Half frames and engine things...

Finally, we're on our way to sea. Or, we are of course at sea, but really out to sea I mean. Like middle way between the UK and Norway, to be a bit more precise. We are going to do some very short survey work to prepare for the next piece of work a little later in the week. Out to do the survey, then back in to Scrabster far north in Scotland to have a very short crew change in the middle of the night, and then off we go to do the rest of the work. Sounds easy, actually. And maybe it is, for what I know. I'm not too sure about what's going on down at the seabed anyway, but somebody on board will certainly know. My job is only to maintain power to make it all happen, and things are looking good in that respect as it usually is.

I bet you've never seen this one before? It's probably from some time last summer, but I don't think I posted any results from the tiny little plasticy Diana Mini camera I had coming my way about a year ago or so? Anyway, here's one. Half-frame and what else could not be said about it. It's the kind of thing you can choose between two formats. 36x36mm or 24x36mm. Cool, huh? Just one thing: If sharp negs are your style, this is nothing for you! It's totally impossible to even get the tiniest detail to stuck sharply on film inside this lovely little box. And yes, it leaks of course. And the shutter release button is a nightmare. Lots of fun inside a small box, in other words.

Yesterday was another day we really had to work hard for the money. Up at 5.30 in the morning to be at work 6 o'clock. Non-stop flat out until 1am before I could throw myself to bed, which I did. Today seems to be a lot better, as we are at sea. Everything just falls into routine work then, which is very much to prefere. 

This is something I extracted from a film exposed inside one of the Nikon's, I think. It's from the lovely city of Bergen, as some of you might have guessed already. Not very lucky with the exposure of this frame, but I'm used to that.

I snapped the daily one, though! At least I seem to have come into that routine, at least. Nothing you will jump through the roof about, of course, but that has probably never been the point of doing 365 projects either, I guess. What's pretty obvious is that the ones snapped during my periods of work will probably be on the extremely boring side. I'll try to be creative, but I must say I find that a bit hard. And it will only get worse, probably. You will, most likely, think you've seen the same snaps a hundred times before. But heck, I'll try!

There might be some of this sorts during the 365 project. Some hydraulic powerpacks this is, making this huge pile of steel able to steer wherever we like it to. Two similar units on each side of the vessel, a total of four steering powerpacks. Should be safe enough then, I think. As this is a DP Class 3 vessel there are rules telling how it should be built. There are so much stuff on this vessel that you would think we could perfectly well do with 1/4th of the equipment. And yes, that's absolutely right. Still, we need backups and backups of the backups... and that's why stuff seems to be piling up over here. It's kind of cool, though. 

I have briefly started to put together a plan to get my films developed when I get home. There will be chemicals needed, I think, so I need to get an order for some fix and developer put together soon. I think I'm starting to get a bit short on fix.
I would also need to stock up on some paper at some point, but I think I will manage for some time yet. The hope is to get abroad this summer anyway, and prefereably over to old England where paper is a lot cheaper than back home. Then I might be able to save some money. At least if I buy a nice little bunch of it. We'll see, but that might be the plan I'll go for.
Other than that, I'm fine, thank you.

I made myself some work

I seem to get things to do when I get back home, whenever that might be. 
I've been out snapping again, and the number of exposed rolls starts adding up and take up some space on my desk. Which is OK, by the way, as I feel I've been walking around feeling blind for too long now. 
OK, I will prbably get to a point where I start wondering why I snapped a million frames of the same thing when I get the rolls developed, but then again it's better than nothing to actually snap something. And then there will be variations. Variations over the same theme, if you catch me. And that's just the way I seem to do things, sometimes. 
And of course there's the fact that it's a rather limited number of things you actually find interesting enough to waste film on, in the kind of area like this one. 

Another one from my test run of the Ilford PAN400 shot at 1600. I can't help myself from liking this film, to be honest. Don't really know why yet, but I might find out some day when I get a bit better used to it. Anyway, we will see as the 365@50 project become more than just an undeveloped roll staying at my desk. I might not like it at all when the first result of that batch see the light of day. Nikon F3 and Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 lens.

Anyway, I strolled away this evening as well. Out for a hunt to see what I could find. Brought the M3 and the 365@50 Nikon F3 project camera, as I had not snapped the daily one earlier in the day. Oh, and the iPhone as well, just for the heck of it. 
I found a few interesting lines and some light over at the huge buildings I talked about the other day and did a few passes over there. Snapped this and that with the Leica. Then walked back and forth to get something half decent with the phone. While standing there, pointing the thing straight up into the black night sky towards a steel structure high up above, I suddenly became aware of a CCTV camera just a few yards away. 
So what do you do then? Two choices, I hastly decided. You can go away or you can just keep on snapping. I thought about it for a very short period of time and quickly came to the conclusion that they have been looking at me for many a night now while walking around the area looking suspicious. So I decided it was no danger at all, and that they could do nothing worse than come ask me what I was doing, pointing things into the air the way I did. 
Well, no security guard came driving this evening either, so it's probably OK then. I hope.

