Exposed films, old buildings

Another weekend done, and I have managed to finally produce a nice bunch of exposed films either you believe it or not. Still I realize you can have millions of them and they would be worth nothing in the form they are at the moment. Developing is quite an important part of it all, as we know. I still hope to get them all done within a few days.

I went over to the old wool factory yesterday. I have spoken about it before in a post dating back to November 2015, but as this area is not actually very big you will have to speak about things more than once. Revisiting stuff is a big part of our lives over here. 
If you didn't bother to click the link to see the original post I'll fresh up your memory a bit and show you the snap below, as this is the actual building I have been looking at every time I visit this place. 

I just love this part of the factory, because of the texture of the old walls, the nice old windows, the grass growing out of the gutters and generally simply because of the rustic appearance of the building itself. 

I went over to the other side of the island to take a few more photos of this place during this weekend, and found the old thing all covered up in scaffolding and barrier tape and all sorts of stuff indicating major work in progress. 

That could be good, but it may also be bad. 

The good thing of course is that someone finally have decided to try save this part of the factory as well, just the way they saved most of the other parts of it. The bad thing is that it will probably look quite a bit different the next time I'll get the chance to stand in the same place to snap it up. That would mean that this probably is the last snap of the building looking like this, done on film anyway. 

Depending on the results of the refurbishing of the place I might consider printing it up big and go there one dark night to put it up on the wall right there, for everyone to see how it used to be not too long ago. 

And I am not painting things black here, because I have been very aware of the chance that this actually was going to happen at some point, and that it's necessary to do something about the building if they are going to put it into some good use. I just hope they do it with some kind of well meant thought and respect of the looks the building have gained during it's lifetime. I am not holding my breath, though.

Another hope and wish I have for this particular building is that they decide to make it contain something a bit different than the rest of the area. You see there's (in my opinion, anyway) too many shops and outlets inside the old factory premises already, so I hope someone have other plans for this place. 

As the adjacent building is actually (against all odds) housing a glass artist and a blacksmiths workshop, I hope this place might contain some kind of other arts or crafts center when it's finished. 

Thinking about it, it's usually only a question of who dares to do what. 

I am in absolutely no doubt it would be a great place for any full time photographer to set up some kind of gallery making a tiny little business out of it. I am also in no doubt at all that quite a few different artists could live happily inside this place and get loads of inspiration from each others work. If they ever get the chance, that is. 

There's most likely no way that is going to happen, I'm sorry to say. The rent will probably not make it possible to make any of them survive in a place like this, as most of the visitors will only be doing just that. Visiting, watch and like, before they go to leave their cash inside one of the outlets instead, buying jackets and clothes they got more than enough of back home inside their overfilled closets. 

Again it's most likely a question about who dares, and who don't. 
I got an idea of what I would have done, if I dared, but I don't.
Besides, when would I ever have the time to write anything more on this blog if I started my own darkroom and shop kind of thing? And when would I ever get the chance to go see places and take more photos if I had something like that to take care of in addition to everything else?
Nah, stop getting bright ideas would be the best idea so far this morning.

No one will ever even think about putting this building back into it's original state a hundred years from now. That's what I think, anyway. 

At least I went over there and snapped a few frames this weekend. Daytime and night, as it happens. On 120 film with a couple of Mamiya RZ cameras and everything. Lets find out in a few days if I got the exposures somewhat right, or if I'm getting real rusty or something. 
After all, you never know until development is done and the films have been dried and ready to be translated into some nice paper copies. After all it's another one of those old crafts, with a fair mix of both coincidence and randomness involved.

How to make you feel like an alien

Catching a tiny glimpse of something reminding me about inspiration or something, I went off yesterday with a few cameras loaded into the back of the Landy to see if anything good could be around somewhere to be tracked down. 
I went back to the same old house I found last winter just to check if it was still kind of standing, and it was. So I snapped a few frames on some 120 size film over there just for documentation or something, but could not find the right stuff or the edge of it, if you know what I mean. 
Took off heading for the center of town to see if anything was happening in that area. Nothing much, as I expected, but driving along a couple of to me very unfamiliar streets I suddenly see this fantastic concrete wall built to keep people from falling off the street and a long way down to the area far below. At the end of this wall there was this great gable end of a big storehouse or something, also made out of very rough concrete stuff with a lot of old steel sticking out of it in a very random style and fashion. In addition to it all the sun was shining onto all of it from an angle giving me a lot of nice shadows. 
Hey, what more can you ask for really? 

