Vienna in the Rain

Jan and I are in Vienna for a few days. We seem to be just in time to catch the monsoon season! Lots of rain.

We arrived here late morning. There was a 2 hour spell in early evening just as it was going dark when it stopped raining and we even saw clear sky for a few minutes.

I ran off 2 rolls of Ilford FP4 120 film with my Mamiya 7 camera around the Hofburg area, New Town Hall and the cathedral.

I took a few on my phone too, converted to black and white in Snapseed,  to give you an idea of what it's like.

Thunderstorms, heavy rain and sunny spells are forecast for the next 2 days. I get the impression the forecasters are hedging their bets!

New Drying Cloth for Maco Ecomat TP5060 Dryer

I have been using my Maco Ecomat TP5060 for drying fibre based darkroom prints since buying it new in 2002. It is fantastic at drying Ilford FB papers flat and takes up to 24 x 20 inch sheets.

Ilford FB papers are notoriously difficult to dry flat and the new 2014 papers are no better at this! That's my only complaint about their fine papers.

I don't like high gloss prints so my prints are dried against the drying cloth on the cover which also ensures that the print dries flat. Without this prints can crease as you stick them down. The dryer gives a muted gloss similar to what would be obtained from air drying glossy FB paper.

The drying cloth on my dryer had come to the end of its life, as judged by the hole towards the edge of the fabric. In truth it should have been replaced earlier but it still worked without blemishes to the print surface.

A quick look on Google found the web shop, www.macodirect.com, for the German manufacturer. Even better they had the required drying cloth in stock, complete with felt underlay. My wife Jan had already worked out how to make one using the old one as a template so this saved her quite a tricky job.

It arrived today, 4 days after ordering. It fits perfectly, as you would expect. I will just put a print or two through it to check all is fine then it's full speed ahead again!

If you're looking for a dryer for FB papers I suggest you take a close look at the Maco Ecomat dryers.

Photographs for Photokina on Latest Fibre Based Ilford Papers

Ilford Photo asked me if I could provide prints with my images on their 3 new fibre based Multigrade papers for Photokina. This is the worlds largest photo and imaging fair, held every 2 years in Cologne in Germany (Tuesday 16th to Sunday 21st September 2014). My prints will be the only prints on display to promote these new papers. It feels quite a privilege to be asked to both make the prints and use my images.

In June Ilford supplied a box of 50 sheets of each paper, the window mounts and the frames. I printed my photographs and mounted onto conservation card as usual and then finished the framing, all signed on the print and on the window mount as usual.

These were all printed on 24 x 20 inch paper with images of 56 x 46cm (sorry about the mixed units but the paper is supplied in inch sizes and the images were in metric narrow black aluminium frames of 80 x 60cm). From each box 1 sheet was cut into test strips and I used 4 or 5 sheets to make the print for Ilford and a couple of spares in case of any problems when it came to the print finishing (not needed as it happens, all was fine).

Photokina is now almost here so it's time to show the 3 pictures.

Here are the 3 photographs on the new Ilford Multigrade FB papers framed and hung on our gallery wall. All of the original photographs were taken on Mamiya 7 cameras with Ilford FP4 120 film developed in Ilford Ilfotec DDX film developer diluted 1+6 for 9.5 minutes.

Print details:
The prints were all developed in Ilford Multigrade developer at 1+4 dilution for 2.5 minutes, then the usual Ilford Ilfostop stop bath at 1+19, Ilford Hypam 1+4 fixer, water rinse, Ilford Washaid for 30 minutes then final wash.

All are split grade prints, the only technique to use for creative printing with Variable Contrast papers such as the Ilford Multigrade range. In my view single exposure prints and pre-flash are old-style techniques for graded papers.

My prints are realistic to what I saw at the time I pressed the shutter button. The small amount of manipulation that I use is purely to compensate for small areas of brightness and shadows that need help to be rendered realistically.

The Photokina set of prints

Ilford Multigrade FB Classic Glossy

Spanish Steps at Night, Rome

Taken in December 2013 at night after a rain shower cleared the steps of people. Taken with the 43mm lens and a 6 minute exposure at f16 which removed most of the people walking across the view, just the odd bit of ghosting!
Night shots work well on FB glossy and the new Classic seemed sharper and even easier to work with than MGIV FB, my usual paper.
Printing: main exposures 14.5s grade 1/2, 3s grade 5
minor tweaks: +15s grade 0 bright wall on right, +5s grade 0 top of fountain.

Ilford Multigrade FB Warmtone Glossy

Leadenhall Market in London at night. 

This is used as a covered footpath and is a busy arcade during the daytime and early evening, especially weekdays. Taken late evening on a Saturday in March 2011.
Warmtone paper is great for old architecture such as this. This was probably my favourite of the set, it looks great on the Warmtone paper.
Printing: main exposure 12.5s grade 1 with -3s to cobbles, 10s grade 5
minor tweaks: +10s grade 0 left hand roof bright area.

