Into The Dark I Go

Me under the darkcloth, Joe in his tuxs & "The Beast" 2005

After my week in wildest Northumberland last month, I returned home with more than 20 sheets of exposed 10x8 film. Over the last year I have amassed close to 200 sheets of exposed film, which needs to be developed by me.

I have a habit of allowing my exposed film to build up so it’s time for me to enter my darkroom and commence with the mammoth task of developing my stockpile.

I’m putting aside a couple of hours per evening to tackle this arduous but necessary chore. I expect it will take me several weeks to complete the task, so wish me luck.

Little Boy

Late last week I tweaked something in my back. I can’t think of anything in particular which has caused this painful affliction. I was just walking and then WHAM, my legs almost buckled, as I felt as though I had been punched in my lower back by Mike Tyson.

Since then I have had a gnawing pain in my lower back and I have been having trouble bending or getting to my feet from being sat. Although I had many things I wanted to do over the weekend, I decided to take things easy, hoping that some rest would be good for my back.

Fortunately for me my back has been much better today and the pain has almost disappeared, but it will be a few more days before I have enough confidence in my back to go for a run in the local woods.

Yesterday I received a summons from my Mother, she had cooked some baby beetroot and knowing that I’m partial to it, she had made sure that there was ample for my lunchtime sandwiches this week.

Jane 2005

I met up with my sister Jane and her Husband Les while at my Mum’s, and the usual humours banter took place, some of it at my expense. It’s a significant age birthday for me next year, and with my poorly back I was a broad target to aim at.

Les 2005

I seldom leave my mothers empty handed, out of her generosity and thoughtfulness she will have something for her little boy, even though I don’t normally need what she is giving me. I have towered above her since my early teens, but I will always be her little boy.

Northumberland

Once a year I go on a photographic trip with a friend Colin. http://www.colindixonphotography.com/ This year’s took place last month. Colin is a professional photographer specialising in architecture and lives in Hexham. He will not thank me for saying this, but he will be 60 later this month, and he has decided to reduce his commercial work and spend more time on his personal work.

Our intention was to travel up the west coast of Scotland, but the weather forecast for Scotland didn’t look promising, so Colin thought it would be a good opportunity to introduce me and to reacquaint himself with, parts of his home county Northumberland. We ended up staying the week in the north of the county close to Bamburgh Castle and not far from Holy Island.

Holy Island

Colin knows his home county well, and over the course of the week we visited some interesting places and even crossed over the border to Scotland for a brief visit. We both had a productive holiday and I even managed to take a few photographs with his digital camera.

Yet another Castle

Northumberland is a well kept secret and not yet a tourist hotspot, even though it has Hadrian’s Wall, and more castles than any other county in England. I will be returning with a camera and an ample supply of film sometime in 2007.

Dooh

Since I made my original posting to this blog I have been unable to add any further posts. Whenever I’ve logged into my account my blog wasn’t showing, making further enteries impossible.

I followed the advice on the help page, changed my password, deleted all my cookies, tried Firefox, but my blog still wasn’t showing, after logging in. Out of desperation I emailed Blogger for assistance.

Problem solved, they told me that I had set up two accounts and had been logging into the wrong account. I must have been having a senior moment when I created this blog, I wasn’t even aware I had set up two accounts. Dooh!

A big thank you goes out to Danish at the Blogger team

RIP Mandy

This blog has been coming for a long time and will feature my photographs, along with my thoughts on photography, well in fact anything which I want to air.

My original idea was to have a collaborative blog with my friend Caroline. I would provide the photographs taken with a digital camera and she would write accompanying poems. I’m still digital cameraless, but I will be getting one before the end of 2006, and we will then start our joint venture.

The catalyst that made this blog a reality was the untimely and unexpected death of a good friend, which has acted as a wake up call and made me realise just how precious and in some instances how short life is.

Mandy Jackson 1955 to 2006

Mandy was a friend to whom I used to give a lift to and from work. She was a kind and caring person who lived life to the full. I was her confidant, so she would tell me all of her secrets, well most of them. Her life was colourful and eventful, I’m sure some of the soap operas based a number of their story lines on Mandy’s experiences.

My own life has not been that great so far this year, at times I have been very low, but Mandy always had a hug and a smile for me. Mandy thank you for those hugs which I’m missing, and rest in peace.

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