Please, check your batteries now!

Over the years I've seen countless old cameras brought to me by my students. It's always disheartening to see an otherwise mechanically healthy example that has been destroyed by leaky batteries. It's an all too familiar tale, and you can imagine the disappointment on the student's face when they learn about their camera's fate.

It's been some time since I have used my Leica, life and lockdown conspiring to make this so. The other day I had a strange urge to check it, and, remembering a social media post by Sandeep Surmal, I opened up the battery compartment.

The Leica M6 TTL takes two 1.55V silver cells. The back of the cells were nice and shiny and there was no obvious evidence of leakage. However, when I turned them over I could see that they were just starting to turn, the first acid seepage coming through. I took them out and there was no obvious damage to the battery compartment. Wow, crisis averted!

So, I implore you at this busy time of year to check your cameras. The ones that have sat idle for some time are particularly vulnerable. It's not just cameras that are on this list. Think of light meters and flash units too. You never know, doing this may just save an expensive piece of equipment from an all too familiar fate.

Adventures in large format (blog update)

Greetings from Richard Pickup Photography. It’s been some time since I’ve posted a blog update, so I’d like to let you know what I’ve been up to.

By referencing my adventures in large format in the title of this post, I’m tempted to describe a general ‘slowing down’ in my photography work. Perhaps this is indeed the cliché: you get the large format camera; you slow down. Well, yes and no.

The full work print, ready for inspection. The shot was made with Ilford HP5+ 5x4 film.

There’s no denying that I’ve taken far fewer images of late, and that I haven’t produced many finished prints. Unquestionably, doing much more large format work has had an influence on me, and of course it does force one to shoot differently. I am however contemplative and experimental by nature, so the full story is somewhat more nuanced.

I’ve been very busy in the darkroom. I’ve been enjoying using the Intrepid Enlarger, able as I now am to revisit the somewhat large stockpile of 5x4 negatives I’ve accrued since beginning this work in 2017. While printing one particularly difficult negative, I put some pre-flashing to use which prompted a re-appraisal of several older negatives I’d effectively given up on. This is surely one of the joys of darkroom: as your skills develop you inadvertently find solutions to old problems. There’s also so much aesthetic room for manoeuvre in our printing choices that it simply makes sense to go back every now and again.

Using the Intrepid Enlarger to ‘scan’ a 5x4 negative. I used a DSLR camera mounted on a Kaiser copy stand to photograph it.

Another aspect of the Intrepid Enlarger that I’ve been putting to good use is its digital scanning abilities. The LED panel has a wonderful, bright and even light which makes it a great source when combined with a copy stand. The metal negative carriers are a joy to use, and hold negatives flat so they can be photographed (and therefore digitised). This has been another access route to accumulating images from my negatives.

A selection of Intrepid metal negative carriers.

Being in experimental - or contemplative - mode, I’ve been giving thought to darkroom methodology, too. I have some thoughts to share with you in a post for a later date, so watch this space. Producing multiple versions of multiple negatives certainly makes the darkroom worker reflect on efficient working methods. Like I tell my students, this is artistic creation - and labour.

Long Mountain Centre, Shrewsbury. Shot on HP5+ 5x4 film and scanned with the Intrepid Enlarger.

There’s little question that this website helps to enrich my primary job as a photography lecturer, but it’s not all one way traffic. I’ve been inspired by an improvised camera obscura design that a student produced. I built my own cardboard prototype, and have been gazing wistfully at flickering inverted images in various locations. Perhaps some of these will surface on social media before too long.

Casting an eye beyond the darkroom red light (it does happen from time to time), I notice some important changes and developments in the industry. Ilford’s product line refresh is noteworthy, especially as they’ve created a fifth generation of darkroom paper. Naturally, I’ll be investigating. Other companies continue to innovate and introduce new products and, the invasion of viruses notwithstanding, the Photography Show in Birmingham is set to showcase even more analogue this year. We are increasingly spoilt for choice. What a time to be engaged with photography, in whatever form.

Can you say why you love black and white film in one image?

Can you say why you love black and white film in ONE image? Pls RT.@ILFORDPhoto @EMULSIVEfilm @BWPMag #believeinfilm #filmisnotdead #blackandwhitephotography #blackandwhite #35mm #mediumformat #largeformat pic.twitter.com/dB3VhKjYW7

— Richard Pickup (@richard_pickup) December 15, 2018

I asked this question on Twitter the other day and the response has been overwhelming.

