It has been playing on my mind lately.

My little girl is slowly reaching the next stage in her wonderful life. All parents say that everything is a “stage” with the muted hopes that they may quickly move on to the next one!

Still the letter from nursery asking when her last day would be and where was she going was a shock. Sure I knew it was the time. Trouble is I’m not sure who is more institutionalised: her or me.

I’ve been lucky. Luckier than most dad’s. I’ve been able to spend a lot of time with her over the last 5 years.

Daddy Daycare Days.

That’s coming to an end. On the one hand to be honest, I breathe a slight sigh of relief. On the other I’m actually pretty sad. Sure there will always be more.

But it will be different.

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I’ve never used Polaroid as a medium. The back of a digital camera seems to have taken over that instant fix that having an image develop in your hands presented. Sadly Polaroid went bust and disappeared. Yet as the way of these things instant film is still being made (though my guess is not for long) by Fuji and now (for hopefully much longer) the Impossible Project based out of the Netherlands.

Some weeks ago I was literally blown away by the sheer creativity of this photographer: Deborah Parkin. I had never seen anything like it. Her hauntingly wonderful images of her children struck a cord. They are gut wrenchingly beautiful. And the back story is just as striking.

Encouraged by some fellow Photographers on Twitter I bought some Fuji FP-3000B instant film from the USA – it is mind-bendingly rated at ISO 3000! The size is for 4×5 and comes in cassettes of 10 sheets (rapid fire!) and coupled with an old Polaroid 550 holder I am set. Small snag it’s for Large Format. It’s also B&W. I’ve always wanted to do portraits with the 4×5 but in all honesty I’ve never had the courage. Still in this experiment at least I don’t have to learn how to use the camera! That’s a small plus as there is a lot of other things to worry about.

Namely my subject. She puts up with a lot of her Daddy’s photographic whims but even on this occasion asking her stay still while I set up the monstrosity of the Linhof Technikarden was a big ask. But you know what – she managed it. Twice!!

So I have shot two sheets of polaroid. The first erm…not so good. But here’s the second: a straight scan. The light is just daylight coming from my favourite location in the house. I love it. The 4×5 renders the image in such a delicate subtle way. The medium is soft and ethereal. I can see that I am going to need to buy quite a few more packs of film! Oh and one of those really old antique lenses. The 210mm lens I used (wide open here at F5.6) is just too sharp!

Thank you Deborah for the inspiration

Actually tonight I found that I had one more exposure…some how it had got forgotten in the rush to see how the previous one had turned out. This time I scanned in the “negative” side. Interesting and different look

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“Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.”
- Fern Hill, Dylan Thomas

It’s a time of birthdays; the “gang” is growing up and so is mine.

Keep smiling sprout x

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2005 and I was in India on my honeymoon (well second to be honest…but hey I’m greedy.) We were travelling from Ooty on the Nilgris Mountain Railway. Ooty, in Southern India is a location lost in time – you can feel the Raj creeping out of every wall. Unlike the bone achingly hot plains which I had left below, the climate was wet and very cold. It was my second time in India and it had captured my heart all over again.

It is a marmite place

The crowds of tourists on the train were totally Indian and as such we were a novelty. Engaged in conversation, asked to hold babies, posed for photographs and generally made a fuss of. I can still taste the home made sweets…fresh ghee, sugar, cashew and condensed milk.

We stopped at a station, I forget where. This girl was stood next to her parents and like so many children looked at me with an intensity and inquisitiveness that was both unsettling and moving. You couldn’t help but react. In my case that was to take a picture. She turned and left

In the years since I have often looked at this image and wondered who she was, where she was going having been to the temple and what she is doing now

Canon 20D, 135mm F2.0

More pictures from India to come

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It’s a funny thing being a father to a little girl.

I look at some of my friends who have boys and I think about missing out on the extreme rough and tumble. Ballet lessons instead of rugby. The tears come a little more often. And I’m not totally sure I can cope with choosing outfits that totally match – though mainly she now tells me when they don’t.

But over the last few weeks we have flown, driven and walked to all sorts of different countries and this little trouper has put up with all of it. In all honesty she’s probably coped far better than I. She’s even starting to read…(amazing!!)

I guess most of all I’m damn lucky and very very proud of just what a lovely little girl she is becoming. Love ya beanie!

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My godson’s third – wonderful day. Happy birthday fella

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I’ve been dabbling with audio

…and dare I say it video over the last few weeks. Photography I get (well sort of) but audio…yikes now that is a whole different world.

And then I started to run into the usual sorts of problems associated with capturing audio and a DSLR: crap sound. Which is rather ironic (or not) given that Canon provided such a magnificent way of capturing video. So I bought myself some new toys (of course)

…one of these Rode Video Mic Pros to capture better sound when it’s just dialogue (along with a deadcat…seriously…to help it when it’s windy..can’t make it up)

…one of these..a Zoom H1 recorder for ambient sound

And then a rather particular piece of geek’dom..a Sescom LN2MIC – or a rather funky cable that allows the output from the Mic to pass directly to the camera. “Why” I hear you cry is this so important? Simply because then you avoid having to synchronise audio and video in post production. And oh for the mercy of god…Adobe Premier Pro…death by Adobe.

Anyway, I’m coming to the conclusion that proper video production, much like photography is best left to the professionals (ahem!) However it is proving useful for the work I do with Walk the Walk

Audio is another matter.

I’m loving it. Capturing ambient sound is a wonderful wonderful medium I have never explored before. Oh how I wish I had had a recorder as my daughter started to speak. Drat! My biggest stumbling block is getting the levels correct and I appear to be frequently under levelling…basically making it too quiet.

So I leave you with a slideshow I put together (credits for some of  images to Ian Jones and Lloyd Smith) from the last MoonWalk with some of the ambient sounds from the event…this was my first use of the Zoom H1…

…and perhaps best of all a recording of my daughter singing: “Super Cala”

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The Easter Bunny came to Maidenhead today

Try here for “big” images!

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I’ve just put together the final set of edited images from my Ullapool trip…along with a few other images I made on my phone:

If you would like to see them large…then head over here

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So my last day in the wonderful wilderness of Inverpolly. I have mixed feelings. It’s been great to spend time with like minded photographers such as Helen Bartlett, Tom Catchesides and Rob Cook (it’s a solitary thing usually,) And as usual when traveling with David Ward I have learnt a bit more. My current relationship with my 5×4 still needs work and even though I exposed a few slides, it’s a wait and see kind of thing.

The biggest issue (it always is) is the light – it has been very challenging. I prefer rain and moodiness. What we had was bright blue skies or grey yuck. At times it has been hard to keep motivated. To keep looking. To keep creating. To keep composing.

Nevertheless I have 2 images that will find their way into my portfolio which is satisfying. Next time I’ll come back in autumn or winter. I suppose it seems right though to end on some sunset colours – my only sunset light of the week. It’s not a great image but it represents a lot more than that to me.

Suilven and Canisp, Loch Inver

On another note I had the pleasure of meeting David Noton and his wife, though I suspect that being interrupted by a gang of photographers in the wilderness was not high on his priority list!

And finally one of John Bartlett – I guess this sums up what being out in the landscape is all about

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My trip is drawing to an end. The weather has fought against us every single step of the way. Typically Scotland I know but…oh and the ticks have been out in force.

A rain shower over night led to a new front coming in early on in the morning and the first breaking clouds of the week rolled around the Fidler.

And after that it disappeared…

Last day tomorrow

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