The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain
No.
5
OCTOBER
197
B
Editor:
ANGELA
CLARKE
(CONTENTS) COVER
PHOTOGRAPH
Fragment of Saxon Cross Shaft in the Porch of Jarrow Church (Home of Bede) Miranda SLR, Plus X Film. Spot modeling light with a flood fill-in. Photographed Copyrights
by: Prof.
Tom Middlemass LRPS Rosemary Cramp FSA
OPERATJ:OHAL PROBLEMS IN THE PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORDING OF UNDERWATERARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES Dr. Ian Morrison FROM THE BOOKSHELF James Locke
6
PROGRAMME1978
7
MINUTAE
7
LETl'ERS
8
P.s. •••••••
9
WOODLAWN REPORT Mrs. Mi.chael
Leonard
BJ:RD1 S EYE VIEW - an occasional. Eric Boulder LRPS
10 article
by
11
EDITORIAL
This edition of "Archaeolog" features the extremes of Archaeology the sea-bed and the sky above. To contemplate either branch of th.is complex discipline, you need the skill and co-operation of other professional forms of expertise. Taking to the air or the sea-bed is not for the fool-hardy or ill-prepared. Contemplating photography in eitaer case requires maximum organisation and concentration. But for ·those who get the recipe right, the rewards are worth eTery penny piece it coats to get them. On a more down to earth note I should like to take this opportunity of welcoming all those nev members to the group this year, on behalf of us all who are not quite so new. Nearly a year has passed since the first edition of Archaeolog ca.me out, and it will not be long before our next A.G.M. and Committee elections. Perhaps there are those amongst the newer memb•ra who might wish to offer their help in running the group's activities - maybe there are "older" members who have some time to spare7 The old maxim of a little goes a long way, is true of this Group. A little help by many is not such a burden as most of the help by a few. So, whether your skills are organising, minute-taking, or envelope-filling and stamp licking, eTery half-hour or so is truly welcomed of time you can spare. Please contact me at: Flat 4, 42 Hereford Road, London W2 - 01-727 5610 or the Secretary, Tony Pearce, at: 7 Ladbroke Walk, London Wll.
"
Or why not join us at the Rembrandt Hotel our AHNUAL DINNER? Details on page 7.
on Saturday, ANGELA
2
2nd December CLARKE
for
UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY Dr.
Ian
Morrison
of
the
University
of Edinburgh
writes
about
the
OPERATIONAL PROBLEMS IN THE PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORDING OF UNDERWATERARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES
Photography has long been archaeological investigations vital, though paradoxically inferior there.
considered an integral part of the recording of on land. Underwater its role is even more conditions for photography are generally far
The sheer inaccessibility of underwater sites to the many archaeologists who cannot dive is one cardinal reason for recording them in direct visual terms. Making site conditions as explicit as possible to those who never have had personal experience of anything similar sets quite profound perceptual problems. These are not always sufriciently considered by cameramen preoccupied with the immediate exigencies of existing underwater and coping with the purely technical problems of securing photographs there. Photographs that are meaningful to seasoned divers may simply puzzle those without their experience of an environment in which one's feet are seldom on the ground, horizons are generally lacking, and visibility is restricted to a few metres - or less - through a medium that removes most colour and contrast. Our interpretation of a photograph of a land archaeological site is aided subconsciously by all manner of familiar perceptual cues as to the scaling and perspective of the view. Thus, the appearance of the texture representing grass at different distances and on different slopes may tell us more about the lie of the land around the excavation than the few self-consciously placed ranging poles. Extreme tidiness may be considered a virtue in archaeological photography on land, but with the shortage of visual aids underwater to organise our perceptions, it can be a positive help to the nondiving viewer to leave tools and equipment around the site during photography so he can "get his eye in". Where excavation grids of scaffolding are used, their visual regularity gives an immediate solution to the perceptual problem. Audiences have commented too that slides showing small box frames set leTel on the seabed were easier to understand than others where the perspective had to be guessed from traditional ranging poles. 1 Underwater stereoscopic photographs, including stereo-•osalcs (see below) have useful potential for communicating site conditions.2 ¡ Even where co-ordinated stereo pairs are not attempted however, it can be very helpful to the viewer to present him with an integrated sequence of photographs showing the site from successive viewpoints as the cameraman swims over it. The changing relationships of artifacts and topography from shot to shot will give a much more reliable impression of the three-dimensional reality than any single monocular photograph is likely to yi.eld. If this aeems extravagant, keep in mind that the cost of a film is likely to be among the smallest items in any diving operation. Some of the most interesting archaeolog~cal sites in British waters, such as the wreck of Henry VIII's Mary Rose, lie in low visibility areas where diving photographers are actually pleased if they can see as far as across the average living room. Quite often no photograph of reasonable definition can be taken from a range of much more than a metre. To obtain meaningful overall coverage of some sites it may be desirable to make a mosaic. Since close range photographs exhibit marked perspective displacements when any relief is present, a satisfactory mosaic may be difficult to construct. An alternative to the standard form is the stereo-mosaic with which the writer is experimenting. In this, the photographs are overlapped "a1ong the line of flight" but kept in separate strips laterally. One can then run the stereoscope up and down adjacent paired strips, gaining a threedimensional impression of each transect across the area. 1 - the frames underwater, b, at foot
have been used by the writer for some time for photogrammetry as well as in his 1and archaeology. (Ref. Morrison 1969 a & of article).
