I have done a “thing”.

On Tuesday (the day after the storm) I popped into town to visit Inverness Darkroom, a part of WASPS, at the old High School. The darkroom facilities themselves are pretty encompassing, and the people I met were all charming. Today I filled out the membership form, paid my dues and in a couple of weeks I will go in and attempt to develop film for the first time since 1994!

This is all part and parcel of going analogue and embracing the full process of creating art by hand. I don’t want my work to be computer-generated, I want to add more meaning and more of myself to my more artistic output!

Unfortunately… or perhaps fortunately… my big DaYi 617 system will be at least another couple of weeks working it’s way over from Hong Kong (and then through the dreaded customs which will probably make an already expensive piece of kit super expensive!). As a result I have picked up a little “lo-fi” camera in the form of a Lomography Pocket Sprocket which creates panoramas on 35mm film. The lenses are made of plastic and the quality is “variable” if I am being kind. But it will allow me to run a couple of films and play with some ideas whilst waiting for the more substantial kit.

The wealth of 35mm film is actually really inspiring! When I was shooting there was Agfa, Kodak, Fuji and Ilford readily available. Each had a couple of choices of emulsions, and that was about it. Now there is a vast range in 120 format and a mind boggling choice in 35mm to the extent I am now thinking that a quality 35mm system is now going to be required. Whether that is the long dreamed of XPan or not remains to be seen! I think I may be persuaded to get a more “normal” medium format too… and then I will nodoubt be opening the doors to the world of Large Format later. When I have a studio bigger than a shoe box!

Things are progressing though, and tomorrow I have a meeting with a company interested in working with me to build my gallery and art business. This was supposed to be a slow burn, but it is proving anything but!