Deptford calling... visions of Britain from below http://deptfordvisions.com Photoblog from Deptford and SE London Fri, 03 Sep 2010 06:46:16 +0000 en hourly 1 Scanners… f*ck’em http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/09/scanners-fckem/ http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/09/scanners-fckem/#comments Fri, 03 Sep 2010 06:46:16 +0000 skinnyvoice http://deptfordvisions.com/?p=3967 My Nikon 35mm film scanner seems to have died. Absolutely no response when plugged in to any USB port. Cables changed, different OSs, nothing, nada, zilch.

Which is a shame ‘cos I don’t have £2.75k to invest in a new one and probably never will.

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Bar code

I use an Epson Perfection V750 for medium format with inserts from Doug Fisher . Looks like I’ll have to use it for 35mm too now. Rats.

The good news is that with Vuescan, I can be creative. The image above is actually the 6 negs from a roll that I was testing a Summicron 90/2 lens. MASSIVE file, nearly a 600MiB tiff, but hey! It could be fun. There is a sliding scale of F stops on this image too.

Spot the books!

]]> http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/09/scanners-fckem/feed/ 0 Another Hat-Trick http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/another-hat-trick/ http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/another-hat-trick/#comments Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:44:18 +0000 skinnyvoice http://deptfordvisions.com/?p=3962 Hats… I just love them

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This is a strange photo!

Camera & dev
Nikon F5, Nikkor 24-70/2.8 AFS, Kodak Tri-X EI 1600, HC-110 1+100 (Dil ‘G’) 50 minutes
]]> http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/another-hat-trick/feed/ 0 In The Frame http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/in-the-frame/ http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/in-the-frame/#comments Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:21:20 +0000 skinnyvoice http://deptfordvisions.com/?p=3956 20100731_f4-nicola-jimmy-000-1000

I didn’t think I’d get anything from this roll. Handheld with the monster Nikkor 80-200/2.8, Tri-X pushed to 1600, little available light, plus a very strange dev. How wrong I was, I’m really pleased with this.

Camera & dev
Nikon F4, Nikkor 80-200/2.8 AFD, Kodak Tri-X EI 1600, HC-110 1+100 (Dil ‘G’) 50 minutes semi-stand
]]> http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/in-the-frame/feed/ 3 A Church, A Double Murder, A Cat, And A Rant Or Three http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/a-church-a-double-murder-a-cat/ http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/a-church-a-double-murder-a-cat/#comments Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:00:41 +0000 skinnyvoice http://deptfordvisions.com/?p=3910 20091004_d300-skem-247-n239-1000

St Edmunds Catholic Church

A slightly dark vision, snapped from Nell Keenan’s “rose garden”. The rose garden is/was a squalid mess of empty cans, litter, shit, and the usual paraphernalia (I think the church may be demolished now). Poor Nell Keenan, she has a plaque but what a memorial.

Architecture… now where do we start?

What is it about modern eclesiastical architecture that is so shit? In the past, churches and cathedrals were built to shock and awe.

I love Coventry Cathedral and The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in San Fransisco, two modern examples that buck the trend. Sir Basil Spence commissioned artists such as Elizabeth Frink, John Piper and Graham Sutherland for Coventry Cathedral and it shows. In San Fransisco, from the right direction, on a good day, St Mary’s Cathedral looks like a giant breast. Which is no bad thing for a cathedral dedicated to The Blessed Virgin Mary. I’m sure there are others that I am not familiar with, but for me, the overall impression of recent church architecture (in the UK at least) is an homage to a cheap, tacky, soulless 1960s ‘dare to be different’ ethos.

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Double murder scene

Nobody seemed to know very much about this. It had happened a few days earlier. There were some flowers by the door so somebody must have cared.

And while we are on the subject, the estate on which this happened was designed/architected along the lines of a Cornish fishing village, Polperro or something similar. Huh? Don’t you want to just curl up and die? I’m sure Prince Charles would approve but is it really the way to create *instant* community for a Liverpool overspill new town? It has been done cheaply and it shows. Polperro it is not. Have the people that commission these things never heard of William Morris or Le Corbusier? Rhetorical question I know, it all comes down to how cheaply they can do it. The ribbon looks good when it is cut and the place is shiny new. Fuck the people who actually live there and have to endure its shoddy physical and social demise.

They get left with the ribbon in the picture above. Cut that Mr Mayor.

I was a one time inhabitant of a relatively successful new town:

“a town designed for healthy living and industry of a size that makes possible a full measure of social life but not larger, surrounded by a rural belt; the whole of the land being in public ownership, or held in trust for the community“

The italics are mine. Margaret Thatcher fucked up that particular vision with “Right to buy” turning the whole thing into very desirable real estate with typical nightmare Little England Tory values. I had no love for the place but had some pride in the principles on which it was built.

Somehow, I don’t think it will happen in Skelmersdale.