2 - the
is
author
experimenting
with
these.
3
So tar, we have been considering problems in communicating with those who have not seen the site at first hand. For those actually investigating underwater, the potential 0£ photography for making comprehensive records instantaneously is at a premium. On land, vandals apart, one may general1y leave an excavation overnight to photograph the next morning. Underwater sand may have re-buried the previous day's work, or the tide may have drifted in mud, or a gale may make the site unapproachable £or a week. The pressures on each hour of "time-on-site" can be acute in other respects too, both financial and physiologica1. Expeditions are expensive - particularly if a boat 0£ any size is used. Even the very air that one breathes must be paid for. Physiologically, at any depth over ten metres (JO feet) there are increasingly severe constraints on the time that one may remain below i£ the diver is to be able to return directly to the surface without risking the bends. 3 For examp1e, divers working on a shipwreck in forty-five metres (150 feet) 0£ water have only 8 minutes from leaving the surface to get down there, do their job, before starting their ascent. It they stay down much longer, they soon have to spend more time than they have spent on the job, just hanging unproductively on a rope under the boat, doing decompression stops to allow the excess nitrogen to leave their bodies before they may surface. The effects ot the time limitations are exacerbated by the £act that work done underwater tends to be less efficient. The old sailor's maxim was "one hand for the ship; one for yourself". Any experienced and intelligent diver puts only part 0£ his attention on the task in hand, and keeps his mind attuned to the fact that he is in a hoati1e medium. Whi1e on the job, he does not omit to monitor time, depth and air supply, or to work in such a way that there is a fair chance of extricating himself even it there is a tota1 malf'unction of diving equipment. If the diver is in a free-swimming operation, he will also be making allowances for the surface wind - affecting the boat now invisible above - and the tida1 current affecting him at depth, and probably running in an entirely different direction from the wind. These pre-occupations aside, his concentration may be further blunted by nitrogen narcosis. Recent clinical tests suggest that this can be detected as shallow as 10 metres, and though it is not unti1 around three times that depth that most divers seem significantly affected, it is certainly a factor that must be taken into account when planning archaeologica1 work, since many ot the better preserved wrecks lie in deep water. Therefore a diver does as much of his thinking as possible before entering the water, trying to plan the photographic sortie to minimise the need tor "inspired improvisation" at depth. Since few archaeological teams are Equipped for voice communication underwater, one is effectively deaf an dumb, and work is best p1anned to avoid complex sequences ot interaction between divers. This sometimes makes it worthwhile to devise simple rigs that enable one diver to handle potentially complex photographic operations single-handed. Thus, Oven Gander recorded the progress of the Kyrenia shipwreck excavation by "flying" over the site regu1arly, taking strips of photographs with a stereo-pair of cameras on a bar contro1led by a pair of bicycle handlebars. (Fig. 1.) The writer, faced recently with the prob1em of making a controlled mosaic by flash in the total darkness of Loch Ness (Fig. 2), stretched a white rope on the bottom, then suspending himself from a float, followed this guide line with a spot lamp lashed onto the camera's flash arm. This a1so let him see level bubbles mounted on the camera to contro1 its vertica1ity, while a 2 metre weighted line ensured the correct "flying height". Conditions tor phdDgraphy vary markedly. The darkness ot Loch Ness is is not due to the solid matter in suspension, but to the dyeing of the water by peat and the 1ack of any reflection from the mud beneath. This is vary characteristic of High1and Britain, where the diver finds himself in tota1 darkness from around 10 metres down, even on the sunniest of days. Here, a really powerful flash unit and a very high speed film is necessary, for attenuation is extreme in many lochs.
