Category Archives: Film Photography

A Tree Of Many Trunks

Posted on by

Something very spooky and slightly haunting about this here shot I think.

I just love the freeform almost mangled shape of the tree in the foreground, most trees seem to specialise in growing upwards but this one just decided to break all the rules. I simply love the fact that instead of the bog standard rule of just one single tree trunk that most trees seem to adhere to, this particular lad decided “No, I not conforming to all your rules”. I have absolutely no idea what type of tree this actually is. I say that with great embarrassment as I trained as a cabinetmaker / furniture maker many years ago and as part of my training in college I would have had to cover tree types and the likes. Having said that I don’t think we would have covered this type of tree, can’t imagine the wood being of much use for anything other than a dolls house and furniture maybe, the trunk wouldn’t provide anything of much thickness. Maybe somebody out there will come along and tell me its some really rare ancient type of oak tree used specially for making fine delicate [and expensive] oak chairs.

If you are interested in going to visit this tree then I will let you in on a little secret. Go to the visitor centre in the Phoenix Park and then head to the small renovated castle [Ashtown Castle]. There is a big open area in front of the castle and if you look way over to your left [with the castle behind you] then you will see a lovely walkway around the perimeter of the visitor centre. This fella is over in the far corner. If you have your kids with you, then take my advice, simply sit down on the bench for a couple of minutes and hey presto you will be surrounded by squirrels, it’s great fun and they are very cheeky.

Taken on a Zenza Bronica SQ-A 120mm film camera using Ilford Xp2 Super
Printed by my very own hands in a darkroom

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)

—————————

To purchase a signed 10 x 8 inch print of this photo, just click the button below.

You can either pay directly via paypal or with your own credit card. The Prints are €25.00 each and that includes shipping to anywhere in the world. Your print will be made to order and will ship out within 48 hours.
If you would like a bigger or smaller size please don’t hesitate to email me with your requests.

Alternatively you can purchase unsigned prints or postcards of this photo from the Redbubble site from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

—————————

One Of My Trees Is Missing

Posted on by

You know you visit certain parts of the Phoenix Park too often when you pass by in a car and notice a tree is missing amongst a cluster of several hundred.

I was passing by this spot a couple of weeks ago and noticed one of the larger trees was no longer there, I didn’t have my camera with me that particular day so I promised I would go back as soon as possible. With my new found love of film photography I have started to revisit lots of familiar spots to try and capture them all over again, this time on 120mm film instead of using my digital camera. I have a digital shot of this exact spot from several years ago but its fun to go back to the same places with a different camera, I suppose by doing this I will never be finished with my Phoenix Park project. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it.

I love the texture of the tree bark, it’s something I think film captures really really well. I also find my eye constantly getting drawn to the crazy mass of trees way in the background of the photo, it’s like one of those 3d effect posters that you stare at for ages before a hidden image appears. Trust me though, there is nothing hidden in the trees.

This photo was taken on an old Russian made Kiev 6C medium format camera using Ilford Hp5 120mm film. The print was made by my very own hands in a darkroom and then scanned into a computer thing.

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)

—————————

To purchase a signed 10 x 10 inch print of this photo, just click the button below.

You can either pay directly via paypal or with your own credit card. The Prints are €25.00 each and that includes shipping to anywhere in the world. Your print will be made to order and will ship out within 48 hours.
If you would like a bigger or smaller size please don’t hesitate to email me with your requests.

Alternatively you can purchase unsigned prints or postcards of this photo from the Redbubble site from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

—————————

Never Load Film The Wrong Way !

Posted on by

Click on the photo to purchase prints or postcards

This shot comes from my most recent trip to the Phoenix Park, a day that began quite early on a very beautiful winters morning with some perfect low lying winter sunshine. I set out with a very definite plan in my head, something that I very rarely do and something that I don’t think I will ever do again. I normally just head to the park and start shooting whatever catches my attention. On this particular morning I was determined to finally capture the Wellington Monument on film, I have tried on many occasions but have never really been happy with the results. The lighting was perfect and it was far too early in the day for the usual collection of cider drinking men to find their favourite spot on the massive plinth of the structure. So I had this gigantic monument all to myself. Two hours later I sat down at the very picturesque Tea Rooms for a spot of lunch, a very satisfied individual I should add, and proceeded to empty my camera of a superbly exposed roll of film. My lunch was ordered and I decided to sit outside in the freezing cold but at least the sun was still beaming down on me. As I waited I decided to empty the camera and reload it with a fresh roll of film just so I would be all ready for round two in the afternoon.

