FYI

Just For Your Information:
The FE2 will not be the camera for my 2017 project. 
It did not even survive through the first film I showed inside the thing since last repair, so it's hereby put on the shelf never to become anything else but a donor after this day. 31 frames on that Tri-X was the best it could do before the film winding mechanism thing broke again, and my patience around this camera is no longer existent. 

From the P&S Olympus Mju-II. Not bad at all, actually. At least as long as you remember to turn the flash off before snapping with the thing. Not that it usually would cause any big trouble, but boiler suits with reflex bands on will only cause most of the interesting things inside the image to underexpose badly. How I know...? Well, I just happen to do so!

It's definitely going to be something else having to be trusted to get the job for next year done.
I will most likely have something on some shelf way more useful than the one we are talking about now. 
I took it all the way to Alnes this afternoon. Shone some very nice light through it and everything, but still it gave up on me like this, and I had no spare camera anywhere near. A shame, actually... but that's life. 
Next time I will bring something different, of course. 

Another one from the Mju-II. I really like this one for some reason. Kentmere 400 film, by the way. Same as the first snap which is from the same film.

By The Sea

Sitting inside our very tiny castle down by the sea, listening to the waves and the weather outside while killing a can of coffee. Nearly done now, so I'll be ready to do something quite soon. If I feel like. Lazy Saturday today, and I'd like to keep it like that for some more time.

In the middle of the day, midsummer or summer solstice on Ona. I think I used the orange filter taken from one of the Leica lenses held in front of the taking lens on the Rolleiflex for this one. It's nice out there, any time of year. Hope to take the trip out there one day soon, just to suck in some very fresh autumn air...

I'm in the process of testing that Nikon FE2 I was talking a lot about yesterday. Not that I have snapped any masterpieces yet, but they will come. Believe me.

Not too many of them left, the born, bred and still living out on Ona kind of folks. This was just before the chair went on the big bonfire on summer solstice night earlier this year. Beer in hand, as is the tradition on this evening over here... It was a fantastic night, nothing less. I think he actually thought it was a bit fun to be snapped by that old camera for some reason :)

Just wanted to post a couple from this summer. From Ona, you know. Snapped on medium format 120 film 6x6 and everything. Midsummer in Norway, as I used the day and evening to walk around with the old Rolleiflex.

A photographic project seems to find its shape

This post comes with a warning! Only digisnaps done with electronic devices to be seen here today. The reason is obviously that they all are done for illustration only.

As you know I briefly went home from the cottage a couple of days ago to get some work done outside the house as the weather I told you all about was good enough to do just that for a while. 
I did what was needed outdoors before I went inside to heat myself up a bit. I was wet, you see, after having crawled on my knees on the top of the very wet stairs with a steel brush in hand, brushing away stuff I don't want to talk about for the most of the day. 
I ended up inside this warm room in the middle of a bunch of great and maybe not so great cameras, trying to find a couple of technically good ones, but not too good if you see what I mean. I need a candidate able to be carried around on my shoulder for something like a year, and I would probably also need something like a twin camera to act as a reserve should the main one fail for one reason or the other. 
So I felt I had to look the Nikon way, and there would be two different possible paths to move along as far as I can see. Either the F3 path, or the FM/FE path. Weight and cheapness of the camera and lens could become an issue I suspect, so the FM/FE road seems to me like the obvious one for now. The F3 might be a bit on the heavy and bulky side, but nothing is written in stone here. Not yet, anyway.
I had a long look at my very well beat up FE2, but I can't say I'm too confident that this camera would be the one to go for. I'm not too sure about how it will cope with the weather and the wetness and all the other things that will get thrown at it during the length and nature of the project, and then there's the mechanical issues with the film transport and some minor winding issues to which I have done a few repairs myself some time ago. It has not been really tested with film to see if it still works properly, so I decided to start right there. I loaded the thing up with some old Tri-X and hope to get it finished within a few days to see if this sort of nice but still quite battered thing work as it should. 

