Sorry…

It’s been some time since I’d written any sort of blog post.
I tend to use my Instagram account for day to day photos. All the work on my Instagram account is analogue photography. Film is quite popular again amongst younger photographers, some genuine, some just hipsters who want to look cool. I’m neither of these. Just a mid 50s bloke with some old cameras who loves the whole process of film photography. I develop my black and white and colour films and scan them. I also print in my darkroom, but only in b & w.

Minor rant

There seems to be a rather sad trend among digital photographers to make their photos look like analogue/ film photos with plug ins etc.
Just appreciate digital for what it is, sharp, amazing quality, fantastic low light sensors etc etc. I shoot digital for nearly all my clients. No brainer.
If you want that analogue look, shoot film! Thanks!

As Nick Brandt (analogue wildlife photographer) recently said “digital is disturbingly easy”.
I’m afraid I have to agree with that. There’s not a lot of skill needed “in camera” now…
Anyone, it seems, can buy a top notch digital camera, learn a few tricks on Lightroom and/ or Photoshop and call themselves a photographer, quite often, a “professional”. That’s the industry now, whether it’s better or worse is open to question. There are some incredibly talented people but there is also a barrage of dross  (imagery of less than good quality)  assaulting us daily, thanks to the internet. 
So called “photographers” get some ‘likes’ on social media and something strange happens to them, they suddenly think they’re good.
I could go on all day about this, but it’s kinda negative, so I won’t!

Summer is always pretty quiet for me, I don’t shoot weddings, and, as I don’t get any major clients, it tends not to be a busy time. In some ways it’s quite nice, because I get to lie around in the sun and also get to shoot a fair bit of personal work.

Drag racing

Something I used to indulge in once upon a time, but can no longer afford to do now. Anyway, it’d been six years since I travelled to Germany and Bitburg airbase. I met up with a couple of friends there, one of whom owns the Chevy LUV featured in the pics. It runs high 9, low 10 second quarters. Pretty damned quick.
I didn’t take any digital media and shot a roll of Tri-X with my venerable Hasselblad. 
Unfortunately it rained on the day, so, I didn’t get to shoot as much as I’d liked to have done.
Here are some of the photos:

My friend has ordered darkroom prints of his LUV truck as a result of seeing these scans. I’m printing 12”x16” prints on fibre paper this week for delivery next weekend. A test print is featured at the end of the scanned series above. Needed some burning and dodging, hence test!

That’s all for the moment, comments welcome, insults from trolls unwelcome!