Today has been a good day… actually it’s been a pretty good couple of days. The final set of results for the British Institute of Professional Photography (The BIPP) monthly competitions came through, and all three of my entries won “Commended” grades. I am not where I want to be yet, but for this year I have won 8 Commended results and a single Bronze over the 10 rounds. Not even close to worrying the overall awards , but I think that is a pretty strong first year of entering.
Click on the Photo to see my Awards Page
But back to today - we started off with a trip to the farmers market, which has been decimated in the 40 minutes from opening to our walking through the doors! Then a quick photo of the poppies on the roundabout to be sent to the local paper (Inverness Courier) before heading into town for a workshop with The Inverness Darkroom to learn about the original chemistry used in modern black and white film development. Which is incredibly good… but fell out of fashion as it is a bit complex and rather more toxic than many of the later chemistries. It is, quite probably, better though and, as a result, it is something I wanted to learn about.
Not only did we learn how to use this unique chemistry, though… we also learned how to make it! To push myself forward in this chemistry creation I am going to join the Darkroom’s “Home Brew Club”. To round off the day I even won a set of the pre-made chemistry that John Finch from “Pictoral Planet” had brewed up for the demonstration so I shall be starting to use it very, very soon! This also adds to my process - not only will I be shooting film, hand processing and hand printing - I am also hoping to be making my own chemistry from scratch too! I guess the ultimate end point of this will be to add in my own framing… but perhaps I am getting ahead of myself there!
Rounding off an already good day was a trip to the Drumnadrochit Bonfire and Fireworks display and a Chinese Takeaway for tea.
Today’s photo was our morning visitors wandering around the ruins in the garden.
7th November 2026