I had it given to me more or less for free some years ago now. It came with two very fine lenses (a 35mm f/2 and a 50mm f/1.2) which I payed a few NOK's for, but the camera followed the deal for nothing. It has served me well, but after a couple of very hard meetings with norwegian rocky nature from some height, it has never really found back it's former self. I have done a few repairs on it, and it works for now. Trouble is the film advance mechanics which seems to be a bit dodgy.

Looks fine from the front if you choose to look away from the fact that the film rewind lever is missing. That's not a very essential part anyway, and has never caused me any big trouble. I can always find a new one from a donor camera, but the trouble is that this is actually the worst Nikon I own at the moment, and hence would be the obvious candidate to become a donor itself if it just was not such a nice little thing.

Fixing the film transport and film advance mechanics. I somehow made it work again, and that's why I still got the camera laying around in one piece. A not too obvious dent on the upper right corner was knocking the internals into a strange angle, and a few bits and bobs inside needed some good old hammering and stretching to find their old position again. Not everything is quite as it should be, though. But then again I'm a marine diesel engine engineer... not a camera repair man. Quite obviously...

I also used the opportunity to give the electronics a good clean, and to get rid of some rust and debris having accumulated inside through years of operation.

Bottom parts. Nothing much done here except from cleaning and brushing dust and removing a couple of very small parts with unknown origin and location out of the shell. The camera works fine without them, it seems. At least for now... The only thing absolutely not working is the double exposure preventer (another part of the dodgy film advance mechanism), so the parts may have been connected to that portion at some point. 

I could also have used one of the Leicas for a project like this as they both got the right size and weight, but also because the lenses are small and not very much in the way all the time. They are very robust cameras, very silent and a breeze to use in any situation. The downside is obviously todays value of these things, and especially that's true for the glass. My suspicion is that carrying a camera on your shoulder anywhere you go will eventually someday cause something to break, and I really don't want to crush one of them german lenses just because of stupidity or some other trivial matters. I will of course still use them for something else, but it's not going to happen for this rather small but still big and quite long lasting event. 
I got other projects coming up that would put a rangefinder into some good use, so I don't worry too much about that.

The rear hatch do have a couple of small issues as a result of one of the higher falls (from the roof of my car...), but still seems to serve it's main purpose of keeping the internals quite light tight. 

The small dent (shop floor in Oslo, couple of years ago) that finally kicked everything out of position and made the camera useless. After everything this camera had been through I could not believe that this little issue was going to disturb anything much. That was before I opened things up to have a closer look... the disaster became quite clear to me as soon as the top cover was moved away.

See? You can still see things through the finder and everything! Light meter and auto function still works as a breeze. What more can one ask for, actually?

A nice little camera, and I must say I'm attempted to see if it can make it through next year. At least it would be great if it could survive through parts of it.

Nah... it's going to be one or two of the Nikons. My hope is that the FE2 is fit for the task through the year to come, and if I find it not to be I know I have a few FM2s which probably can handle the duty as the twin without any further questions. 
Size wise it's more or less only the prism making them bigger than the german rangefinders, and as for the lenses you can always say that if you choose the right ones they can be both cheap(ish) and lightweight. If I choose to go the F3 route it's more or less the same things to play with as the FE/FM's, but with a tiny bit bigger prism. They can take more or less anything you throw at them though, and that might come in handy some day. The pre for the F3 would be the fantastic viewfinder, which probably is a result of the bigger prism for all I know. 
I will make the final decision during the next month or so, then I'll just go for whatever I think is the best overall route. 

