Is this the most incredible sound that can be made with a guitar?

For some reason I've started listening to Spanish guitar music again. In my opinion, it's the most wonderful sound that can be made with a guitar. Paco Pena and Juan Martin are the only Spanish guitarists I've heard about. I'd love to find out about more.

A mixed weekend

After last weekend's fun and enjoyment, the latest one turned out to be a bit of a disaster. On Saturday I screwed up the processing of last weekend's negatives when I mixed the wrong concentration of developer.

I remembered taking some interesting shots last week and I was so looking forward to the results. There were the shots of frosty Northam Burrows at dawn with the ponies in the cool morning sunshine. There were some shots of Howard and laura's new house taken before the refurbishment begins. And there was the shot taken from the summit of the boardwalk looking down the stony breakwater towards Ho; bright, low sunshine on one side of the ramp contrasted with the shady, cool beach with the lady and her dog on the other. I had big hopes for this photograph considering how good the light was and the subject matter was an interesting mix of textures and atmosphere.

Out of the 40+ bags of negatives that I've processed this last year, this was the first time I'd screwed up. I suppose that's not a bad hit ratio so long as it doesn't mark the beginning of a period of mistakes. And, I must take some satisfaction from the fact that I was able to backtrack and analyse my methods to determine the cause of the error which was important to do. All of this angst, trouble and uncertainty. "Why don't you just use your digital camera?", I hear you say. However, I agree with Magnum Photographer David Hurn when he said words along the lines of "Nowadays film photography may look like some sort of masochistic endeavour but it is the challenge and difficulty that make it so rewarding".

Sunday was a bit better although we lost an hour due to the clocks changing due to the start of British summer time (at last. Yippee!). I never really got it together on Sunday but I did manage to get a bike ride in the morning in the wonderful Leigh Woods with Mike and do some gardening in the afternoon which was useful. I'd forgotten how good Leigh Woods is when it's dry. Some great technical singletrack with lots of obstacles and deep ruts and nobody around. Also, it has a real sense of isolation which is quite a feat given its close proximity to Bristol's urban sprall.

So, a bit of a mixed weekend to be honest. Now I'm making plans for the 4 day break over Easter.

Theo Kelderman

Just discovered a photographer on Flickr. His name is Theo Kelderman from the Netherlands. I like his black and white photographs especially this set of children in regular and improvised playgrounds.

I noticed Theo used Kodak Tri-X on this set which is currently my preferred choice of film partly because it is still relatively cheap £2.71 a roll which is a whole pound cheaper than my next preference Ilford HP-5 Plus.

Theo Kelderman

Awakening from the winter slumber

Just spent a great weekend in Devon at a place called Westward HO with my friends Howard and Laura and their children Hector and Rosa. Lots of insightful chat, playing with the kids in the garden, coastal walking, photography and time spent in the cold Atlantic Ocean under huge, blue, March skies. Paying the price for it today though. I've got a face like a smacked arse, a hip that clicks and chest and shoulder muscles that have lain dormant for 6 months and now want to remind me that they still exist. I can't see them in the mirror but they're telling me they are there.

James Ravilious, Robert Capa and Eugene Smith

The Saturday before last was a real treat for Photography lovers on BBC4. It showed one cracking documentary after another. My favourites were the docs on the English Photographer James Ravilious which I'd seen before, the Hungarian Photographer Robert Capa and the American Photographer Eugene Smith.

Robert Capa photographed in 5 major conflicts including the Spanish Civil war which I've always had an interest in since seeing Ken Loache's film Land and Freedom in Edinburgh in the nineties. What a life Capa had and what a talented man. When I get my first pay cheque I'm buying one of his books as a treat.

The other great documentary was on the American Photographer Eugene Smith. In the 60's Smith was commissioned by Life magazine to come over to Britain and photograph the Clement Atley election campaign. The conservative owner of Life was a critic of the UK's Labour government at the time and wanted Smith to use his trademark gritty style to show a Britain that represented his perceived personal views of maligned post war Britain. Sometime into his assignment Smith got bored and headed for the South Wales valleys were he discovered a subject that would satisfy his urges for dark, gritty heavy industrial landscapes; he found the Welsh coal mines and the communities that worked them. He would go on to say that during that time in Wales he experienced one of the most creative periods in his life. And this from the man who produced the startling Pittsburgh project which is a tremendous body of work and not too disimilar from the subjects he found in Wales.

I recorded both documentaries and I'm sure I will find them an inspiration in my photography in years to come.