Ilford Multigrade FB Cooltone Glossy

Wolf Creek View, Colorado

Snow covered trees and the view to surrounding hills from the ski area in southern Colorado with the greatest snowfall in most winters (about 12m), January 2011. An orange filter was used to darken the deep blue sky.

Cooltone with its blue-blacks was chosen to match the cold snow and ice of the main subject.

Printing: main exposures 5.4s grade 1 with -1s bottom left and -1s peak, 7.8s grade 5

minor tweaks: +1.5s grade 0 bottom right

...and here it is in the dish being processed.

Vertical Panoramics

I have added several new vertical panoramics of Italian towns and cities as well as a couple in London.

They are on the Recently Added pages for the next month or two and can also be found on the relevant Cities pages.

The Gallery pages are all driven by Keywords so just click the Refine Search tab on each Gallery page and you can select country, city, state/county or keyword. This then creates the pages with all images matching the search.

London Burlington Arcade

London Leadenhall Market

Bellagio, Lake Como

 Menaggio, Lake Como

Menaggio, Lake Como

Malcesine, Lake Garda

 Venice

 Verona

Art and Contemporary Craft Show This Weekend near Bracknell until Sunday 31st August

We are doing an event this weekend at Wellington College near Bracknell.

That's the Royal 'We', Jan is running our stand on her own!

Over 100 high quality art and contemporary craft exhibitors.

Here is a link to the web page for the show on the organisers website, Craft in Focus.

We have lots of pictures including about 15 large prints at 1m x 0.5m, 3 of these framed and on display. Also, course information and quite a few clearance small prints at £10. Jan has some of her colour photos on the stand too.

Our stand faces you as you enter the show hall, so very easy to find us!

Lakes Round 2014 Summary and New Photos

In June 2014 I walked a circular route in the Lake District with my good friend Al from Gloucester. We have done quite a few treks together including Glasgow to Cape Wrath (334 miles over 26 mountains 2003 to 2005) and the Wainwright Coast to Coast trek (2011 to 2013), each of these two divided up over the three years shown in brackets.

This year I just opened the maps up and planned a circular route around the Lake District that took in all of the 3000 foot mountains and several others. 

GPS: So that I didn't have to worry too much about route finding and could enjoy the views and look for photographs I programmed the route into my gps. I used Satmap X-pedition Planner web-based software and then transferred it into my Satmap Active 10 gps loaded with OS 1:50,000 maps of Great Britain. This is an excellent planning system that also programmes the gps then it is easy to follow the route and quickly see if you stray off-route. I have previously used it with programmed routes for the Alpine Pass Route across central Switzerland and the Wainwright Coast to Coast trek. The Munro's in Scotland would have been a lot easier if I had one of these when we were doing them! I also programmed Al's Satmap 10 gps with our route when he drove round to pick me up, and he had the 1:25,000 OS map card for a lot more detail than I had.

Maps: I carried the 1:25,000 Harveys maps and a compass for the better and more accurate detail on the tops but they are useless in towns as there is no detail at all. The Satmap gps was quite adequate to navigate to the nearest pub in towns so this wasn't a problem, it's auto-programmed to seek out Jennings Snecklifter! The maps were used but it was good not to have to carry them in hand all day and checking we were on track every hundred metres or so as I used to have to do pre-gps. 

Blog: I did a daily blog post during the walk illustrated with photographs taken on my Samsung Galaxy S3 phone. These low quality images were edited with Snapseed using the Crop tool, converted to Black and White, and finally Brightness and Contrast adjustment. To see the original daily blog click the title (Day 1 Thursday, etc) for each day. To view all trip posts for the Lakes Round click here.

Proper Photography: I carried one of my Mamiya 7 cameras with 65mm lens, Sekonic 508 spot meter, and my smallest Gitzo tripod (1028) with small Manfrotto quick-release ball head and a few rolls of Ilford FP4 and some B+W filters. In fact this was the only camera kit that I carried on most days. Days 3 and 5 I didn't carry the tripod and they were the only days I didn't take any photos on the Mamiya. Day 2 started really bright and warm so I used 1 roll of Ilford SFX infrared film with a Heliopan 715 filter from the top of Great Gable. For information, the Mamiya 7 gives 10 negatives of 7 x 6cm on a roll of 120 film. I often take duplicate shots or bracket exposures in tricky lighting. This is in case of coating faults or processing errors on the films that I use and results in just 4 or 5 images on a roll of 120 film.

This summary post has photographs taken on my Mamiya 7 camera as 7 x 6cm negatives on Ilford FP4 Plus 120 film and Ilford SFX infrared film. I have now scanned a selection using my Nikon Coolscan 9000 film scanner, edited them with Adobe Photoshop CS6 to look similar to a darkroom print and added them to my main gallery website, www.davebutcher.co.uk. 