So, what's the plan then?
You probably have guessed already, but I will tell you in clear text. 
One camera, and at least one snap each day through the year of 2017 done on one single type of film. At least that's the short version and as far as I have been thinking up to this point.
I was originally thinking that using one single lens could also add some kind of consistency to it all, but I have not yet decided if that is going to happen or not. 
I have tried something similar one time before, but it did not work out. I have wanted to try doing it again in some kind of way for some time, but I have had some trouble finding the right format and the right way to do it to make it happen all the way through.
The last time I did something similar I wanted to do one snap a day and even post it onto the web the same day. That did not work out at all, and eventually I fell off the wagon. 
Due to very limited access to the web when at work and also quite a few other issues it kind of fell to the ground at some point a bit past the halfway mark. I found it easy enough to grab the snap each day, but then again there was no such thing as using a single camera or something. Besides, I did digital snaps for that project. 
This time it will be done on film, which might be a blessing but also a curse. The posting on the web will be done when they are ready to be posted. No obligation to get them out on a particular day or something like that. I will finish the rolls, one by one, and make notes good enough for me to know what was taken which day. All snaps will be posted, no matter the state of the exposure or anything else. 
Why I'm doing this right now? Well, I will (knock wood) turn 50 some time towards the end of 2017, so I just thought it would be a nice year to somehow document a year of my life... the year I turned 50. I guess the working title of the project would be kind of easy to guess.

As usual I'm very interested in comments or suggestions on what to do and how to do it. Any experience anyone want to share from similar project is worth a lot. 
I would of course prefer everything to be settled before I kick it off on the first of January, 2017. Until then I'm all ears.

Weather is kind of important over here, you see

I think I told you in my previous post that there was something happening weather wise? Yesterday was quite fine, though. At least to a point around 4pm or something like that.
Then everything just opened up, and we could not hear each other speak even though we were inside the cottage and everything. I mean this small house is very well insulated after all, but the wind, sea and the rain outside made one real lotofanoise. Just believe me!
Wind has calmed down now and the rain is no longer hammering the roof to pieces, but it's still both rainy and windy outside. Gray as well. You know the kind when you can't see further than halfway over the fjord and you feel like you live inside your own very small world stretching as far as a few kilometers in any direction. Anything outside of that is just something you can stay totally oblivious to. At least if you twist your mind a wee bit.

Some came home, some did not. This one was left to see it's last days hauled up on the coast to rotten away peacefully. Others were washed upon the shore torn to pieces long before they hit land. Nikon FM2, Kentmere 100 film.

So, you might think I talk a lot about the weather?
I do, and I know it. All people living along the coast of Norway talk a lot about the weather, and if this blog had been written by someone at my fathers age I'm sure it would be all about the weather. I have also discovered through the last 15 years or so that people from other places talk a lot about the weather as well. People living on the coast of the North Atlantic ocean and the North Sea talk a lot about it, and I don't think you can blame them. You usually don't have to look very far back in history to find one or more of your ancestors lost at sea when out there trying the best to feed their family when surprised by bad weather, or houses swept to sea by rockslides, landslides or an avalanche or something else weather and/or nature related. We live with weather each and every day, and historically the weather do things to us. It beats us up, one way or the other. Through generations we have been living on this small stripe of land between the steep mountains and the roaring sea, and it has done things to the way we think and act.
OK, so nowadays it's usually a matter of getting wet, freezing cold, too hot or something as trivial as that. Not too many years ago it was a matter of keeping yourself and your family alive or not. I know my grandfather had to struggle half the year to make sure he had peat and food enough for the approaching winter to keep his family warm and fed through the cold season. Living way out on an isolated island there was no way they could get anything from anywhere else should the weather really turn for the worse. And some years it did just that. Isolated them completely for weeks, and all you could do was living on the reserves built up through the periods of good weather.

The national monument over Oscar Tybring, the man who came up with the idea of having rescue vessels placed along the coast of Norway, from south to north. The monument was made by the artist Marit Lyckander and can be seen at the place my mother grew up, on this isolated outpost way out at sea. A natural place to have the monument placed, I would say. Thousands of lives has been taken by the sea just outside this island, and there are still more to be taken. That's just a fact, I'm sorry to say. On the bright side of it all I also know quite a few persons that has been rescued from the certain death of the rescue boats, the legacy of Oscar Tybring. We can say for sure that they have been a success, and Long May They Live the rescue boats.  

