My First Traditional Cyanotype

Nowadays the Cyanotype method of printing is called an alternative process. However, it's one of the oldest forms of photographic printing. It's a contact printing method, which means that a picture is reproduced on the paper by being in contact with the source of the image. The source can be either a photo negative or a photogram.

Photographs reproduced using the cyanotype process are also called Blueprints which is a term we are familiar with when discussing building plans and other images associated with architecture.

The distinctive colour is Prussian Blue and is created through the use of the chemicals used in the cyanotype method. The chemicals used are Ferric Ammonium Citrate and Potassium Ferricyanide.

It's a really easy method to try and it doesn't need a darkroom. It relies on good old fashioned UV light so the summer is the ideal time to try the technique outside in the garden. It's also a good technique to try with kids because it's fast and the resulting image appears before your eyes like magic which is wonderful for the kids amongst us. The chemicals are also easy to get hold of and safe to use despite their scary names

Cyanotyping also involves some painting as well so it appeals to the inner Painter in me. I particularly like the different textures you can get from the use of a variety of absorbent materials. Also, the feathered edges produced by the brush strokes give each image an individual charm all of its own.

Cyanotype photographs look better in real life because they are rough and imperfect but I have scanned one of mine that I produced in the workshop on Saturday just to see it on a computer screen. The Prussian Blue is much more vivid in reality.

Expect to see lots of cyanotypes in my house when you next visit me.

Danny Gosling Sters Huhserfleichs

One of the many highlights of the season. The young Devonian kid from Brixham - Dan Gosling scores the winning goal in the FA Cup to beat arch rivals Liverpool. He's a long way from home and it was Dan's Merseyside Derby debut but what a way to ingratiate himself with Everton fans. It's the stuff of dreams. The Blue half of Merseyside were in raptures and the Germans loved it too....

The Black Cab Sessions

These are great. 2 of my favourite bands playing in the back of black cabs as they are driven round London. What a great idea but where are their seatbelts? Very Rock n Roll. It would be good to get more shots of the outside life as the cabs pass by, especially with some of the London Landmarks. I think the music is conjusive to the City streets.

This year's new best bearded band

After last year's devotion to the very bearded Fleet Foxes, this year's new best bearded band award could well go to the Cave Singers. After Bon Iver disappeared into his Grandfather's mountain shack to emerge 6 months later with a great big beard and his record For Emma Forever Ago, it seems remote retreats and habitats are the new bijou theme when it comes to recording good music and a devotion to that great hairy religion - hirsuitism.

My first pinhole photograph

Pinhole photography is such a basic photographic technique. You can literally make a camera out of a beer can and this we did yesterday. As Justin Quinnell (pinhole guru) explained to us during yesterday's workshop, the technique restores some of the the wonder to the science and art of photography. To an extent, we have become so blase about photographic technology that we don't get that sense of wonder when we look at the LCD on the rear of our digital cameras. Consequently we have lost some of the wonder associated with the medium. Yesterday's Pinhole Photography workshop restored some of the wonder for me.

To be able to produce an image from a beer can with a small hole punched in its side using a pin and a piece of light sensitive paper carefully inserted into the cylindrical can was truly a wonderful and revelatory moment.

The success of pinhole photography relies on using your imagination and leaving things to chance. The images produced are truly unique. Ansell Adams would turn in his grave but who cares.

This is the print I made from my beer can camera. It's a picture of my bike outside the centre in St Pauls. The image that is created on the paper is a negative. I inverted it to a positive using Photoshop Elements.

Foux Da Fa Fa

Is this the best clip of the lot? Splish Splosh.....

Mike, Lucy and I drove to Samoens in the French Alps for some skiing in February and we played the Flight of the Conchords album non-stop pretty much all the way. It cracked us up and was a constant theme for the days we were in France. I think Foux Da Fa Fa was the most used phrase for the whole period we were away. Nobody else got the joke. Trying to explain who the Flight of the Conchords are to a group of Brits in the resort who had never seen the TV series was a big mistake. It was a real "I'll get my coat moment" for me......