So many interesting images were posted by way of reply, and I’ve begun to think they really deserve a home. I’m therefore going to create a gallery blog post, with a little modest commentary (like I did for #Treephotogallery).

If you replied with an image, I’d like your permission to include it in the post. Please send me a direct message on Twitter signalling your permission, or use the contact form on this website. If you have not yet submitted an image and want to, either reply to the original post or get in touch directly. Don’t forget to signal your permission for publication too.

The small print:

Participants agree to publication on this website, and therefore license me, without charge, free and unhindered use of their image. The copyright will of course remain with the photographer. I may not be able to use all images due to space (and time). If your work is not selected, please note this is not a verdict on your work. Naturally, my own eye and preferences will also be at work.

Adventures in large format update

As the sun beams down here in a positively Mediterranean England, it’s time to update you on my latest adventures in large format. Having taken possession of my lovely new Intrepid 10x8 camera (you may have seen my unboxing video in an earlier post), I’ve been steadily working away, and I’m now beginning to see some pleasing results.

I have been on several shoots, mainly in the beautiful wooded environs of Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. I’ve also spent a lot of time in darkroom, both developing and printing. Some things about 10x8 are already familiar to me, such as camera craft and exposure, and I’ve been happy to continue to practise those. Indeed, I’m enjoying the very precise control that shooting one (large) sheet of film at a time brings. My spot meter is happy to get an outing.

The lush young ferns of Cannock Chase, Staffordshire.

Not everything has been straightforward (I had the same experience with 5x4, so that’s no surprise), and I’ve been learning at every stage. 10x8 is even more demanding than 5x4 physically (you carry more), and if image management is important in 5x4, it is at least as important, if not more so, with 10x8.

The old wisdom says that as the formats gets bigger it’s harder to shoot but easier to print. There’s something in this, and certainly interpreting the tones in big 10x8 contact prints has been a joy. Contact printing itself has, however, not been an easy process. I am starting to see why some darkroom workers still project a 10x8 negative, even to make a 10x8 print. It’s actually a slow and cumbersome process that poses some challenges whilst dodging and burning. The results are steadily appearing however, so I’m still optimistic and excited.

The rear of the Intrepid, showing the back in landscape position and with film holder inserted.

So what of the Intrepid 10x8 camera? I’d like to write a detailed report in the near future, so forgive me for being a little coy for now. Suffice it to say it has already produced some technically excellent negatives and has not let me down in the field (actually, there was one exception to that, on which I will say more later).

The second shot I made was a studio portrait. I wanted to test the camera in a studio situation too (much as I did with the 5x4 version). This was the first negative that revealed the sheer magic of 10x8 for me, although as I’m suggesting, more have followed. I’m going to keep shooting and printing, so as ever I’m working towards the best prints I can make. Watch this space for some new work, as well as that review on the impressive Intrepid Field Camera. 
 

Blog note

Some photography blogs are as autobiographical as they are directed to photography. I have deliberately played down the autobiographical on these pages, for better or worse. However, sometimes the work and the author come together whether one likes it or not.

I haven’t been very active on these pages of late, so if you are a regular reader who has been checking in for new material, I apologise. My teaching has been all-encompassing this term, and Richard Pickup Photography HQ has at last received some long-overdue attention in the form of some pretty hefty DIY. I must admit that even a weekly blog schedule can be challenging at times, life simply intervenes.

For the time being I intend to stick to my broad weekly schedule, although it is something that I may review in the not so distant future. In any event, I will let you know. As I have hinted at recently I have some new photography adventures planned, and so hope to pick up the quantity of posts soon.

Thank you for your patience.
 

Merry Christmas!

Merry christmas and a happy new year to all my readers. 

2017 has been a bumper year in my journey with photography, not least through this website and the many kind people who have supported and interacted with it. I’d like to say a big ‘thank you’ if you have been reading and hope you will continue to follow my photography adventures as they progress.

I have been especially busy with my teaching of late, so I’m aiming for a little injection of new content in the new year or shortly after. Prominent in this will be an expansion of my large format endeavours, as well as some work that will come out of a trip to a far away location.

Statistics don’t always tell the whole story, but I’d to like end this post by sharing some relating to this website. The second year of Richard Pickup Photography has been one of huge expansion, there’s no getting away from it, and this is borne out by the figures. There have been 6279 unique visitors, 8926 visits and 15400 page views. I suspect these numbers are small in internet terms (although everything is relative), but they strike me as impressive for a niche, personal website with a heavy leaning to black and white images and analogue media.
 

