Blogging again?

I was never too good at updating the blog under the previous system - in fact I believe it only ever came to two entries. But that's no reason not to try again, is it?

I've been in the darkroom again today. As I suspected i had put off cleaning up the last time I was there, and had ended up going offshore for a week in the interim. It's amazing how hard solidified print developer can get, and how long it takes to get it out of the tray.

I have a lot of negatives to print, but today's priority was making prints for the upcoming toning workshop with Tim Rudman in Dublin this weekend. So I chose to print an old familiar negative, originally shot with a Zeiss Ikon 521 MF folder. It is also about the closest I've ever come to "street photography", although it is equally a "landscape". It's just that there are people in it for a change, four Japanese tourists who were completely unaware that they were being photographed.

So I made 15 prints in all, on four different papers, all in "small size". For some reason I've come to view 8x10" as "small" for enlargements, although it's certainly large for a camera? I usually print on 24x30cm paper, and that is significantly larger than 8x10" (20x25cm). But this time, as I just wrote, I'll be bringing the prints with me to Dublin where they will be dunked in various chemicals. So I decided to forego my customary 24x30cm FB prints for 8x10" RC.

I'll have to print the four tourists again, on a larger paper. After I've removed the hair that was on my negative throughout todays printing session - I didn't even notice until I put the prints in the drier!