Here we go! Snapped on the back deck of the Subsea Viking during lubrication of the crane wire a few days before Christmas 2016. The captain was on deck and wanted me to waste a frame to have evidence to show off that he had actually been there :)) 

Same film, but I think I used the 85mm f/1.4 beast for this one. Lovely lens, but way too big. Oh, and yes it was in the middle of the black winter night. Not too bad in that condition either, the PAN400 when pushed a couple of stops. 

We are preparing to go to sea, finally. Seems like the ship is close to fully upmanned now, which means we will leave some time tomorrow after lunch. I got no clue about this job, but I'll try to keep you informed. I might even get the chance to snap a few on deck some time during the next couple of weeks, but that remains to see. I'll try, anyway.

Who knows what I might get out of it?

Just went for a walk. Out there, into the dark night only with a couple of cameras for company. Just felt for it, you know. Wanted to do it. Had a quite strong wish to try to create something out of them nice semi transparent huge doors on the big factory halls they got down here at Global Energy Group in Nigg. I got no idea what you get out of the website, cause I can't see the media content anyway. But enough of that. 
They have a couple of really big fabrication halls here, and they were the target for this evenings rather experimental photo tour. When I finally got there I found it not to be as easy as I first thought it would be. 
First of all I thought it would be a straight forward job to find a sturdy stand for the camera. Well, it was not. I finally ended up putting the Nikon on top of a huge steel pipe lying flat, but the roundness of the thing made it a bit difficult. With the aid of a few bits and pieces from my pockets and some searching around the area to find stuff I finally think I managed to build something hopefully good enough. Then it was the film, or the very bad choice of such, to be more precise. I thought I had loaded the FM2 with pushed to 1600 HP5. Halfay on my walk over there I suddenly found I have had the thing reloaded with FP4 instead, as that probably sounded like a very good idea at some point in the middle of the fever I had a couple of days ago. To really top it all I also discovered I had left my iPhone with the light measuring app on board the ship before I went away. 
And man was it cold!! Freezing wind that really made my fingers big and numb. 
Not the best of situations, to put it simple.

Today's the day for old snaps, I think. Since I was quite lazy when at home before I went to work I didn't manage to get any films developed. That means I should have quite a few to throw into some kind of fluid in a few weeks time. I like the lines in this one, but you probably knew that already I guess. From the first film I ran through my Rolleiflex after I bought it while sitting stuck in Bergen for a few days while waiting for weather to get over to Orkney. First they closed the airport in Bergen, which does not happen very often. Then, when they finally had cleared away the snow there it really started to snow over in Orkney, so all flights cancelled. Brilliant! Anyway I got myself a Rolleiflex out of it. Not bad, actually. 

Still, I was there with a couple of cameras, and I was rather determined to get something done with them. At least I had remembered to put the cable release into my pocket before I left the ship, so I pressed the end of the thing a few times while counting slowly to 32 or something like that. They are probably way underexposed, because I don't carry reciprocity tables or anything like that in my pockets. I have never tried FP4 in the dark before either, so I don't have a clue how it behaves. I guess we will find out soon enough. Sometimes a wild guess is just as good as anything, but I have also found that if you add a little bit of experience from earlier into it all it might save you from getting nothing. 
I also brought the M3 rangefinder. That one contained a roll of Kentmere 400, and I snapped a few frames of that sort as well. Huge aperture, 1 sec. shuttertime. Handheld. I'm looking forward to see them, of course. 
I have just started to feel my fingers again now, and it hurts. 
If I go out again tomorrow night I'll bring gloves. I promise!

More lines, even though they really go all over the place and in no particular direction. Don't know why I posted this one here and now, but it might have something to do about the season we are in the middle of. Wintertime means something rather special to the norwegians, as you probably have noticed long time ago. This is the Holmenkollen ski jump after the latest rebuild a few years ago. My father actually got a few jumps in this hill, but that was way back in the days when it was a bit smaller. It's a nice construction, and a bit impressive if you take the lift up to the top looking downwards.

