Oh

So, I get up all sprightly at 4am to trott down the island for a little light work, car loaded with cameras and film, only to find that the rain was lashing down. So my idyllic morning sat by the loch snapping happily went by the board. I came home and slept!

In the meantime, to fill the gap left by the un-taken snaps, is a fine fellow posing outside his greenhouse in Delph, Saddleworth in Engerland some years ago - when the sun shone !
Taken with some old folder or other.

What a wonderful evening

I had the opportunity of a visit to Harris last evening and I 'chose' the day well. Clear skies and a warm sun gave a soft light over the rocky landscape as I bowled along the Golden Road. And yes, I had a camera [or two] with me but seeing I use film and I only got back late, I have none to post here yet. I'm out early too so I'm hoping to catch the sunrise over The Minch - as long as the rain stays away.
Meanwhile, here's another colour snap from a few days ago. North Tolsta o'er The Minch

Donnie Cash & Rab Dylan

Yes, yes, I wus there. At the Woodlands Centre in a rainstorm snuggling up to the half a million other people in there last night. A fine evening by all accounts although the back of my legs are still sore from standing so long. Partner Eve won second prize in the raffle so we have some choccies to eat :-)
Loved most of the fine performers but special mention from me for Chain and Ball or something like that who played an excellent set - even saw Mr Woody 'imself tapping his toes. The last band, although being fine musicians, played a rather enigmatic set - two songs by Jacob Marley [I think], one by Johhny Cash's preacher and another by Sting. Ah well, kept us all amused anyway.

Wierd weather todsy but just back from a stroll on t'beach which we managed without getting soacked. Must be a record.

Panic over

I've seen sense again and got back into the darkroom - despite the fact that the little heater I have in there seemed to make only minor in roads into the cold today. Now I'm sat in front of pooter, I'm still cold. Cold right through.
Anyway the smell of the chemicals lured me back to the B&W side of life. I love the nuances of life and B&W can be rather like that. Obviously black and white but less obvious are the nuances of the tones. Or something.
Anyway, the prints I did are too big for my scanner so you'll have to make do with this scan of a neg from last year o'er back of t'village.

Take a look at this site where you can see in the list of competitors for the 2009 Artic Marathin is Stornoway policeman Neil MacDonald. Best of luck to him!

Just a bit of colour!

I'm wavering between colour and B&W. I mean, I think this is lovely - from an old camera and some modern yet out of date film. DON'T LET ME BE TURNED TO THE COLOUR PALLETE!

Black & white - again

....whether I like it or not. Woke up this morning to a quiet glow and snow lying deep [ish], and crisp and almost even. Snook out wif the Hassie and some HP5 - but rather muckled up the development with Presyscol.

I don't 'do' colour

Now, this is nice place to start one's walk..........

The sheeps are waiting to see if there is something to eat. There was not...

Eve poses for the Kamera and COLOUR film!!!!!!!!!!

..but I do have a bag of old colour film - mostly slide film that sits stupifying in the box room - so named because it is full of boxes.
Since The Red Snapper has been up, my feelings towards colour have softened a little - although not so much that I would actually print something - especially since my ink-spraying machine is being cuddled back to life by the nice people at Point1 in The Smoke [Stornoway]. Anyway, with some out of date Reala in the Kiev 6c complete with wrong size filter and lens hood to give a horrible vignetting, I shot some snaps down Rhenigidale way.

Red Snapper Snapping

A lesson to us all, a simple camera, Voigtlander Perkeo and a lovely place can make a nice snap. The Red Snapper was there too gawping at the coastline! So, we took off down t'island a bit.

..and stopped here for a walk about. Red SNapper was most impressed and set about snapping hither and thither. Here's my version of the Red Snapper's snap

And here the Red Snapper is snapping his snap at the same place. Down t'road from Stornoway t'wards Tarbert. Somewhere.

Walking the hills

Eve & I got out in the hills last weekend and here are a couple of snaps from the Spotmatic. Just sorted the negs after spending some time earning a crust for a few days! Eh?
Tis a lovely route and we enjoyed lovely moody weather too.