At this point I should apologise to the two ladies sitting at the next bench with their two young children for the burst of expletives that came rushing out of my mouth when I noticed what I had actually done with the camera. As soon as I opened the back of the camera I noticed the film looked a little bit different to what I normally expect to see. It took a few seconds to figure out why it looked black on the outside instead of the usual orange I am used to. I had actually managed to load the film into the camera the wrong way around and so had spent the entire morning shooting on the protective backing paper that comes supplied with 120mm film. In short, there wasn’t a single photograph on the roll of film and to add insult to injury the entire roll of film was now completely destroyed. The last time I felt this kind of sick feeling in the pit of my stomach was the night before I was start my leaving cert exams in school, when it finally dawned on me that I really should have studied a little bit more [or even a little bit].

The only solution was to load the camera again, making sure to do it the right way this time and retrace all my steps from the previous few hours. As soon as I finished my lunch I went back to every single location but at this stage the beautiful low lying winter sun had risen in the sky and made shooting the monument virtually impossible. I feel I am destined never to get a good shot of this imposing structure but hopefully I will pluck up the courage to go back and have another go. It’s almost like a personal duel between the two of us now and I think there is only ever going to be one winner, so if you are reading this Mr Wellington Monument, I will be back to get you sometime in the future.

Taken on a Zenza Bronica SQ-A 120mm film camera using Ilford Xp2 Super
Printed by my very own hands in a darkroom

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)

—————————

To purchase a signed 10 x 10 inch print of this photo, just click the button below.

You can either pay directly via paypal or with your own credit card. The Prints are €25.00 each and that includes shipping to anywhere in the world. Your print will be made to order and will ship out within 48 hours.
If you would like a bigger or smaller size please don’t hesitate to email me with your requests.

Alternatively you can purchase unsigned prints or postcards of this photo from the Redbubble site from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

Ashtown Castle In The Visitor Centre

Posted on by

click on the image for print and postcard options

I recently spent an entire day in the area surrounding the visitor centre in the Phoenix Park. A friend had just lent me a rather beautiful medium format camera and I thought I would test it out in one of my more familiar spots.

Today’s post has absolutely nothing to do with that day or that particular camera, it does however have plenty to do with the castle you can see in the photograph.

I happened to go back to the visitor centre about two days later with my three year old son with the intention of having a bit of skit in the little maze that almost surrounds the castle. Adventurous is not the word, it totally lashed down as soon as I opened the door of the car. How do you explain to a three year old that we have to go home when he is telling me we can just go into the museum, it took me a few minutes and then I copped on that he was talking about the actual visitor centre. So up with our hoods and off we ran [well I ran, he was on my back]. I must say I have always thought the staff in the visitor centre were so pleasant, especially when you are dealing with a screaming / running three year old boy, they never tell you to keep quiet and they really seem to understand that kids need to make a little bit of noise from time to time.

On this particular day I just happened to be browsing through some of their publications on the park and I asked one of the members of staff when would be the best time to come and do a tour of Ashtown Castle [that’s the little castle in the photo]. He informed me that it’s pretty much open all the time but only for groups of three or more, well there was really only one and a half of us so I inquired if there was any particular busy period when it would be worth dropping over. I have always wanted to see inside it and never noticed that it was actually open to the public until this particular day. He said it was pretty much a case of pot luck and before I had time to reach the door he called me back and asked me if I was interested in seeing it, I didn’t want to be smart but that was why I was asking. Next thing he picks up the biggest key I have ever seen and casually asks me if I want to nip over now and have a ramble around. I was actually just about to go home and have lunch but scrapped that plan immediately and said “Hell yes my good friend”, I didn’t actually, I just said yes thank you sir.