J -
4
The "Bends" is a painfu1 condition caused by nitrogen in solution in the blood-stream converting back to gas, at a speed greater than the body can accommodate, at surface pressure. The deeper the dive the more nitrogen there wi11 be in solution.
Even in the clearest parts of the sea, the water and its content tends to diffuse whatever light is available, so that visual contrast is subdued. The long end of the spectrum is filtered out of the daylight rapidly with depth. Differences between "brown greens" and "blue greens", indistinguishable tonally on black and white film, can still be archaeologically significant however, so it is not unusual to use "pushed" high speed colour films as the basic recording medium, making black and white prints from these ~f required for publication. Flash shows up colours the diver does not see by ambient light.
Where muds, silts or plankton are in suspension, the use of artificial lighting often merely lights up the haze, however, and further obscures the target. Then the only real answer is to minimise the amount of dirty water between the lens and subject, by using a wide angle lens. This also reduces the problem of camera shake, while the fact that the whole photographer is "hydraulically damped" allows slow shutter speeds to be hand held, to cope with the low light levels. Enforced use of long exposures led the writer to an unexpected bonus. When the camera can be clamped firmly it may prove profitable to experiment with time exposures underwater, with fixed subject matter showing up more clearly in certain conditions as intervening suspended matter drifts by and loses definition - like the vanishing pedestrians in Victorian architectural studies. Similarly, in stereoscopic photography underwater, if the left and right pictures are in fact taken asynchronously, the drift of suspended particles moving with the water in the moment between the two exposures means that these particles do not fuse stereoscopically. The brain then seems to find it easier to reject their images as "noise" relative to the firm stereomodel offered by the unmoving target, and the clarity of the stereo image appears enhanced over either of its components. Underwater archaeology has many intriguing ramifications, not least for photographers interested in exercising their ingenuity in responding to its challenges in British waters. The archaeologists who take part in underwater work generally have quite enough on their minds while diving without giving consideration to the systematics of photography, so there is considerable scope for worthwhile experimentation by the more amphibious readers of this journal.
REFERENCES: Morrison,
"
I.A.
1969a "An inexpensive photogrammetric reduction of survey diving time." Underwater Association Report, 4, pp.
approach
to
the
22-28
1969b with Johnston, c. and Maclachlan, K. "A photographic method for recording the underwater distribution of marine benthic organisms". Journal of Ecology, 57, PP• 453-459.
5
---
from the BOOKSHELF
SUN, MOON AND STANDING STONES is a book I first encountered at the time of the visit to Avebury, West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill by the Archaeological, Pictoral and Historical Groups, when I met the author JOHN E. WOOD. Dr. Wood had with him a pre-publication with his enthusiasm, convinced me that be time well spent.
copy of his time devoted
book which, coupled to this book would
Over the last two decades, enormous prograss has been made in archaeological discovery and investigative methods. A topic of some controversy has been the claim that communities in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages devised their own units of length and measurement, calenders and eclipse predictors, geometry and accurate techniques for solar and lunar observations. In this book the writer collects and assesses the evidence for and against the hypotheses, and although Dr. Wood considers the case proved, he presents the pros and cons in an unbiased way, permitting the reader to make his own judgment. This is not a light-hearted book to which one can allocate a free half hour. On the contrary, it deserves serious, undisturbed reading. Dr. Wood's approach is factual and scientific, but in the interests of maintaining readability, the mathematical content has been pruned to a minimum. An appendix on mathematical proofs has been included for those so inclined. The writer properly assumes no previous knowledge of astronomy and outlines movements of the sun and moon to enable archaeologists to check sites for possible alignments. Various sites of archaeological interest, some internationally known, others relatively unknown, are described in detail and reinterpretted in the light of the archaeo-astronomical alignments discovered. The final part of the book forward for the re-evaluation Europe. Several appendices bibliography.
summarises the suggestions which have been put of the pre-historic societies of North Wast are also included, as is a comprehensive
I am neither a mathematician nor an archaeo-astronomer, but I followed Dr. Woods' reasoning without too much difficulty. I now find myself regarding my near neighbour, Stonehenge, in a somewhat different light. It is a book I thoroughly recommend •
•
SUN, MOON AND STANDING STONES Dr. John E. Wood Oxford University Press, £6.9S.