Things likely to be found around a sand blasting company in the middle of nowhere at Fitjar. No one around to disturb me while snapping the things up either, which is a good thing after all. Done on the Kodak T-Max 100 film I had loaded inside the Nikon FM2 this day. Looks like something I might have used the old 24mm lens for. 

So I hit what's left of the brakes on the old thing and put it to rest in some weird way along the afore mentioned wall, went into the back and picked out one of the Mamiya cameras and tried to find the best angle to snap the scene up in. 
Two snaps, and things were suddenly happening just behind me. On this street where no one ever walk I had finally managed to catch the attraction of the cops themselves, pulling up in a brand new police car and everything. 
To their advantage I have to say that they probably were out on some kind of random patrolling, or maybe even looking for something special when they came around this tight corner and saw the car standing there with the big backdoor in an open position with nobody  to see around it. So they stopped to check, while I was standing on the other side of the car in some kind of concentration to get what I wanted.
So they had to ask of course, any question they could come up with to check what this was all about. 
Heck, I thought it was pretty obvious to be honest. I was taking a couple of photographs, of course, so I told them exactly that. Well, the cops wanted a bit more detailed explanation about what exactly I was photographing, so I told them... 
To tell the truth he did not exactly look very enthusiastic about the words spoken about the "nice" concrete walls and their position in relation to each other, the great shadows created by the steel rods sticking out of the wall and the square windows making the whole scene up inside the shadowy part of the frame. Actually at one point I thought ahhh... next thing is he's calling the guys in their white frocks to come find a nice and tight little room for me for the next few years. I mean we've all been to the movies to see what's going to happen when you say stupid things, not?
So I managed to shut my mouth before I went any further, and after giving each other some weird faces in something that seemed like forever they decided I was not what they had been looking for anyway, wished me a nice day and went away. 

A real mess made out of a fence at some point. Probably a creation made by some kind of vehicle in cooperation with the wind up through the years, or something completely else. I got no idea, to be honest. A mess it was, anyway. Nice to snap stuff without getting disturbed by the cops and such, to be honest. No one in sight around here at Christmas time, as we know by now.

By this point I had totally lost the track of what I previously had been looking at with them walls and things, so I need to go back there some day for sure. Maybe there's a few better things to be found if I do some exploring on them lower grounds as well for all we know. 
I tried a couple of other well known places also, but found nothing catchy like those nice couple of concrete walls or anything. Nothing with nice light on them anyway. 
And yes, I'm going back. I'm not going to let the police stop me from taking photographs of houses or walls or anything in town. After all that's just what thousands of tourists is doing all day long just a few hundred yards away inside the center of town. 

The deeds of the day before this one

Sure, because I did do stuff yesterday as well. Nothing much, but still something.
Did a couple of things inside the bathroom again, then got bored to such a degree I just had to get out and about for a while. Packed a few cameras inside the Landy and off I went for something a bit more fun than putting membrane goo onto old tiles and new wall plates. 

They use what they got at hand around Fitjar, to keep  their floating workshops tied to the shore. Looks like that rope has been floating around in the sea for some time anyway.

