Category: Photography

Elementary Blueprint

Roger Hyam, 2020/04/102020/04/11

Stills Gallery and photography centre in Edinburgh was planning to run a project called Elementary Blueprint where they sent out cyanotype papers for people to expose to the elements around Edinburgh and sent them back to make a single exhibit – like a blueprint of the city I guess. Then…

Misc

Negatives for alternative processes

Roger Hyam, 2020/04/092020/04/11

During the Covid-19 lock down I’m messing with cyanotypes and want to have a go at Argyrotypes. These processes use contact negatives the same size as the finished print. The negatives need to have a long tonal range – be very contrasty. Many people produce such negatives using an inkjet…

Photography

Cyanotype: A lockdown friendly print process.

Roger Hyam, 2020/04/032020/04/11

With the family at home for the Covid-19 lock down there is no space to set up the darkroom and so little hope of analogue photography beyond developing film in the bath – but fortunately we still have cyanotype printing! Coating papers can be done on the kitchen table and…

Photography

Virus Stops Play

Roger Hyam, 2020/03/292020/04/11

Working with the wet plate collodion technique is something of a “lifestyle choice” in that it isn’t an activity you can just choose to do when you fancy it. For starters acquiring the equipment and minimal skills to get the process going can take months. Once you are up and…

Misc

Wet Plate Party 2020

Roger Hyam, 2020/03/292020/03/29

I turned 55 on 28th February and we used that as an excuse to invite friends around on Sunday 1st March for an open house. This is something we only do once every five years or so. This time I set up what is basically a Victorian photo booth. I…

Inspiration: Nobuyuki Kobayashi – Myriads of Gods

Roger Hyam, 2020/01/312020/01/31

Very inspiring. Shintoism/animism is important to me but so lost in our Scottish culture where gods of nature seem to have been shrunk to faery folk. Somewhat disappointed by Nobuyuki’s desire for posterity. For me the power of the analogue image today is that it is potentially ephemeral. Also the…

Misc

Stearman SP-810: First Impressions

Roger Hyam, 2020/01/272020/05/05

This is a really quick post about the new Stearman SP-810 developing tank because someone asked me my opinion. I must be one of the first to own it. I’m not going to talk through the tank as you can see what it is and what it does in this…

Photography

First Salt Print

Roger Hyam, 2019/12/212019/12/21

My first Salt Print (a la Fox Talbot). As usually I took the “bull at a gate” approach to something new. Google some Watch some YouTube Book from library and only read relevant bits Substitute what comes to hand for what is required. Go for it. Because I already do…

Mindfulness & Buddhism

From Zombies to Tattoos

Roger Hyam, 2019/11/232019/11/24

I went to a lecture on The Walking Dead (a TV series about zombie apocalypse living) and photography at Stills by David Grinly last week. It was heavy post modern, French philosopher type stuff but also entertaining. David expounded in a semi random fashion. When I left after two hours…

Photography

Accidental Collodion Negative

Roger Hyam, 2019/09/012019/09/01

I made a disappointing ambrotype by pointing my half-plate, wet-plate camera out of the window. I was just doing a test shot to see how the collodion behaved. After two exposures it was still way over exposed/developed. But then this evening I held it up to the light and realised…

Photography

Vintage Lens Coverage Graphic

Roger Hyam, 2019/08/162023/12/27

When you’re shopping for a large format lens one of the first things you want to know is what the coverage is. Will it cover the format I’m working with and by how much? Having salvaged the Schneider Kreuznach Vintage Lens Data I found myself with a piece of A4…

Photography

Schneider Kreuznach Vintage Lens Data

Roger Hyam, 2019/08/162023/12/27

If, like me, you spend too much time and money on old large format lenses you may be frustrated that the data that used to be hosted on the Schneider Optics site has disappeared. The URL now redirects to https://schneiderkreuznach.com/ I’ve looked around but can only find the data on…

Photography

Voigtländer Avus Upgrade

Roger Hyam, 2019/07/212019/07/21

From 1913 to 1935 the German company Voigtländer manufactured a midrange plate camera called the Avus. This was before the standardisation of sheet film holders that came after WWII (I think). These cameras took 9x12cm film which was common in Europe and used by several other manufactures. The Avus was…

Misc

Wet plate collodion: Why bother?