Enough about the weather for now. I'm also writing another post parallel to this one, so I better just put this one online before I finish the next one and get on with a couple of things I promised to get done before my wife comes home from work.

Thoughts on things

Weather is obviously finally starting to coming in. The last couple of months has been absolutely fantastic in most meanings of the word, but the light has been boring as a result. That's not the only reason why I have not been very busy with any of my cameras, but it play some part of it for sure. Luckily I'm old enough to have experienced quite a few periods of absolutely no inspiration before, and I'm starting to get to the end of one right now. At least I think I am. 
I have been thinking a bit about what to do, on how to proceed, from where I'm at for the moment. I want to do projects, or at least come up with some idea to follow a little closer and further than I usually do with things. Be a bit more specific on what I waste my film on... to put it that way. 
I used to have a list of possible areas of interest some time ago. I threw it away. Not that it was a bad idea, maybe, but it just don't work that way. Not for me, anyway. 
I think I need to start with something simple, and see where it might lead me. I hope to get the time to start on something soon, and my wish is to be prepared. At least as prepared as possible. 
Knowing myself quite well I know that anything I start will probably get twisted and turned into something else than first anticipated at some point, but shame on the one that give up. Right?

It has seen better days, this old anchor chain that has found it's last place of rest down by the sea at Ona. It's getting more worn each year now, and one day it will be completely gone. Probably not going to happen during my lifetime, though, but I will keep you updated :))

I have bought a couple of books lately. Stuff with snaps inside, you know. 
I must say I really liked the latest one that I found in my mail box yesterday. I have just barely shuffled quickly through the thing, but the first impression was really great. Swedish photographer Malin Ellisdotter Hellesø has put together a fine collection snaps done more or less only inside her home, using her cat Sheldon and herself as her main subjects. Lots of fine playing with contrasts, light and shadows. The book is called "Sheldon & I", of course.

I don't think I ever posted this? It's a bridge we sailed underneath a while ago. It's the bridge in Måløy, Norway. Huge kind of thing, and with a nice appearance to it. I like the way it bends through the landscape and sort of become a part of it all. 1224 meters long it's number 8 on the list of long road bridges in Norway. It was the second largest at the time it was opened, in 1974. According to Wikipedia we have around 23000 road bridges scattered around old Norway. Not all of them is as big and nice as the one above, though.

And I still buy my monthly photo magazine. They are mostly rubbish these days, the photo magazines, as I'm not at all interested in the latest equipment tests and reviews and that sort of thing. Each time I find myself inside some magazine shop I will sweep through one of tree of them, but I'm just getting more disappointed each time I do so. A couple of great snaps here and there, but the majority of the pages seems to contain review of camera gear or software. And then there's the ever increasing amount of "how to" articles on extremely specific details on what's happening inside one or two very specific software that all have to use to get any joy of the article at all. 
Entire issues seems to be payed work for one of the major brands. I'm not saying it is so, but it certainly looks that way at times. 
And I've had enough of that, long time ago. 
These days there's only one magazine I really like, the "Black + White Photography". Oh yes, you will find a few totally uninspiring pages inside that one as well, but at least they still seem to try have their main focus elsewhere than most others. There are snaps well worth to spend some time with inside each issue, and also some great articles on photographers and how they look at the world. I like that. I like to read about how people use their eyes and brains instead of reading about exactly what type of filter inside some random software were used to do this or that. 