I drove around and found this twisty road we never use much these days because a better road has been built instead. It twists and turns in all kinds of directions and dimensions, and along the way there's a few things might worth snapping up on a good day. Obviously yesterday was not the best of days, because I came back with nothing much etched onto the rather nice HP5 I got loaded into one of the Nikons right now. 
And I found this old mill saw, or whatever you like to call the thing, somewhere along that twisty road. Belongs to some old farmer who died a few years back, obviously. I happen to know, because just as I tore this fluorescent road stick out of my way to snap my masterpiece in some sort of decent fashion, an oldish bloke showed up out of nowhere. 
He did not mention the stick-thing with a single word, but just wanted to tell me all about the little building and the saw inside it and everything. 
He claimed to be the last person having used the old thing, some 20 odd years back. He once assisted the farmer in some work to make the old saw connected to and driven by his tractor, and that's how he came into touch with the owner of the old finger cutter inside. 
Some time after the last log has gone through it my informant had a call from his son. He had a few logs of birch or something which he wanted to feed through the teeth of them old blades. So they borrowed it and got the job done. That would be the last time it was used, according to this ghost out of nowhere. 
Oh, and I put the marking stick thing back into the very same hole it was standing out of just a few minutes earlier. Just so you know. 
I even wasted a couple of 120 film frames on the old building as well, as I found the Rolleiflex inside the bag in the back of the car. Sometimes a good old camera bag is nice to have, you see.
I did not have the right lenses or anything, so I actually drove back this very morning just to linger around the place to see if I could get something more interesting to stick onto a piece of film. I brought a couple of them Mamiya cameras and went inside under the roof to see if I could get a few more interesting snaps of everything. We shall wait and see, as you know. 
It's been a while since I've been playing with the Mamiyas now, and it was a pleasure to take them out into some fresh air.

Another one of that abandoned cement factory at Fitjar. There were no evidence that this was in use in any way, but who knows really. There were concrete things thrown around everywhere, so maybe they had just been taking a very long Christmas break for all I know. 

Today I will leave the old bathroom alone. The wife is going away to choose the right color of paint, and I will stay very well clear of that. I got something close to a proof that I'm more or less color blind, so I got nothing there to do at all while that is going on. And it's going to take time as well, so no thank you. I'll do the boring paint work, but don't listen to any of my advice about colors or anything like that. I put on what I'm told, and that's it. 

Oh, and the weather has been absolutely fantastic by the way. Mild and no rain, and that's something I like a lot. 
Every day without snow or rain is just fine, if you ask me. 
And we are actually starting to get some good old daylight again. Nothing on the extreme side, but still noticeable more of it than we had a month back. I might even take some advantage of just that someday soon. 

Snaps from Christmas...

So, I've been doing stuff all weekend, more or less.
Working on the bathroom, a bit. Nothing much, but at least we went off to pick up the tiles and a few bits and pieces yesterday. I also did some work, but there will be more done tomorrow.
I finally had my "new" old Land Rover picked up Friday afternoon, which mean I can go around to pick up heavy things. Like a truckload of tiles, and stuff like that. It's great fun, just saying.

It was snapped on the quayside at Fitjar, this one. I guess you remember all about the place from around Christmas, as this was were the ship was tied up those days towards the end of last year. Not the most happily looking spot on earth, I know. We went for a stroll, me and the Captain. I wanted to climb the ladder to the top of that cement container thing there, but the boss told me I could not. He sounded quite certain about it as well, so I left the thought there and then. A couple of days later the thought came back, but then I had too much to do in the engine room and thereabouts, so I never got up there. Might be just as well thinking about it in retrospect. 

Today we had a few visitors coming over to the cottage. The son and the daughters, the grandson and the sister. Oh, and the son's girlfriend as well. A whole bunch they were, but everything went very well. We were outside most of the time as the weather actually was on the mild side and the wind was elsewhere for a few hours. Even the rain was staying on the other side of the fjord, most of the time. We had a few small showers coming, but nothing like the last few days. Been very wet lately, you see.
And when the bonfire had burned to the ground and all the guest gone home, we went off to the stepdaughter for some celebration for a short while. She's 20 today, and needed some cake and coffee. The wife made the cake yesterday evening, and it was delicious believe it or not.

This far, but no further. Oh, and by this day I had switched from Delta 400 over to T-Max 100. Never tried this thing before either, but it seemed to work sort of. The light was not very great these days, as we are talking about the darkest days of the year. Nikon FM2 on both snaps. 24mm lens on the last one, maybe the 50mm on the top one. 