This story is beginning to get rather long so lets speed things up a little bit. He brought us over to the castle and we spent at least an hour walking around it as he imparted his highly detailed knowledge on to me. He also had amazing patience with my son, who obviously wasn’t getting a much of a buzz from touring a restored medieval castle as I was. So, thank you Roy, if by any mad chance you are actually reading this and thank you OPW for providing such an amazing service.

I should also apologise to the staff as well, I’ll explain. Where we were entering the castle Roy had this rather odd looking metal instrument along with the giant key, after trying the key a few times he sighed and damned those pesky kids for constantly putting pebbles into the gigantic lock. He then used this odd looking hook apparatus to pick out the small stones and proceeded to unlock the door. Little did he know only ten minutes before hand we had been trying to fit stones into the very same lock, I have no idea if we were successful but I decided not to mention that particular fact, I simply added a nod of my head and agreed that some people just had no control over their kids.

Taken on a Zenza Bronica SQ-A 120mm film camera using Kodak Tri-x 400
Printed by my very own hands in a darkroom

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)

—————————

To purchase a signed 11 x 6 inch print of this photo, just click the button below.

You can either pay directly via paypal or with your own credit card. The Prints are €25.00 each and that includes shipping to anywhere in the world. Your print will be made to order and will ship out within 48 hours.
If you would like a bigger or smaller size please don’t hesitate to email me with your requests.

Alternatively you can purchase unsigned prints or postcards of this photo from the Redbubble site from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

—————————

Some Of My Favourite Trees

Posted on by

Click on the photo for purchasing options

Lets get a few facts out of the way before I go any further, I don’t own the Phoenix Park and I am not the only person who uses it………but, you knew there was a but coming didn’t you, I don’t like when things change in the park and cars are allowed to travel down paths that were once strictly only for walkers and bikes.

Ok, so they are doing work on the main road through the park so they had to make some concessions to traffic that needs to use the park but really, did you have to open up one of my favourite walks through the park. I went to take photos of this area near the papal cross with my lovely new medium format film camera and to my horror discovered cars travelling at speed in my direction as I was about to set up a tripod in the middle of the quiet roadway. To be honest when the first car came along and sounded his horn I was about to throw him a couple of my favourite words that I’m no longer allowed to use in front of my three year old son, but then I noticed that there were more behind him and one thing that was lacking from the scene was the lovely white metal barriers at the top of the road. Bleedin vandals, I first thought, can they not leave anything alone. What use could they possibly have for three small metal poles, maybe they planned on using them at the entrance to the driveway on their house to stop people stealing their car.

I make it sound like this scene went on for ages but to be completely honest it lasted no more than about twenty seconds before I made a run for it. I wasn’t going to risk getting my [borrowed] camera damaged and this guy didn’t look like he was genuinely planning on stopping completely.

I like to think I was a gentleman about this incident, but really I’m just a coward with a skinhead.

You can purchase prints or postcards of this photo from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)

Silver Tree Roots, Phoenix Park

Posted on by

click on the image to purchase prints or postcards

Am I allowed to pick my own favourite photographs on this blog or should that honour be given to others who may possibly be a little bit more objective on this matter. Well, I am going to stick my neck out on this one and tell you that this here shot is one of my favourite shots in the last few months. I think I love it so much because it was taken on my new favourite toy [that being a wonderful Bronica camera, thanks Caroline by the way, in case you are reading this] and my new favourite film [Kodak Tri-x]. I promised I would always keep the geeky photographic tech speak off this blog so I won’t get into the reasons for liking one particular film over another, I can see your eyes glaze over at the slightest mention of tonal ranges, grain size, etc, so that’s the end of that already. I will also avoid explaining the joys of the wonderfully loud clunk of the Bronica camera when you press the shutter button, I think some of the deer several miles away get a bit of a jump each time I take a photo with it.