1978
JAMES LOCKE
1 s forthcoming In viev of Dr. Morrison's article and Ray Sutcliffe lecture, two other books which may be of interest to Underwater Photographers, are published by the Academic Press -
e
A MANUALOF UNDERWATERPHOTOGRAPHY
T. Glover, G.E. Harwood, and J.N. Academic Press (London - Nev York Price £14.00/,34.75
e
DIVING MEDICINE edited by Richard H. Strauss Published by the Academic Press, Price £12.80/i21.,)0
" 6
Lythgoe - San Francisco)
1976
1976 ED.
'7B
PROGRAMME
MONDAY, 6th
NOVEMBER1978
UNDERWATERARCHAEOLOGY- Ray Sutcliffe, Chairman Nautical Archaeology, BBC-tv "Chronicle" producer, enthusiast . for all things on the SP.a-bed, talks ei.:periences. MONDAY, 20th
24th
the Council for and long-time about his marine
NOVEMBER 1978
in and
MEETING for all photographers interested list of qualified photographers willing on archaeological sites. Convenor: MICHAEL GILL (Tel. Windsor FRIDAY,
of
extra
NOVEMBER1978
JOHN WILKINSON, the Fund, will be talking
joining able to
the Group's photograph
53461)
lecture
new Director about his
of the work.
Palestine
Exploration
SATURDAY, 2nd DECEMBER 1978
ANNUAL
DINNER
This year the group is REMBRAND .THOTEL, Thurloe
holding Place,
an annual dinner London, s.w.7.
at
the
The price will be £6.50 per person, inclusive of service and VAT - members and th e ir guests who wish to avail themselves of hotel accommodation will be able to stay at the Rembrandt Hotel at a discount of 1oi on the usual bed and breakfast charge. Do make a note Ticket
in
applications
your
diary
should
and
join
ua
for
this
evening.
be made AS SOON AS POSSIBLE to:
MICHAEL LEONARD
"Woodlawn", Knatta Valley Sevenoaks, Kent.
~MIUTT,l\~MINU-.AE ~
....u .. ..tU:I
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Road, Tel.
I ,
047-485-2986
(Daytime)
TAE MINUTAE MINUTAE MINUTAE MINUTAE MINUTAE MINUT MINUTAE MINUTAE MINUTAE MINUTAE MINUTAE MINUTAE M
The coffers are getting empty. So will all those who have not done so, please pay their 1978 subscriptions before you spend it on Christmas presents! Thank you.
Those members who attended the meeting in the early Summer to Avebury, may wish to join the Group in expressing their condolences to Major Vatcher, on the death of his v~te, Mrs. FAITH VATCHER, who passed away a short while ago after a long illness. Her lively talk belied the seriousness of her health.
OBITUARY
"' 7
LETTERS ***
We may now announce
to you that photographers willing approved by the Council
qualified has been
The principles
by which
the
list
the RPS Archaeological Group's to photograph on archneological for British Archaeology. will
be administered
All g ro up members who have placed on the list.
b)
The Group will recommend on the basis of photographic ability only.Archaeological suitability will be assessed by the archaeologist engaging the photographer.
c)
To aid the archaeologist in his assessment each photographer will prepare a folio illustrating ability to photograph archaeological subjects. It is understood that, in the first instance, the folio may not contain archaeological material.
d)
Some photographers work on a volunteer British archaeology.
basis
or
its
equivalent,
these:
a)
will
a LRPS,
are
list of sites
may be
require professional fees; other preserving the present structure
This scheme will cover the whole range activities to include ancient buildings, excavations, field monuments, industrial
of
the Council's ecclesiastical remains, etc.
