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When I’m out with a plate camera people often stop and ask me what I’m doing. I love to talk about old school photography but am sometimes struggling with light and temperamental equipment and need to concentrate. I’ve therefore had some cards printed with this website address on them. Really Quick Summary I like making…

Read More What’s he doing with that old camera?

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There are loads of YouTube videos out there about split grade printing with Multigrade filters. It is an excellent technique for getting the most out of a negative. But what if you just want to do some quick work prints and don’t have time to mess about with multiple filters for each and every negative?…

Read More Effective use of single Ilford Multigrade filters

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A thinking aloud/allowed blog post. I’ve decided I need to rationalise things a bit on the old developer front. Choosing the best developer is a rabbit hole that I’m not keen to fall down. I’ve been reading the film developer cook book and it just depresses me. It can result in years of anguish rather…

Read More One dev to rule them all and in the darkness bind them?

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Whilst we were under periods of looser Covid restriction during 2020 and 2021 I had a project photographing the local cemeteries near where I live in Edinburgh. It was an opportunity to make many test exposures as I honed my emulsion making skills. But somehow the project petered out. I was using my Wista 45D…

Read More Cemetery Trees – the forgotten project

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Working at the Botanics in Edinburgh means I can get access to the currently closed Palm Houses. They are about to undergo a major restoration. It is an amazing space to be in so I’ve visited twice, once with my whole plate camera and once with the 10x12inch Vageeswari. Argyrotype prints from whole plate glass…

Read More The Vageeswari goes on its first outing

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I’ve got a routine going of pouring my own 4×5″ gelatine silver plates and then scanning them and inkjet printing the results but I’ve felt unsettled because I would like to have a 100% analogue process, [AAA] in stead fo [ADD]. To address this I’ve been messing with salt printing some of my 4×5″ plates.…

Read More Victorian book-form, whole-plate holder on Intrepid 8×10 camera

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For my birthday the family humoured me by playing at making portraits in the garden. I broke out the Intrepid 8×10 – a special occasions camera – and we shot some very old Ilford Multigrade paper as negatives. My daughter, Faith, is getting pretty good at doing the large format dance and did the whole…

Read More Fifty Six

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I’ve been putting things on Instagram without blogging them – this is against my new social media policy. How sad I have one! As we are still in lockdown with a “stay at home” order in effect I’ve been playing with my Sinar P studio camera. There is precious little room in the flat so…

Read More Trapped indoors doing still lives (that really should be lifes)

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Using dry plate technology from the 1880s I feel drawn to anything from the Victorian era. Living in Edinburgh we are blessed with such subjects which is good because the current Covid-19 restrictions mean I can’t leave the city. Today I photographed the Forth Rail Bridge (opened 1890) and the result is convincingly late 19th…

Read More My time machine is functioning well