A creatives diary from Australia…
I grow blueberries because they are always expensive and many from the supermarket are tasteless. I grow mine in big pots, a few early, a few mid & too many (is it possible) late season varieties but this year one variety decided to turn red just a little lovely surprise of Autumnal colour!
Captured on an Olympus XA at ISO800 with HP5 developed in Ilford LC29 1:9
Something nice on an evening walk, this lovely Little Grey Heron decide to roost in a tree rather than by the rivers edge.
A section of a tug boat on the Tamar river makes an interesting still life. Captured on HP5 film scanned on a PlusTek and processed in On1.
Thinking about buying some chooks to help keep pests down in our small orchard, slugs, coddling moth larvae and the like, hopefully we will also be able to collect a few eggs! So what better than to visit a chook show in the lovely town of Longford and competition just to talk to people and learn what breeds are best for our purpose. Ther were on show some very fine and well cared for fowl on display…
As I’m at the point where I can start making some wet darkroom prints I have started sorting out a few negs, I think this is a good contender. Its an image of Darling Range Ghostgums, Canon AE1 ƒ1.8 Ilford HP5 developed in LC29… I’m going to start with postcard size prints then see how large they can be stretched! Its a full twenty four years since I last did any printing other than ink jets. I have thousands of films to go at including slides some of which I feel would make good monochrome enlargements. I’m wondering what copy film is still available or whether I just go with digital negs at least that way I will have lots of control over the conversion process.
A Jarrah tree flower, Eucalyptus marginata, Exposed some yrs ago when Ektar reappeared! Jarrah honey is reputed to be an antibiotic substance. In W.A Jarrah forests are still being felled More than half the Jarrah forests are now gone. Will we ever learn? In the first view of the flower, Its easy to see how bees get into a pollen collecting frenzy when the Jarrah flowers. Each one of these tiny stamen are dripping with pollen ready to be dragged onto the next flower for fertilisation
Wood smoke in the Tamar Valley turns daylight blue at sunrise and orange just prior to sunset. It becomes even more interesting when pollutant tinted light is reflected off different surfaces.