A meeting has been called by the convenor of the scheme, Gill for Monday, 20th November at 7.00 p.m. in RPS House wishing to be listed or to have further details.
will of
expanding archaeology,
Mr. Michael for all those
For members outside London or unable to attend this meeting, full details of it will be sent to you by Michael Gill. At the moment he would like to hear from those wisl1ing to be listed but may not be able to reply until after the above meeting. As Chairman of the Group I should like to thank all formulate this arrangement, particularly our friend Director of the Council for British Archaeology. This
wish with
been a rather formal letter, to photograph sites to contact an LRPS to contact me.
has
those who helped Mr. Henry Clee:a,
may I close it by urging all who Michael and anyone who wishes help
Robert Michael Robert
Gill Pitt
- Flat Tel.
5, Morris Court, Windsor 53461
Goddington Tel. 201))
House, Court (Orpington)
Longmead, Road,
Windsor, Orpington,
Pitt
Berks. Kent.
;; ***
MR. BERNARD ORNA writes: we offer a comment title and other headings, and modern archaeologyl
Dare
Berkhamsted,
8
July
1978
of
surprise at the use of Gothic lettering in the which we feel hardly reflect modern photography Has this occurred to others?
*** MISS MERCIE LACK writes: As I can and have who have Thank you may lend
no longer name myself as anything but a noncentral member - aged BJ no possibility of joining in expeditions, I am writing to thank all given me such pleasure in their contributions to "Archaeolog". ••••• also for naming books for reading which the Petersfield Library · me. With many thanks.
Froxfield,
Hants.
August
*** DR. GRAHAMWEBSTER writes, observationa,concerning
-
1978 with compliments, "Archaeolog":
as well
as valuable
constructive
••••• It seems to lean towards the romantic and pseudo-science nonsense, but perhaps I am unduly sensitive about this. The article on aerial photography is very sound on cameras and techniques in the air, but I feel it is far more important for your members to be informed about the difficulties in finding and interpretting sites. Quite a few keen people have taken to the air and wasted money because they did not appreciate that it needs a close study of crop-behaviour and the local weather pattern. I hope you can persuade your contributor to do another article dealing with these key matters. It might save much disappointment and frustration. Coates,
Gloucestershire,
*** ERICHOULDERt the refers
to,
author
August
1978
of
article
the
on Aerial
Photography,
Dr.
Webster
replies:
• •• The _article was entitled "The Mechanics of Aerial Photography", which accurately de-limited the scope - that is to say, the act of taking pictures. It was not intended to go into the philosophy or planning of that skill. It was chiefly intended tor our archaeologist members rather than our photographers - hence the simplistic approach to photographic terminology. The persons whom it was aimed at should be able to recognize cropmarks. Interpretation is another matter, and is an ongoing process over many flying seasons. Even so, there is no known way to predict the appearance of th•••• and even the most experienced aerial archaeologists must risk some flying hours to "have a look" at the beginning of each season. Eric Houlder•s article in the May/June edition of the Photographic Journal delves into the points raised by Dr. Webster, should other readers be similarly concerned. I am advised by Eric Houlder that he is preparing a follow-up to his article in the Photographic Journal on the processing of aerial films - but it will be some time before it appears.
PS>> . . AN EGYPTIAN TEMPLE FINDS A NEW HOME IN NEW YORK Built by the Roman Emperor Augustus in 15BC the Temple of Dendur was one of many Nubian monuments threatened with flooding behind the Aswan Dam. When in the early 196Os Abu Simbel was threatened with a similar fate, the United States of America donated ,16M towards the UNESCO sal~age operation. As a gesture of appreciation the Egyptian government offered the Temple of Dendur to American posterity. Just a few weeks ago, some six years after the 642 Temple blocks had ~een shipped to New York the re-constructed building began a new life in a nev wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, overlooking New York's Central Park. Any photographer to this site will find the glass curtain wall protecting the exhibit as much of a challenge as the monument itself.
" 9
Woodlawn1978 Saturday, 23rd September was the Phil Leonard reports on the day.
first
--of
the
new season's
activities.