I love this photo for many reasons but I think the first one is the over-riding silver colour in the tree bark and the roots. To be honest it is something I have noticed that seems to be lacking a wee bit with digital shots. The Canon Eos is perfect for most shots but it seems to only feature black, white and hundreds of shades of gray but for some reason there is no silver in digital images, it’s also very possible I am doing something wrong in the processing stage but that’s all behind me now.

The image was taken on the grounds of the visitor centre in the Phoenix Park, regular visitors to this blog will have noticed at this stage that I like to photograph in this area quite a lot, but if you’ve been there yourself you know I can’t be blamed for loving it.

I was actually in the park this very morning [without camera by the way] and my son and I spent about half an hour watching two young swans practising how to fly. This involved the pair of them basically running across the top of the water whilst flapping their wings frantically. It was a truly wonderful sight to see, I must admit I spent the entire time wishing they wouldn’t succeed as the noise of them running across the water was breathtaking. I’ve never seen them doing this before and I felt very lucky to have stumbled upon them, although after about five minutes my son did keep asking me what I was looking at all the time. “Look Daddy, a stick”, “Look son, a swan trying to take off”, the sticks won in the end so I duly picked myself a good stick and began beating the fallen autumn leaves until they too attempted to take to the air. I must admit I do rather enjoy a good run around in the leaves, something very invigorating about it all.

You can purchase prints or postcards of this photo from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)

Picnic Bench in the Visitor Centre, Phoenix Park

Posted on by

Phoenix Park Visitor Centre

I kid you not, this story is completely true.

A friend of mine lent me this rather beautiful Bronica medium format camera recently.
It’s a rather daunting looking beast of a thing at first look so I briefly read the manual, loaded the camera and headed to the park for the day with about twenty rolls of film in my bag. I proceeded to buy a take away coffee in the visitor centre and sat down at a picnic table to see if I could remember all the details from the manual I had read the night before. I open up the top viewing mechanism and have a look through it to see if I can start by getting my head around how to use a very different way of looking at a photograph. To start with everything in the view finder is back to front and when you move the camera everything seems to move in the wrong direction. So for example, if you want to move the camera left you need to swing it to the right, sounds complicated, well it is at first. I take my first look through the camera as it sits on the table and this very cone is sitting right back in the middle of my vision. I rapidly learned how to focus the lens, don’t forget everything is manual on this camera, there are no automatic buttons you can press to do anything for you. After that the only thing I changed about this scene was to move the camera slightly closer just to make the cone a wee bit bigger in the image.

I will finish off by letting you know I managed to shot only two rolls of film in the entire day, what was I thinking by bringing so much with me in the first place. You tend to spend a lot more time actually thinking about a photograph when it’s film you are using, it’s a very different experience to shooting digitally when you can just fire off shot after shot and then worry about editing at home on the computer. I have found with film I tend to spend rather a long time looking through the camera and asking myself if this scene is actually worth capturing or is it just ok at best. I think I now take fewer pictures but my success rate has increased dramatically.

You can purchase prints or postcards of this photo from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)

Gates Of The Magazine Fort, Phoenix Park

Posted on by

Magazine Fort in Phoenix Park

These are the gates of the much neglected Magazine Fort, not too far away from the Islandbridge gates, if you ever get a chance to have a ramble around then I highly recommend it. The Magazine Fort is up on a hill and you get some really amazing views of other parts of the park along with the truly spectacular War Memorial Gardens in Kilmainham. Maybe some day I will get something going for the War Memorial Gardens but until I am finished with this project I think I will have to continue to dedicate my time to the Phoenix Park, in fairness this could take me another few years.

I really love this area of the park, there is a lovely quiet walkway to one side and then on the other side you can find the wide open expanse that is the sports playing fields. Part of me thinks it is a total shame that this wonderful building has been left to fall into such a state but it also fits in perfectly to the general feel of the park. This is a very large natural public park and most of it is simply left to its own devices, the deer run wild, the trees look after themselves etc, so there is something very fitting about this building being allowed to slowly crumble and fit into its surroundings.

On the other hand I also wonder what it would be like if it had been kept in working order and maybe turned into some kind of museum or visitor centre. Neither of those things have happened so there is no point in dwelling on the past, lets just enjoy it for what it is, there is still something beautifully desolate about the building.