I think I told you I bought some film recently. This bloke had bought 15 rolls of Ilford Pan 400 film, but ended up with 15 rolls of 135 film instead of the ordered 120 film, and no camera to load them inside. Instead of buying a new camera format he sold off the rolls. As the film community seems to be growing these days I must say I was a bit baffled by the fact that he also put in a few rolls extra when he learned from my e-mail that I also snap things on medium format film. Six rolls extra free of charge. That starts to smell of a nice deal, I have to say. Four rolls of something I have never seen before, and two rolls of something I have seen but never tried. 
The four rolls are called Ultrafine Extreme 400, and there was also a couple of rolls of Rollei RPX 400 film. 
The Rollei brand is quite well known, I suppose, but the Ultrafine thing is a bit of a mystery to me. As usual there's a lot of discussion going on about what it really is out there on the interweb. The bloke who sold the stuff thought it might be repacked HP5, but having looked a wee bit on the web it seems like it's something else. Well, I don't care too much, to be honest. I snap away and throw it into some kind of developer towards the end of the week just to see if something comes out. If not, I'll give it another try with different settings, times and fluids. Easy...!

OK then. One more from the same bridge. This is just before it ends up on the Måløy side of the thing. Sorry for the bad light and such, but the day was rather dull as you might see. Dull and foggy... as days usually tends to be over here. There's something about this bridge and the odd shape of that cottage inside this snap that talks to me in some weird way. 

What I'm curious about right now is actually if there's things stuck on film from my latest trip to Bergen, and also how the snaps from the half format plastic toy Diana thing looks. I hope to find out some time during the next few days. I'm at the cottage right now, you see. No room dark enough to open a film canister down here, as I found out quite a while ago. 
I just brought some Mamiya RZ cameras out of a big bag, just to check if there might be some old and forgotten film stuck inside one or more of the backs. Well, it was. So now I have used a small bit of time to waste the rest of the frames, just to be able to check what I was doing the last time I had the big, chunky and bulky ones out in the open air. 
I hope I'm preparing for something. Very unsure about what it might be, but hopefully something good.

Going places ; just like that

We went away, again. This time to the big city of Bergen, which is not very big at all to any foreigner. It's still the second largest city in Norway, holding something like 278 000 people inside it's borders. It's a fine city, for sure, and I like to stroll around the streets of this place. There's something here that really speaks to me, somehow. I think it's about the fine history and the lovely old woodhouse architecture scattered around the city centre. There's a lot to see, and a lot to put on film. And there's a lot of great people living here.
It's a fairly long drive down to Bergen from Ålesund. Loads of ferries and narrow roads, just to make everything go real slow. It's a 440 km, or something like 270 miles drive.
One of the apprentices connected to my wife's office had just passed through to the final of the national competition, and my wife wanted to go to Bergen to see her compete on the final. As she checked the flight tickets for the next morning I thought Bergen would be nice for me as well... 
A couple of hours later we found ourselves inside the car heading south. The time was around 11 pm. We parked outside the arena around 6.30 am. Plenty of time before the event started.
I was a bit tired of the driving, but when it comes to being awake for long periods of time I'm usually the one to go for...
She became second, btw. the apprentice. Only 1/2 point behind the winner. Quite great, I must say.

Must be a couple of years ago I was up here now, snapping this one with what I think was a Nikon F3. Maybe about time to take another trip to see if this old stadium entrance shed has fallen a bit more apart, don't you think? We used to go through this place a lot back in the days, as there used to be a very nice running field with the latest red, rubberized fashion cover on the running track and everything. Many years have passed since then, and these days I guess most of the old track is way beyond any kind of repair. My own personal records on 60 meters and 100 meters was done on this track... some time in the very early 80's. As I said, a few years has passed since then... 

And what would you not be willing to do for your readers only? This is a tiny bit of the bunch who used the afore mentioned running track through the first years of the 80's. This snap was taken of a journalist from the local newspaper some time in May, probably 1982 or 83 as our very well selected team happened to be the winners of this years big event when all the schools in town raced each other through the streets of Ålesund relay on the 17th of May. Of the 9 sprinters, 5 of us was from the same class at school. Cool, huh? Yours truly in the first row, no.2 from left. Built for speed back then...

