Back to film again

I've been having one of my many returns to taking photos with film again recently, I was tidying up in the Box Room of Doom and got my old Rolleiflex and Bronica ETRSi out.

I also dug out a stock of Ilford FP4+ that went out of date a couple of years ago. It's been in a cold room since I bought it and I didn't worry about it being anything but good.

The key catalyst was a blog post by JB Hildebrand on Stand Development. The main drawback, for me, in shooting film was the problem of development, it's getting harder to find good film labs and I'm too lazy to develop my own films, all the timing and temperature just left me irritated. Stand developing takes a lot of that out. Hildebrand's post is a great resource and I urge you to read it but the essence of this technique is to use just enough developer to run the film and no more (this is typically a 1:100 dilution) and leave it pretty much alone for an hour or so then wash and fix. I used Adox Adonal (the new name for Rodinal after AGFA went under) and Ilford Rapid Fixer at 1:4 for five minutes.

Simple. I like simple.

My process is a little individual (this is the other key feature of Stand Devving, everyone does it their own way) and I left the first film in for two hours with inversions at every 30 minutes, this makes it a semi-stand dev but who's counting?

The shots I took with the Rolleiflex have come out pretty well, at least as well as the last roll I took ages getting to exactly 25 degrees and agitating perfectly on time and all that stressful palaver.

The shots aren't the sharpest and I was using the Sunny 16 Rule for metering but things came out reasonably well for a test shot in a very suspect 75 year old camera.

 

My old-timey Rolleiflex

And, for comparison, here is an older shot (of a now defunct eyesore) taken with this camera but developed at a proper lab. It's on Kodak Tri-X 400 rather than FP4+ but it was scanned on the same scanner - Epson V700 - which I'll talk about in another post.

The horrible St Nicholas House.

You can have a look at it in my Flickr Stream

So, here are a couple of shots from the latest roll, along Guild Street near Aberdeen Station.

Tivoli Theatre

Station Hotel

Corner of Guild Street

All up I am happy with the results. I think my scanning needs to improve and I will definitely be pushing the next shots, that is one of the great advantages of this technique and one I should really have been using all along. It also allows for pushing and standard exposure of the same roll with no change in development. Film is becoming digital.

Bright sun, cold snow.

An almost perfect weather day yesterday. A real rarity in the Cairngorms. We walked in to Bynack More from the Glenmore car park. Weather and less than capable drivers around Aberdeen slowed the start slightly so we ended up getting back pretty late but it did mean a nice sunset behind Cairngorm.

I can't resist semi-abstract shapes in nature, be they ripples on sand or water or, as in the case of these two, wind blown snow. The shapes and textures of entirely natural forms are always fascinating and the simplicity of the wind driven snow is so appealing, especially with this low and intense winter sunlight.

Wind blown snow Bynack More

 

Mono snow shapes

Also heaps of the plants had beautiful ice patterns, here back lit by the sun over Cairngorm.

Ice forms on plants with Cairngorm

I'm impressed with how well the Canon S95 handles the dynamic range in this shot, it really delivers the goods in these shots directly into the sun.

A quick note on gear, I prefer the S95 over the newer models as it gives great battery life, delivers amazing images even, as here, in JPEG. It also doesn't have a touch screen like the S110 and S120 do and I prefer this, a touch screen is no use when wearing gloves and seems to be an energy sap that you don't want. I would consider an S100 but am thinking about trying to source a new old stock S95 for when this one dies.

Anyway, onto the mountain action shots:

Bynack More to the left with the lower peak of Bynack Baeg in the centre. Sort of shows how late we went today, a good mile from the top with the sun going down behind the ridge. The temperature was really starting to drop here, as were the energy levels.

Walking towards Bynack More

Sun setting behind Cairngorm from Bynack More

Time to get back

Another grand day with extraordinary weather, a quick check of the map to find the path saw the map just laid on the snow, a once in a decade situation in the Cairngorms, absolutely no wind, bright sun and perfect dry snow. Temps were about -10 degrees Celcius, plenty chilly on the ears.

A Windy Wander

Headed up the Dee, intending to go up to Sgur Mhor and maybe take some shots into the Lirig Ghru but the weather had other ideas.

Wind speeds were predicted to be high and the wet snow started before Braemar. Getting round to the Linn of Dee Bridge we found it closed for no specified reason, later found a local lady who had been as surprised as us, she thought it might be something to do with a tree the Mar estate thought might be a bit wobbly. Anyway, we detoured back around to the Mar Lodge bridge where the BBC were assembled in some force filming Winterwatch.