When going back on board the ship the scotsman in the security asked me if they were film cameras, refering to the two beauties I carried. 
So we had a nice talk about old cameras and vinyl records, and he seemed a bit surprised about the fact that you can still get fresh film. He told me a story about once having a freezer half full of Kodachrome he got from the Royal Air force. They had to throw it away because of the date stamp on them, so he got the whole lot instead. Cool thing was that he didn't even have to pay for the development of them, as they used to be pre-paid back in the days as a few of us still remember. He told me he still got quite a number of packets down there at the bottom, but it could take a while until he can have things like that developed as we have learned over the last few years. 

I even found I had snapped a snap of a snap of the original owner of the Kodachrome films the security dude have lingering down inside his freezer, believe it or not. I think this was taken inside a cafè or a pub somewhere in Wales a few years ago. With a nice clock counting away right beside the queen, and everything. Studying things a bit my best guess will be that it origined out of either a Nikon with a 24mm lens, or maybe also one of the leicas with the nice and wide 21mm attached to it. And yes, I know it's way on the underexposed side. Walking around outside guessing exposure is one thing, coming inside in totally different light is quite something else.   

Other than that it's just been another day at work. Lots of running up and down the stairs with papers in hand looking important. At least that probably looks far better than the last few days when I've been here, there and everywhere without anyone even noticing that both my hands and my boilersuit really have taken a different colour. Well, I still hope it's worth something to someone. 

Time and again

Bob Dylan told me long ago somewhere inside "You're a Big Girl Now" on the "Blood On The Tracks" album that "Time is a jetplane, it moves too fast". And yes, sometimes that's just what it does. Moves too fast with a feeling I'm only managing to jump on the train way too late. 

The same well known poet also wrote a piece called "Time Passes Slowly"... saying something like time passes slowly up here in the mountains, we sit beside bridges and walk beside fountains. And everything inside the song feels like it's taking forever.

I was just thinking about this. How different we feel about such a well defined matter time actually is. I mean even Bob Dylan obviously have had different experiences with the subject of time. 

Right now it's "Time Passes Slowly", for me anyway, being at work but not being 100% well at the same time. Having to go to work to do a lot, and all you can manage to think of during the day is sneaking away and go to bed, totally unnoticed. 

I was never sick enough to forget the daily snap, though. I even think it might be a fine one for once. Nothing like a masterpiece, maybe, but fine for sure.
I looked even further, seeing a few frames I might try to capture in the days to come. See we're still stuck in Nigg, Scotland, and there seems to be a few frames shouting for me in the area. 
I guess I'll spoil them anyway, but they might be worth a try. 

I went through a few new (to me anyway) photo blogs the last few days. Nothing like this one, of course, but still a few of them were quite good I have to say.

I just started writing on another camera review, believe it or not. I don't know if I will ever finish it, just because I don't think I will ever write something useful to anyone wanting to know my kind of stuff about cameras anyway. You see you have to find the right words, and you have to use some time to get them words right. Besides, why should I write reviews worth nothing when there's a bunch of great people writing everything worth to know about them anyway?

Just have a look at this thing from Jim over the big ocean and quite a bit inland, in Indeapolis, USA. I know, it's dangerous reading because the GAS thing coming sneaking into your brains and all. 

It's OK, though. I can't help myself from looking either. 

A good thing is that I think I might have landed on what I got and seem to be quite happy anyway. I don't need any more cameras as I seem to have what I need, and probably a few more in addition.

One of the last days at home I went inside my wifes office though, just to grab a cuppa and a little chat with Kjell (the head of the HSE dept.), an English Setter. A nice chap that one. 

His office mate started talking about cameras though, because one of his old relatives used to own a few nice ones. That's all he knew, of course. I mean who on earth would be walking around remembering names and models and things like that anyway? Unless you're a bit more than average interested, of course. 

At least he had decided that the cameras, if he could find them somewhere inside that big box containing stuff from that relative, would be handed over to me. If I could use them, that is.

I mean if they work I can definately use them, but if not they will be returned. If he can find them someday, of course. 

It's a bit mixed feelings, actually, having cameras handed over this way. I don't know why, because if you look at it in a bit different perspective it's just like getting anything else handed over. I mean what's the difference anyway to someone that can't or will not use them, ever? 

Well, first of all we have to see what the box contains. 

If anything at all, for all we know.

My cameras, and why they look like they do

I was thinking about it Saturday, when we had a job to do in the crane. It was a job that was new to the other engineers, and I went with them just to stand by and check. I brought the Nikon FM2 just because I had it down in the engine control room anyway at the moment. I snapped a few frames as well, as the weather was a bit on the interesting side. Wet and cold, and freezing engineers mostly used to work under deck in a some sort of controlled environment.

The second engineer having a break and listen to some talk, talk, talk... and probably loosing his patience soon after the snap was done. That's just life as it is. Ilford PAN400@1600 ASA. 

