Topic: Crown jewels

[Andrea.]

Well, to me it is the Crown Jewels. My good friend Fleur who is an art director in the film/tv world sent me her late husband's lovely Mini Crown Graphic 2x3 to play with. I think Fleur must have seen Leon's post the other day! I must say I was hacked off when the Kowa broke so this is a lovely replacement.

It's such a lovely camera - really sweet with coupled rangefinder and a couple of roll-film backs. How good is that? And small.

Not sure I have got the focusing sorted but the first roll through today looks nice. HP5/Rodinal.
Luckily, there was a fashion show going on over the road when I ventured out. Hector and Murdo model the latest in Crofting wear.

[astrobeck]

this is great Andrea! 
And could indeed be a page from the Crofter's Journal of fashion!
:-)

[Mojave]

Wonderful shot! I love the very relaxed and casual feeling of the image.

I confess, I have no idea what a crofter but I like the garb. 

[LT]

Great stuff Andrea - love the pic ... Show us the camera?

Mojave - http://www.crofting.org/index.php/faqs/67

[Andrea.]

Here it is;

[Mojave]

Thank you Leon! So they are small farms, basically. I am surrounded by small farms out here. Lots of sheep, some cattle, lots of fruit trees and bee farms. I wonder what they call them out here.

[Andrea.]

Thank you Leon! So they are small farms, basically. I am surrounded by small farms out here. Lots of sheep, some cattle, lots of fruit trees and bee farms. I wonder what they call them out here.

Really, there are small pieces of land where some people keep animals and grow things. Each small piece of land would have a croft-house, here usually built by the family who owned and worked the croft. Our little house is a feu of a de-crofted croft built for an unmarried son or daughter of the family next door at some time. As such it is not very well built - as many of the old houses here aren't. We supposedly pay rent for the land the house is on - but it's 50p a year and they don't bother collecting it.
The idea of crofting was that people could feed themselves from their land while usually holding a part-time job. My work colleagues both work part-time doing what I do and have sheep on their croft they cull for food. And one of them is also stalker for the one of the Estates here too and takes home venison fresh from the hill. It is somewhat a different way of life.

[Francois]

Never heard of anything like that... quite interesting to say the least!

[Mojave]

Andrea, that is so cool!!! What a history and cultural lesson. Thank you so much for sharing it!

[Francois]

I was wondering about a couple of things:
Are vacant croft houses a common thing or were you just lucky?
Is the nearest city at a reasonable distance or do you have to travel a couple of thousand kilometers to get there?

(OK, I know everything is far apart in Canada so I don't have any decent comparison)

[Andrea.]

I was wondering about a couple of things:
Are vacant croft houses a common thing or were you just lucky?
Is the nearest city at a reasonable distance or do you have to travel a couple of thousand kilometers to get there?

(OK, I know everything is far apart in Canada so I don't have any decent comparison)

Vacant houses all over the island. Old ones and newer too. Crofts are less available but they are there. The trouble is the lack of well paid work.
The nearest town - Stornoway - is only 15 miles. The nearest city and a small city at that is a 3 hour ferry ride [weather permitting ] and about 100 miles. or 30 mins flight.

[Mojave]

So you are very isolated there then. What is the population of the island?

There are lots of abandoned homes here but they are all trashed and nobody would ever want to live in them. Can anybody just live in the empty houses without paying any rent or anything? What a fascinating life you live Andrea!

[mijonju]

the camera got its own shutters too right?

[Andrea.]

Mojave; It's not really that isolated compared to some places. The population of the whole chain of islands out here is around 25,000 - most of whom are on Isle of Lewis& Harris. There's about 6.000 on the Uists and Barra which are much more isolated - and lovely. The houses are owned by someone and you can't just use them should you wish to. Often the houses have been abandoned because the settlement has died because maybe there's no road to it or, more often the family has built a newer house nearby and the old house gets used for storage or animals until the roof falls off then it gets abandoned.  There are lots of old blackhouse remains around the place and some old houses made of concrete and wrinkled tin that have not stood the test of time. When we were looking for a house, we visited on on Harris in the most glorious spot by the sea, in a cove and sheltered by the wind. Only thing was there was no running water, no toilet facilties - apart from the field - and when I opened the door of the concrete and tin house, the whole thing moved. I didn't go in or buy it. see http://youtu.be/86M04XJU_PM .

mijonju; the camera has a lens shutter only. No focal plane shutter.

BTW; Jeff Damron did a thing on me here http://www.betterinblackandwhite.com/2011/03/zen-and-art-of-camera-maintenancean.html

[Mojave]

Thanks for clearing that up for me Andrea! I enjoyed the video.  And I love the article! I havent had a chance to read the entire thing yet but I will, and I really love the images. I remember some of them too!