CLARIDGES.... To the right and below

SCHOONER BAY.... To the right and below

SOLANA... To the right and below

Despite the economic slow-down Real Estate in Barbados continues to move albeit slowly and thus I continue - albiet slowly as well - to photograph it.

Properties as follows:

PORTICO.... To the left and below

I started scanning some old B &W negs recently on our Nikon scanner. These were from a series on Barbados' sugar factories that were shot on 35mm film and printed on fibre-based paper in the darkroom many years ago. I was interested to see the difference between the original prints and those made on the Epson 4880. The first thing that struck me was of course the time taken - or rather the lack thereof. Once the photoshop work has been done then that's it, the file can be printed again and again without dodging and burning each one. Perhaps it's a little like comparing apples and oranges and no doubt the purists would disagree, but I'd have to say the prints are much better. And much quicker. Given the archival properties of today's digital prints I see no reason to return to the darkroom. Until recently I never had the heart to decomission it but the reality is that the P45+ and the 4880 will produce a much better print than I could expect from 120 film and an enlarger. So, sad to say the darkroom is in the process of being converted to a workshop.

HDR.....

Another recent experiment has been with HDR photography. I see more and more of this type of work appearing so figured I had better get with the program and find out what the fuss is all about. I have to say at this point that I am not a great fan of it - I have come across some very good practitioners but most of what I see is in my opinion way over-processed. It has great potential and there are things that you can do that you simply cannot do any other way but like most things there is a time and a place for everything.