Oh, and I have remembered to snap the daily snaps every day. I am also snapping away on a couple of other films, so we will see some other day if they come out on the nice side, or if it's just the usual rubbish.
Hope to get the chance to get some developing done some day soon, but then there's a pile of other stuff to get done as well. I got them right here, though, the exposed films ready to get wet. There's even a couple of 120 sized ones. Ilford HP5+ and everything. Let's just hope they contain something useable.

At least the snow are gone. For now, anyway.

Cats and Crows

Enough about the weather, because it's shite anyway...

It's early in the morning, and The Cat just went upstairs again. She always try to do just that, even though she knows well enough that's a no-no area to any cat. But then again she sometimes seems to forget even simple things like rank and such, which is probably a healthy sign after all. If nothing else it's at least the way The Cat works. 
Oh, and of course I just called her back down. She will rather reluctantly return down the stairs if you use the right kind of loudish voice, but that's just because she knows what happens if she keeps on going upwards. Out in the wet weather again is no option when she's just come inside, because she hates it badly.
I'm not sure exactly why, because she's always dry as the sand in Sahara when she returns back in after a trip outside, no matter how bad the weather have been. It's a good old cat-trick, I guess. Like another law of nature. 
I must say I have been wondering quite a bit about how it's even possible to keep that fur so perfectly dry despite the weather we have in these parts, but I don't think I will ever find a plausible explanation to it. 
Needless to say maybe, but I'm no big fan of cats. I like four legged animals who understand the way rank works a bit better. Still I must say I'm fascinated by these creatures, and we sort of find some kind of way living together despite these issues. I let her in from the cold, provide her with food and keeps her satisfied to some degree. In return she keeps the area clean. 
That's good enough to me. 

Crow on Crane. Don't really know if this is something that say anything at all to you, but at least there's lines in here. All sorts of them, actually. The Cat were nowhere close as this was snapped the same day as the previous posts. I might have something new to show in a day or two. Delta 400 film, still.

We are going outside the house (or cottage, to be precise) next weekend, to see a play set up by the students at a theater school in town. It's nothing we usually do, but this time it's a bit interesting to do just that. You see this year we know two of the students acting in the play, and it does not stop there. You might remember my cousin, Mette the writer and author and what is there not to say. She's been back and forth from Oslo this autumn to guide the students through the play, in addition to do quite a bit of writing of course. I hope to get the chance to go see her for lunch or dinner some day too, and also to take her home to the cottage for dinner or something. Hope to get the chance to snap her face onto some good old film, to be honest. It's been a while since someone did just that, and I think it's about time to get it done again. She used to be a good photographer and printer back in the days, and used her fathers old darkroom a lot. A bit later she started to wright for a couple of newspapers, and also did a bit of photography to go along with all them words. 
She's only doing digital these days, and nothing commercial anymore to my knowledge, but I might manage to lead her back on track when I show up with a real camera?
It's going to be great to see her again. Far too long between that happens these days.

Crow at Quay. Some light, and some shadow. Same film, same camera. Probably the same bird as well, even though it's a bit hard to tell.

Other than that there's nothing much happening over here. I'm off to get some materials for the bathroom a bit later today. Need to get the work done back home to put everything back in something like good order again. Should be easy enough, but will take a few days of work I guess. 
And I'm still waiting for my "new" car to be able to move around a bit easier. Hope to find some inspiration for a couple of good snaps somewhere, someday. 
Nothing planned, though.

The nature of Snow

The snow Oh yes, it's on it's way returning to water or where it came from. 
That's the nature of winter over here. Full strength for a few days, then a few mild days will come in to reduce everything to water before a short cold period sets in again. A forever on-going ring of events making up the "winter" of the north-western part of Norway. 
It's all a result of the coastline, the sea, the Gulf Stream and what have we all. And we just have to live with it. Some winters tend to be different and colder, but the norm is mild weather lingering around the 0 degrees C limit, more or less. Just the way we see it these days, in other words.

