Happy and Sad.

 

I have not posted for a while. Well I have not had chance to fish with my great mates until recently.

The weather has been terrible. We have had three outings; all on Blithfield.

Although we did not fail to catch on our first two visits, I have to say the cold conditions did defeat us. We did not stay as long as we would have. Leaking waders did not help and I felt the pain of being really cold.

The third visit last week is filled with mixed emotion.

 

Sunday 07/04/13

Steve Parton RIP.

 

When I heard  the news I was terribly saddened. I used to visit him regularly at his unit in Long Eaton.

He helped me so much in the few years I knew him. From the off he made it clear that I either listen or bugger off. He did not suffer fools. So listen I did.

He made me 4 fine rods.

He sold me lots of super fly tying stuff at prices that I knew were well below what he normally sold them.

He'd make me a cup of tea, play the gob iron while sitting at his PC in only his boxer shorts and shirt.

His floor was his ash tray.

How this place never went up in smoke (quickly) is a mystery!

We had interesting chats about all sorts of things. As I progressed to being more interested in river fishing, the more we chatted even though  his heart was on the reservoirs. There was always something we chatted about and we put the world to rights on several occassions.
I can always remember his views on the sad demise of British manufacturing and if you use crap Chinese hooks you deserve what you get.

 He always asked with genuine interest to what I was going to do with the materials he sold to me.
He rang me a few times with offers of prototype rods, and no, he didn't 'see me coming' as £14 for a test rod ain't bad is it?
I know many folk never got on with him and indeed, I can understand why. But we just hit it off. I feel he felt sort of sorry for me, having no previous knowledge but because I listened and showed a bit of respect to an obvious expert in his field, he accepted me. I will miss him.

DAY THREE BLITHFIELD

So after the bad news, The Tamers decided to have another day on Blithfield.
10/04/13
Bone, Jon and me.
Well they were not on buzzers even though it was warmer. Two fish in total off the bank in flat calm conditions in two hours. Not good for The Tamers.
I had a coffee and watched a bloke having some success on a lure. But what lure?
Stuff it! Out of respect? Or because his death was on my mind? I found an outragous orange lure that I had tied a couple of years ago from a pattern out of Steve Parton's book.
The fish were suicidal.
I had five in 30 minutes. Then take after take with no hook ups in the next 30 minutes. I checked my lure... No hook!
Cheap Chinese hook? I don't know.
I only had one of the orange ones so  tied on something else. I had a few more but nothing like the action with the broken fly.
Maybe Steve was laughing!

I have since tied many more of the simple orange fly that did the damage. I have used a quality hook.

Thanks Steve Parton

 

My prints are dry. Got to go to Three Shires again soon.
For anyone interested:
Mamiya 645 with 55mm lens
Delta 400 (far too fast but that's all I had) Next time Pan F. The bridge and stream picture was taken at...
1 sec at f22 and I had to accept over exposure by about 3 stops (no ND filter available so had to sort it out in the darkroom).
D76 for the film, uni dev for the out of date Ilford multigrade (15 year old paper) off ebay.
Printed at a grade 3 adjustment on a Durst variohead.
Roganor 80mm f4.
Unfortunately, scanning to digital loses so much. Having said that, who could have ever imagined, only a few years ago, that one could actually do this and share?

Rather cold this morning. Even so, I decided to venture out and up the hills to the junction of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire to try and capture the beauty of Three Shires Head. (could be Three Shire Heads).
I took both my DSLR and medium format film cameras.
Not many folk around and a howling wind to contend with but I managed some nice photos.
Here are a couple of digital pics; I am just waiting for my black and white prints to dry.
The River Dane looking splended.

 

 

All working well in the 'darkroom'. The kit I've bought is superb!

It has brought it all back to me. So many happy memories. Mixing D76, loading film on spirals, safelights, fumbling in the dark etc. But hey...the quality of the results!

I have spent virtually nothing on the darkroom, having scoured ebay for job lots and selling the surplus on. A lot of work but believe me, well worth the time and effort.

I was in the photographic trade for many years and this is a set up I could never had afforded in the past. I have even splashed out on a battered Mamiya 645 which must be over 30 years old but works perfectly on an equally old Manfrotto tripod. Add the Metz CT1 that came with it with old nicads that take an age to charge (but I have only 15 shots a roll) it is truly 'happy days'. 

Yes, film is expensive; so too is the paper and chemicals but it is teaching me to be more selective and careful. My first few results have gained me many compliments and raised eybrows.

 

 

I will put some examples on the blog soon, even if they have to be scanned and converted to digital!

Back to the basics

Getting there!
My daughter wants to know what it was like to make proper photographs!
This should do it!


All old tech. My daughter's 'new' darkroom. (XMAS PRESENT)
Ta Glen Pointon for the 6x6. I have added an OM 1 which I got cheap and replaced the seals with closed cell foam.

 

 

Superb Durst Mod 70 enlarger with top lenses, picking up the rest off ebay next week. Happy days to come!!!!

Bullhead!

 

Bullhead. Not Bonehead!

Half term!

I might have to update this tomorrow, but I have had a great couple of days with good friends.

Yesterday we nipped off down to a local river to try to find some difficult bug.gers.

 

I knew where they lived ( 20 minutes from where I live) and Bone managed a good one. Unfortunately I caught another out of season trout which was rather large! Out of season so no photo!

 

Today we were mostly going a piking. 

Different fish...same bloody leaf!