Roger Hyam, 2019/07/152019/07/15

There is no doubt that making wet plate collodion photographs is a faff. I can make an image with my phone in just a few seconds. Setting up the darkroom, making a wet plate photo then packing everything away again is measured in hours. When we principally consume images on…

Photography

An aesthetic consumerism to which everyone is now addicted

Roger Hyam, 2019/05/292019/05/29

“Needing to have reality confirmed and experience enhanced by photographs is an aesthetic consumerism to which everyone is now addicted. Industrial societies turn their citizens into image-junkies; it is the most irresistible form of mental pollution.” Susan Sontag 1977 It is worth dwelling on the date of the Susan Sontag…

Photography

First Plate Euphoria

Roger Hyam, 2019/02/102019/02/10

Oh great joy – I’ve spent ages researching this and at last I’ve made my first wet plate collodion image! I tried to do a course last year which was unfortunately cancelled but as I was fantasy shopping for wet plate kit I came across someone selling “everything” on eBay….

Misc

Real Photography with a CAMRA

Roger Hyam, 2018/11/242018/11/24

This is an image of Scotland that I created as part of my job. The green is Normalised Difference Vegetation Index which is basically the difference between red and near infra-red light as seen by a satellite. This image is a composite of around one hundred and fifty satellite passes over…

Photography

Christening the dark box with a session of paper negs

Roger Hyam, 2018/11/192018/11/19

I really must stop posting things on Facebook without posting them here first. I’ve reverted back to my “nothing on Facebook or Twitter that isn’t already somewhere else” policy. Feeling a bit post viral a couple of weekend back I stayed indoors and had some fun with paper negatives and…

Photography

I’m an Artist

Roger Hyam, 2018/09/072018/09/07

I had a interesting exchange on the way to work. I was taking this picture of a window – just interested in the symmetry and tone – and when I took my camera down a guy said “I wonder what you were finding interesting in that?” to which I spontaneously…

Mindfulness & Buddhism

Marathon Monk: August 2018 – 199 days & 1,194 mindful miles

Roger Hyam, 2018/09/032018/09/03

Not sure what to say this month. Not quite to 200 days – although I am on the 200th as I type. Here are two photos.

Misc

Afghan Box Camera a.k.a. Cuban Polaroid a.k.a Camera Minutera

Roger Hyam, 2018/06/032018/06/03

I don’t feel I really understand something until I have had a go at it so, having watched some YouTube videos on Afghan Box Cameras, I had the urge to “waste” a couple of weekends building one. Now it is more or less working and I’ve learnt my lessons I…

Photography

Pre-flashing Multigrade Paper Negs

Roger Hyam, 2018/05/052018/05/05

I don’t have access to a darkroom at home so pre-flashing paper negatives to reduce contrast is difficult. I wondered whether using a piece of opal perspex and flashing in camera would help. These are notes on the tests I’ve done. I’m using The Anticipation Camera. I have an Intrepid 4×5…

Misc

Sometimes you should bark yourself

Roger Hyam, 2018/04/212018/04/21

Why bark if you have a dog? We need to be reminded to let someone else take over and do a job rather than doing everything ourselves. But sometimes it isn’t the right thing to do and we should get our hands dirty. I like making images and it has…

Mindfulness & Buddhism

Wiston Lodge: Turning towards retreat

Roger Hyam, 2017/06/152017/06/15

I’m just back from a four day retreat at Wiston Lodge lead by Dene Donalds that I found very powerful. My sinuses were playing up for much of it which may have added to the impact but I actually had some good sitting and walking. Often you can tell a…

Gratitude

No IR Film required

Roger Hyam, 2017/05/20

These trees are the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh were a vivid yellow/green and just a red filter in post process produces this effect. They were spectacular.

Green Space

Frosty morning at Loch Ness Shores Campsite

Roger Hyam, 2017/05/202017/05/20

Stepping out for a few minutes before breakfast can be magical. Camping makes this more likely.

Gratitude

Size is important

Roger Hyam, 2017/05/202017/05/20

To encounter something living that is massively larger than you are on your way to nursery but change you.

Photography

Updated my theme

Roger Hyam, 2017/05/202017/06/15

I just used the Fukasawa theme on the Botanics Stories blog so I decided to update my own blog to something else – anything really to make it a bit different.

Photography

How to lie with a photo

Roger Hyam, 2017/05/152017/05/15

What I like about photography is it is so often about what you want to say and not what reality is. Mixing this up with my current obsession with politics and how our media portrays it I just had to put this lot together. It starts with a blog post…

Misc

Glasgow Riverside and Science Centre

Roger Hyam, 2016/09/102016/09/10