Long Time Snapper, Mid Wales

[Jasper Fforde]

Hello. I've been shooting and processing film for the best part of fifty years. Mostly Large Format these days, Sinar in the studio, Graflexes out and about, converted Polaroid 110b for point 'n' shoot. Favour Ilford film and chemistry, FP4 and HP5 with Ilfotec HC for consistency. Medium Format on Delta/DDX/6MF/SQ. Lifetime 120/35 hand process count currently 3811 rolls, 5X4 3508, 10X8 less than 300. IG @jasperfforde, twitter same. Inordinately fond of Polaroid 55. Currently building a 20X24. Studio, Darkroom, Dog, Bus Pass.

 

[eddie]

Welcome to Photrio. Say hello to Thursday Next for us.

 

[Jasper Fforde]

Will do!

 

[gordrob]

Welcome to the club from Western Canada
Gord

 

[MattKing]

Welcome!

 

[Jasper Fforde]

Thank you - ah, Canada! Dad was in the RAF over there instructing during the war as part of the Empire Training School, so they had many friends, and he had an Aunt living in Nacusp on the Arrow Lakes. My highest peak ever climbed was Mount Temple. It was 1980 and climbed it in shirtsleeves - totally dumb looking back. I took a Nikon F with me and guessed the exposure for the Kodachromes. I also have a sneaking suspicion that there is NO Calgary Stampede as whenever I have gone to Calgary I've been told I missed it by two weeks. I think they tell that to all the tourists. A Calgarian in-joke. Thanks for the welcome. Always loved it there.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Welcome to APUG Photrio!!!​

 

[ic-racer]

Hello. I've been shooting and processing film for the best part of fifty years. .

Welcome, hope you will share your experiences of all those years. You have be beat by a few years as I started processing film in 1973.

 

[Jasper Fforde]

Thank you - I didn't start having any real success until the school darkroom in 1975, and my earliest archived negatives. My early forays aged 10 in 1971 were trying to develop 620 BW film from a box brownie using the dish method, with paper developer in the cupboard under the stairs - with a safelight a bulb painted red (yes, I thought that was fine). As you might imagine, not much came out - I have improved a bit since then, but not much - I think you have seniority here! (On another note, I recently visited that same house and the cupboard under the stairs still had the insulating tape I stuck over the cracks in the door.)

 

[ajmiller]

Hello from North Yorkshire! I am impressed with the fact you have a tally of your films - wish I was as organised!

 

[gordrob]

I also have a sneaking suspicion that there is NO Calgary Stampede as whenever I have gone to Calgary I've been told I missed it by two weeks. I think they tell that to all the tourists. A Calgarian in-joke. Thanks for the welcome. Always loved it there.

If you had ever got to the Stampede you would not forget it. I haven't missed one since 1968 until last year when it was cancelled due to Covid-19 and if they have one this year it will be scaled back a bunch. There are still a lot of remnants of the Commonwealth Air Training Program that trained pilots across Canada for deployment to Europe.

 

[MattKing]

One remnant just down the street from me - one of my favorite places to photograph, even if there is little left of the training base.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Forces_Station_Ladner
An example of what you can find in the abandoned part - where the residences once were:

 

[Jasper Fforde]

One remnant just down the street from me - one of my favorite places to photograph, even if there is little left of the training base.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Forces_Station_Ladner
An example of what you can find in the abandoned part - where the residences once were:
View attachment 267397

I checked his log book and Ladner was not on the list of where he was based - here in the UK we are literally falling over abandoned airfields, many of them still with a bit of masonry standing. Most of the runways have been pulled up and reverted to farmland but the scars are still easily visible from the air. The sites were never bought, just 'requisitioned for the duration' so there were some landowners who found themselves in 1947 with an entire airbase of their own - and all the business opportunities that went with it!

 

[Jasper Fforde]

Hello from North Yorkshire! I am impressed with the fact you have a tally of your films - wish I was as organised!

It started with my contact sheet cross referencing which we all do - but went on from there. I printed my last contact sheet in about 2003, but still use the system, and spent many evenings scanning and keywording so I can pretty much find any image I want amongst 100,000. All the pictures I've ever taken in Ireland of Ruins on 5X4 - bingo! I can find the neg literally, in seconds. A lot of work, but well worth the effort.

 

[mooseontheloose]

Welcome from Japan! I actually grew up in Calgary and I know that I went to the Stampede at least once because pictures prove it, but really have no memory of it. Will probably never see it again though, because of the way my holidays work here in Japan.

I hope that when all this pandemic mess is settled to get back to the UK, which will include a visit to Wales, which I’ve been wanting to see and photograph for quite a while.

 

[Jasper Fforde]

Thank you - I have always wanted to go to Japan! You'll like it in Wales. We have more forts and castles per square mile than any other nation on earth* (*citation required) plus a whole bunch of water and very beautiful large craggy things that we call 'mountains' but would probably be referred to as 'boulders' or more impolitely 'scree' to anyone who lives in, say, Canada. (Aside: Interesting you have no memories of the Calgary Stampede but photos. This once again proves my theory that there is no Stampede at all..)

 

[David Lingham]

Welcome from Cardiff St Wales.