Flight of the Conchords

These guys are the biz!

Interesting article on mental health

Interesting to read an article on the BBC website today regarding how the mental health of our nation is deteriorating and what we can do individually to help it.

Like a lot of people, I get down about things. Some of them are serious and some of them are really daft. I get down about being out of work for long periods, long winters and short days, spending too much time on my own, our nation’s fixation with dumb-down TV and celebrity culture, and I don’t like the number of wonderfully sited bookshops that have been closed down in Liverpool only to reopen as pubs. That makes me really angry! These things depress me by varying degrees.

I can really relate to some of the 10 points made in the article and I find it reassuring that I have taken to doing some of these things naturally without considering their effects and without being told that I should do them for such and such a purpose. I suppose some of it is built in and common sense.

I like the comments in the article on gardening. I get a lot of enjoyment out of gardening and I realise that a lot of it is due to the fact that I’m caring for something that needs my attention. Something is dependent on me to keep it alive and healthy and that responsibility, however daft it sounds, means something. It’s by no means a substitute for having kids but I guess it’s a similar feeling.

Taking time to do things properly is also something I really value. My Mum always says “If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing properly”. Applying oneself to a task or hobby and seeing it through to a worthwhile conclusion gives a great sense of satisfaction and pride. And that’s got to be good for one’s self esteem and personal development.

There’s more to being healthy than just looking after what is on the outside and having a good diet. We can’t see how fit our brain is but if we could maybe we’d be spending as much time exercising it and stimulating it as we do to other parts of our self.

Upcoming Events

New Flickr Site for the use of members of, and students from the St Pauls Community and Learning Centre (coming soon)

My friend Wendy Deocque who is a Darkroom Assistant asked me to help her set up a Flickr site for the users of the photographic facilities at the St Pauls Community and Learning Centre in Bristol where she works and I am a member.

The new site will be used by members of the facility and students from the various courses to showcase their work. All members of the Flickr group will be able to post photographs and other work to the site but Wendy will administer the content and the user group to ensure that it is not abused.

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day - April 26th

Justin Quinnell is running a one-day pinhole photography workshop at the St Pauls Community and Learning Centre in Bristol on Sunday 19th April. Justin is a very accomplished Photographer in this field of work and I'm looking forward to having a go and hopefully producing a photograph to donate to Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day the following week. If you fancy having a go, visit Justin's website. There's loads of information on there including explanations on how to make a camera at home.

Events Contrive

Often one small happening or event sparks several others that quickly fall into place. It's like seizing an opportunity which has taken so long to come into fruition and then so many others things fall into place with not much effort involved at all. When all events coincide with a change in seasons from winter to spring, it is especially..... well..... special I suppose. Good things are happening in my life at the moment. My creative juices are flowing again in more ways than one.

Take yesterday for instance. Due to the commencement of my next assignment being put back till after the Easter holiday, I took the opportunity to do some printing in the darkroom in St Pauls. I had a burning desire to print some of the photographs that I took in Little Venice last week. The negative of the barge emerging from the canal bridge spurred me on; I had high hopes for that one.

My tastes in images are slowly evolving and maturing. Recently I find that I'm preferring extremely contrasty images. To the point that most of the grey shades have been converted to black or white depending on their density. This makes the image very stark and graphic. It's a technique that works on some pictures and not others. I thought the photograph of the barge would benefit from the extra contrast as it is a very graphic composition anyway.

In the darkroom, I printed from the negative at grade 2.5 for 7 seconds and this produced a very good image indeed. It was nicely toned, perfectly composed with no need to crop and the right amount of depth of field to show enough detail in the distance.

For my second attempt, I ramped up the filter to grade 4.5 and used a 10 second interval. This produced just the kind of image I prefer. My friend Paul, who was with me for the session, had a preference for the first 'Straight' version and I could see his point. It is a very precise, almost perfect, print of the scene as it unravelled. It has all the ingredients that a good black and white image should have using shape, line, tone and light to full effect.

