The Darkroom Cookbook

I've heard words spoken and written about it for years, the Darkroom Cookbook. Written by Stephen G. Anchell, published 1994 it seems. It's more or less full of weird recipies for more or less anything photography related. Developers, fixers, toners and stuff nice to have inside the darkroom. In other words there seems to be some interesting reading in there, as I'm now the owner of an example of this book. There's a few general darkroom chapters in there as well, as far as I can see without starting searching for my glasses and such.
You see my cousin once used to be a quite promising(ish) darkroom scientist, but at some point he just gave it all up. The pixelating age, a bunch of kids, a house and a million things to do... you know the story.
He got rid of most of his equipment, but somehow managed to find a bunch of darkroom paper (Agfa RC) in addition to The Darkroom Cookbook hidden way down in between the layers of things having added up down in his basement over the years.

A half-frame snap from the Olympus PEN. Nothing too interesting, perhaps, but there might be something for the right kind of person. Not sure about the film, but it could be Kentmere 400 or maybe something else. Ilford PAN 400 or something, maybe.

Long story a bit shorter he decided to donate the Cookbook and the paper, and will continue to dig for more interesting stuff down in that basement. I was trying to give him a hand during the searching for the Cookbook, and to be honest I think he'll be better off bringing in a (rather large) team of archeologists to go through that basement.
It's going to take some time. Let's just simply put it that way...

Half-frame snap from sludge delivery and provision carrying in Peterhead harbor last trip at work. I was working with the sludge while a bunch of the rest carried the provision. I snapped them with the Olympus PEN. It's a small and great camera to carry on deck inside a pocket.

There's going to be chemicals needed to get anywhere with the recipes, of course. Luckily the same cousin is very different to most of us, and would (don't ask me how and why) be able to supply whatever you may need in that respect. I might try one or two of the toners or something like that, but don't think I'm going to be making my own developer and such. Maybe...?!
I will read the book though! I'm putting it inside my bag right here and now, as I just got the message I'll be leaving for work tomorrow. That's two days early even though I got home one day late, which means three weeks and a few days at home. Too short a time off, just saying!

One of the piers on The Clyde, Glasgow. Half-frame again.

Offshore stuff, again

Another rather quick post, I'm afraid. 
I'm just out of the darkroom after a rather frustrating session in there. You see there's four or five pieces the wife has picked out for one of the walls, and I thought I'd just get them done. This night seemed to be as good as any other to get it done, so I went for it. The medium format neg was a tricky one, so I might have to alter the settings a bit I think. I'll let it dry and have a good look at it in the daylight, but I suppose it's not up to standard. 
But OK, it was a print, at least. 

Brent A. The only steel legged platform on this field consisting of Brent A, B, C and D (the latter now partly removed, see next picture). The Brent field has been producing oil and gas since late 1976. The oil is fed through a pipeline to Sullom Voe oil terminal in northern Shetland, while the gas goes to St. Fergus in northern Scotland. The field is very close to the norwegian border, and you can easily see what's going on over the border at the Statfjord field.

Then there were a series of four 135 negs on the to do list. Had to switch to the other enlarger as the bigger one is not very well suited to do 30x40 enlargements from small negs. Ping... and the damn bulb went dark as in really dark and no hope for any further work for either today or tomorrow. And before you ask, nope I did not have a spare one in stock. 
I'll put in an order for a new one, or three. 

Brent D, or at least what's left of it these days. 

I got no particular clue what exactly our mission this close to them old legs were, but I'm sure we had important stuff to do. We always seem to have, if you ask the right person. See that thing up there on that left leg? Every second day or so a helicopter will land on top of the leg, and some dude will come out of it and walk over to have it checked sort of carefully. I suppose they would soon find out if anything's wrong from hundreds of miles away, since it's some sort of navigation beacon or similar, but they still have to check it of course. It's probably written in some sort of procedure somewhere. At least they know how to spend a fair amount of money in places like these... 

The snaps for today is from a film I wasted about a month ago when at work. Leica M3 camera with Summicron glass 50 and/or 35mm lenses attached, Ilford FP4+ film developed in Paranol S. 

Ah... the little steel drum with yellow cable spooled on. We picked it up right here, on the bank of the River Clyde up in Glasgow, you know. Put the whole thing on the back deck, and off we went to drop all the yellow stuff into the sea west of Ireland somewhere. We were careful not to drop the drum as well, so no harm done. I got no idea what the yellow cable will do once they decide to power everything up, but they told us it was rather expensive and important. 

Nothing new, in other words.

365 - ongoing series

Three more from The Project this year. The 365@50 thing, you know. 

I have posted the notes from my book on the snaps lately, but since we were out there on the tiny little island of Ona and had to leave in a hurry about a week ago, the little black book is still out there.  Just had to leave both the book and a bunch of cameras, but I'll get out there to pick them up some day soon I hope. 

Anyway, I know what they are, the snaps. So I'm able to tell you what I think was most likely noted.

#068 - The Crane repair man traveled down the coast in a boat. They stopped in my home town, so I went for a chat and a snap.

#069 - The Cat, as it usually looks when I get home. Time for food, she seems to think.

#070 - Chain Saw Day. A lot of work done, but things look better in that area now. 

#068

#069

#070