Quiet on the blog front (and large format frustrations)

Regular readers will have noticed it's been somewhat quiet on the blog front around here. Apologies for the small hiatus, it's been a product of several factors, not least the Easter holidays (and a spot of long overdue DIY at home).

Speaking of holidays, I did have a short break with my family in a splendid woodland location. This place lent itself well to large format photography, and I enjoyed some time continuing with said project. I have yet to develop the exposures I made, so I can't comment on any results. I can't say I settled into the process with any ease, indeed the opposite was most probably true. I noticed a few things.

Large format is a physically demanding discipline. Even with my lightweight Intrepid camera (and admittedly not-so-lightweight old school Manfrotto tripod), the gear plus modest hiking led to some tired muscles (ok, sedentary me needs to get used to this bit). I really wanted to be inspired .... but wasn't. Lastly, and on reflection, my natural instinct was to make all the while like a small format photographer: look, shoot, move on, repeat. Large format just doesn't let you do this. Numerous times I set up quickly (camera onto tripod, metering etc.), only to turn my nose up at the scene, or pack up to the pull of 'what might be over the next hill'. I was going just too fast for LF.

This isn't a verdict on LF for me, just where I am right now. From time to time I had a whiff of the possible satisfactions of the format, but for now they remain just that, a promise of satisfactions to come. The learning curve isn't just about the gear or the pace of shooting a single frame. Like all types of photography, there's a whole MO and frame of mind.

I hope you all had a pleasant Easter.

P.S. If anybody comes across a cable release in the wood pictured above, it's mine. Not the last one I'll lose, I'm sure.

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Tone: a primer

A happy new year to all my readers!

Well, 2017 is here and I'm happy to announce a little series of blog posts I shall be making over the coming weeks on tone in black and white photography.

I shall be writing these posts with a view to offering a primer on tone, something for the beginner, for sure, but hopefully of interest to the more experienced photographer too. As well as making some essential definitions, I shall be considering ways in which tone is of crucial importance in black and white photography, looking at ways it can be manipulated, and examining typical contrast 'recipes'. I will end with a series of exercises, a little tonal work out if you like, aimed at giving anyone who follows them a deeper appreciation of tonal values.

A rough schedule is as follows:

Post 1 (today): Introducing tone

Post 2: A sliding scale of grey

Post 3: Contrast & dodging and burning

Post 4: Recipes of tone

Post 5: Games to play (the exercises)

Please, as ever, your feedback and comments on the posts are welcome. As hinted at above, you'll find the first post immediately following this one.

Merry Christmas

Wishing all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Thank you to all who have followed my blog and images this inaugural year of my website. The support and encouragement I have received has been huge and touching.

Here's looking forward to new photography adventures in 2017. 

Be a better photographer - a postscript

So, today I have posted the tenth, and final, instalment of my little weekly mini series of photography tips. Writing them has been enjoyable, and I have learnt about myself as a photographer and potential blogger.

My website is not very old, and while I can monitor visitor numbers to some degree, and have linked to social media, it is not easy to tell how my writing has been received (or how many readers it has had). I suspect the lot of the blogger is fundamentally a lonely one, especially in the early stages of a blog’s life. Perhaps the game is changing too: maybe the blogs with large audiences were formed when such things were possible, but now a proliferation of blogs means a smaller and more specialised audience for each new one.

A writer is naught without an audience, and so for this reason I invite feedback on the ‘better photographer’ series, or any other posts for that matter. The contact link in the menu above is an easy way to get in touch, or there are sections for comments under specific posts. The latter are moderated and so there may be a short delay before they appear.

Some useful questions are: Which bits did you like? How did you find the format, the length, flavour? Are there things I didn’t cover that you would like to see? Were the tips helpful? Do you want more? Would you like to see some beginners introductions to photo topics? If so, which ones? 

The content of such a website is always going to be the responsibility of the owner, and of course I reserve the right to make it indelibly mine (it wouldn’t be Richard Pickup Photography else, and I have only begun to scratch the surface of what I have to offer). I plan to address darkroom more than I have to date, and certainly more on digital inkjet printing. Modest reviews of equipment and papers will continue. 

At the same time it is abundantly clear from my experience with social media that collaborative and community based dialogue is on the rise (this may link to my suspicion of more numerous, but more specialised photography sites). I welcome this social aspect, and thus if you wish to stick around and get involved, you have an opportunity to shape what I do. I hope, then, that an audience and indeed a community, with you a part of it, will emerge. If you think my content is for you, please do follow and voice your opinion.