Budapest Photo Trip November 2018

Jan and I had a short trip to Budapest in November 2018, flying out from London Heathrow on a Saturday, returning on a Monday. That gave me one full day plus late afternoon/early evening on our arrival day and the morning of our last day for photography.

I have been cutting back on the camera equipment that I take on these short trips so I just took 2 Mamiya 7 camera bodies (that's one to use and a spare!), 3 lenses and a Sekonic spot meter. For lenses I had a 43mm, 80mm and 150mm.

Before leaving I had arranged a hand search of my Ilford film at Heathrow so that it wasn't put through the hand luggage x-ray scanner. I took 20 rolls of Ilford 100 Delta and 15 rolls of Ilford 400 Delta, all 120 roll film of course giving 10 negatives of 7x6cm per roll. The staff were very efficient and helpful, as usual. In the end I exposed just 13 rolls, 10 of 100 Delta and 3 of 400 Delta. With a bit more sunshine I would have used another 4 or 5 rolls so I had plenty to spare.

The flight was about 2.5 hours and we were met at the airport by Judit, an ex-colleague and friend of Jan's. Her husband Bollacj drove us to our hotel in Budapest city centre. I needed to rest my bad back for an hour or so before starting taking photographs.

As usual I had already checked out the locations I wanted to visit for photos using Google Earth and Google Street View. A few things were added as you can't predict every shot beforehand but mostly I stuck to my list.

Here are some of the views that I took with my Mamiya 7 film camera. I haven't had time to process the films yet so these images here were all taken on my Motorola Moto-X phone to give an idea of what I took on the proper camera. They'll look much better as proper black and white film images!

On our way back Jan had to work hard to convince the hand luggage X-Ray scanner team at Budapest Airport to let us have a hand search of my film. They finally agreed so all was well. In the last few years the only airport that we've used that refused a hand search of my films was Manchester, even when the request was made in writing well in advance. The other 20-odd airports around the world that we've used have all agreed, mostly very willingly when asked.


Buda Castle View over Chain Bridge

Chain Bridge from Buda Castle at Night

Buda Castle

Buda Castle

Matthias Church

Matthias Church

Matthias Church

St Stephens Basilica

Budapest Heroes' Square

Hungarian Parliament Building and Statue

Hungarian Parliament Building

Hungarian Parliament Building with Chain Bridge on right

Not your normal bus route - look closely!

Budapest Airport

Snow Light Lecture World Premiere, Nottingham, 16th October 2018

It's the 'world premiere' of my new lecture Snow Light tonight. All images were taken on film with over 80 hand printed darkroom prints. Lots of landscapes with and without snow, as well as cities. I'll have copies of my Snow Light book as well as Land Light and City Light at much reduced prices.

At Nottingham and Notts Photographic Society, 7.30pm KO. Visitors welcome at £3 on the door. Venue: St Mary's Church Hall, Wollaton Hall Drive, Nottingham, NG8 2AE

Great Peak District Fair 2018, Buxton Pavilion Gardens

We're doing the Great peak District Fair this weekend in Buxton Pavilion Gardens. After an absence of 3 years the show returns into the newly restored Octagon building. The first thing you notice is how light it now is, much better to display our work at fairs.

Jan is manning our stand on her own and has lots of my darkroom hand prints, the final few sample poster prints at low prices (when they're gone they're gone - no more!). There's also a good few of Jan's natural colour photos.

The show is open 10am to 5pm both today and tomorrow, 13th-14th October 2018. Oh, nearly forgot to add there's also a beer festival if the Art, Craft and Farmers Market isn't enough!

Norway Photo Trip, Bergen

Still having the same old problem with Google blogger, both the mobile app and the web version. I am unable to upload images from my mobile. I'm sure it will work from my desktop but mostly I do blog posts as I travel, using my mobile phone. 

I now have a blog on my main website which I use instead of Blogger:

http://www.davebutcher.co.uk/blog/

Jan drove us down to Gatwick Airport yesterday. We caught the start of the rush hour so it took 5 hours!

This morning it was just a few minutes to the terminal for our flight to Bergen in Norway. 

A few weeks ago I arranged with Gatwick security for my films to be hand searched. It was a very easy process too, they couldn't have been more helpful and very fast. I was concerned before I contacted them as the last time I brought film through Gatwick, over 20 years ago, it all had to go through the x-ray machine. Unfortunately some of it was 3200 Delta which I told them to throw in the bin as it would have been ruined.

Hotel to hotel, with flight in between was just over 5 hours. An interesting comparison with yesterday's drive.

After resting my bad back for an hour or so it was time to get the camera gear ready and go and take some pictures of sunny Bergen.

The most photogenic part was Bryggen near the harbour opposite our hotel. Lots to photograph. I took 4 rolls of Ilford FP4+ 120 (10 shots to a roll) with one of my Mamiya 7 cameras and either the 150mm, 80mm or 43mm lenses (divide by 2 for rough full frame equivalent). I used my Gitzo Mountaineer series 1 carbon fibre tripod for everything so I didn't have to worry about camera shake at slow shutter speeds as I stopped the lens down. We had sunny spells and a cool breeze so good for photos.

We returned to the hotel to drop off the gear before heading back to find somewhere for food and drinks. As luck would have it there was a microbrewery in the harbour so we went there! The Havre Kadavre Imperial Stout was excellent, served in 200ml glasses as it was 11.4%!

First time ever Jan's had a bigger beer than me! Mine is on the right.

All images taken in or around the Bergen Harbour area.

Not expecting many photos tomorrow as they forecast heavy rain and a temperature drop of 14°C, to 10°C.

Buxton Art Fair 2nd to 3rd September 2017

We are exhibiting in Buxton Pavilion Gardens marquee this weekend, 10am to 4.30pm both days. Free entry. Lots to see.

Lots of photos, including clearance pricing on 1 metre prints.

Craft and Jewellery Fair in Buxton Pavilion Gardens Marquee 5th to 6th August 2017

We have a stand at the Craft and Jewellery Fair in Buxton Pavilion Gardens marquee, open Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th August 2017, 10am to 4.30pm. We have several hundred black and white darkroom photographs as well as quite a few of Jan's colour prints. Lots of landscapes and city prints in various sizes, with prices from £5 to £140. 100 x 50cm prints are on sale to clear all of our stock, at £60 instead of £120, there are also 4 at £20, London Gherkin, London Leadenhall  Market, London Tower Bridge with River Thames and Berlin Reichstag and Bundestag. That's a small price for such a big print!

Cotswold Way Final Section from Alderley to Randwick

We have finished the last part of the Cotswold Way from Alderley to Dursley to Randwick. Not many people know that the Cotswold Way finishes at the Vine Tree Inn in Randwick! Well it did for us.

It was a bit over 100 miles and 10 days walking spread over a week in 2016 and another week in 2017.

Not a huge number of photos. Lots of pretty villages with interesting features but I had to work harder for my landscape photographs.

Google Blogger isn't working properly for blog posts with photos so I have moved my blog to my DarkroomDave.com website.

Here's the link.
www.darkroomdave.com/blog/cotswold-way-alderley-to-randwick/