Experience Black and White Film and Darkroom Course

The photo is of one of the Peak District locations, a few miles from home, that I used for the recent 2 day Experience Black and White course. It was a private course for Trevor from Sheffield who wanted to experience using a film camera for the first time to take landscapes on black and white film. I lent him a Nikon FM2 with a zoom lens and gave him 2 rolls of Ilford FP4 film. Most of the first day was spent getting used to the switch from digital to film and taking photographs. 

We were back to base by 3pm. Then after a tea-break it was into the darkroom to process the film and hang it up to dry in the drying cabinet.

Day 2 started in the darkroom with making up 3 dishes of chemicals for making prints (developer-stop bath-fixer). Then the film from the day before was cut up and we made a contact print (the equivalent of thumbnails in digital-speak! This is a print of all of the negatives on a film at the actual size of the negative, no enlargement). From this we could choose which negatives to print. Since Trevor hadn't been in a darkroom before I was explaining everything as we went along. Next came a demonstration by me of the printing technique that everyone should be using in the darkroom, called Split-Grade Printing, the technique specifically designed by Ilford to work with the Ilford Multigrade RC paper that we used. It's the easiest way to make good quality prints without the need for lots of work in the darkroom. Then the rest of the day was spent with Trevor making 14 x 11 inch prints from his film. We managed to make 5 prints before time ran out. The final washing of the prints takes just 5 minutes or so and I have an Ilford 1250 dryer which dries them in about 20 seconds. We were soon finished and admiring results from the 2 days. He had some excellent prints to mount and frame for the walls of his home as well as now having first hand experience of the entire film camera and darkroom process.

If this sounds of interest contact me and we can talk through the options. The course is usually 2 days but can be done in 1 day with 1 location, 1 film and making just 1 or 2 prints.

See www.darkroomdave.com for videos and illustrated articles of some of the techniques that will be covered, all free, no subscription.

Lake District Private Photo Course

The day after returning from 4 weeks taking photos in North America we drove to Eskdale to run a 2 day private landscape photo course for Trevor, who set up and ran the machine to print my last 4 books at Loop Publishing in Sheffield.

We met Trevor and his wife Nikkie in the bar of the Woolpack when we went down from our room for something to eat. The following day was spent at locations in Eskdale and the surrounding moors. The weather was excellent so this included a 60 foot waterfall, grand views from high viewpoints, a Roman fort and a mountain lake. It was sunny pretty much all day.

The Falls in Eskdale

Trevor at the Falls

Roman Fort View Over Eskdale

Scafell Range from Roman Fort Above Eskdale

The second day we started on the coast near Ravenglass for sand dunes, patterns in sand and rock pools. 

Then we made our way to Wasdale to photograph England's deepest lake, Wast Water. We started at the Youth Hostel end of the lake with a break at the Strands Hotel and Brewery for lunch. Then back to Wasdale for views of England's highest mountain Scafell Pike, an old packhorse bridge and some impressive falls.

Wast Water View form near the Youth Hostel

Scafell Pike and Wast Water

After a swift pint in the Woolpack and a 3.5 hour drive we were home.

Saturday we spent unpacking the stock that we took to the show in Hatfield just before leaving for our 4 week trip to North America.

Sunday we ran a black and white film landscape photography and darkroom course for Laura, with partner Tom in tow.

Monday I went to Chesterfield for long overdue treatment on my bad back and neck.

Tuesday I walked to Buxton to run the Gallery in the Gardens, a 12 mile rounddiary.

Wednesday, normal service resumed from home!

Whoever plans our diary needs a good talking to ....... we never learn!

Private Photo Course in Northumberland

We have just returned home from running a 2 day private photography course in Northumberland. The weather was jolly kind to us, we had quite a bit of sunshine and no rain. The waves were spectacular too, with high tide in early afternoon.

We were based in Berwick upon Tweed in Northumberland just 2 miles south of the Scottish border. The course was a Christmas present for Jo from Morpeth, just north of Newcastle. Jo wanted to get back into using film cameras and brought along her Canon EOS 300 with a couple of zoom lenses. We covered everything from choosing the film, loading film into the camera, taking exposure readings with the camera meter, composition and use of tripods. We used a mixture of Ilford HP5 for hand-held shots and Ilford FP4 film for shots taken from a tripod.

We started on Berwick Beach with the basics then moved on to Eyemouth as there is lots to photograph around there, harbour with boats, beach, rocky shoreline and lots of waves at high tide! It was cloudy in the morning but the sun came out while we were in the Contented Sole pub at lunchtime, as it often does! Fortunately, it stayed out for the afternoon.

On the Sunday we met in Beadnell and headed back north to Bamburgh for the castle, beach and sand dunes. The sea was a little way out still but we took some castle shots, including reflections on the wet sand, rocks and patterns. Then we drove around to take the castle from the sand dunes on the south side.

