With the Rolleiflex in Scotland – Part III – Ardrossan harbour

I still had time to spend, same day as part II – Dunure

I had a ferry at about 18:30 hrs, for good three hours to Campbeltown. Waiting time always inspired me to take pictures, for me it is a perfect pastime, and it might result in some nice souvenir images. I tried to check in at 16:15, but they didn’t take checkin for my ferry until half an hour before departure time, because they have very limited waiting lines. One at a time is their slogan 🙂

I had parked my motorbike along the harbour quay, quite deserted at that time, except for two young men fishing. Time to eat a bit and look around. Always something to discover in a harbour. It’s an important traffic hub, and it mostly has plenty of character. It started raining and I pulled my motor into the open garage for shelter, I shouldn’t have done that, because the floor was full of oil and diesel smudge, and almost caused me a crash late in the evening, because my tyres were all slippery. (didn’t realise it until I took a sharper bend). What you see in the images: the local fuel store, the ferry that was sheduled before mine, waiting to be loaded, the harbour, a boat workshop and some more of the harbour.

After shooting and waiting for a couple of hours I could check in, but not board yet. Rain started pouring again, now for real. I got wet, I got cold, couldn’t go anywhere because I was stuck in the waiting line. The ferry went well but I didn’t really get warm again. I managed to put up my tent at about 22:30hrs, in the dark. Happy to have a good warm down sleeping bag. (I slept at Peninver Sands – I hadn’t seen the owner in the evening, so in the morning I called him to pay my bill. ‘I’ll be there in 3 minutes he said’ when he arrived we did a little chat, when I asked him how much I owed him, ‘a bike and a tent’ hes said, he thought a bit and made a little calculation and then said ‘Oh, never mind, a lot of people wouldn’t even bother calling me’ and he wished me a good trip. Scottish hospitality I presume.)

One roll of Kodak TMax400, shot with the Rolleiflex 3,5. All images of this film shown.

next I had three days of bad, really cold weather ahead, I left the Rolleiflex in the bag till my arrival at Osmotherly, back south (North York Moors NP.) for a village stroll. Soon to come.

thank you for watching,

Ludwig

With the Rolleiflex in Scotland – Part II – Dunure

Analog, landscapes, location, photo gear, travel

See here for part one – Glentrool.

Coming from Glentrool, and taking the ferry in Ardrossan late in the evening, I could spend a couple of hours at ease in Dunure, a very small fishermen’s town a couple of miles south-west from Ayr.

That is one of the main joys of travelling alone, not being influenced by companions, to make way, or to discover more things on the go, but just decide for yourself when and where to stop. I had driven past a small road sign along the A719 pointing to Dunure, and then another one, and I saw the rooftops of the houses just along the coast, from this main road, so I decided to turn around and check it out. It proved to be the ideal midday stop. What you see in the pictures is Dunure Castle and surroundings, in some images you will see an island in the distance, (Isle of Arran). Some images of the harbour area, and the facade of the Harbour View Coffee shop, where I had lunch that day. It is the first place that shows up on Google maps when you zoom in on Dunure, and very well documented by pictures as well. Little did I know 🙂 They provided me with a fine meal, and a place to charge my cellphone. Lovely lady-owner, very friendly and servile.

Time was all overcast when I arrived, but with sun coming trough after noon. A very enjoyable time there. I shot one roll of Kodak TMax400 with the Rolleiflex 3.5 6×6 camera. So here you see the entire film, I have not made a selection, you see what I’ve seen and what I’ve shot. Lab developed, home scanned and digitally redeveloped in Adobe Lightroom. You’ll notice some scratches on the left side of the images. These are probably from the lab, that’s why I decided to start developing film again myself. Oooo, it’s been like 25 years, exciting 😀 … (edit: scroll down for the link for part III)

part III of this series, another roll of film shot in the harbour of Ardrossan

With the Rolleiflex in Scotland – Part I – Glentrool

Analog, landscapes, photo gear

I have been on a motortrip to Scotland last summer, and I had quite some doubts for taking the Rolleiflex (analog camera from the late 50’s) with me, for sake of luggage space, camera safety, etcetera. I have to say that it gave me a lot of pleasure during my trip. It helped me to literally stay still from time to time, and to take the time to enjoy the landscape.

I have stopped in several places with the aim to shoot an entire roll of film in each place.

These images are from my first picture stop.

This place called Glentrool, and Loch Trool, and is located in Galloway forest park, Scotland. Here I shot a roll of Kodak Tmax400 film on a late sunny evening, I had pitched up my tent, cooked a simple but welcome meal after a day of riding (from York that day, over Barnard Castle, trough the North Pennines, along the Hadrian Wall into Dumfries and then Galloway forest park. The bike was filled up with gas for next day and I had some time left before the sun would set. First some images near the Glentrool Visitor Centre, just next to the river ‘Water of Minnoch’, where I met the first midges, then up on my motorbike again I followed a small and bumpy road up to Loch Trool. Despite literally a million midges by the lake, I kept going 😉 . I had my mini tripod with me on the trip, and a wire shutter release, so I could shoot till late in the evening (the lake shots).

there’s more to come from this trip, stay tuned.

All images shot with Rolleiflex 3.5 on Kodak TMax-400 film. Shutter speeds and aperture settings vary.

thank you for watching,

Ludwig

part II – Dunure

Scotland – Black and white

landscapes

A visual report of my 2017 Scotland motor trip.
As you know, I was originally much more involved with landscape photography than I do now, but I still enjoy being in wild open spaces, and I have a hard time forcing myself NOT to stop after every corner when on my motorcycle.
For those interested, this was my route: (© Routeyou)