Four More, From Film #02 of 365@50

Oh ho, yes. I also have the second film from The Project developed and ready for posting. 

These four, and the few next to come, is from Nigg in Scotland. Just where Cromarty Firth becomes a firth up there on the north end. 

I was here, as you might remember, some time ago now. With the ship and everything, and we stayed for quite a few days. 

You better brace yourselves!

#036 

#037

#038

#039

It's ice cold over here right now!

Lerwick, Shetland.
Alongside Greenhead Base and everything is well, it seems. We came here a couple of days ago, but we've been busy enough trying to get a few bits and pieces up and running again. There's a million systems on this rather big lump of steel as you might understand, meaning there's always something not quite as good as it should be. I guess that's why there's four of each and every pump or thing on board. If something breaks, we just start it's twin component and everything is running as intended as by magic. Some day you just have to start doing something with them broken units, of course. I think yesterday and today has been those days. 
I'm a bit fed up on the subjects welding, grinding and hydraulic oil after todays session I must admit. Let's hope I'm looking at things from a bit more positive side for tomorrow. 

I was in town one evening. Waiting for the wife to finish work to drive her back home. It was raining, and I thought I could just as well try to get one or two snaps of light on rain drops. It was a good night for that kind of exersise. I got a vague feeling these were done on one of the rangefinders, but I'm not 100% sure.

I've even been walking about on the quayside to take a few snaps. Just had to get out to get some fresh air when the working day was done today. The light was dull though, hence probably the photos will be just that as well. There might be one or two, so we will have to wait and see as usual. 
The daily pick had to be from the workshop today. Bits and pieces and stuff... overloaded work bench and all that crap, you know. It looks like somebody threw in a medium sized bomb, shut the door and ran off. Looks like we got some cleaning up to do before we get home. 
Not many days left now, by the way. I got tickets for Wednesday, and really looking forward to get home. I just hope the weather will turn a wee bit warmer soon, because this is more or less like mid winter. It even snowed a few times both today and yesterday. We don't want snow now, just saying. We want spring, and then we want summer. And we want a nice one, because we deserve it :))

Quick Report from where decisions lives shortly

Just a quick one from out at sea.
Looks like we're getting closer to the end of this job now as we're just sitting on top of a valve (some sort of christmas tree) to check that the applied pressure is not going to sink during the next 24 hrs. Or, we are actually 12 hours into the check already. 
Ever been watching paint drying? OK. This is exactly the same thing. One camera, one ROV and one manometer showing a steady reading, as it should. I mean, how many hours would you actually need to make sure your car tyres didn't leak? And would you ever dare taking them out on the road again after making sure that everything was OK? They could start leaking just 20 meters down the drive for all you know. 
Nah... let's disconnect the whole thing and get ashore. That's my view of it anyway.
Seems that the client is of a bit different meaning, and it's his money after all...

Another one from the Cromarty Firth and the walk on any other Sunday during the cold period a couple of months ago. Nikon with 105mm lens attached.

There's people with influence on board at the moment. Which obviously gives me a lot of headache. A few days ago I was told we're going to Peterhead after this job is done, so I ordered some diesel just to make sure we can make it through the next little job we're due on. 

Then they suddenly decided that Lerwick on Shetland was a much better option, so I had to cancel my order of 400 000 litres in Peterhead and make a new order of the same amount in Lerwick. Then they didn't know where to go at all... so I had to cancel the order of 400 000 litres in Lerwick, and a few minutes later they suddenly decided that Lerwick sounds great after all...

So, I gave up the whole thing and decided to just wait and see where I will wake up whenever they decide to sail in. 

Looks like we're staying in for a few days anyway so there will probably be time enough to get it all on board when we get there... wherever that would be. 

I must be a bit stupid, as I should know these guys well enough to not jump on the first thing I hear them saying while their goal sill is days ahead... 

Same place, same walk. A proper mainland fence with additional barbed wire on top and everything. I couldn't see any obvious reason for it though, as all you had to do was to go around it if you pleased.

