Strolling along the Baltic coast at Gräsvik one April day, Nikon F80 film camera in hand, I stopped at one of the jetties leading out into the water and thought it might make for a good photo if I could get a shot of myself walking out on to it. I soon established that by merely placing the camera flat on one of the planks, the angle of view wouldn’t be ideal. Having nothing else handy, I took out my wallet and wedged it under the F80 so that the lens was slightly tilted upwards. After re-checking the focus and the field of view I set the self-timer and strode away as purposefully as I could. Fortunately there were no opportunistic thieves in the vicinity, or I could have ended up minus both my recently-acquired camera and my bank cards.

I was delighted by the way the shot came out. I’d used Ilford Delta 100 film that I sent off to a lab for development. Something other than a flat grey cloudy backdrop might have made it better, but, then again, depending on the position of the sun, a clear sky may have complicated matters. I tried a few times to take similar pictures with other cameras & other film-stock, but none of them came out as well as this one.

After 333 posts in 680-odd days, I’m walking away from blogging again for a while. In due course I may start another: if I do it will be in a different format to this one. My thanks & apologies to anyone who has paid a visit here!