Multichrome

From time to time my disdain of colour snaps gets the better of me - for example, I was given some rolls of Fuji colour film by my friend Fleur - and I load up a roll of film into some old camera. this time it was the Perkeo, a fine folding camera I have had for some years since a gentleman across the pond sent it to me.
I usually visit co-villager Mr Bentham once a week and if the weather is dry, we get out for a stroll with his lovely doggie Ziggy. We walked, I snapped away. This ws the first frame I scanned and I like it.

Todays film development

Tolsta mechanic's sign

Just William, Cromor.

Tobias, photographer

Tolsta

Tobias and his influence

Kate's stove

Maybe I'm over egging Tobias and his influence but, hey, if it had not been for taking him round to my friends for some timely snapping, I may not have taken a few snaps myself.
Here's one I love from the Zorki rangefinder on ADOX100 in Rodinal and another of the man imself - and a bear.

The Bear

Here

Whew!

Young and older snappers gossip

Woolies Eh!

To the castle

Trees. What else?

A whirlwind few days with work being rather busy and the young visiting snapper being at large in the house meant I've have been getting a bit tired. Still, shot a little bit and developed a bit too. Here's a couple of recent snaps from the old Kiev rangefinder with a prone-to-flare Jupiter 35mm lens on Foma Creative 200 in Rodinal.

Snapper at large

Eve- Free climbing

Ziggy Bentham - waiting for the postman

Tobias - listening to Mr Bentham

There's a snapper at large in the form of Tobias Beach-Wyld. He's up here from deepest Welsh Wales seeking some snaps for his degree. Proper camera he has too - wif film and everything! Eh?
Anyway, we have been terrorising the locality today and here's a few of my snaps.

weird

Sometime the most weird things appear when you are using old film and pinhole images. Take these two - fresh from my BoxBlackie pinhole and on very old film in Pyrocat-HD.
To me these seem to hark right back t the earliest days of photography.

Ahh

Such a wonderful morning today. Soft light and mild windless conditions. Actually, when I say mild I mean that it feels mild on account of the still air. Its actually 0 degrees . Took a stroll out to Garry beach and then up over the hill at the back. Makes me feel so very lucky to live in this place.

So, today's image is from earlier in the week using a camera gifted to me by a kind villager - a Zentit E - and some Adox 20asa microfilm gifted to me by Fleur . Its a really fine grained film yet it normally requires a specialit developer to get proper tones from it - since it was probably made for document microfilming. Anyway, I used Caffenol LC+C sourced from Donald Qualls.
Made up from instant Coffee, washing soda and a teensey bit of Vit C. Really. Excellent results me thinks.

At the Ferry Terminal

Every now and again I meet a disparate group of nere-do-wells and Barbara where we talk photo and generally pose a bit. Today was one of those days and I took the lavender coloured cyanotype for approval - which it got :-)
Tis a fine group and I wish I had already printed an image or two from the roll of film from the little Zorki rangefinder that I souped this afternoon. Rodinal 1:100 for the Era100.
From a recent stroll round the village peat tracks and another one below taken this morning a Garry Beach with a little bit of snow!

cyanotypes again

Been playing with the chemicals again, this time some cyanotypes. Love this one. It came out a bit feint but a quick slosh in warm white tea and a lovely lavender tone appeared. Love it!

On a totally unrelated note, it is really beginning to annoy me when people talk of personal 'success' solely in terms of economics or put another way, conspicuous consumption. Surely personal success is more related to how one lives one's life and how we feel about that rather than merely how much we can be seen to buy.

What a great day

Winter Sun

Sun shining all day and not a cloud in the sky. Spent some time taking snaps around the village as the jalopy is in car-hospital having a transplant.
Since the rest of the Uk seemed to be having another horrible day it made the pleasantly mild day all the more pleasurable.

Oh yes, I have little book over on Blurb of the exhibition images plus a few more. See Here