Roadside Diners

Another emerging project, alongside seaside towns and the Fens is roadside diners and cafes. Unlike the USA we don't seem to be blessed with lots of small independent diners, some copies like the OK Diners on the A1 and some "Buddies" American Diners you can find.
Back to the Fuji 100c for these photos shot on Polaroid 103 Automatic Land Camera.

Couple more darkroom prints from last Summer's holiday in Skiathos.
We'd been on a boat trip round the island and now were wandering around the old town.
Still amazed at the way the 10 year old developer has handled these exposures.
Ilford Multigrade Paper
Meopta Magnifax Enlarger
Schneider Companon 105mm lens
My camera was a YashicaMat 124g loaded with Ilford FP4

10 Year Old Developer

Back in the darkroom after a lull of a few months where everything became "instant".
During our summer holiday to Skiathos I took just one camera, my Yashicamat 124G twin lens reflex TLR, loaded with Ilford FP4...keep it simple stupid is such a good mantra.
The daytime sun was very direct and contrasty but the FP4 handled it well enough (see picture of chair).
When I finally got round to developing this roll of film a week or so ago I realised I was out of my usual developer but found a 10 year old botttle of Agfa Rodinal. Now I have heard that this developer is long lasting, even when it looks like gravy brownings, which this did. Crossed my fingers, diluted 1:25 and 9 mins in the tank.
Printed under my Meopta Magnifax enlarger with a Companon 105mm lens onto Ilford MG rc paper.

The darkroom bug is back......

More Great Yarmouth

More Great Yarmouth

                                        



 I had two Polaroid Automatic Land Cameras with me, one loaded with Fuji 100c silk which is a colour film and the other with the equally good Fuji 3000b black and white film.
These two images were made using the 100c and my 420 land camera. The fuji 100c colour film can give beautiful muted colours or deeply saturated ones depending on the lighting and settings on your camera. It's worth experimenting.
Polaroid no longer make this type of "crack and peel apart" film so long love the Fuji brand.

Great Yarmouth with the Polaroid 103

An overnight trip to Great Yarmouth on a cold January evening.
Before driving home on the Saturday I walked along the seafront with the 103 Automatic Land Camera and the 420 Automatic Land Camera. The 103 was loaded with Fuji 3000b and the 420 with Fuji 100c silk.

Seaside towns out of season look drab, deglected, unloved and expectant.....what great places to look to "see what things look like photographed".

Now, I have shot many rolls of traditional film in GY over the years, and many other seaside towns come to that but since I got hooked on instant photography my desire to record my home town and the Fenlands where I have lived for 11 years has been rekindled with a passion.

So, to kick off here are three observations from this cold January trip.

Les Mosses, Switzerland

Just returned from a skiing holiday in Switzerland - no digital cameras for me oh no. Polaroid 420 Automatic Land Camera loaded with Fuji 100c instant, peel apart film all the way. The accordian player was overjoyed when I gave him an instant image straight from the camera.
The disco (photgraph above) was in readiness for the New Year celebration in Les Mosses.

"Impossible" Fenland Project

A Christmas Eve Drive to Somersham to test out the Impossible project's PX70 Colour Shade film designed for the classic 1979's folding SX70 Camera. This film, like all these experimental films need to be protected from sunlight for the first few seconds after the image has been ejected from the camera. As each image dries out, over days, the colours shift and change.

These unique mindividual works or art need to be dried out thoroughly before the image becomes stable. I use a biscuit tin with several 100g packets of silica gel for a few weeks.

http://www.the-impossible-project.com/

Fenland Project

More studies under the "Fenland Project" banner using the 103 Land Camera and the wonderful Fuji 3000b. This garage has now ceased trading and sits on the edge of the Fenland Market Town of Ramsei in Cambridgeshire

Fenland Project

What is it about old signs? well they make great black and white images for a start and doesn't the Polaroid 103 Automatic Land Camera handle it well.
With little time available to spend in the darkroom the buzz I get from peeling apart a new instant black and white print is enormous.
Both these photos were taken outside the home of a vintasge car collector in Somersham near Huntingdon/

Psycho Santa

Polaroid, 103 Automatic Land Camera "Packtastic" - the joy of instant photography.

Fenland Project

Been getting heavily into Instant film since the summer time.
This image was made using a 1970s Polaroid SX70 Camera using film from the Impossible Project. This will form part of an ongoing series of instant studies of the fens.

Bought an Agfa "GevaBox" Camera in the Charity shop recently.

