Blog finally continues....

Well, well, well. Nearly 2 years since I last posted. Thought I´d add some stuff about the darkroom magically appearing in the back garden. I have a shed (everyman needs one) and it´s being converted into a darkroom. Dry side and wet side. I have a 4 ft sink, processor space, an enlarger chamber, electrics, hot water and enough room for all the computer gear. More snug than tight.

Thanks to all who have made this possible:

• Mel - Sterling work in construction and electrics.
• Ben - Perfect plumbing
• Robin - Darkroom advice
  
• Krysia - Putting up with it all.

Will update with some piccies soon.

John

A Trip to Highgate Cemetery

Highgate Cemetery

At last! Out taking piccies again. This, another adventure in Ilford HP5+ iso 400 and developed in the bathroom (promicrol).

Click on the pic or the link and it'll take you to the album.

Enjoy and let me know what you think.

Sunny West End

Sunny West End

Too long since the last post.

I'd tried to aim for something being posted about twice a month, I now see that this is likely to be far more erratic. The practical reality is that this is not possible in two separate ways: the impulse is not routine; and there never seems to be enough time or opportunity for a creative impulse.

So.

Some more about the photos for now.

The home colour development stupidity progresses well and I think I can say I can do the robotic 3 minutes 15 seconds bit needed for the development phase pretty well. However, the pictures posted at the above (Sunny West End) link exhibit unacceptable levels of grain. Sluething around revealed that although my timing in the developer was spot on, the temperature may be suspect.

I calibrated every thermometer in the house: the medical ones, the darkroom ones, the cooking ones, the general purpose ones - and, every single one was different from every other single one. By a wide margin.

I need to do some further scrabbling about in the undergrowth to get to the bottom of it. In the meantime please enjoy a rather angular set of pics of the west end.

Down where the charted Thames doth flow

I took these pictures in March. The black & white ones, I developed myself and scanned at 6400 dpi with 16 bit greyscale . This gave an average file size of 100Mb. The colour one's were processed by Michael in Spark's photo lab round the corner in Stroud Green Road and were scanned with 48 bit colour at 6400 dpi giving an average file size of 250Mb. At these sort of sizes this is less like photography and more like wallpaper design.

Down where the charted Thames doth flow

My first blog.

Dominica 2005

Well, this is it. My very first dip in the toe of the elbow in the hot baby water of blogging.
I'd thought I'd try and make it a bit of a showcase so it will have a mixture of photos (the one above is from a magical 3 weeks spent in Dominica. It should link to my Picasa photo site), poems, and, if I can work out how, links to music. Occasionally I might even put up some comment on new technology but I get enough of that at work!
I'll stay off politics, too. Well, as much as I can resist, but I get enough of that at work as well!