A few landscapes from my files

Forneth House, Loch Clunie

Whilst packing everything up in the darkroom in preparation for moving to our new house I came across a bundle of old prints that I thought might give you something to look at as I work towards getting up to speed with the blog.

We moved on Friday - I now understand for the first time why moving house is considered so stressful - but I've got lots of work to do so I won't have much time for anything else for a while. Plus, we won't have any broadband for another week so I'll be enjoying a welcome break from the internet. This post is coming courtesy of McDonalds wifi.

Most of the photographs I've posted here were taken about 20 years ago mainly on a Mamiya Press 6x9 or a Mamiya C330 with the exception of the first image which was taken on a Nikon EL2 sporting a 105mm Nikkor and loaded with Agfa APX 100. 

At that time I was into toning which is why they're various shades of sepia/brown. Nowadays, I don't think I'd bother too much with toning unless it's for archival purposes. However, as I'm now in my 50s, the need for archival processing seems less pressing and, for some reason, becomes less important with each passing year...

When I eventually get my darkroom up and running again I'll be sticking mainly to just plain old black and white. I might experiment a little with very light sepia toning of the highlights to warm them up just a little - which is what I often do to scanned images in Lightroom.

And speaking of darkrooms, it looks as if I'll have my work cut out for me when it comes to building one in the garage. I'd figured out the construction side of things in my head but now that I've been able to have a good look, there seems to be a bit more dampness on one wall than I'd thought.

There's a system involving a waterproof membrane that cleverly attaches to the wall and makes it easy to nail wooden batons on top of this but it's not particularly cheap. It does seem like a good solution, though, so I might save some pennies for it. If anyone is facing a similar problem you can read about it here.

Right now the garage is filled with boxes and I won't be making a start on a darkroom any time soon. One of the first things I had to do after moving was to remove the lenses from the enlargers before any moisture in the air started to cause problems.

The garage. This has to be emptied before I can get started
on a new darkroom.

The enlargers. Oh, the ignominy!

The four machines are sitting underneath some shelving looking a bit sorry for themselves. I'm going to carry the Leitz 1C into the house and put it in a cupboard. The other three will have to take their chances with the damp atmosphere but I'm not risking anything happening to the Leitz.

Fishing posts, St Cyrus

Rannoch Moor

Rooftops, St Cyrus

Two Trees, Clushmill

Hadrian's Wall

Waterfall, Glen Esk