Just after taking this photo I met a French man who lives and works here in Dublin having a leisurely stroll around the area on his lunch break. He noticed I was carrying around a rather large film camera and immediately produced his own film camera from his work bag. He was telling me he has just starting taking photographs on film all over again, it was nice to know I am not the only maniac who is going back in time with his equipment. I’m sure it would have been funny to overhear our conversation giving out about all the advances in the digital age and how they have almost ruined some of the simpler things in life, like using film and not having a mobile phone in your possession for a couple of hours. Its one of my little rules when I go to the park, I tell my close friends that they will have to do without me for a few hours, I leave my phone in the car and just wander aimlessly. If you are an opportunistic thief reading this I drive a …………………… and I always leave my phone, keys, money and other expensive belongings in the car, I don’t bother locking the car either, at least that way I will still have my windows intact when I come back.

You can purchase prints or postcards of this photo from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)

Phoenix Park Magazine Fort.

Posted on by

Phoenix Park Magazine Fort

It’s not a long story, it’s a short story for a change.
I took this photo with a really old medium format camera which involves lugging a large tripod to rest it on, it’s far too big to just hold in my hand. Most of the photos take at least 10 to 20 seconds to expose. This chap passed me by when I was setting everything up and then seemed to disappear around the corner. By the time I had actually pressed the button on the camera I didn’t feel the need to look up, when you have already spent 10 minutes getting everything right there really is no need for one last look, so I click the button and wait for the second click to tell me the photo has been taken. As I am waiting I do look up and see this fella strolling [with intent] right in the centre of my shot. I cursed and then patiently waited until he was gone again. I then took exactly the same photo but obviously without the annoying intruder this time.

A week later I’m in the darkroom printing enlargements and I happen to print the wrong photo, it is this one you are looking at now. I leave it to one side to dry out a bit and then work on the print without him in it. When I actually compared the two photos I have to admit I much prefer this one, the other one is fine but quite simply, it’s lacking the man.

This is one of those great instances when you think you have a great eye for photographs and a simple mistake rubbishes everything you think you know. This is something I love about photography, experts can try and teach you so much but mistakes tend to teach you so much more.

I feel I should have chased after the chap so I could put a name on him.

You can purchase prints or postcards of this photo from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)

Scene From The Visitor Centre, Phoenix Park

Posted on by

This shot was taken on the grounds of the visitor centre in the Phoenix Park. It is one of the best kept areas in the entire park with some of the most interesting and dare I say it, one of the most exotic collections of trees to be found anywhere in the park.

This photograph was the result of knee busting half hour crouch over the camera as I waited for the very large family of squirrels to come back out and graze in the area just to the left of the photograph. As I was setting up the tripod and camera there must have been at least ten squirrels happily munching on seeds and nuts that had fallen to the ground, they didn’t seem that perturbed by my presence so I thought I would slowly set up my camera and just wait for them to come back out. As you can probably make out from the photo they obviously had enough to keep them going at this stage because they didn’t come back down again, I did see them way off further down the line of trees so either they moved on or were just having a laugh at my expense.

It was only after they moved further on down that I actually lifted the camera up a little bit and saw this rather beautiful scene through the lens, so take that you pesky squirrels, I don’t need you to make my pictures complete. I suppose I should really have thanked them for making me wait here for so long, by the time I actually composed the shot a rather shy sun had finally decided to shine on my back again and gave enough light to create some really fine detail in the tree bark. For some reason I am becoming rather obsessed with squirrels these days, they poor things, they don’t ask to be stalked in this way.

Also, if you look really closely right down the centre of the image you can just make out a person standing with their hands up against a tree, I didn’t actually see them at first. It was only after blowing the picture up in the darkroom that I realised what it was. A friend of mine has speculated that they are probably feeding the squirrels by hand, they just don’t like people with cameras annoying them.

This shot was taken on a Bronica medium format camera and then was hand printed by myself in the darkroom. I am very much falling in love with the square shape of medium format photography so I should warn you all to get used to this shape of photograph in the future.

You can purchase prints or postcards of this photo from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.