I have to say it's one of the best £5 spends I have made. The camera was on sale in the 1950s, it takes 120 medium format film giving 8 6X9 negatives on a roll of film.

The Gevabox has 2 shutterspeeds and two aperture settings plus a B for "bulb" setting allowing the shutter to remain open for longer. This image of the showroom dummies was hand held on the B setting intentionally blurring the result.

Been using my new Polaroid 420 Land Camera over the last few weeks. The camera uses Fuji 100c colour and 3000b black and white, peel apart film. Focusing is via a rangefinder and you can attach a modern electronic flash via the camera's pc socket.
The photograph of the blue trainers was taken using a close up lens held in front of the camera's lens and guessing the distance, didn't guess correctly as the image is out of focus.....I think that adds to the effect though especially now that it is mounted onto watercolour paper.
1. Trim the photo's edges
2. Place in a glass tray and pour over nearly boiling water and watch the emulsion "lift" off
3. Transfer to cold water
4. mix pva glue and water 50:50 and brush on to the water colour paper and brush the lifted emulsion onto the new surface.

Not black and white but still traditional.....

Been getting into Instant Film. You may have thought instant film was dead and buried with Polaroid but no, "The Impossible Project" has reinvented instant film in colour and black and white.
Results are unpredictable but it's really exciting.

Bought a 600 instant camera and a Polaroid 420 Land Camera that takes pack film made by Fuji.

This image is made with Impossible 600 Silver Shade, the image is placed in hot water and eventually the emulsion floadts off! - carefully transfer it to a tray of cold water and lay it onto some watercolour paper.http://the-impossible-project.com/

The English Abroad

Wow can't believe it's been a YEAR since I last updated the blog....here's my New Year resolution..."I will post 1 new image every Month till next September"

So, starting Sept 11 here's an image from a couple of years ago, one of a number I made during a family holiday in Brittany. How typical is that....The English Abroad.

So, it's been an interesting year so far, not much time for darkroom work as proper work has been getting in the way, time to readress the balance methinks.

Summertime at Sherringham

And so I return to a recurring theme, that of British Seaside towns. Not in winter this time but actually around the August Bank Holiday 2008 I think. In any case we had braved the elements, left our West Runton campsite and headed for the coast. Once again armed with my 35rc loaded with Delta 400 I watched as the wind whipped the ice cream flags and sun seekers huddled for shelterfrom the rain. Then, out came the sun and an opportunity to bag a shot.



In the darkroom, negative in the Meopta Magnifax enlarger, Ilford Multigrade paper on the easel and 10 minutes later with some magical hand waving under the enlarger light source a picture emerges from the developer. How can anyone get satisfaction from a digital camera and a computer file.

Long live the negative is what I say....unconvinced then vist FADU.co.uk.

"Signs #1" - Shoreham by Sea 2010

I remain fascinated by the English Seaside, it is for many British photographers who like to photograph "found" objects, street scenes and people's eccentricities the equivalent of a City like New York. Victorian faded architecture fights for space amongst garish lights, tea stalls and amusement arcades. In the winter it just gets better.
Looking back through my negatives at the images I continually get drawn towards seasides and signs. In this picture both are combined.
 I waited for a while for a cyclist to pass to complete the picture. On reflection I think it works just as well without a person, in someways the absence of a human being makes the Prohibition Sign more strange and almost surreal.
I've moved back to using Resin Coated Paper in my darkroom 1) for cost, it's cheaper and 2) for speed when I don't have a lot of time on my hands to spend in the darkroom.
Ilford Delta 400 was loaded in my little Olympus 35RC rated at 200 with a yellow filter.

Sorry for the delay in posting.

On reflection - Quimper, Brittany 2009

Whilst walking around the very pleasant Breton town of Quimper during last year's camping holiday I stumbles across this (Harley I think) biks parked against an old wall adorned with posters. It caught my eye so I took a closer look, the mirrors were reflecting the rather grand buildings in the sunshine behind me.
The contrast between the tree elements - wall, bike and reflection is what I like about this image.
Made with a 28mm wide angle lens on my old Olympus OM1.
Not your everyday holiday snap.

It was American Photographer Walker Evans, amongst others who had a preoccupation with painted signs, photographing them as early as 1928. Signs in isolation- see Luna Park, New York c1929 - and signs juxtaposed with well observed incidents usually involving people - see Truck and Sign, New York, 1930.

Even before I became aware of American Photographers like Walker Evans and Robert Frank I have always been drawn to photographing signs and this one just leapt out at me earlier this year when the circus visited our campsite in Brittany.