Photography

This shows the ancient magnolia by Brennan’s Jubilee Hut at Larachmhor Garden near Arisaig. It has a colonial feel to it. (Whole plate, emulsion RH28, 2-bath development, flat scan)

I spent a few days at Larachmhor Garden near Arisaig and made some plates, only two of which I’m happy with. This is the first. (Whole plate, emulsion RH28, 2-bath development, flat scan).

I had a few days off after the Christmas and New Year and couldn’t resit another renovation project. I’d been wanting to have a go at a half plate camera as a smaller and lighter alternative to my whole plate. Half plate is slightly smaller than the ‘modern’ 5×7 inch format at 4¾ × 6½…

I had a week long work trip to Sofia, Bulgaria to attend the TDWG 2022 Conference. Most of the time was spent with colleagues in a conference room or on a trip to Rila Monastery. There wasn’t much opportunity for photography but I took a little Olympus XA2 for day to day use and my…

This is a quick note to self. Two bath film developer is designed to control highlights because the developing agent that is absorbed in the first bath soon becomes exhausted in the dense areas when the film is immersed in the second bath containing the accelerator. It occurred to me that this would be really…

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?…

I woke this morning to find the same image used as the lead across three media outlets. This isn’t a one off picture of a burning building or scoop from a war zone but a woman with a fan on a train in London. It is credited to Reuters – no photographer. How is it…

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…

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…

I finally got to make what I’m calling a triptych panorama. I’ve been thinking about doing these since I first started printing the entire plate with a black border. The print consist of three 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch plates laid next to each other to make an Argyrotype contact print. The plates can’t…

🇺🇦 In February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine. Playing with old Russian military inspired tech isn’t fun any more. My FT2 will rest in the cupboard till better times. Thoughts and good wishes are with the people of Ukraine and those in Russia who have been dragged into this madness. I have spent some time 3D…

It started with a me buying a 1950’s Mamiya-16 just because I thought it looked like such a cool camera. The trouble is the film cassettes are like hen’s teeth so I thought I’d get Barney down the road at OpenFactory to 3D print me some. That didn’t work out because the models on Thingiverse…

We have a “stay at home” order in place in Scotland right now which means we can only go outside for essential reasons such as work (that can’t be done from home), caring responsibilities or exercise. I’ve decided not to count using my full size pack, containing a large carbon fibre tripod and Wista 45…

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…

There is an old wind blasted oak tree close to the North Esk River that I like to visit. It is just within the area we are allowed to visit under the current Covid restrictions. Doing the tree justice in a photograph is really hard. The best composition is from due South and the early…

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…

Work makes it hard to get outside while it is still light but I’ve been itching to test out using Ilford PQ Universal developer on my dry plates. Last night I set up a simple still life. I didn’t really have the energy to do more than pick an object. I’m please with the image…

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…

I wrote an article for Emulsive magazine website back in August and it has just been published. You can see it here:

I was back in Grange Cemetery in my lunch break this time with my 8×10 to see if I can do 8×10 dry plates or not. The first attempt was a disaster because I didn’t push my DIY plate holder all the way home and there was a light leak. My second and third were…

We learn by making mistakes. The third photographic emulsion I made was great. It was clean and contrasty and just worked. So I thought I’d jazz it up a bit for the fourth emulsion by adding ten drops of 1% Erythrosine (that’s pink food colouring E127) to increase the green response. It didn’t work. Right…