I never go to Bergen without visiting the great vintage camera shop and it's owner Mr. Antonio Stasi. This man is a living legend in Norway, and owns the only place in Norway you can get more or less whatever you like to any of your cameras. At least if your cameras are of a certain age. Mr. Stasi is an Italian living in Norway for many years, and with a genuine interest in anything photographic. We had a nice and long chat about a couple of great Leica lenses, and one not so great Leica lens... I also had the pleasure of trying a few very rare but great rangefinders of different origins. 
He also happened to privately own a M3 with a serial number extremely close to the one I got. 
I did not buy anything big this weekend, but went away with a yellow filter fitting a Summicron lens, and a yellow filter for the Rolleiflex. I'm in more need of yellow filters than a new camera these days, to tell you the truth... 

It's up there as well, standing just beside the old race track. They might have removed it by now, or maybe straightened it up a wee bit. I will find out when I take the trip next time. I will put it on my list of things to do in the near future. 

So, I put the filters on the cameras and went out snapping. Not that I snapped a huge lot these few days, as I used a lot of time just walking around looking as well. As I said earlier, I really like to just stroll around through these streets just looking. 
The few snaps will show up when I get a few films developed. Could take a few days as I got a few other things to take care of as well... But it will happen, so stay tuned :))

When checking your cameras...

Oh yes, I do that from time to time. Checking my cameras. 

I do it just because I seem to be lousy at keeping my own promises to myself. You see I had this kind of resolution for this year, which did not work out at all. Just like 99% of all my other new years resolutions, by the way. 

This one should be simple enough to keep, I thought. Simple, and hopefully it would keep me from wasting too much film. At least that was the thought and the bright idea behind it. 

Only load one camera with film at a time sounds simple enough, don't you think? Well, I tell you it's not simple at all. 

Couple of days ago I threw them all onto my bed and started checking, and found that film was loaded in quite a lot of them. How did that happen? I also found cameras I had forgot about, loaded with film taken maybe a couple of years ago but the spool still inside, not developed. 

I also found one of the Voigtländers with the spool still sitting inside, but the film obviously snapped. I need to take that out inside the dark place, I guess. Hopefully I will be able to save it. 

And I also found the old Minolta Hi-matic G in there as well. Loaded with something I hope is a 400ASA film, as that's what the ASA ring is adjusted to. One single frame was snapped on that one, by the way.

Oh yes, it's from a few months back in time, I know. Early this summer, actually, when we were doing refits on the ship close to Avaldsnes in Karmøy, Norway. The old stone church, you may remember. The one with the doomsday stone close to the wall and everything. This is probably a rangefinder snap of some kind. 

So now I got a couple of bags full of 9 cameras, and I kind of feel the urge to empty the rolls inside. They will not be reloaded immediately, but my hope is to adjust the new years resolution a bit before next year starts. 

What's the best thing to do, you think? The obvious answer is of course to get rid of all the cameras to limit the choice down to one or maybe two... but I'm not there at all. Just saying!

I want to keep them all, and I want to use them now and then. 

Maybe a nice thing to do is to actually try use them all through next year? Like doing things a bit different to what I tried to do this year? Just load them up and really try hard to empty them all before 2017 is done and dusted? Or maybe put up some kind of schedule to make sure I have used every single one of them at some point through the year, one or maybe two at a time? There are good things and bad things about these kinds of limitations for sure, but maybe it's worth trying for a period? 

From the old wool factory area close to where I live. This reminds me I was talking about hauling myself over to the place again one day to try do something more with it. Well, it has not happened yet. Luckily it seems there will be time enough in the days to come, so I might get the chance soon. I don't know what this was snapped on, but I suspect one of the rangefinders with the 21mm Elmarit, or maybe some Nikon with a 24mm attached. Looks a bit wider than that, so my bet is going to be put on the rangefinder suggestion. 