Two rather similar snaps posted today. A little piece of the quay at Rubbestadneset while at yard stay not too long ago. They need to have walkways these days, because of HSEQ stuff, as usual. Good thing, actually. Enough people has been run over by forklifts and what have we, lately. And nope, I did not have much inspiration on board when these couple of snaps were shot. It might return some day, I hope. Nikon FM2, Nikkor 85mm snapped on the same Delta 400 film as the latest posts on this place. 

Today has been a day on the phone. First to the help center at our own internet provider to get help with a completely stuck or lost signal. That one was quite quickly and easily fixed, but before that one issue was really sorted out my mother in law called me. She had been away buying herself a mobile broadband kind of thing, and was wondering if I could give her a helping hand getting her brand new computerized-windows-based-pad-kind-of-thing logged on to her equally brand new internet providers glimmering white box with many lamps on the front...
Oh heck!

So off I went as soon as my wife had a stable enough line to work on, just to dig myself down into stuff I'm not too familiar with. And trouble I got. Loads of it.
After two hours on the phone talking to no less than three different guys on the helpdesk I finally managed to get a mobile signal into the afore mentioned box, and also to have it transferred further into my phone. For a start.
Yeeppie Ki Yay! 
Off then, over to the brand new Windows based thing to get that one connected to the same network, which I managed to get done quite easily as expected. And then over to test it by downloading some newspaper page just to see it worked. 
And whataya think? Nope! It only returned me to the router itself for a firmware update inside the thing, which I would have managed if it was not for the slow speed of the things happening. At 35% download I just had to leave the place before I went totally through the roof, so I think I might just as well return back in an hour or two. I don't have the patience for things like this anymore. End of story.

So that's my day. And oh, I had the daily snap snapped. Of course. you still have to wait in patience to get to see any results, as you know. Since it's a 365 project done on film, for a change.

Shuffling stuff into piles

It's that time of year, again. 
Snow. 
Loads of it, just the way we get from time to time over here.
Snowed a bit Thursday evening, all Friday and most of Saturday as well. Sunday was not too bad, so could use that one to kind of clear the area. Or at least a part of it.
Because it's too long a road to get it all done out here where the cottage is located. Couple of hundred yards from the main(ish) road down to this place, and a steep enough hill to climb as well just to really add to it all. Meaning it's not the right place to have your car snowing in, as you might understand. 
That's why I'm quite happy that did not happen, just because you check the forecast and such at this time of year. At least that's what you do when you are old enough, and have used quite a bit of your time up through the years to shuffle snow away, and trying to recover cars stuck into the stuff in all kinds of weird places. 
So, that's why you think ahead and move the cars up to the top of the hill before the snow gets too deep.
What about the young people then, you might think?
Nah...! They will act totally ignorant to the whole razzamatazz, only to wake up some time in the middle of Monday to find out her car is totally frozen down and impossible to move unless some work is done first. Luckily I moved that one as well before the conditions were getting real bad.
Evolution is not happening quickly, in other words. Because if I think something like 30 years back I might find out nothing has changed much at all in that respect. 

Another one from the same dry dock area as in the last post. Old but rather well maintained crane in the background, and an old but not that well maintained oil tank closer to the camera. The tank is probably empty, because you could actually see right through the steel in quite a few spots. It made a nice enough snap, but is probably not useful for anything else by the looks of it. Nikon FM2 and Ilford Delta 400 film.

As my "darkroom" (or actually the bathroom back home) is lying in bits and pieces at the moment, I've not been able to produce any paper copies of anything this weekend. Might not be able to do so in the next couple of weeks either, for that's sake. There's work to be done before that can happen, mind you, so will have to get it all done as you might understand. 
I hope to have a few films ready by then, but with this speed it might take a while. But then again you never know. All of a sudden I might find some kind of inspiration, for all we know. 
At least the light is fine today, so I might take a couple of cameras outdoors to snap a frame or four. 
And the "Big Project" is going forward. Not that anything great has been captured yet, but at least that one frame each day has been snapped as intended. It will get better, some day. I promise.