The road. The steep one. Nigg, Scotland. Late January 2017.

In the middle of where it all happens

I'm rather stuck out at the Brent field on the UK sector of the North Sea at the moment. This field has been in operation since 1976 and there has been a conciderable amount of oil and gas delivered from this place up through the years. There are four rigs in production on this field, but it seems that it's hay days are over and the field is about to get decommissioned over the next decade or so. Everything will be removed, and not a trace left behind either above the surface or at the sea bed. That's what they're saying, anyway.

A couple of snaps from Nigg, again. The same jackup rig as seen both in moonlight and sunlight, as I went walking around this area for quite a few days the last time I was at work. There's nothing much to say about them other than the obvious. The first one is from the old rangefinder handheld at about 1/2 sec or so done on some rough Kentmere 400 film. The daylight snap I think is from a Nikon FM2 on FP4 film.

I just went outside to have a quick look around the horizon, and were able to count 24 rigs quite easily visible even though the weather and visibility is not 100% perfect. I know we are close to the norwegian borderline, so a few of these 24 rigs are surely norwegian ones. I can easily see and recognize the Statfjord (A, B and C) and a couple of other norwegian fields, I've been there a lot some six to eight years ago you know, and they have not changed much obviously.

Oh, and about dogs then;
I'm a dog person. For some reason they seem to connect with me in some kind of strange way. The two above came over to me the last time I was walking around the area of Nigg in Scotland. Came out of nowhere on the beach they did, and one of them carried a ball which was placed right in front of my feet before the two of them took the above shown position with their eyes glued to the round thing. 
I played with them for ten minutes or so before the poor owner came to some sort of rescue. A fairly aged man with not very much oomph back in his legs, but with a very clear voice and head I should hasten to add. We talked for about half an hour as I also tried to keep the two four legged ones busy by throwing the ball in every thinkable direction. 
The ball disappeared, and I thought that would be the right moment to sneak away, as the two dogs did not want me out of there for some reason and right now they  were very busy trying to locate the ball.
I left and had probably walked for about 500 meters or so when the busiest of the two dogs suddenly appeared again, with the ball ready of course. 
So I turned around and walked back as I constantly threw the ball into the direction of the owner. Nothing worked. I actually had to stay at the car for the old man to get the dogs back inside of it. 
He told me he have had dogs for about seventy years, and that he had never experienced something like this before... ever. 
I was more or less waiting for him to ask me if I would take them, but luckily he never did. I mean what good would ever come out of that? The dogs would have to learn the norwegian language, or I had to speak some strange scottish dialect for them to understand me and everything. Nah, that would just get very frustrating for some of us in the end. 

Seems like we finally have a plan, sort of...

Another couple of snaps coming your way folks. Just negative scans, as per usual. I need to get something done about that some time soon, of course. Can't see it happen at any point during the next two or three weeks as I will still be out on the big blue for a little while more. 

Looks like I'm coming towards the end of film #03 of the 365 project as well. Only a few more frames and I'll have to change the roll and put in a fresh one. I got a couple of rolls inside my bag, so don't worry about that. I'm a bit in doubt though if I better slow it down to 400 ASA at this time of year, or if I just should carry on with the same push through the full project. 

I think I'll sleep on that one, to be honest. 

The plan forward when it comes to work seems to be something like this:

- Stay on this current job for another five or six days

- Go in to Lerwick for a quick stop, some fuel and get rid of stuff on deck

- Go out again to more or less the same place for a couple of days work

- Go to Peterhead to demob stuff and send the client people away (that's home) for a while

- Go home on the 27th

- Get back on the 25th of May, probably down south in Great Yarmouth

- Sail north to get a job done somewhere east of Shetland

- Sail over to Ireland to do some work off the coast over there

- Crew change and go home from Killybegs, Ireland.

That's the plan, anyway. What things looks like when reality kicks in, nobody knows. That's as per usual in this kind of game, as you might have come to learn. 

At least I must say I really hope to get the chance to get a quick glimpse of Ireland, at last...

