The iPhone and Hipstamatic Application!

It has been far too long for this post to make it to the blog. 2010 sees me wanting to make more images and I have given myself the task of making one a day in a bid to keep the eye alive and the juices following. I’d like to do this on film all the time but knew that would be very difficult to sustain. Funny then that a friend drew my attention to the Hipstamatic Application for the iPhone. It is just quick and fun to use and the results can be very pleasing. I have even managed to make some nice prints – albeit small 5×5inch ones – that have gone down well with those that have been framed!

Named and Shamed :) The Person Responsible…

Last weekend saw an ever welcome visit from our friends Wendy & Geoff Camber from Gloucester.  We lived in the Gloucester area from 1995 – 2002 and it was during this time that I met Geoff  a founder member of the Cotswold Monochrome Group. It was this fortuitous meeting that led me to the darkroom – Geoff’s where he was gracious enough to start me on my first serious steps in photography – I am not the first person that owes Geoff a debt of gratitude and I know of others that he has nurtured.  It was a great honour that I was asked to give a talk and demonstration on  platinum and palladium printing to the Group in 2008.  I could not let the visit pass without attempting to make wet plate portraits of them both even though the u/v had already left for the winter.

Geoff Camber

Wendy Camber

A Return to the Farm

I have made a series of images at a farm which was just behind our old house near Glasgow.  We used to walk our labrador Bracken up the road behind our house that bisected the farm fields. In fact, our old house was built on old farm land that had been sold a few years previously.  John used to live in the farm house and as his dogs and geese alerted him to someone being outside he would often be at the farm gate as we returned – just for a chat.  Soon we were spending more time in the farm having a cuppa than walking the dog and over time I became very close to John.  Unfortunately John died in June 2004, I was devastated!  The farm was always a two person operation and John was helped by his son Robert although Robert would say this statement is a little back to front!  I had got on well with Robert but we didn’t have the same relationship as I had with John but this has changed overtime.  Robert has asked to use an image I had made of John to be displayed at the entrance to the church for the funeral – my greatest photographic honour!  I stopped making so many images at the farm for a long while and we had moved about 5 miles away at the end of 2004.  I still saw Robert occasionally  for a chat and a cuppa.  Towards the end of this year i retuned to the farm to start a series on wet plate with a view to showing the body of work in the future.  The farm is no longer working as such although six cattle remain as do the dogs, cats and geese.  What I wanted to show was the farm and also little farm histories from some of the implements etc that remain. What follows are some of these images. All are Glass Plate Ambrotypes – positive images made on glass.

Kerik Returns to Scotland in 2010

Well Kerik is returning to Scotland in 2010.  Around his holiday he will teach two workshops a wet plate collodion course on 10-11 July and a digital negatives (QTR) with plt/pd printing on 13-14 July.  Kerik is one of the foremost contemporary practitioners of both these process and also combines the two with great results – see some examples here.  As of today the digital negative and plt/pd printing course is nearly sold out and there are only 3 spaces on the wet plate course remaining. There are a couple of things to tie up first before exact costs etc are announced but if you are interested contact Kerik direct from his website. Both courses will be held just outside of Glasgow.

Gum Bichromate Over Platinium Print From Wet Plate Collodion Image.

The Opening of World Exhibition.

Last night was the opening of the World Exhibition by 13 Scottish Photographers at the Lillie Gallery in Glasgow. Whilst I have been part of a five person exhibition before it was with fellow members of a camera club an in a small venue. This was my first in a formal gallery and alongside some very respected professional photographers and in a way I felt a little in awe of the whole prospect. I needn’t have been and was overwhelmed  by the positive  feedback and encouragement I received as well as support from my friends that came to support me. The opening lasted for two hours and my jaw had had enough after about the first 30 mins – I have never really experienced the feeling of knowing that people were waiting in the wings for their chance to talk to me – very humbling.! I am indebted to Sandy Sharp for inviting me to be part of the exhibition. I would also like to acknowledge Quinn Jacobson, Kerik Kouklis and Timothy Soar whose support and encouragement have enabled me to come this far.

Scottish Photographers

It has been a bit of a struggle of late due to having tmj disorder, and to be honest I have made few plates, I just have not felt up to it. However, Keith agreed to sit for me as part of a series I am doing on members of Scottish Photographers a group of individuals that show and discuss images as opposed to cameras lenses and printers! We made an alumitype – a tintype image but made on black trophy aluminium – tin being a tad expensive these days.

Tonight is the opening of Worlds – an exhibition by 13 Scottish Photographers at the Lillie Gallery in Glasgow. A Blurb book, also called World funnily enough, has been made as part of this exhibition but it only shows one image and the bio of each photographer.