Best Day Out In Scotland

Robert Louis Stevenson had a grudge against the Scottish weather, in particular here on the east coast, which he described as having 'one of the vilest climates under heaven'. Here is a shot taken at the end of July looking across to the promenade in Kirkcaldy. RLS got the summer spot on: 'shifty and ungenial'. The cold sea fog is called the haar and it appears out of the east, a spiteful gift from the north sea when the sun shines and dares to warm our faces. I've got it into my head that we must somehow anger the sun god, to whom I am particularly worshipful.

Untitled

But they're shells, ok. More from my wild Saturday night in with the scanner, 2 bottles of wine and some black fabric. Does life get any better than this? The effect from direct scanning is comfortingly old-fashioned and lends the image quite a painterly feel. My thought of the week is this: How far has digital equipment really enabled us to travel?

Walking

The act of walking alone along the sea shore remains one of the great pedestrian romantic traditions. This was taken between West and East Wemyss, Fife, last weekend. Some asked me recently about why I don't just use digital for all my photos. My response was I do - I scan negatives and use the internet to display images. I often use a digital slr. The discussion got on to one of the percieved great advantages of digital imaging, that of being able to see your image straight away. I admit there a real advantages here and the digital slr gets me taking photos of things that I would have given up on with a film camera. Equally valid though, I pointed out that there is another kind of memory card, in the mind, and that 'card' carries more resonance than the electronic one. Film negatives are latent images.They need to be developed, worked on, and I think that's often how the brain works, if you embrace a little patience and allow yourself to daydream. Like you do walking along a beach, alone.

the art of cheap cameras (1)

Here are some pictures from the first roll of film taken with my 'new' point and shoot, a Rollei Prego with a fixed 35mm lens. It cost £5.01 from Ebay and has no instructions and smells of pipe tobacco. But hey, it's a point and shoot. Having said that it does have some rather nifty little modes, like the ability to take a photo overy 30 secs, 10 mins or 30 mins. The film is Agfa apx100 in xtol for those of you that are interested, and I've made a few photoshop tweaks. My favourite is the one of the church and collapsed shed. Somehow the roof stayed in tact.

I am in search of the camera I can have with me at all times and thought I'd try a few out so the Rollei is the first and is on trial. I'm already a fan as I have a Rolleiflex TLR which is nothing short of fantastic. In spite of partly embracing digital I still get annoyed by 0's and 1's inability to restrain tonal ranges. A lot of my images are taken by the sea and digital just seems to blow out. My ideal scenario - a small, palm sized, film PAS with a class lens and a shutter with no lag.

Shorelines

A construct

An attempt at public art on the shoreline with a found, broken half of a picnic cup and a patterned rock. I guess I could call it a temporary installation as I don't think it will last the next tide. There's a spooky face just to the right of the cup.