The same scaffolding as posted a few days ago, but with a bit different view on the thing. Oh, and this was taken in bright sunlight with a yellow filter mounted on the fine german 35mm lens I got for the old rangefinder. 

I think this was seen through the Nikon FM2 from up the hill above Nigg, in the norhtern end of Cromarty Firth a while ago. It was a nice enough day for a walk, but I ended up going alone from the ship. Lazy folks I'm sailing with, probably. Or maybe they had work to do? I guess not, since it was on a sunday and we had been in port for quite a long time anyway. Oh well, at least this is the view you get from up there, in the middle of the hill somewhere. 

365, the last ones from film #01

The last five snaps from the first film of the 365@50 project. 

All sorts of stuff, as you see... but that's the way it gets when you're just trying to document your movements in some sort of way. Nothing much interesting is going to happen. At least not for now.

#031: He was sick, this little lad, and the mother had urgent business at school at the same time. Luckily there's such things as a grandpa still at home, a couple of nice cameras to investigate, some youghurt and bananas and on top of everything a noisy old Landy to take a ride in as things got boring and no good at all. It was a nice day for the both of us, after all.

#032: Packing day. There will always be parts of this day getting the same routine done. Out to shop a few things to bring with me in the bag is one of them. Tooth paste, a couple of books or whatever I might need. I snapped this just before I took off to get things done.

#033: A long day inside the couch taking us from Aberdeen Airport all the way up to the outlet of Cromarty Firth. We stopped around here, in Elgin I think. Went into the shop so I could buy myself some medicines to try get rid of the cold the little lad obviously had transfered to me as by magic a couple of days earlier.

#034: From outside the cabin looking towards the huge buildings across the enourmous space between themselves and the ship. I's a good ten minutes walk up there, believe it or not. These buildings are really big! 

#035: Another one from just outside the cabin looking over to the outlet of Cromarty Firth on the northern side of the area. I took a walk over there the next day, or something. You'll see a snap from that event as well if you keep on watching this space...

And off we go, way to early to my taste

We just went to sea again. I did not manage to get them leg stretched this time on-shore, so let's just really hope I'll get that done next time. Far too busy doing all the things that has to be done in no time at all. Last thing I heared was a rumor that we were going to stay in Peterhead for 48 hrs. Well... we hardly stayed for 24, and at least twelve of those hours were in the middle of the night. Needless to say we got a bit busy through this day, I guess.

From my last trip to Ona, just before I went to work again. Had some weather and wind coming in during a few days, but it was not from the "right" direction. A bit more from north would have given a lot more waves. Still there was a few with some nice effects from water taken with the wind. I used one of them old Mamiya RZ67 cameras most of the time, and for this one as well. Went through a few different types of film, so no idea what this one was snapped on.

Anyway, we're on our way to sea, and there are waves. Not too bad yet, but then again we have hardly left the harbor, It's going to get worse through the night I think, but the forecast say it's going to ease off soon, so just let's hope they got it right this time. Some times they do, and some times not at all. 

From a while back this one, but also from Ona. A plant thing has seen the best of days for the year and is slowly fading away just to pop up with new strength as soon as winter is over. That would be around this time of year, I suppose. I'll try to find it next time I'm out there... This got to be a Rolleiflex snap by the look of things. I mean it's a square negative, and clearly enough it's not snapped with the DianaF plastic lens...

I just pulled myself together and payed the membership fee to the local photo club! How's that for a change of status, you think? Some say they even got a darkroom, but no one can tell me what it looks like, or what's in there. Only one way to find out, I guess. There's probably dust to be cleaned, by the rumors having leaked this way. At least I hope there's something in there to get started with, and maybe I'll even get one or two others to join in from time to time. You never know, actually, but there might be people in such a club with interest in that sort of thing. We'll find out some day. 
If it's the sort of place where everyone is sitting with their faces glued to a screen at all times I might find better things to do, but I will definitely give it a try. At least there will be guidance to get when it comes to composition and stuff like that. A place to discuss pictures, not only ones and zeros, I hope.