So, the weather is great today. Blue skies, some good old wintery light and loads of snow. Daylight, for a change. 
It's a bit cold, though. Not that the temperature itself is bad, but living this close to the sea our -5 deg. C will definitely feel a bit colder than -5 in an area with dry air. 
Tomorrow the forecast say +7 deg. C and rain again. Another problem out here at the coast, where snow is followed by rain, making the snow weigh a ton per square meter. And then we suddenly get wind. Lots of it.
That's why we have other rules and regulations on our buildings out here at the coast. Reinforced roofs, extreme nails here and there and rules on what you can build and where you can build it. Some of it even makes sense, at times. 
But today it's nice, so I might just as well load a couple of cameras and get out there for a walk.

The same oil tank. Rusty old steel plates left to rotten on their own, which they seem to do quite nicely. Nikon FM2, Ilford Delta 400.

Oh, and we have signed ourselves up for a couple of "new" cars. Or one new and one old, to be more precise. 
We have never owned a new car before, as it happens. Not that we have ever felt the urge to do so either, but this is a good enough time to just check how that might feel. 
The wife will use the new one for work and such, and I will use the old one for more or less everything else. Old English ride, as it happens. Big, legendary 4x4 tractor kind of thing. You might know what I'm talking about. It totally lacks all kinds of luxury you'll find in any other car today, but I will manage to drive it all the way down to the cottage AND back up on the road as well, no matter how much snow we might get. I have been wanting something like this for years and years, and now I found one that looked good enough, equipped with the right engine and everything. Hope to have it some day soon, but there was a few things I wanted the workshop to do before I have it handed over. 

Inside the dry dock on a lazy Sunday

I was here, as you might remember. At Rubbestadneset, Bømlo, Norway for a short yard stay with the ship not too long ago. We had lots of stuff to get done on the ship, but it did not really stop me from getting out on the quayside for a short walk on a Sunday around lunch time. I had this Ilford Delta 400 film loaded, so I thought I might just as well get rid of it in some sort of useful way. 

The old dry dock at Rubbestadneset is still working fine for it's purpose, which is to let small and bigger ships rest on dry land for a short period of time as necessary maintenance is done under the waterline. There will be paint to be added, overboard valves to be changed out, propellers and bearings to be checked among other things. Important stuff for a ship, as you may understand. Nikon F3 with Nikkor 24mm lens attached. Snapped on Ilford Delta 400 film.

Out I went, over to the dry dock area of the yard. I have been here before, as it happens. I think this is the same dock we went into at some point when I was a trainee on board my first vessel some years back. 
It's a nice enough dry dock by any standards. If the size of the thing is big enough to take your vessel, that is. 147 meters long and 25 meters wide and with a capacity of around 4000 MT would be the essential measurements of the structure, should you be interested. Not the biggest thing around, as you might understand.

Tiny part of the dock with it's fancy hi-tech level indicator, and a few stands to place under the frames of which the ships hull is welded onto. It's kind of like the jacking points on your car, only that there will be a lot more of them on a ship than on any car I know of. Still Nikon F3, changed to Nikkor 85mm lens and same Delta 400 film.

Don't know much about it, to be honest. I know the Germans built a few around this size back in the early 40's. As we all know they had to leave a few bits and pieces behind when they left, and there's quite a few old wartime dry docks still in use over here. They might start to get a bit old fashion by now, but they seem to still be working as intended. I guess they might have been upgraded a bit over the years, but the steel will still be the same. Good steel back then.

The old "HAMEN" of Bergen inside the dock. Beautiful lines on the ships back then. These days they more or less looks like floating containers if you compare them to these beauties. 

