August came around and I spent a lot of time getting a few blogs written and scheduled as I was going to be away for a week. My wife and I had a holiday booked, our first since our honeymoon, courtesy of our youngest son who insisted we get away from it all for a few days and paid for a cruise around the islands on the west coast of Scotland. I decided to document part of our holiday with my August roll of Type 517 Cine Film and my Kodak Retina 1a.
We didn't have to travel far to meet up with our ship, the M.S. Bolette as it sailed from the city of my birth, Liverpool. I have boarded many a ferry over the years for a trip across the Mersey, but this was the first time I left the city on board a ship. Liverpool Waterfront has changed a lot over the years, the Cruise Terminal at Princess Dock opened in 2007. To see Cruise Ships on the Mersey again is a welcome sight. To get on one is an experience we never had before and we were looking forward to it.
I used my August roll of Type 517 Cine Film to document our Port visits as they were two places I have never set foot in before. I have visited Kirkwall before on my way home from Shetland in 2007, but never went ashore. It was high time that changed. We booked our places on the Tender Boat and headed for dry land.
As luck would have it, my friend Davy lives on Orkney and I surprised him with a text message asking if he fancied meeting up for a coffee and a catch up. When he got it he was walking his dog on the foreshore and got the surprise of his life. We duly met up and had an enjoyable hour before he had to go to pick up his missus from the airport. I hope we don't leave it so long until we meet again.
With our long overdue meeting done, we got down to some serious touristy things. Davy had given us the low down on the ruins of the Castle and Bishop's house, and St Magnus Cathedral which were right next to each other. The Castle was the home of the Earl of Orkney and is accessible to visitors. There are parts that are fenced off for safety reasons, but we could go and explore the inside of this once imposing building.
We didn't mind paying to do it as these things take a lot of careful maintenance, which in turn needs paying for. Orcadians are proud of their history, both Norse and Scottish which shows in the fabric of the town. The flags of Scotland, Orkney and a few from Norway are on show everywhere, and rightly so.
I got stuck into photographing the Castle and the ruins of the Bishop's house, both were once very imposing buildings that reeked of the wealthy, powerful people who lived there. My fondness for a good church yard also came in to play as I explored St Magnus Cathedral, which is a magnificent building.
The Cathedral was founded in 1137 by Earl Rognvald in honour of his uncle, St Magnus, who was martyred on Orkney. It has seen many changes down the centuries as it has grown and it survived the Reformation, although much of it's former riches were removed at this time. With our sight seeing done, we did a bit of shopping at a local craft fair before heading back to our ship.
Our next port was Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. Built on the shore of a natural harbour, Stornoway is the administrative centre of the Hebrides and has a rich sea faring tradition. There was no tender boat this time as Bolette was able to dock at the Deep Water Terminal and a complimentary shuttle bus service took us into town.
We enjoyed a bit of shopping, a coffee and a bacon roll before having a wander around the inner harbour with it's array of boats. Fishing vessels, Lifeboats and Leisure Boats were docked in neat rows in the harbour and I managed to get some nice photos with the aid of my dear wife. She has a great eye for a photo, but cameras mystify her. She is happy to take snap shots with her phone camera and she got some great photos.
I know what you're thinking.... Of course I sharked her compositions, that's all part of photography, innit! Seriously though, she spotted a few great scenes and pointed me in the right direction. All three of our photographic formats got an airing, my DSLR and 35mm film cameras and our phone cameras, and we had a lot of fun.
With my August roll of Type 517 Cine film for the Frugal Film Project done and dusted, we headed to the shuttle bus back to our ship for a well earned late lunch and where my dear wife held court in smokers corner as she chatted with anyone who came to say hello.
I developed my August Roll of Type 517 Cine Film a few days later in Bellini Euro HC 1+31 dilution B for 12 minutes at 22 celsius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. I digitised it with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi 35mm film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 size led light pad. I processed my RAW files with Affinity Photo 2.
I was curious to see how my film had fared after going through x-ray scanners twice during our cruise. With it being a slow film it hadn't done too badly, there was very little damage to speak of to which I breathed a sigh of relief. It meant I didn't have to run around Wigan like a headless chicken again.
I definitely wouldn't let this film go through and x-ray scanner more than twice. It had already been through once at Liverpool and once when we got back on board at Kirkwall. We weren't sure of how much more x-ray exposure my film could take and the crew graciously did a hand check for me when we returned to our ship at Stornoway. It pays to be nice about this stuff, but there are times when your film has to go through the x-ray scanner, no matter how much we try to sweet talk the security who take their job seriously. Type 517 Cine Film passed the test with honour.
Here's a few of my photos from our visit to Kirkwall and Stornoway. They were both beautiful places to visit and I want to go back at some point and spend more than a few hours in each of them. They may be small towns compared to Wigan, but the people are very friendly and there's a lot more to see and do on Orkney and Lewis than our short time ashore allowed for. Use the links below to find out more about Orkney and Lewis and, as always, I have placed these photos and more in my Frugal Film Project 2025 album on Flickr for you to visit via the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
Visit Orkney
Visit the Isle of Lewis
Frugal Film Project 2025
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment