lord Matheson who bought the Isle of Lewis. This is her memorial, up there in that curved wall thing. She died in London apparently. Well, I almost did living there many years ago - or at least my soul died.

Over the top

Eve had the day off - so it was raining.
We took off for Harris to have a look-see at the new Talla na Mara community hall which includes a fine cafe as well as artists hutches and at the moment Geoff Stear's fine art on show.

The snap I took whilst stopped on the Clisham road o'er Tarbert end. The clouds were very shapely I must say. Oh how very lovely it was - especially when we tucked into the tea and cakes in the cafe. Eh? What's a day off for?

A Tractor

Somewhere nice

Nice eh?
Lovely when the sun is shining. And a cafe nearby to sate one's thirst too.

Plus a bit of X

Uncle Alex Boyd gifted to me a roll of 35mm Kodak Plus-x - from 1958.

I used it in the Zorki6 camera with Industar 26m lens. It works.
I doused it in PQ developer 1:10 to counteract the probable loss of contrast.

Here we are:

Nice road eh?

Me

I waiting till midday was past so you knew it is really me. Pinholed and all that. 8x10 pinhole loaned by Mr A Boyd, loaded with old Ilford paper, show and developed this morning.

Obviously, I look better than this but, you know pinhole, 5 mins exposure etc.

Fankastic !

Apologies for the title but I've gone a bit tearful over these lovely portraits. I mean, who can not love fanks like these - nestling by the roadside, near the sea [ although everything is by the sea really] and made of recycled lives.

Don't tell me you don't want to be here looking over that fank with a loch and the sea behind it, the hills to the side while the sun warms your back.

Fanks again

Brace yourself, I might be showing one or two of these portraits I tooked of fanks. I like them. They little the landscape of the island and serve as a reminder of the way of the peoples till recently. Some are still used but most I think have seen better and busier days.

I did start a series called Fanks for the memory some time back and it needs finishing.

I show you.....

I show you this portrait of a Fank just to remind you, if you needed reminding - and I do - that the new Bergger Pancro 400 35mm film looks great at box speed in ID11. Whatever that means.

It may actually be a fankette to be pedantic but round here on this ere road in that sunlight with those clouds that day it looked lovely. So lovely that I took it's portrait.

And now the croisant

Artist Geof Stear  artfully brings the fresh croissant into his range at the very lovely Linda Norgrove brunch at Ravenspoint over the weekend. Congrats to Rhoda and others who got the thing together.

I have a beret like that you know - Stubbsy the artist gave it to me so I could get into the looking like an artist thing. Only, it just makes me look like Ms Wolfie

Of course, I didn't do landscapes

But it seems I have been working on that of late.

Sorry and all that.

It's ok. He's not here.

I shot him with the Holga. I can show it to you as he's not here but swanning around Ireland snapping everything that doesn't move.

Bergger Pancro 400

Yes, yes it's The Crofter. You've seen him before.

Here I caught him in a moment of dog-less happiness at home enjoying the warm weather on what was his birthday. Oh joy. His world is likely to be upset soon with the arrival of a baby into the household. Makes a change from lambs anyway.

I shot the man with my trusty OM1n using the new Bergger Pancro 400 doused afterwards in Rodinal 1:25. Nice don't you think?

Oooof

Here I was, stood by the sea contemplating - life and all that - when this pinhole camera looked at me. Briefly.

The coows

Yes, it's the same coows as I snapped up before. I was so taken with them I shot them again. They really didn't seemed to mind  at all.

You're wrong!

No, not another snap from The Birthday Stroll. Not a bit of it. Twas the day before. And the other direction from home. Totally the other direction as it happens. And in rain. Yes, did I tell you it can rain here?

It wasn't raining when I left home you understand. When I strolled past The Crofter's croft and everything. Hardly a cloud in the sky - apart from the ones that were there you understand. I was going out toward The Crofter's peat banks out beyond over there, where the sun was shining.

Lovely stroll in the force 7 breeze but then I noticed a blackening of the clouds a tad - out over the moor. Too bad I thought. Then the hail came, all of a sudden and everything. I hardly had a chance to scurry  under the branches of the tiny wood there. It eased as soon as it started so I started off again - until the rain came down moments later.

Bother I thought, shot a fence with a peat track in the distance and went home. Then the sun came out again !

Water

Heard enough about the peat track yet? Oh well, you might be dissappointed today.

We are not short of water here - usually. We did have a very dry start to the year a while back and the lochens did run low and the water was less than fully available.

It's not like that this year though.

This is part of a peat track out to our peat bank. Seems to have joined the lochen it runs alongside at this point. We skirted the dampness by taking the route close to the Hebridean fence on the left. Hebridean in that many of the wooden posts hang delicately on the wire and flap in the breeze.