As for the small ship placed inside on this particular Sunday about a month ago there is a bit more information to share. 
It was actually built over in Sunderland, England at S.P. Austin & Son of Wear Dock S.P back in 1947/48. She was delivered from the yard in 1949 as a steam propelled coal freight vessel to the British Electricity Authority under the fair name of "Pompey Power". She sailed in the coal trade from northern England to the power plant of Portsmouth until 1960, when she was sold to Norway and renamed "Tandik".
Further it was laid up in 1962, and further sold on to a different norwegian owner in 1963 and renamed to it's current name "Hamen". The old steam engine was ripped out and a diesel engine installed. She was taken out of service in 1985 but still refused to give up. She even partly sank in 2011 tied up alongside. Now she's getting back to her former glory, or at least so it seems by the looks of the sleek and nice thing. 
A norwegian group interested in keeping historical vessels afloat is the current owners, and let's just cross fingers she still have a bunch of years left inside her.

Oh, and I found this

It was on the same film as the previous posted snaps from this morning. I kind of like it as I take a closer look at the thing. I might even print it one day, onto real paper inside a dark room. The proper way, as you perfectly well know. 

Same camera, same day, same film and obviously the same camera as in the last post. Just put the old Nikon in a little bit different direction, that's all. You've looked this way before, by the way. Probably lots of times. I might have posted something similar at some point in time, but it's still not the same. The light keeps on changing, you know.

We took off again, away to the little cottage by the sea just where these snaps were snapped. We kind of like it here. Need to do some work on the bathroom back home, which makes the decision easy enough. We have to go away for some time, and that's just the way it is. 
Well, we are not complaining or anything. Just so you know. 
Don't know if we're going to get much done tomorrow though, as we have planned to take a trip to see if we can manage to get a good deal on a new (or used) car. Oh yes, I know... but sometimes you just have to do just that. I think I might like it a bit more than the wife, but I might fill in the gaps for you sometime tomorrow if everything goes kind of well. We will see.

The Light of Winter

There's not much light at all, at this time of year, when you pass the 62nd parallel on your way north. Not that it's any lighter should you pass it on your way south either, of course, but it would probably feel a tad lighter as you then would have come from an even darker place. 
It's suddenly 2017, and it's probably here to stay for about a year. Let's try to do the best out of the thing and keep on keepin' on, just the way we have done all our lives already. 

Dull, grey and grainy but still there's a thin line of some kind of light in there somewhere. Matches my artistic mood and temper quite nice just now, as it happens. It will turn, though, so I'm just hanging in here trying to get something done. It's not going to be much, but still it's important to keep focused. At least that's what I think. Nikon FM2, Ilford Delta 400 film and probably one of them 50mm lenses I have strategically placed in places no one (including myself) would never think of...

As for me, I have started my "big" 365@50 project as you might know. Not that I have come a long way into it with five days done and 360 or so to go, but at least I have started. As the days are more or less pinch black at this time of year I had to go for pushed film. I might continue to do so throughout the project, but I have not really decided yet. I might reconsider just that should the sun suddenly shine down on me at some point in half a years time, or so. We will see, but at this time of year it's a bit difficult to think something like that will ever happen again. Winter thoughts, I know... but still.
Anyway I have started the project, but are far from sure into which direction it will go as the days come to me through the year. 
So, the battered Nikon F3 it is, loaded with a fresh roll of Ilford PAN 400 pushed to 1600. On the first of January the camera had an old 50mm Nikkor lens mounted, and it's still on there. It may or may not stay on for the entire year, but I'm yet to decide just that. 

Same day, same weather and the same camera and film. Probably the same lens as well. They might print a bit "better" than the quality of the scans indicates, but we are still to find out. I might give them a go inside the darkroom some day soon, but first I have work to do in there. Rebuilding the bathroom, to be precise.

I developed a few films a couple of days back. Two of them were free stuff given to me as a part of a small batch of stuff I was handed over a few months back. Ilford Delta 400 and a roll of Kodak T-Max 100. Not exactly my favorites, as you might know, but I decided to shine some light through them anyway. I didn't even push them or anything. Threw them into a couple of cameras and went out to get the deed done. Both of the rolls were shot during the last month at work, more or less. The Delta 400 was obviously loaded at home before I went to work, so they would have been snapped some time towards the very end of November. 
Oh, and there was a test roll of Ilford PAN400 pushed to 1600, just to check what that would bring out of it. Nothing spectacular, as you might see a few days ahead.