I was surprised to see my last post was over 3 months ago. But I haven’t been idle – far from it, especially now we are “locked down” at home! Below is a brief overview of what I have been up to with links to pages containing more details.
One area of activity has been buying up old cameras, seeing if/how they worked, cleaning them, and, if within my limited skill set, repairing them to a point where I can try them with film, x-ray film or paper negatives. When I have satisfied my curiosity I have sold them on and bought some more!
Along the way I have saved a few to add to my collection – but only those which help produce images that I find interesting and/or beautiful.
Alongside the equipment I have been trying my own film developing – using old film stock found in auction lots, including processing colour film for B&W . I have also experimented with different processes for printing – salt printing and albumen printing – with limited success.
The most exciting and successful are has been in using old glass plates in my 1900s cameras. I came across unused dry plates in an auction lot I bought and tried them to see if they were still useable – and (despite my ineptitude and lack of knowledge on how to use them) they produced some great images. I have been able to source more dry plates in a secondhand camera shop and on Ebay so will continue to use these in my image making.
During this time I produced a “Blurb” book of my fruit ‘n’ veg photographs– available on Amazon.
I have found a few useful and interesting Facebook groups from which I have learned a lot to help me on my way.
(Work in progress – please check back soon as the links in bold type will become active pages)
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