MorseBlog

Introduction Yet another print from my April collection of images from Monk's wood. This one I call Monk's path as it has one of the many paths there in the frame below an old gnarled oak tree. The tree and the leading line of fence posts is what caught my eye. The day was early spring and without tree cover or clouds the shadows were quite harsh and resented a small challenge to print. Blog Post Cover Image This print like the ones I have execute recently are on Ilford MG ART 300 cotton rag paper.  Monk's Path I started with soft filter test strip at f16 f16 #00 Filter Test Strip This leads me to think 11 seconds gives the right notion of tone I want. Next I decided to merge my first soft filter full print with the hard filter test print. I am aiming to complete this print in the 4 sheets I have left from this box of paper hence combining some steps.  Hard Filter Test Strip f16 #00 11 seconds# 5 test From this I think my soft filter choice is too light. The bottom 2 inches...

Introduction As I resume my printing for this summer after a long hiatus I come to the next image I want to print. Taken in early Spring (April) the trees were just starting to leaf out at least the early ones like the blackthorn and birches. The bluebells were emerging and the grass was greening up. The canopy was quite open and many of the images are not much different than they would have been in winter.  I shot this with my Mamiya 645 medium format camera on Ilford HP5+ 400 speed film. I was experimenting with my 150mm lens which is more telephoto than I normally shoot landscapes with. I have learned a lot about this lens and have been using it more as a result.  The first image I called 'The Brothers'. It came to me as a metaphor for the different trees being together for so long and being of different ages.   Blog Post Cover Image The Brothers I am on a run of printing on Ilford MG ART 300 paper. A heavy cotton rag paper with a deep texture and good tonal range...

Introduction I left yesterday's printing with the disappointing revelation that 4 sheets of my Ilford MG Art 300 paper had apparently become fogged. This cost me not only time but money owing to the expense of this cotton rag art paper. Blog Post Cover Image I had done pretty well yesterday with 2 good prints only consuming 6 sheets of paper. I was part way through my 3rd print for the day when I noticed the fogging and packed it in. Here is where I got to yesterday.  Reed Seed Head I started with a soft filter test strip. The subject is a seed head from a reed that grows in the waterways at Woodwalton Fen. I like their delicate fronds and they are iconic of the Fens as they exist in most waterways and the reeds are used for thatching roofs. I keyed off the previous prints and so kept the enlarger set at f11. f11 #00 test strip The test strip did not alert me to any fogging problems. So I set about estimating an exposure at 24 seconds. I want the fronds to standout being very ligh...

Introduction Blog Post Cover Image I believe it was back in March that I was last in the darkroom. I know because I have a note on the wall when I mixed a fresh batch of Moersch ECO 4812 developer and my recently finished post on printing one photo from my North Wales holiday which had been last updated April 3rd. Completing that post did not involve any new darkroom work but was merely post-darkroom archaeology and completion of the write-up.  Fortunately I kept enough notes to make sense of everything.  Working My Way Slowly to the Darkroom Yesterday I slowly worked myself into committing to some time in the darkroom. Whatever the cause of the block that has created this long hiatus in my work, I decided I would 'sneak' up on it. It helped that in the previous days I had been out and taken some fresh black and white photos (Also Peak Imaging my 'goto' color lab is now open! Yea! I got some old film and the new roll posted to them this week. I will post those results ...

Authors note: This post was started right at the beginning of April but only being completed now at the middle of June. Much happened with my plans and motivation photography-wise shortly after this and this resulted in a long hiatus.  Introduction What strange times. Here in the UK the government has finally implemented the lockdown and ordered people to stay in their homes. It kind of figures now that the weather has suddenly turned fantastic. The days are much longer and the challenge of getting up early enough (or staying up late enough) for the better light is upon us. The sky is bright by 5:30am now and not long until that moves to 4:30am. Photo for 'Front Page' Spring is rapidly bursting out and it seems I will struggle to get out to capture the last of the bare trees and the first flush of light green foliage before we descend into what I call the ‘tyranny of green’.  During the long summer the dominant color is green here. The foliage hides the landscape behind ...