As time goes by

Carnbee Church, Fife

Can't believe it's been more than a year since I last posted something on the blog. You must have been thinking that I was away for good - well, sorry to disappoint you, but no such luck!

An awful lot has happened over the last 12 months, nearly all of it bad, but I won't go into that. Suffice to say that I've got a semi-functioning darkroom back again and, even more importantly from the point of view of The Online Darkroom, I also have a PC for the first time in a couple of years.

Most of you will have no idea - and probably care less - about the problems of publishing a blog on the Blogger platform using a phone or ipad. It's an exercise in frustration and is getting worse all the time as owners Google give not a single crap about Blogger or any or the people who are still deludedly trying to create content on it.

The process is almost bearable on a proper computer so, with my normal excuse gone, I thought I'd get the finger out and scribble something for your delectation. By way of a quick update, my darkroom is back where it was before our daughter moved back in and annexed it. I bought a shed a while back and fully intended building a darkroom in it but said daughter found the love of her life and has gone to live amongst the Sassenachs* near Leicester. Win, win I'd say. Freya reads this and will give me pelters for that. Haha.

House, Fife Ness

I'm still ploughing away with film and darkroom although I'm not doing very much really and did wonder if a switch to digital would make more sense the way I'm shooting these days. However, Phil Rogers talked me down from the ledge although he'll be regretting it now as I've been sending him lots of scans of pics I took 30 years ago.

As far as the actual photography goes, I'm still trying to figure out what kind of photographer I am. I lean towards 35mm most of the time but love the tonality of medium format so I still have a foot in both camps. However, the large format camp is about to be razed to the ground as, for me, it's a complete dead end so the Speed Graphic and the lenses I have for it will be sold off never to appear again - in my hands, at least.

Patio Chair

The pictures on this page are fairly representative of what I've been doing lately with 35mm. I'm trying not to take the obvious photos that I might have been tempted by in the past. At least in 35mm, I'm not doing as many landscapes as I used to although I still like the odd country scene provided it's not too cutesy. The shot of Carnbee Church at the top of the page is an exception. It's been lent a slight mystical air by the wide-open aberrations of the 35mm AF Nikkor I used.

Cast Shadows

Anstruther Door, Fife

Once I'm fully up and running, the intention is to print the 35mm photographs as 6x9ins images on 10x8ins paper and mount them beneath a mat on 14x11 ins board. The end result should be something like this:

Those proportions look nicely balanced to my eyes. A 10x8 print on its own in a print sleeve looks a bit underwhelming to me but window-mounted on 14x11 board, it takes on a worthwhile bit of gravitas. Square format pics will be mounted similarly like this:

I'm not completely geared up for printing yet although I could use the darkroom right now at a pinch. This year, I'm hoping to print and mount 18 photographs, probably all 35mm. I'll maybe fit one or two 6x6 and 6x9 negative shots into the programme to make a start on a medium format project as well. I can see 2023 as being mostly about catching up with some of the negatives I already have filed away rather than regularly adding to that pile.

Mind you, I've made plans like this before over the years and never managed to get much accomplished even though my motivation in the past was a lot higher than it seems to be now. But you never know.

* Just joking. I'm no rabid nationalist and love the English.