Another Novocastrian Visitor

[Walter Glover]

The sea brings out the sentinel in people of all ages.





The seaside through a wall.

[Maris]

What perfect cool cerebral compositions! Geez, you must have a lot of luck or a lot of persistence and discipline. The latter I think.

Picture one illustrates a quirk of perception; for me at least. That breaking wave at the extreme left is obscured by the round top building, then it reappears again in the small gap. I can't look away until I find it again at the extreme right thus completing the narrative.

[Walter Glover]

Thanks very much Maris,

Perseverance and lots of mental telepathy — especially where the people are concerned. And waves and clouds (when there are some).

I had difficulty with tonal separation. The sky and the painted masonry merged .... even to the naked eye. A Polariser ended up being the solution.

I am really liking FP4+ again and for this batch I dramatically reduced the developer time and the negs look better. It is probably time that I did some grey card tests to fine tune smidgin.

[Walter Glover]

A couple of the lesser ones:

Another sentinel





And a heritage sign





There is a luminosity to the sunlight that I like with the FP4+ that can be evasive with T-Max 100.

[Maris]

... I had difficulty with tonal separation. The sky and the painted masonry merged .... even to the naked eye. A Polariser ended up being the solution.

Years ago when I sat in a gallery director's chair (unearned privilege) and had people bring me black and white portfolios for assessment I used to look for tonal "near mergers" in their photographs as a mark of competence. A minute step where bright skin just separates from a light background or a blank sky that falls just below paper base white along the top edge never happen by accident. Only people who command what they are doing can turn these effects out on demand. The alternative, as any mug knows, is to drop on a red filter and consign shadows and sky to black.

[Geoff Roberts]

Nice work Walter, the Newcastle baths are a great spot. What I especially like is how active they are, even at this time of year there are people swimming and walking, and sitting on the wall watching the waves and the world.

[sharperstill]

All you people coming up to my (new) home town and not letting me know...