Where I took a similar view on my Samsung phone and posted it on my blog I have included that for comparison.

Route Descriptions: these use the place names from the OS 1:25,000 maps that I used for planning the route. We generally took the shortest routes on tracks and paths between the places I have listed. You should be able to follow our route using the description and OS maps.

Luggage Transfer: Jan, my wife, arranged luggage transfer between all of our overnight stops so that we just carried light rucksacks. There don't seem to be luggage transfer companies willing to support independent hikers like us in the Lakes so Jan contacted a taxi company in Keswick. Suzi at the Keswick Cab Company/Suzi'z Taxiz couldn't have been more helpful and agreed to support us over the whole route from her base in Keswick. Suzi did the transfers herself and everything worked like clockwork. Highly recommended!

TOTALS
Miles: 85.5
Hours: 57 (including photo, lunch and pub stops) over 8 days
Metres ascent: 10,500
Miles per gallon (beer): 14


Day 1 Thursday 5th June 2014, Boot to Wasdale Head, 10 miles, 1800m of ascent, 8.5h

Route: Boot Woolpack Inn - Eel Tarn - Stony Tarn - Slight Side - Scafell - Foxes Tarn - Mickledore - Scafell Pike - Hollow Stones - Brown Tongue - Wasdale Head Hotel.

Start 9am (rain and low cloud until last hour), Scafell (964m) 12.15pm, Scafell Pike (978m, highest mountain in England) 2.15pm, Wasdale Head Hotel 5.30pm.

Mamiya 7/Ilford FP4 120 film, Wast Water and Wasdale

Samsung Galaxy S3/Snapseed, Wast Water and Wasdale

Day 2 Friday 6th June, Wasdale Head to Stonethwaite, 8.5 miles, 1700m of ascent, 8h

Route: Wasdale Head Hotel - Moses Trod path to bridge - Gable Beck path (between Kirk Fell and Great Gable) - Gable Beck Falls - steep scree track between White Napes and Great Napes - Great Gable - Windy Gap - Green Gable - Gillercomb - Sour Milk Gill - Seathwaite - Allerdale Ramble track to Strands Bridge - Stonethwaite.

Start 9am (sunny), Great Gable (899m), Green Gable (801m) 3pm, Stonethwaite 5pm.

Mamiya 7/Ilford FP4 120 film, Gable Beck Falls

Mamiya 7/Ilford SFX 120 film Heliopan 715 filter, Wasdale from Great Gable infrared

Samsung Galaxy S3/Snapseed, Wasdale from Great gable

Mamiya 7/Ilford FP4 120 film, Ennerdale from Windy Gap

Mamiya 7/Ilford FP4 120 film, Buttermere from Green Gable

 Samsung Galaxy S3/Snapseed, Buttermere from Green Gable

Day 3 Saturday 7th June, Stonethwaite to Keswick, 12 miles, 1000m of ascent, 6h

Route: Stonethwaite - Cumbria Way to Rosthwaite - New Bridge - Lingy Bank - Tongue Gill to Rigghead Quarries - High Spy - Maiden Moor - Cat Bells - Skelgill Bank - Cumbria Way to Derwent Bank, Portinscale, Keswick.

Start 9am (dry then rain by quarries), High Spy (653m), Maiden Moor (576m), Cat Bells (451m) 1pm, Keswick 3pm. No Mamiya 7/Ilford FP4 photos today.

Samsung Galaxy S3/Snapseed, Cat Bells from Maiden Moor

Day 4 Sunday 8th June, Keswick to Threlkeld, 11 miles, 1200m of ascent, 7h

Route: Keswick - Great Crosthwaite past Keswick School - Thrushwood - Applethwaite - Millbeck - White Stones - Carl Side - Skiddaw - Little Man - car park near Whit Beck - Brundholme - Wescoe - Ings - Threlkeld.

Start 9am (sunny spells), Skiddaw (931m), Little Man (865m), Threlkeld 4pm.

Mamiya 7/Ilford FP4 120 film, Derwent Water

Samsung Galaxy S3/Snapseed, Derwent Water

Mamiya 7/Ilford FP4 120 film, Bassenthwaite from Skiddaw

 Samsung Galaxy S3/Snapseed, Bassenthwaite from Skiddaw

Day 5 Monday 9th June, Threlkeld to Thirlspot, 8 miles, 500m of ascent, 3.5h

Route: Threlkeld - Burns Farm - near Low Rigg - High Rigg - Sossgill Bridge - Low Bridge End Farm - A591 at road bridge over river - Thirlspot

Start 9am (rain), High Rigg (357m), Thirlspot 12.30pm. No Mamiya 7/Ilford FP4 photos today.

Samsung Galaxy S3/Google Auto Video, Tewet Tarn with and without rain

Day 6 Tuesday 10th June, Thirlspot to Grasmere, 10 miles, 1500m of ascent, 8h

Route: Thirlspot - Brown How - Browncove Crags -  Lower Man - Helvellyn - Lad Crag - Nethermost Pike - High Crag - Dollywagon Pike - Grisedale Tarn - Grisedale Hause - Tongue Gill - Lancrigg - Grasmere

Start 9.30am (rain am, then sunny spells pm), Lower Man (925m), Helvellyn (950m), Nethermost Pike (891m), Dollywagon Pike (858m), Grasmere 5.30pm

Mamiya 7/Ilford FP4 120 film, Striding Edge in Summer

Samsung Galaxy S3/Snapseed, Striding Edge

Mamiya 7/Ilford FP4 120 film, Catstye Cam

Mamiya 7/Ilford FP4 120 film, Red Tarn

Samsung Galaxy S3/Snapseed, Catstye Cam, Red Tarn

Mamiya 7/Ilford FP4 120 film, Striding Edge from Lad Crag

Samsung Galaxy S3/Snapseed, Striding Edge from Lad Crag

Day 7 Wednesday 11th June, Grasmere to Coniston, 14 miles, 900m of ascent, 8h

Route: Grasmere - road around west side of lake - track to Hunting Stile - footpath to Hammerscar Plantation and below Huntingstile Crag - Walthwaite Bottom - Elterwater - Track along north side of Elterwater - Skelwith Falls - Skelwith Bridge Hotel - Park House - Park Farm - High Park - track beside Tongue Intake Plantation - Oxen Fell High Cross - Track past Stone Chair Hill - Tarn Hows north, east then south sides - Tom Gill footpath through Lane Head Coppice - track south from car park then west to Tarn Hows Cottage - through Tarn Hows Wood to Low Yewdale - Cumbria Way to Coniston via Back Guards and High Guards woods

Start 9.40am (dull start then sunny spells), Elterwater 10.40am, Skelwith Bridge 12.30pm, Coniston 5.40pm

Mamiya 7/Ilford FP4 120 film, Skelwith Bridge Falls

Mamiya 7/Ilford FP4 120 film B+W Light Red 090 filter, Tarn Hows Sky

Samsung Galaxy S3/Snapseed, Tarn Hows Sky

 Mamiya 7/Ilford FP4 120 film, Tom Gill Falls

Samsung Galaxy S3/Snapseed, Tom Gill Falls

Day 8 Thursday 12th June, Coniston to Boot, 12 miles, 1900m of ascent, 8h

Route: Coniston - steeply up on the Walna Scar Road - turned right at National Trust car park - track goes north near Big Hill and The Bell - turn west on old quarry road through disused mine workings - Old Man of Coniston - Goats Hause - Far Gill past Little Pikes - track on north side of Seathwaite Tarn - Brow Side - Troutal - Birks - Harter Fell - Spothow Gill - Penny Hill Farm - Doctor Bridge - Boot Woolpack Inn

Start 9am (cold and damp am, sunny spells pm), Old Man of Coniston (803m), Harter Fell (653m) 2.30pm, Boot Woolpack Inn 5pm. The End.

Mamiya 7/Ilford FP4 120 film, Cottongrass near Seathwaite Tarn

Samsung Galaxy S3/Snapseed, Cottongrass near Seathwaite Tarn

Mamiya 7/Ilford FP4 120 film B+W Light Red 090 filter, Scafell Range Sky

Samsung Galaxy S3/Snapseed, Scafell range from Harter Fell

New Display in Buxton Gallery in the Gardens

I changed all of my framed photographs in my display in the Gallery in the Gardens in Buxton Pavilion Gardens.

There are a few new prints in the browsers too.

I had been meaning to make the change for some weeks and had all the pictures ready to go. Jolly pleased to finally make the change!

The Gallery is the home for High Peak Artists, of which I am one. Jan, my wife, is also a member with her colour photographs. The 43 of us in HPA rent the space from the local council and we share the running of it between us. It's open every day of the year except Christmas Day. All of the work is original and includes several types of painting, mixed media, print making, ceramics, wood turning, fabrics and textiles, glass and several jewellers.

More New Alpine Images of the Western Bernese Oberland and Matterhorn Areas

Here are a few newly scanned images from a ski mountaineering trip along the Western Bernese Oberland Traverse in Switzerland.

Arpelistock Sunrise Ascent

 Grossstrubel from Schwarzhorn

Schwarzhorn Summit View South 

Wildstrubel View 

Here's a couple from the Saas Fee and Zermatt areas. The Allalinhorn taken while on a ski mountaineering of the Tour of Monte Rosa and the spectacular Matterhorn Sunset was taken while piste skiing.

Allalinhorn Snow Chutes 

Matterhorn Summit Sunset