What a day at sea!

Must have been one of the most beautiful days west of Shetland ever! 

You could not possibly have smoother waters back home in your bathub, and I promise you that's not any everyday experience out here in these waters. 

A lovely norhtern light yesterday late evening, as you might have seen if you're a member of this facebook group, and the sea state like a mirror all day long since the early morning. And we could see far, far away! I have never been up here at the Clair field being able to see all the way down to Foula. Today it was just like we were just a few miles off, and the silhouette of the island was very visible towards the clear sky. I could see Shetland as well, very clear. All the way from north around Ronas Hill and southwards down to Foula and the southern parts. Eshaness as well, even though that bit of the land looked a bit low and not very rough and tough at all. A bit unlike being there when the weather is battering the cliffs like it usually do out there. 

Well, not an every day experience, so just had to tell you all about it!

I don't know what you call this... We call it a "naust" over here. The orcadians call it a "noost" or "noust", which is basically exactly the same word and pronunciation we use over here in Norway. Then again, they were a part of this country not that long ago. Well, it's a while ago, but old language seem to be nothing they throw away very easily. I printed this inside the darkroom a while ago. On very nice paper and all. Ilford Art300 as it happens, and I kind of liked it. It's a weird paper at times, but I tell you a bit more about that some other day. 

And, being a reader of a few blogs, I was lucky enough to find a link to Phil Bebbingtons photo blog a few days ago. In here somewhere I found it, inside Andrea's blog. 

Case is that I have gone through around half of it now, and still can't stop. There's just something there, tangled up inside this mans pictures, that makes it worth the while it takes. Hey, he has even made me want to give color film a go again! That will not happen every day, so just be warned. 
But it's not only the colors. There's something to do with the use of lines as well, in a way that please my eye obviously. Not often you see square snaps made inside an old sweedish camera composed in such a delicate way. Just saying.
And the feeling of loneliness inside the frames. More or less never a person, or living life at all, to be seen. I wonder how he managed to travel all over the US, taking all them photos, and never get a single person inside the reach of the 6x6 frame of that Hassy? 
Mysterious!
Then there's a few blogs I think I need to stop following. Some Hi-tech digi stuff I obviously thought was something completely else back at some point. Something I thought was personal blogs which turned out to be commersial crap in the end. Well, you still learn something new every day, I suppose.

Albert Street in Kirkwall it is. You may drive here if you feel like, but only in one direction of course. It leads up to Broad Street just a couple of hundred yards in the oposite direction of where I pointed my huge Mamiya RZ67 this one day a few years back. Looks like this might be some sunday morning by the looks of it. I just started looking at that line there, painted on the narrow road. Why bother at all, me thought. I even think it's hand painted... or I might be wrong about that.

And, being one day closer to crew change day I can also hand over to you a report of the weather back home today. No wind, around 16 deg. C and a spotless sky. May it last for a long time...! Knowing my bits of the weather back home though, I kind of know what to expect in a few days time.