And here we go again with our current unelected ‘coalition’ government delivering a right-wing ideological onslaught that looks set to eclipse that of the Thatcher government of 1979, only this time with the complete destruction of public services. To pay back the banks? To save the economy? Fuck ‘em.

Thatcher was elected, a major difference from David Cameron and his lightweights. Weirdly though, Cameron, like Thatcher, is once again helped along by lap-dog Lib-Dems (then known as the SDP) when (back then in 1981) they split the Labour vote and thus helped the Tories keep power in the 1980s and 1990s in a strangely parallel universe.

Nick Clegg, St Vince Cable et al, may you rot in hell. Nothing personal, I felt the same about Roy Jenkins, David Owen, William Rodgers and Shirley Williams in 1981. At least most of those had some gravitas, even statespersonship. Unlike your craven, power-seeking, sell-out selves. Do I make myself clear?

I feel like I’m very much stuck in a loop at both ends of my life.

Unbelievable.

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Cat

The moggie ignored everything… Well done moggie, you have the right idea

Some heavy post-processing for dramatic effect, aka laying it on with a trowel.

]]> http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/a-church-a-double-murder-a-cat/feed/ 1 Funky Colour Stuff http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/funky-colour-stuff/ http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/funky-colour-stuff/#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:05:15 +0000 skinnyvoice http://deptfordvisions.com/?p=3899 Contrary to all impressions, I really do like colour photography… I just like a lot of colour ;)

So the following are my contributions

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Letter boxes

Two of my favourite photographers are wonderful exponents of colour.

I lurve William Eggleston’s rich dye-transfer prints and Saul Leiter’s early colour sends me into ecstasies.

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Window

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Torso / fanny

I was talking to a guy recently who used to do dye transfer prints for some major clients (think of the Aladdin Sane cover for Bowie by Duffy… and that is another story best told by Duffy. RIP Duffy btw, great man).

Apparently, a liberal dose of Comfort fabric conditioner applied to the final print and carefully wiped off worked wonders for the saturation of the colours. Since clients paid a premium for dye-transfer this was kept secret, so after the 10 minute application of Comfort, he kept the print for a couple of days longer so the client thought they were getting value for money…

I haven’t a clue about the veracity of this story, but he had no reason to make it up.

Sadly, the raw materials for dye-transfer printing are globally pretty scarce now. I’m pleased I got a print a couple of years ago.

]]> http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/funky-colour-stuff/feed/ 1 Shopping In The Market http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/shopping-in-the-market/ http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/shopping-in-the-market/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 22:02:42 +0000 skinnyvoice http://deptfordvisions.com/?p=3889 20100731_f5-nicola-jimmy-022-1000

@BearspaceART

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Outside The Albany. Uncle Trevor steals some of the limelight. As if he could…

Camera & dev
Nikon F5, Nikkor 24-70/2.8 AFS, Kodak Tri-X EI 320, HC-110 1+63 (Dil ‘H’) 15 minutes

]]> http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/shopping-in-the-market/feed/ 1 Diana was Fatter Then http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/diana-was-fatter-then/ http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/diana-was-fatter-then/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:18:47 +0000 skinnyvoice http://deptfordvisions.com/?p=3884 2002_diana

This may have been taken with a very early Nikon digi around about the year 2000.

At the time I was very impressed with it.

The Lobster is behind the Diana mask, look carefully and you can see his eye.

I have absolutely no recollection of why there was a Diana mask. It looks like an early model though.

]]> http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/diana-was-fatter-then/feed/ 2 Does Anyone *Remember* The Cutty Sark? http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/does-anyone-remember-the-cutty-sark/ http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/does-anyone-remember-the-cutty-sark/#comments Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:09:40 +0000 skinnyvoice http://deptfordvisions.com/?p=3870 I can remember ‘below decks’ where all the figureheads were. This is from 2002 (not 1892, I can’t remember *that* far back):

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I took photos of all of them on a crappy compact camera & most had camera shake because there was no light and the lens was slooooow. Shame.

When I finally got round to photographing them again the Cutty Sark had gone…

And it has been gone for a very long time now.

I can’t believe this gorgeous evidence of pent-up sailors’ sexuality will be displayed as well in the new ‘Olympics 2012′ model. No sex please, we are British and we have corporate sponsors.

]]> http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/does-anyone-remember-the-cutty-sark/feed/ 2 Thoughtful http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/thoughtful/ http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/thoughtful/#comments Wed, 04 Aug 2010 10:51:13 +0000 skinnyvoice http://deptfordvisions.com/?p=3861 20100731_f5-nicola-jimmy-044-n230-1000 ]]> http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/thoughtful/feed/ 0 Spiraling At St Paul’s http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/spiraling-at-st-pauls/ http://deptfordvisions.com/2010/08/spiraling-at-st-pauls/#comments Wed, 04 Aug 2010 10:47:45 +0000 skinnyvoice http://deptfordvisions.com/?p=3865 20100731_f5-nicola-jimmy-048-1000

St Paul’s Church, Deptford

I’m amazed this came out as well as it did. Nice shapes and lines

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