We continued south but it was too early to take Beadnell Harbour as it needs the tide to be high so we went for an early lunch at the Craster Arms in Beadnell. Crab sandwiches were on the menu so Jan and Jo were happy! Next it was down to Beadnell Harbour for the high tide shot. Unfortunately, there is lots of scaffolding around buildings at the harbour and earth moving equipment, a dumper truck, van and car so it wasn't ideal. Jo can always come back when it's all cleared away being so local. Then we finished by heading south to the beach just north of Dunstanburgh Castle. The rocks on the beach here are round and are shiny black when wet. They make a great foreground with the castle ruins behind. The tide was high and we were in danger of being washed away at times! Fortunately, both Jo and I had high boots so remained dry shod. Waves were crashing over one of the large rocks in front of us and onto the beach so we had lots to go at, including the castle shot of course.

Jo then had a short drive to get home to Morpeth while we headed north to finish our trip by taking some photos of the Kelpies horse head sculptures near Falkirk. That's the subject of another blog post!

Jan took all of these almost action photos on her Nikon D90 to give you an idea of the places we visited.

Checking Camera Settings, Berwick Beach

Eyemouth Beach Wave Watching

Eyemouth Harbour AM

Eyemouth Harbour PM

Eyemouth Beach Waves

Dunstanburgh Castle Beach #1

Dunstanburgh Castle Beach #2

3 Shires Head in Spate on Photo Course

Today I ran a personal Peak District photo course for Nick and Rex who work together in Windsor.

Not the best day weatherwise! Heavy rain delayed our start. Then we had a break in the weather, headed out and had over an hour dry and took advantage with some good waterfall photos in the Goyt Valley.

The rain returned at noon so we went for an early lunch at the Church Inn in Chelmorton. A sunny afternoon was forecast and we didn't want to miss it!

As usual the sun came out while we were in the pub.

We resumed the day taking photographs of the small fields, dry stone walls and trees from Chelmorton Low, the hill behind the pub.

Big clouds came over to block the light so we went off for more waterfalls as they don't need sunshine to make them impressive.

3 Shires Head was in full spate. I can't remember seeing so much water here before, and I've been here dozens of times over the years. Lots of scope for stunning photos.

Only my Samsung Galaxy S3 phone to record for this blog. Hope these give you an idea of what it was like. The last 2 show how conversion to black and white changes the scene.

Course Time in the Peak District

We have a spell of doing lots of courses. We planned just one photo day and one darkroom day on our programme for July but have had several private bookings for both photo and darkroom. This is quite interesting as July has previously been a quiet month for courses.

The bonus this year is the weather, lots of sunshine and little rain. It doesn't seem like Derbyshire at all! There's still room on the calendar for more, if you're interested just get in touch for a chat.

Today I walked to Buxton to run the Gallery in the Gardens in Pavilion Gardens. Clear sunny skies and temperature of 24°C, a bit of a breeze on the tops made it a good temp for walking, as I walked the 6 miles here this morning. It will be warmer as I walk home tonight.

Here are some photos from the photo course on Saturday, all taken by Jan using a Nikon D90.

Lake District Photo Course Day 1

We are in the Lake District running a 2 day landscape photo course. This time we are based at the Bower House Inn in Eskdale Green as the Woolpack had too few rooms available.

Good to have our old friend Roy with us too. Quite a few years since we last saw him.

Jolly damp start to the day so we started with waterfalls in Eskdale. Our umbrellas protected the cameras and some good pictures were taken. Then lots of waterfalls below this.

Interesting rhodendrons by stream, they had dropped most of the blossom which carpeted the ground. Good for photos.

After lunch at the Brook House Inn and some tasty Darkest Ennerdale we headed over the Hardknott Pass for some big landscapes. Good light.

Then back over the pass and down to the Roman Fort. Dull to start then good light.

Last stop of the day was Devoke Water on Birker Fell.

From here we returned to the hotel and checked out the results of the day, as well as the Thirst Session and Black Sail Bitter.

Tomorrow is Wasdale day. Fingers crossed for better weather.

Woolpack Landscape Photography Course

Jan and I are in the Lake District running another landscape Photography course. We are based at the Woolpack Inn in Boot in Eskdale.
Yesterday we were in Eskdale and at Devoke Water. The waterfalls were spectacular. Not too much rain and mostly short showers when it did rain.
Today was our coastal day between Ravenglass and St Bees Head. The only rain was while we were in the Ratty Arms in Ravenglass having lunch. Lots of sunshine and fluffy white clouds.
Tomorrow we spend the day in Wasdale.
We are spending the evenings at the Woolpack Inn where we are staying. The course has been redubbed the Woolpack Photo Course, some similarities with Clachaig Photo Course that we ran last week!

Clachaig Photo Course

Here are some photos from our recent landscape photography course based in the Glencoe area.

Everyone took some spectacular shots at the 15 of so locations. Weather could have been better but it was good enough for atmospheric black and white shots.

All taken on my mobile phone.

We seemed to spend a few lunch times and evenings at the Clachaig Inn so the course was rechristened as the Clachaig Photo Course!