Printing No2.

This one from 2010 – Nikon F4 on T-Max 400 and probably developed in D76 if my memory serves me well.

I have a darkroom log book somewhere in all my stuff, just haven’t come across it yet, I know I packed it because it has a lot of information about film, paper, developers etc; so rather useful and should have this image info in it.

Another for the printer, although I will probably make a conventional darkroom print as well and then make a decision which gets on the wall.

I am still working my way through computer files, but have about 3500 negatives/E6 slides which need cataloguing and either scanning or printing in the darkroom – or both.

Also reading this book, it was one I should have got when it was available from the bookshops in 2010, a copy from Amazon would now cost me £118. new and £80. used: that will teach me !
Our library in Driffield (yes we still have one) has found a copy through the Bibliographic department, so have got it on extended loan for a small administrative fee. They are so helpful and nothing seems too much trouble for them.

An Arabian Utopia: The Western Discovery of Oman: by Alastair Hamilton. (Click book for Amazon link)

From Amazon:
Even though Oman had always been familiar to travellers sailing between Europe and India or Persia, it was its coast alone that was known. Greeks and Romans had charted it, medieval merchants traded on it, and in the early sixteenth century the Portuguese conquered its main towns, yet the interior of Oman was all but entirely unknown and would remain so until the early nineteenth century. Only after the ejection of the Portuguese in 1650 and an independent Oman had built an empire of its own, stretching round the Indian Ocean from India to Zanzibar, did Muscat, the capital, start to be visited by western powers eager to obtain commercial concessions and political influence. In the nineteenth century, for the first time, a very few, mainly English, explorers ventured inland and embarked on the true discovery of Oman. But even that was sporadic. As long as there was a powerful ruler, the travellers were protected, but by the late nineteenth century the rulers in Muscat had lost control over the interior and it was not until well into the twentieth century that explorers such as Wilfred Thesiger could investigate the south and that the oil companies could begin to chart the centre and the west. Oman was the last Arab country to be fully explored by western travellers and this book examines and discusses the ways in which the emergent knowledge of Oman was propagated in the West, from the earliest times to 1970, by explorers, missionaries, diplomats, artists, geologists and naturalists, and by those scholars who gradually uncovered the manuscripts and antiquities that allowed them to piece together the history of the area.

4 thoughts on “Printing No2.

  1. I’ve always known that there was more in this world than I could ever hope to be acquainted with, on all levels. And since I did study some things, going to the depths, there were a lot of things I had to pass by, never even tasting. But reading this selection from Amazon, I’m really tempted to learn a bit more… even if it’s just a taste. Fascinating to contemplate a culture that hadn’t been influenced by the great empires. And thanks for the post, David. Like the photo; beautiful contrast. I worked for a while with the F4. It was the last analogical camera I bought and I liked it though it was a bit heavy for a 35mm. Used the same film too. It had a fine grain. You’ve got a lot of work ahead of you. I hope you enjoy every hour.

    1. Hello Shimon,
      I have had the same thoughts; I don’t think we can ever know as much as we would like. The internet has been of great benefit when it comes to knowledge acquisition, how did we ever do without it? Books (house full) and a good library have always been my backstop, but what do I miss by not knowing I’ve missed it. For example, a good book I come across & think ‘how did I not read this before’ We can but try 🙂
      The F4 is a great camera and yes it’s heavy but for me it make for a stable lens platform and takes just about any lens Nikon has ever made, including the modern ones without an aperture ring.
      The work is fun, although I should have started sorting my negatives years ago, but – well I’m sure you know how it is.
      I was very lucky arriving in Oman when I did, it still had vast areas that had hardly changed in several hundred years.
      I remember years ago, going into a village in a very remote area where the children just stood & stared, couldn’t understand why and asked the village elder what I had done wrong, he laughed and said its your blue eyes ! they have never seen anyone with them before. How many places could that happen these days?
      It is a country & people I will always hold in great esteem and pleased I was able to help in a small way teaching electronics & engineering skills.

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