Lots of questions but few answers today, I totally realize that. I really would like some ideas or thoughts around these things, so please feel free to throw them inside the comments section. That would be very much appreciated, thank you :)

Out in the light

Still got my "night vision" on. Been inside the darker room, as you do on a nice day anyway.
Done a few prints, as you might suspect.

This is not one of the new prints! It's the younger daughter back when she was a couple of years old probably. No idea which camera this came from, but probably either the Nikon F-401 or maybe even the FM2. I used them both back in this period. Could also be an old Canon AE-1 I used to own, but I doubt it. 

Been working day and night to try clear out a lot of inventory from the house. What a mess! Seems like we have been collecting things for no particular reason. I must say I'm quite happy to see most of it away soon. Putting everything on the trailer tomorrow to drive it away for good. 
Sold a few things as well, as it happens. The fly rod and a bunch of other things was picked up by some guy willing to pay a few shillings for the lot. I guess he did a good deal on that, to be honest. 

All three of them out in the woods. We used to go there a lot, as it used to be a very short walk from home. 

So... you might wonder a bit about all the colours appearing around here this afternoon? Well... I have been scanning a bit as well. Found some old slides up on the attic, and had to give them a shot through the scanner. I don't know which type of film they were snapped on, but probably some Fuji stuff. I might find out some day if I decide to go for it, but that will involve opening the frames and stuff. I might just leave them be as they are. 
Snapped towards the end of the 90's. I guess late 98 or spring of 99.

Not too bad this film. Nice colors and everything.

Finally

Yesterday we finally got the news I have been waiting for the last 25 years or so. Good old Bob Dylan lived to see himself receiving the great reward I would say the Nobel Price in literature is. Or at least should be. Congrats, You Great Poet and dinosaur.

A while ago, when me and my wife were down south a bit to check what the islands down there had to offer. Lots of stone, some heather and a nice atmosphere would be the most obvious answer. There might be other things to say as well, but that's for another day I think. This was done on Kentmere 100 film stuck inside one of the Nikons.

I have been busy the last week after I returned back home. Clearing the house is the task at the moment. We have been thinking about moving to some other place in the not too far future, and need to get rid of tons of stuff to make that happen. Things tends to accumulate over the years, and you won't believe to what extent you may be a horderer until you actually start trying to get things off your property. Been working a week now, but still there's a lot to do. 
Some photographic equipment needs to go away as well, but I hope to keep most of it. Seems like that's going to be possible.

Oh well, you have seen this before. This day there was some fog going out the fjord. It was soon to be evaporated by the sun, though. Kentmere 100, Nikon FM2

I was just scanning some film. When I was sitting here doing that I noticed great things happen with the foggy stuff down at the lake a few meters away from the house. Sun, frost, fog and water. Might prepare one of the big Mamiyas for tomorrow morning and take a walk before sunrise to try capture some of it. Weather dependent, of course, like everything else over here. 
It's been nice for a week now, but as you know I have been busy doing other things.

A new week

Monday.
I'm just home, as you might know, from a month at work in the middle of the sea. You need some time to shake the somehow lonely feeling of work off of your back, but I'll get there some day soon. Been home since Friday, but have not been able to do anything yet. Except from going to a small concert and a couple of parties that is, but I kind of feel that does not count.
Still it does.
Count.
One should use some time to just live as well.

From work, of course. There is no way I can possibly recall the name of this thing made of steel pipes and girders. It's there, anyway. 

The concert? Well, I'm afraid the foreign language speaking readers of the words around this place have never heard of the singer/songwriter/performer/painter/drawer/storytelling artist called Unni Wilhelmsen? She's the one to the left dressed in white playing that black G-sharp guitar tuned into some open Joni Mitchell tuning.
She is very well known all the way around this long but small country anyway. Been so for 20 years this year. She brought herself and three guitars. A really good sounding Martin D-28 and a couple of G-sharps. I got a G-sharp, as it happens. Great small guitars, as you might know. I got a Martin as well, a D-35. They are great, big guitars.
I brought a camera to the concert. It was loaded with some quite extremely pushed 400 film. I got no idea if anything on the good side of things will come out of it, but we might see. One of these days.

