Monochrome Wednesday

25-09-19

Steps In The Woods

Olympus OM2n – Vivitar 19mm f3.8 – Konica ir750 film.

This is an old one from the archive, mid 1990’s I think. Taken on a walk in Lathkil Dale  Derbyshire. I was quite surprised to see these steps abandoned in the woods, they were nicely covered in moss. It was quite dark and I thought the image would be underexposed, the lens was wide open (not good for the Vivitar) but the lovely Konica infrared film didn’t let me down.

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Places I’ll Never Forget #8

02-09-18

From my first visit to the USA in 1992 ! All the images were shot on Kodachrome (of course) with an Olympus OM2n and Zuiko 24mm lens.

Kodachrome Basin UT

Fantastic rock formations and a menacing sky, what more could I want.

After walking up a trail to the top of the rocks behind the first image, this was the lovely view. It really reminded me of cowboy country.

Petrified Forest National Park AZ

The landscape was almost lunar.

Some of the colours of the petrified wood were so vivid.

I would love to one day go and revisit some of these places, but the £ needs to gain a bit of value before that happens.

Places I’ll Never Forget #7*

06-08-18

Yosemite

I visited Yosemite in July 1993 on a road trip to California. I asked to upgrade the hire car from a Subaru 1.6 to a 2 litre but all they had was a Chrysler Eagle, a 3.4 Litre V6 I think. Well that was fine by me, it had a great stereo and plenty of power.

What surprised me was the amount of snow still around in mid July, a spectacular sight, in some parts it was 14 feet high.

What surprised me even more was altitude sickness, I had a job to get out of the car. It doesn’t take long in a car to reach some serious altitude on the Tioga Pass. Starting from the Lee Vining entrance which is 6,000 ft above sea level to 9000 ft at the top of the pass.

The scenery was beautiful, with alpine meadows contrasting with really rugged terrain.

*Anybody Know where this is ?

I have forgotten where this is !!! It was in the same slide box as the above images, my best guess is the start of the Tioga Pass, or Mono Lake vista point on US-395.

Olympus OM2n, Zuiko 24mm f2.8 lens, Slide Film.

Canyonlands, Kodachrome, 92

21-05-18

These photo’s were taken on my first visit to the USA in 1992 on Kodachrome film. I was so amazed at the scenery and the big skies. The images were taken in Moab and Canyonlands NP, a fantastic area to visit.

Downtown Moab

Canyonlands

The colours have shifted a little with time, but it’s so good to have a record of this trip.

All images were taken on my Olympus OM2n with Zuiko 24mm, 2.8 lens, which is still working today.

Places I’ll Never Forget #6 (Part 2)

03-12-17

Isle of Eigg – Inner Hebrides – Scotland

On The Sgùrr

The views from the top of the Sgùrr are breathtaking, it’s worth the climb. In the distance is the island of Rum, it’s a nature reserve and quite wild. I could imagine from it’s shape the time 60 million years ago when it was an active volcano.

Looking Towards Laig Bay

Laig Bay

The beach on Laig Bay is also known as Singing Sands, when you walk on the beach you hear a high pitched noise, something to do with the quartz in the sand.

There are lots of rock pools to explore and because it is on the gulf stream you can find coconut seeds and other exotic things. When I was there a Portuguese man O war jelly fish had been washed up.

Ever Changing Light

Cottage – Cleadale

There are some lovely cottages and crofts on the island, quite a few are holiday lets.

Scottish Bluebells 

I hope one day to get back to Eigg for a holiday.

Places I’ll Never Forget #6 (Part 1)

01-12-17

Isle of Eigg – Inner Hebrides – Scotland

I’ve visited this Island four times, it’s absolutely beautiful, and is way overdue another visit. It was one of the few places I have actually experienced silence, no traffic noise or background hum, just the natural sounds of nature.

The ferry for the Island leaves from Arisaig which is on the west coast of Scotland, north of Fort William, the road to Arisaig criss crosses under and alongside the railway used in the Harry Potter films, it’s a great road to drive. These images are from May 1991, Whitsuntide, from slides taken with my Olympus OM2n. 

Arisaig Harbour

This is very early in the morning, taken after attempting to sleeping in the car (VW Beetle) overnight !!!! Nice and calm, good job as I am not a good sailor.