When the job was done the crane driver wanted a couple of words with me, so I climbed up the ladder still with my camera attached to my hand via some strap I made the last time I was at work. By the time I was back down in the engine control room I noticed that another few scratches, marks and dents were added to the thing. Mostly on the outer ring of the lens this time. 
Maybe I should have snapped a few of the crane driver up there as well, just to make it worth the couple of dents I managed to give the old thing?
I don't know.
But I know one thing for sure. My cameras are at least going places, and that's quite important I think. You will never be able to snap anything halfway decent if your camera is staying at home all the time.
Just think about it; we usually carry our brand new smartphones around in our pockets all the time, and they usually cost half a fortune these days. In comparison a worn old film camera can be had for next to nothing. 
So that's why I carry them around and let them bump into steel ladders and whatever. Usually it's OK as long as nothing hard hits the front of the lens. A good lens cover is usually a nice thing to have when you use things a bit rough.

The electrician caught just between all his talk, talk, talk and things like that. Still Ilford PAN400@1600 ASA. Contrasty and grainy, but you can still pick out a few details on a good day.

Second hand value? It's nothing I care too much about anyway as that's not the reason why I got my cameras. I bought them to use them, and if I would sell them one day the new owner will have to take a few minor issues or signs of former use as a part of the deal. 
I'm just telling you because some dude obviously did not like the way I kind of carelessly used the old thing outside in the rain and the wind and things. 
I know for a fact that most of my cameras has been tested in rougher conditions than this one, many times.

Some time well spent at the office today

It's Saturday, and not too much happening over here in Nigg, Scotland. Not even workwise, as you might already know I've been a bit on the sick side the last few days. I'm better now, so I'll survive this one as well.
But with energy on the lower side I have used the day well. At least I think so myself.
I have been checking out a few photographers and what they are able to get out of a roll of Ilford PAN400 should they ever feel like pushing the thing a couple of steps. Besides a lot of visible grain and tons of contrasts there's a few of them getting a whole bunch of other good stuff out of them as well, which could be good for me as that's what I'm doing in my 365@50 project these days.
I'm on day 35 now, and had to swap to a fresh film for tomorrows snap as some hickup obviously happened during the loading of the film on new years eve. Don't ask, please...

Oh, and why did I point my camera in this direction, you may ask? Well, it's just what you do sometimes when you have just loaded a new film and need to get to the start of the thing. Especially valid for the Nikon F3, as it's a container of one of the most stupid inventions ever, the light meter that refuses to take a measurement until the first frame has been reached. Anyway, when I'm outside I don't care too much, because I know my Shady 4 rule well enough to use my eyes and make a decent enough exposure without the light meter. It's a bit worse inside the cabin in the evening on board the ship. And nope, these looks nothing like Clare's shoes at all. It's because they're mine.
Nikon F3, Ilford PAN400@1600

Anyway, I've been all over the interweb thing during the day to do some checks, and at one point I stumbled upon Verda Sigura, a photographer from Istanbul of all places. I don't think these are done on film at all, but I still like the snaps for some reason. At least I like a lot of them, and that's something to take on board anyway. If nothing else it's great to feel something again when looking at something that hits you in some kind of way.
I think it's something about the simplicified rendering of the complexity of the human being, the more or less total lack of tones and the quite strong and a bit overdone contrasts that kind of does the trick. And then there's the fact that they are quite strong and well done snaps as well. I would say that's about just as important.

Snapped one day during the yard stay just before Christmas. One of the workers from the yard making up a bunch of new hydraulic hoses for the ship. Lifeboat david's need that sort of things renewed every now and then, as some of us will know. I was walking around inspecting things and brought the old F3 just in case something popped up, so I sort of leaned towards a railing or something and snapped this one. Ilford PAN400@1600

So, I'm filling myself with some sort of inspiration again, which is a great feeling. Nothing less. We probably need some kind of reset from time to time.
I also had a look at a few blogs, as usual, and have been waiting a few days for a couple of great examples of contact sheets from over at Michaels place in the North East Liberties, of Northern Ireland. Those great examples really makes me want to haul some paper out whenever I get home from here, and start producing some contact sheets myself as well. I think he's on the right track here, the good Michael from the other side of the fjord, even though we should know that from way back in time if it was not for our old age, or something. It's actually been said and gospeled all the time that we should make a contact sheet out of our films before we start wasting paper. I know, I know... 
Still it somehow feels like some sort of waste of time, in some way. Because you don't actually produce anything for anyone to see, other than for yourself to study hard with your glasses on and what have we all. They're like some sort of thumbnails you will not be able to enlarge, no matter how badly you like to. Still, it's a wise thing to do, so I might just as well use the next few weeks to get used to the thought of it. 