I found this boat during one of our trips this summer. It seems like it's seen better times, to be honest. You would not like to go far out at sea inside this thing nowadays, I suppose. Duly snapped with one of the Nikons onto Kentmere 100ASA film. 

And we went to this party. Laughed plenty and had a great time inside a house by the sea. Or it was more like on and above the sea when I think about it. Nice place, beautiful people, great evening.
I brought a camera this night as well. Didn't even bring it out of the car you might be relieved to learn.
And now I'm here, at the cottage, trying to plan for the days ahead.
Well, I do have the overall plan already. Just have to break it into details now, and then start the hard work.

Coffee first!!

I just bought some film

I'm not switching too much between films, to be honest.
I usually have a few types in stock at home, but nothing very fancy. Not that there's a huge lot to choose between these days, but luckily I'm still not the only one liking the old fashion grain.
You know they got old fashion grain, and new stylish grain. Sharper stuff, as it happens, but I have not managed to get into that sort of thing. Some call them Delta-, and some call them T-grain, or something like that. I like the old fashion stuff, for some reason.

Things like this. Old grain, coming from a fancy battery-camera from Canon, most likely. I only have one camera able to zoom in like this, so got to be a snap from the only film I have run through that thing, as for yet. I might need to reload it, some day... This is Bressay, by the way, just opposite of Greenhead Base just north of Lerwick, Shetland. And yes, there's a seagull just coming in from the right. A bit difficult to avoid them, at times.

So, yesterday there was this message popping up on one of the quite well known social media sites asking if I was up for a few rolls of Ilford PAN 400... and who could possibly say no to that? Never used them before, but being quite a big fan of HP5 and a couple of other old style 400 ASA films I just could not let them go. I have seen snaps all from more or less all around done on this film, and are very much looking forward to give it a go myself.
Any advice you feel like sharing with someone new to the stuff? Push abilities, any special development techy things? I might just dunk the first one in a mix of water and Rodinal and let it sit for a while... Who knows, it might come out just fine for all we know. Sometimes they do just that...

Another farm on Bressay. Snapped from the ship as we snail our way out on the southern side of Lerwick. Not always an easy task when the current is on the rough side. Same batter-camera from Canon. The one I got from the captain, as you might remember. EOS 550 som something like that, I think. It works, obviously.

But we have to wait a few more days before I get the chance to load a camera with a roll, because I'm still at sea. Might be home thursday evening, which will be absolutely well deserved. And nice!
I hope to see you sometime before that :)

And no post without a snap from something totally without batteries. This one's from the Diana F+ thing. Toy, made of plastic all the way, but fun. Oh, and I completely forgot to tell you... I just bought another camera, for the sum of NOK 50,- That's about £4.50 or something. Quite a lot, you may say, but it's never been used before... hah! Another Diana, but the Mini version this time. For 135 roll film, as it happens. Can snap half frames with it and all. That would keep me occupied through the winter, I should think :))

Level waters again, finally.

I know, I know... no posts in a few days from this part of the world. I hope you all excuse me, as the weather has been a bit on the rough side the last three or four days. At sea that would mean nothing is quite like it would be if you stepped on dry land all the time. We have had some trouble putting one foot ahead of the other one, as you might understand. 
Yesterday was not too bad, but then the internet went away... again. You can't have everything, can you?

Brilliant weather today, though. Sun is shining and everything. 
I was just outside to get a feel for it, the temperature and such, but I can't exactly tell you I was struck by some kind of heat wave. Cold as heck, actually. So that's it, I suppose, for this year. Heat gone, winter will be here soon enough. 

Todays snap...? Well, something I have posted some time before, I guess? 
It's from the summer in Oslo a few years back. Snapped just before that old Nikon FE2 went down, hard, for the n-th time.