Ah dear reader you are probably thinking...' Haven't you got enough on your plate, what with the slip sliding, time lapsing video doofering about...old man...' ?? Heck no, clock change this weekend means the darkroom (downstairs loo) becomes far more usable and with the leaves a falling project Pinhole will be swept into action...Pinhole...yes the 10 x 8 stuff, Harman Titan Ilford DPP that I hornswoggled from any site that had it and now sits boxed and cool, ready for me to be standing around in bare branched woodland for possibly hours and hours...or at least until the sun sets by 4 ish... try finding some...like gold dust, DP Paper that is...
Digital Negatives, keen eyed visitors will probably have noticed that I really don't post anything to photo sharing sites anymore...let's not get into the likey sharey please love me thingy again...but most of my image making is geared towards Image lIbrary work, Video stuff has been accepted so the hundreds of clips polished and primed will be heading off to their collective new existence v.v. soon...so Digital Negatives...this time I've started so I'll finish...I'm now more interested in prints for what can best be described as 'Personal Work' and for printing that will be Cyanotypes, most likely toned with Tannic acid. Now this is where the Digital Negatives come in...as you can see from the image above I have set up a template  using guides and then created a stack using groups which can be toggled on and off...the images prior to printing on Permajet Digital Transfer film will be inverted and also coloured orange...I know colour negs onto a single tone image....it's all about the UV and as Cyanotypes mainly react to light in the UV spectrum what better way to boost the negative than hop onto the opposite side of the colourwheel to give the negative some density....you'll be the first ones to see...oh and they will be on sale exclusively through a rather upmarket gallery...time to crack on...

The ability to shoot video with your Dslr is a pretty straightforward thing...switch to manual..check..turn the screen to video...check...shutter speed twice the frame rate you are shooting at... press the tiny red button instead of the shutter button...check....  spend hours on Youtube on all the tricks, tips, cheats and what nots to do whilst wading through adverts for men of a certain age losing belly fat to become irresistable to bikini clad women...check...and like when the first day of primary school is upon you..no safety net of parenting and a whole host of new experiences to survive...and with a strong tailwind and the ability to chuck the duffers into the bin you have...I have, some usable video footage...or so I thought...
Now I'm shooting Video clips for one reason...Stock Image Libraries I have still images out there on the big 3,  Getty, Adobe Stock and Alamy but  to increase my sales base (trying not to laugh too hard at that bit) I thought 'Lets give it a go...' and I have some slidy, panning, still, motion, walking clips...and then we come to codecs...as I write my head is shaking but not in a positive fashion...In this video clip world I am still young and foolish , led on by the ease in which you can 'edit clips in Lightroom and Photoshop  with the ability to Export and Render....but not into the codecs needed by my Stock libraries..here is the definition
co·dec
ˈkōdek/
noun

1. a device or program that compresses data to enable faster transmission and decompresses received data.

Now I work on a PC...no shame in that but what if your 'client ' wants your video footage in Pro res 422 or 444....hmmm no idea!!! and then you find that it's an Apple codec that is not available on PC's So I have been on various forums populated by folk who really need some anger management training, made google do back flips whilst refining my searches to even finer detail and then after trying various 'easy to use' downloads hit upon a wheeze that has eased the deep crevices in my furrowed brow...Quicktime Player Pro...you know the one we all had to bin because of 'internet safety concerns' and also the fact that Apple stopped any support for it...so now I import my clips into Quicktime Player and then export render..into Apple friendly codecs that...unbelieveably were accepted on my Libraries and are awaiting the steely eye of QC to cast it's opinions on them...now even if the dark side of the Web attempts a back door smash and grab through Quicktime I can stop breathing into a paper bag and relax knowing that this minor battle in the war to upload video clips has been won

First turn down the volume...I've not deleted the howling gale/jet engine noise that is attached to this.... so putting the technicalities into a practicality context...still juggling with soot one handed at the moment but getting there, learning more about stability and set up whilst tying in some correct framing and frame rates....ND filters definitely needed in bright sunny conditions as running at 25fps which equates to a shutter speed of 1/50th and I don't want to shut down to F22...makes sense to someone I suppose...right off out again....