On The Way To Eigg

The light can be amazing, and as a superb bonus often pilot whales will swim alongside the ferry.

An Sgùrr

The Sgùrr is probably the most notable landmark on the island, it was formed by the lava from the volcanic eruptions on the neighbouring island of Rùm about 60 million years ago.

An Sgùrr

Side view of the Sgùrr looking towards the Scottish mainland. The weather really picked up and it got hot, you can see the blue haze in the distance.

Infrared & Reminiscing

05-11-17

Looking through some old negatives I came across a Kodak Infrared film that I hadn’t scanned in. There were some problems with the negs, mainly underexposure, it was November, and it had snowed overnight, the previous day being bright and sunny. 1990 I think, when I took these images near Settle North Yorkshire. They were having a French week in the town with lots of French food and Cajun bands playing in the pubs. I was up there for a photo beer weekend with former work friends. It brought back some really good memories.

Up On The Moors

Even though Kodak HIE infrared could be difficult to use (you had to load/unload the film in total darkness and keep it in the film canister when not in the camera) I really liked some of the images it could produce.

Blackbirds, Holly Tree, My Cats & A Box of Prints

Blackbird alarm calls got me up and out into the garden, I knew there was a nest in my Holly tree. With the weather being so poor earlier on this year I never managed to give the tree a good pruning, a painful process (for me that is), the leaves are very sharp. The cause of the alarm calls were my two cats who were mooching around the tree looking for somewhere out of the sun to settle down for a sleep.

So now I’m fretting for the well being of the Blackbird chicks. I’ve talked to the the cats about them but they weren’t impressed. My old Tomcat (Orlando) never bothered about birds too much, but the girls are fascinated by them.

Later on I decided to do a bit more sorting out of the spare bedroom/ex darkroom and came across a box of prints I had forgotten about. They are all from infrared film, and were very tricky to print, but scanned in well.

North Wales

The ones above were taken on the way to Barmouth and Portmeirion.

Near Settle – Yorkshire


These were all taken on Kodak HIE infrared on my Olympus OM2n.

Old Footbridge, Rundale Pils, Latvia

This was taken on Konica IR750 film on my Rolleiflex in 1993. Rundale Palace has been beautifully restored now.

Places I’ll Never Forget (Hopefully !) #4

Oregon Coast

It was way back in 2005 when I last visited the USA, on that trip I flew into Seattle and headed for the Olympic Peninsula (that’s for another blog post) and eventually on to the Oregon coast. The sense of space and big skies will always be in my memories. The weather was very much like UK weather so I felt quite at home ! and the people were really friendly.

It was in the days before I had a digital camera, all the photographs were taken on either my Olympus OM2sp or OM2n on Kodak Elitechrome 200.

Pacific Ocean

Depoe Bay
Stopped off by chance at Depoe Bay, really lovely little town, went whale watching which was fantastic, and bought the best cotton T shirt I have ever had, can’t beat genuine American cotton.

Pelicans

In the evening the pacific mist would come rolling in, it gave the place a magical feel.

Views Along The Coast
Cannon Beach

That sense Of Space

Sea Lion Caves, Florence OR

Heceta Head Lighthouse

I really loved the Oregon coast, only wish I’d made more notes of the places where the photographs were taken.

Places I’ll Never Forget (Hopefully !) #3

10-04-17

These photographs are from my first visit to the island of Crete in 1990, can’t believe that’s 27 years ago !!!! All the images are from an Olympus OM2n film camera which I had just bought before the holiday. The film is Fujichrome 100.

Crete – Rethymnon Harbour

Church of Four Martyrs Rethymnon

One of the main reasons to visit Crete was to walk the Samaria Gorge (click the link if you would like to find out more)

On The Way to The Gorge

Approaching The Walk

Samaria Gorge

My ex waving at me, in other words Get a Move On !

It was quite rough going in some parts of the gorge.

End of The Line – Agia Roumeli

It was a scorching hot day, I was glad when we reached Agia Roumeli so we could have a drink and a bite to eat, not to mention resting my feet. We caught the ferry from here back to the transport. I’m not very good on boats especially the flat bottomed variety, the Mediterranean can get quite choppy and it did, but it was an experience not to be missed.