Eventually we got to the Linn of Dee car park and booted up. Off into the wind and driving snow we set. Heading up through the woods we saw that we were being watched:

The S95 doesn't have the best zoom so here's a crop into the centre of the frame:

He watched us for a while as we walked up through the woods until he sauntered off.

As we came out of the trees onto the open hillside we saw that the stag had merely been keeping an eye on us for his pals:

At least 60 deer were spread across the hill in the dead ground ahead, just before the open hillside.

As we left the cover of the trees the full force of the wind became apparent and, with the depth of snow, poor visibility and increasing winds we decided we'd had enough for the day and headed down off the hill.

Still, one photogenic dead tree to paparazzi before descending:

Down we came and the snow was falling thicker and very much faster. Windspeed had increased a lot since we entered the trees, it would have been a very miserable time just to the top of the first hill, let alone the ridge.

A good, if short, day in the hills, grand breakfast at the Braemar Mountain Sports cafe and a good yarn. I count that as one in the win column.

A walk up the Lui

I was out with my pal Danny the other day, always a happy occasion to go for a walk in good company but I also had an idea to take a particular photograph. The weather and my fitness meant that the original idea is on hold for another time but here are a few shots that I rather like from the day.

First up is the hill we aimed for, Carn a'Mhaim, which is the south easternmost hill of the Lairig Ghru, this, like quite a few of the others was taken with an iPhone 5. This was just before one of the many snow squalls encountered during the day.

Carn a Mhaim

Next two different versions of the same lightning struck tree image. Both processed in Lightroom and taken with the iPhone. I'm rather impressed at the quality of fill flash the little LED on the phone can achieve and the range of exposure. I still can't decide which of these I prefer.

Lightning Tree Monochrome

Lightning Tree Colour

And so to the views from the south end of Carn a Mhaim. First as the sun began setting (at only 4pm this time of year). The rest of these were taken with a Canon 5D and 16-35mm lens, generally at the wider end of the range. I would have ideally liked to have a long lens here as well, something to compress the range of hills away to the south. Next time.

South from Carn a Mhaim

And another shot I would have liked to have a longer lens along for.

Looking east along the Dee valley towards Lochnagar.

 
Now the traditional panoramic B&W shot of some hills. I really like the low backlighting that picks out some of the foreground peaks.

South from Carn a Mhaim

And, finally, the happy wanderers:

Nick and Danny on Carn a Mhaim

Unusual views

One of the great things about my job is that I get to see some things that other people never see or get to see familiar things from very unusual angles.

I was on a job recently that sailed out of a port near Edinburgh and I got to look at this thing:

Which I assume I could get arrested for photographing. Nobody told me not to though so here it is. I can't imagine any state secrets are visible in this iPhone shot. Cool thing to see up close though.

All the super secret submarines are off to the left.

And then we sailed out at dawn, under the Forth bridges. First the road bridge which, although it is soon to be replaced and is widely disliked, I think actually deserves a little bit more attention. It just needs to get looked at in isolation, not when next to one of the most (I think THE most) beautiful bridges in the world.

See? If that was anywhere but next to the Forth Rail Bridge then it would be celebrated. Admittedly, it is a bad bit of engineering - all the strands are popping at an alarming rate - but, if nothing at all else redeems it, it makes the best viewing platform for its older sister to the east.

And, obviously, there is this:

Surely the most evocative and beautiful piece of engineering in the world. I've seen it many times from the road bridge, from the shore at either side and from a train travelling across it (far better when you can open a window on the door and get a look up at it). Unfortunately I've never had a job on the bridge. I had an offer but went somewhere better paid instead.

This was a first view from below and the combination of low view and dawn fog is a winner, in my opinion.

All photos taken with an iPhone 5 and processed in Lightroom. On the internet you don't need to spend money.

Day one

Hi, I'm Nick and I wander about a bit, now and then. This blog is somewhere I can keep some of the pictures I take and spout on a bit about the places and the stuff.

This is more of a test post so there are only a couple of pictures. last summer i got home from work and fancied a walk on the West Highland Way. I only went as far as Drymen until I got some sort of annoying pain in my thigh so I binned it, stayed at the terrific Drymen Inn before heading home. Not a great day but the views up towards Ben Lomond were really starting to improve.

I noticed this sign up a tree in the Mugdock Woods just north of Milngavie:

I didn't notice any but I wouldn't have eaten one if I did see it so I feel like I'd be safe through here.

The first views of Ben Lomond looking north started improve the generally dreary flat walking.

Did a little cropping and process in Lightroom.

As above with added sheep interest.

Took all these on my wee Canon S95 which is my preference when I'm hiking about. I don't like to carry a big pile of SLR kit when I'm up the hills or travelling.