onsdag 7. november 2018

Steaming

Not that it's particularly hot or anything. It's the ship doing what we call steaming, towards shore and Rio de Janeiro and me going home. I will not even try to ask any of you how good you might think that is, as I don't know any of the fully right expressions in english to properly describe the feeling to give you a decent answer anyway.

It's been one of those days, for some blokes reason. Can't and won't even start on that on here. You would get bored, and I would probably get into some sort of trouble. So I leave it be, but still it turned out to be one of those days. You know. 
Didn't even get the time to snap a single frame, I think. Only dealing with stuff related to the above, and then pack my bag which is extremely small and go grab my laundry from downstairs. Oh, and I also went to the bridge to get my passport. They keep them up there, probably to really make us feel trapped for seven weeks. No reason to bother thinking about getting anywhere else as long as your passport is hidden well inside a blue door somewhere tucked down in a cardboard box, is it?

The snaps in this post has no other function besides breaking things up a bit. They are all terrible scans of negs taken in a rather windy place over in Denmark. It was good though, like all windy places near the ocean tends to be. At least that's my experience. Nice beaches as well over there.

I packed my cameras as well. Checked the fridge for the last time, and came to the same conclusion as last time. I need to bring more film for the next trip to work. 
Ordered a bunch of empty film canisters yesterday, from over in England somewhere. Ought to be good I hope. At least they should be better than my old Ilford cans as they really start to show signs of too much use these days. I wanted to try plastic this time. I know I used to have a few of them back in the days, but they must have been thrown away somewhere years ago. At least I can't find them anymore, but then again there's a lot of other stuff I can't find anymore either. That's the sort of things happening when you move around a bit up through the years. Things tend to disappear. 
Some times it's nothing to worry about, other times you'll just be happy for something getting lost, and lots of times you don't even know things are missing until years have passed. Other times you come back to it from time to time and start wondering again and again where it might be right now. I have done that enough with the film cartridges, and my old film loader. They are gone! 
I loaded a few rolls of film some time ago using only a dark room and a thing to hold the bulk spool of film. Worked out well enough, but it's cumbersome and a bit tedious work. You have to measure out the length of the film in total darkness of course, which is the trickiest part of the fun. Nah... I have given up that sport and bought myself a new film loader. Besides, it is of course the only way to find your old one, to buy a new. It has not happened yet, though. 

Another one from the same area as above, but a bit further to the north and east this time, but not by far. Nothing is far in Denmark, as you might guess. 

I ordered paper as well, as a matter of fact. RC paper this time. 8x10 to hopefully get one of my big projects for 2019 started. My so called "archive" is really falling to bits. Not that it has ever been good or anything, but the last time I wanted to print a neg I had to search for a couple of hours or so before I found the right one tucked well away inside one of the too many folders containing old memories. So, I'm going to take some time to start doing contact sheets of the lot. I got a few of that sorts from earlier in life, but I have not been making them for a long time and I know I have to start somewhere to get where I want. Contact sheets are definitely something that will help me. I also have to try date my films the best I can, but that will not be the easiest thing believe me. I might still be able to make out the chronology, which will of course be better than nothing. 
And then there actually are parts of the "archive" dated and numbered, but far from all of it. 
I really like to use contact sheets, but usually when I get the time to slide inside the doors to the darkroom I want to start printing, not doing the boring stuff. And then I forget all about making a contact sheet at the end of the session, of course. 
But now I will be starting the big job for sure. The good thing about it is that I probably will find a few nice and maybe printable negs in the process which might be worth honing my skills at in the darkroom. 
Maybe. 

Same pile of old concrete from a different angle. At least I guess they didn't have to travel far away to find enough sand to build that thing.

Well, my camera bag is packed at I have already told you. It contains three cameras, two of them which is already loaded with film. There are also two passports and a seaman book hidden away in there. There's a few rolls of exposed films as well, and probably an extra wide angle lens for the rangefinders, and some other bits and bobs. I will keep the two loaded cameras ready at hand as we travel to the airport tomorrow. It might be worth it for all we know. 
The blog will probably not be updated the next couple of days. I can't see me bothering writing anything on the airplane unless I'm getting really, really bored. It's a 12,5 hrs. flight from Rio to Amsterdam though, so you never know of course. 
Still I will probably struggle with the uploading, so I might just as well leave it be. 
I'll be back some day soon though, so please stay tuned and I see you around this place then. 

4 kommentarer:

  1. I don't usually comment, but I did want to say that I always enjoy hearing what you're up to. Hope you're able to be back soon.

    SvarSlett
    Svar
    1. Thanks, Jim!
      I'm actually sort of back now, so I hope to be able to post something at some point tomorrow. Been busy the last couple of days with all sorts of stuff. You'll probably read about it at soon enough :)

      Slett
  2. I don’t envy, Roy - 12.5 hours is a big one. I hope there are a few decent movies on board.

    I know what you are talking about with contact sheets. Yes we know we should all do them and when you go to print a particular negative and see a decent contact sheet that you did earlier, well it’s a real bonus. But I’m like you - darkroom time is precious and you just want to get on with the good stuff when you close that door to the outside world and your mind turns to things like contrast and exposure times and the hundred other things that we need to consider.

    SvarSlett
  3. Sorry to say that this order of stuff from England never turned up in the mail, Michael. Something dodgy went on in the ordering process, but I have not got around to find out what the trouble was or anything. I'll just leave it be until next time I'm getting closer to traveling home, and hopefully get it sorted out then.
    I was able to make a bunch of contact sheets anyway from old paper I had in the darkroom already, but my hope was to get even more done. It's not going to happen now, because I got a few prints I just have to get done before Christmas, and then I'm off to work on Sunday. I'd rather get started, actually... :)

    SvarSlett

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