Compositionally, the picture is excellent even if I say so myself. The timing is perfect and shows how it pays to have patience and be in the right place at the right time. I like the way the main elements are separated from each other which demonstrates how important it is to choose the correct vantage point from which to shoot. The dark oppressive overpass streaks, snake-like, across the sky, dominating the scene; the dark structure contrasting with the white sky and the hard edges of the modern glass building next to it.

In the middle ground, there are a couple of cyclists fixing signs to the wall of the bridge and a man walks behind them in full stride. Behind him stand the 2 large male statues facing each other as if they are about to shout "Draw!"

Then in the foreground we have, what I consider to be, the main subject of the picture: the canal barge "Fridiswid", with its two pilots in the rear cockpit. These men stand out perfectly against the black wall of the tunnel from which they have just emerged. The canal boat's white wake reflects against the black water beneath, and the smoke emerging from the chimney, situated midships, floats by, helping to isolate the striding man walking past the cyclists.

I like this photograph very much but I'm still unsure as to which version of the image is better and worthy of being framed and hanged on my wall.

Most Popular on Flickr

Seems to be winning the vote so far.....

No Need to Panic

No major problems processing my latest batch of negatives apart from a bloody scratch on several of the negs due to using a squeegee again. That's not gonna happen again, I've had enough of squeegees. They're useless.

My photograph of the Puppet Maker turned out to be nothing special but I did get some good results especially from beneath a bridge with the bolt heads protruding through the structure quite photogenically and a distant barge drifting by and looking quite painterly.

Click here for my flickr photostream

Leica M6 - 12 months on

I've had such a great year using my Leica M6. I bought it 12 months ago in a fit of extravagance from a small 2nd hand camera shop in London near the British Museum. It's 11 years old now and by its condition it's probably had more use in the past 12 months than it did during the previous 10 years of its life.

I bought it during the time I was attending a 12 week B&W darkroom course at UWE. I'd gotten seriously interested in the black and white medium and the great film Photographers of the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. Robert Capa, Andre Kertesz, Henri Cartier Bresson and his wife Martine Franck amongst many others were all Leica owners. I loved their street photography and reportage work and I fell in love with the romanticism of the cameras they predominantly used - Ernst Leitz's Leica designed by Oskar Barnack.

The Leica M6 is a fully manual Rangefinder camera. The Photographer has complete control over the camera's aperture, shutter speed and focussing; there's no automatic settings here. Indeed the focussing of the Rangefinder was something completely new to me and took some getting used to. It takes much more consideration and forethought to get the image that you are after.

The purity of this instrument really appealed to me. At the time I first became interested in the Leica, I had become bored of "Lets make everything really quick, instantaneous and easier for the user" type of technology philosophy. It had made me lazy and as a consequence my photography had suffered. I had lost interest.

I found that taking things right back to their basics, learning the fundamentals of light and speed and how to use both in the camera and darkroom to record images from my negatives really stoked my fire. I had always had a good eye for composition, but before the Leica, I had relied on the camera's automatic settings to help me with the recording of the image. By eliminating these functions, I had learnt to be more creative especially in low light situations and in the use of depth of field.

As Stephen Gandy of Camera Quest says "The Leica M's reason for being as far as I am concerned is their incredible Black and White work.  If you have never tried it, you are in for a treat. Leica negs will stand out on a light table instantly from Nikons/Canons/Minoltas etc. You will have to process your own film, and print them, preferably on Focomats. But you will be in for a real treat not equaled by anything else I have seen. Shooting B/W and then turning the film and processing over to your local lab is like Leonardo buying the canvas and paint and then turning it over to the local quick sketch artist. If you want the best, if you want to approach an art form, learn how to do it yourself". I'm not sure about his Leonardo analogy but I agree with his sentiment.