Tomorrow I'm off for a walk if the weather is on the dry(ish) side. Been quite dreich today, to tell you the truth. I'd rather stay dry for the next few days as I don't like to catch that bloody cold again. Fever and stuff is no good to any man, and I should know that well enough by now. 
I might even tell you all about everything some time tomorrow, if the health still is good and all that.

Plans, and roughly what they seem to be worth

I went home from work just before New Year, as you might remember. Was scheduled to stay at home for nine weeks because of the hard times in the business and things like that. And the charterer of the ship had decided to move the scheduled crew change with one week, making it nine weeks at home for me, this time. 
At least that was the plan, but as we all know very well, plans are not always something worth thinking too much about. So here I am, suddenly back on board the ship again. The other guy had to call in sick, so what else can one do than just step in when needed. 
It's great to be able to step in when needed, believe me, but it usually comes with a pretty obvious backside as well in a job where "stepping in" means you are going to be away for at least two weeks, or most likely 4 weeks. OK, we are used to stay away for 4 weeks at a time, so that's really not an issue either. Plans, would be the biggest issue, I think. 
Things you planned to do when at home, and things and work you had started to do but just have to drop dead and run away for four weeks. That's an issue, actually.
I had a bathroom going on, as you might remember. Lucky is the wife who will be forced to stay for a few more weeks at the cottage instead of going home!
And what's going to happen further through the year? Is it even any point in making plans at all, anymore? 

Another one from around Christmas time. Containers, rubbish and the superstructure of the Subsea Viking. All duly snapped up on that roll of Kodak T-max 100 I had to play with this day. Seemed like a nice enough idea to waste film on this frame at the time, even though I'm not absolutely sure when I see it now. Still, it's done and posted and nothing to think back on. I would really love to walk around a place like this in the company of a great photographer one day, just to see how a pro would solve something like this, or maybe just skip the whole idea of snapping the frame at all, and why. I might need to find a nice little workshop or something to join, at some point. Or just go out and practice on my own would probably make a great starting point.

And then there's the films. You know the collection of exposed 120 films, and the couple of 135 sized things awaiting to feel the bite of some old Rodinal or maybe even something a bit more fancy on a good day.  Well, I would not hold my breath to see the results from them if I were you guys. Just saying...

Oh... and I found a few lines again. Strickt lines, contrasts, bits and pieces and what have we all. It's nothing to print for the wall and such, though. I realize that...

And just to really top it all off I got really sick on my trip inside the car from Aberdeen to Nigg in Cromarty Firth, Scotland today. I got a suspicion why I got sick, though.
You see I went to do some babysitting the other day. Tuesday I think (my feverish brain trying to figure things out here...). He was sick, the little lad, and the mother had to go to school to get a couple of very important things done, and I thought it would be great to be able to help her out. And it very much was, as we had a great few hours spent together, me and the grandson. We spent most of the time taking a very close look at a couple of nice cameras, as he found them a bit more interesting than all the other toys spread around the house. The F3 was on top of the list, obviously, as there's bits to press and push all over that camera body. And then there was the lenses and everything. Focus rings on the 35 and 50mm thing were easy enough to operate to give them full score, at least that's what I think he meant... I spent a conciderable ammount of time to clean the front elements of those things after I got home, but it was very much worth it,
But I think I degress a bit. OK, point is that he was sick, and now I'm sick. I think I'm a lot sicker than he was. I feel no good at all, to be honest.

I don't even know why I grabbed this one, and in three slightly different versions as well just to really top it off. Probably the angle of that slope of rocks and that tree against the sky, or maybe it was the sum of everything, but I'm not sure anymore. I doubt I noticed that little poodle, because that could have been used to do something maybe. Still it's a bit late for that now, as I hopefully never will see this place again, ever. Again it's something originating out of american T-max 100 film snapped using a japaneese camera.

That could also be the reason why there's not too much signs of positive stuff inside this post.
I might come back in a few days with some flowers and sunshine. At least I really hope I do.
But OK, since you ask I can say a couple of great things going through my brain as I discovered where the ship was laid up this time, as I've seen the place from the sea a lot of times and always wanted to go here but never have had the opportunity. 
I hope to get out of the secured area around this harbour one of the few next days, as we are scheduled to stay here for 10-12 days or something like that. 
Another good thing (I hope) is that I brought film, and cameras.
As you would when you have a nice little 365@50 project going on. First film is getting close to finished folks, so will be among the ones getting a bath when I get home, at some point.