Hawthorn, 1980.

The negative for this picture is actually labelled and dated, though I remember taking the original picture. We were on a horsey summer holiday at Ardfern on the west coast a couple of years before Jnr was born. I do love hawthorn, particularly when it grows into such grotesque forms.
 
It was taken with a Practika FX2, an early SLR - deficient in not having a pentaprism, so you had to look down on the ground-glass focusing screen through a built-in magnifying glass. The lens was a Tessar 50 mm, designed by Paul Rudolph in 1902, an optical configuration that is still being manufactured. The film is PANF, a slow speed (50 ASA) film noted for its fine grain and excellent tonal accuracy; however, I used to make a range of my own developers, including this rather aggressive variant, and was able to produce a satisfactorily course grain and faster speed. Film was bought in bulk and loaded into cassettes with just twelve exposures which meant that I could switch film type (or developer) without feeling the need to grind through thirty six exposures. How times change, though my preferred method of shooting is still to look down, now onto the flip screen on an Olympus, a major reason for me selecting the brand.
 
It’s a long time since I’ve seen this picture but I still like it; although if I were to retake it now I would probably include a little more foreground. You don’t have to agree with my taste or join in my nostalgia.