Overcoming shyness in Little Venice

I had a great day in London yesterday. I combined a business presentation with some photography around Little Venice near Paddington station in the afternoon. London is a really special place to photograph. My imagination was on overdrive for the whole time I was there. I also overcame my shyness to some extent and got speaking to a very attractive young puppet maker who was working on the towpath next to her barge.

A couple of weeks ago when I was in Devon I missed out on several good photo opportunities because I was too shy to strike up a conversation with people. There was the time when I found a beautiful old black Jaguar motor car parked on what looked like a small plot of land laid aside for travellers. I was taking photographs of the car and its surrounding habitat when the owner of the car drove up behind me and asked, in a very friendly way, what I was doing. We spoke for a while about her pride and joy and then she gave me some directions and I was on my way. Then it struck me. Why hadn’t I asked the lady to pose next to her beloved black Jaguar? That would have made a great photograph.

On another occasion on the same weekend, I remember greeting a friendly woman on the Burrows who was walking 3 Greyhounds that were clad in bold polka dot and striped coats. As soon as I had walked on I realised I’d missed an opportunity to take a photograph of the lady with her distinctive looking dogs because I’d been too slow in seeing the opportunity and a bit reluctant to strike up a conversation with a stranger. This is not like me at all because I would normally talk to anyone given the opportunity. I put it down to:

1. It was very early and I was still trying to wake up
2. I had a camera with me which made me feel awkward
3. I felt a bit pretentious portraying myself as a Photographer
4. I also don’t know any conversation lead-in lines which would allude to my intentions without sounding too mercenary (am I worrying unnecessarily about this)
5. I had been away from my hosts for quite sometime and I had some ill-conceived time pressures which were not realistic (need to stop giving a shit)

Later, when I mentioned the dogs to Laura, she told me of a Greyhound sanctuary which is nearby. I parked that thought in my head and promised I’d make an effort to visit the sanctuary on a future visit and make some effort to overcome the reasons for my awkwardness.

Then yesterday while walking around Little Venice in London with my Leica, I saw this attractive young woman doing some interesting work at the side of the canal. I walked past her at first and then, realising my error, I returned to her and struck up a conversation along the lines of “Hi, do you mind if I ask what you are doing?” She didn’t mind at all and told me she was a Puppet Maker. She was soaking pieces of cane in water and then bending them to make a frame for her large puppets. Later, she would dress the frames in fabric to make her figures. She was making the puppets for the Glastonbury festival and told me the Organisers had agreed to give her a free ticket to the festival in return for her puppets. I asked would she mind if I took her photograph. I asked her to bend forward and drop her head towards me as though she was working because I had noticed when I first walked by that her blond hair was in plaits on top of her head and the shapes complimented the twisted canes that she had in her hands.

She was very amenable and we parted company soon after. I walked away and started analysing what had happened. I was really pleased about how it went and I couldn't have picked a more interesting subject to talk to. I was also pleased that I had noticed the woman's hair and the way in which I had linked the person to the activity in which she was engaged.

However, there is always something else that can be done and I realised I should have also asked her to raise her head for a photograph of her attractive face with the ring through her bottom lip. I'm still not 100% satisfied but at least it's a step in the right direction.

The Violence Inside

Recently, I've taken to eating Rachell's Organic Forbidden Fruits Bio Live yogurt. 2 things have struck me about this "healthy food":

1. They are extremely yummy
2. They make my stomach churn with a violence never before witnessed by mankind

Whatever is live in the yogurt continues to live in my stomach once eaten but it's as though the "thing" has grown to unbelievable proportions and is battling to find a way out after further imprisonment. How can something so large exist in such a small pot? I think that when it gets into my comparatively large stomach it has room to spread out like an adult returning to his own bed after spending a weekend sleeping on someone's living room sofa.

Seriously though, is this stuff any good for you? The noises it creates in my barrelous stomach certainly liven up boring meetings in the office much to my embarrassment. I'm forever having to point at my stomach and explain that the noise is coming from there and not anywhere else.