The day started brightly, and some of our members who had arrived early at Shoreham Station made use of their time by photographing some House Martins who had built their nests under the station canopy. At 10.30 a.m. our first guide and lecturer, Mrs. J. Saynor, M.A., took us for a short walk to look at the old coach road, which is little more than a dirt track now, before going on to Shoreham Parish Church. The present building dates from about 1300 A.D., but it is thought an earlier building stood on the site. Mrs. Saynor not only told us about the church, but also of the many wealthy families who had contributed so much to the church and village. A walk round the outside of the building proved most instructive starting at the 15th century porch and ending with the bell tawer which was constructed in 1775 A.D. After a coffee break, we looked at the picturesque spanning the River Darent, the cross carved out of War Memorial, 15th century almshouses, and various
village, the bridge the chalk hills, the old cottages and inns.
Lunch was taken at Otford, where some of our members managed to have a quick look at the ruins of Otford Palace. This was built about 1520 for Archbishop Wareham, but it has been in ruins for some considerable time. We re-joined Mrs. Saynor at Eynesford Castle, ·where she explained that it was in fact not a castle but a late Norman Hall as recent excavations have found. Many Roman bricks have been used in its construction, pro .bably taken from a Roman site nearby.
At 3 1 o 1 clock
we were welcome by It.Col. G.W. Meates, F.S.A., Director of excavations at Lullingstone Roman Villa. A tour of the villa with him was an example to us all of his scholarship and love for his work. He held not only us, but the other members of the general public present spellbound with his description of the Villa and its history. All too soon we had to leave for "Woodlawn" where we had for Dartford, where our hosts the Dartford Archaeological plans for our evening's entertainment.
tea, before Group had
leaving made
This started with an opening welcome by Mr.Roger Walsh, the Director of the Centre. We were given various archaeological objects to photograph and Mr. R. Pitt showed us how to get the best results from our negatives. The meeting finished about 9-30 p.m. all in all a very successf'ul day.
••Our time,
thanks and
go to to Mr.
all the speakers who so generously gave and Mrs. M. Leonard who were at home• to
Ed.
n.b.
'•
next 10
copy-date
..
14.:11 ..78
of their the group.
BIRD'SEYE VIEW by ERIC HOULDER
My interest
in archaeology goes back as far aa 1956, when at the age of 16, a local W.E.A. class under the supervision of their tutor, began to excavate a medieval. priory in the field next to my home. By 1957 the photographic bug had bitten me ·as a result of my being given a Brownie 127. In some ways these interests have spanned the close of an era, and the beginning of a new one. In 1956 the best digs were organised upon the Wheeler/Kenyon system of accumulative squares with neatly brushed grass baulks inbetween. Site photography was done invariably with a large format plate camera on a massive tripod. I well remember being rebuked on one site for having the temerity to produce a "miniature" camera. The instrument in question was a quarter-plate model with ground glass focussing screen and black focussing cloth. The revolution came during the last sixties, and took the form of total stripping of sites. Baulks became redundant. With it came technology in the form of TLR and SLR cameras, photogrammetry, etc. Though some archaeologists professed to abhor J5mm., they handled photographs daily taken on J5mm without realizing it in some cases. The most recent revolution in archaeology has come about as the result of large-scale urban re-development. Invariably the biggest digs are in town or city centres, and the large rural sites of the fifties and sixties appear to be things of the past. One of my fondest group of memories is of the large tented •towns• we lived in. :t·t is probably this background and having prepared several features for photography, that an awareness has developed as to what the site-director requires from a picture, as well as a knowledge of what is physically possible in a given set of circumstances. An accepted perk is that anyone on a site may take photographs of features, after the official photographer has finished. Doing this all over the country is excellent practice and a few failures do not really matter. Speaking of accepted perks, I don't know if any readers have read that otherwise excellent little paperback, "Massada". In it is a reproduction of the form of application to work on that interesting site. It made me quite angry to read that photography by the volunteer• was forbidden. Surely even the non-fanatics would have liked a few snaps to show friends at home. A simple clause prohi.biting publication of volunteers' work would have sufficed.
ACCESSORIES
My recent article on the Mechanics of Aerial Photography has met with some constructive criticism, which I have answered elsewhere. I was also pleased to wad a recent review by Kevin MacDonnell in which he emphasised the value of lens hoods. A useful tip which I did not mention in my article is to re-paint the inside of your lens-hood occasionally, and so maintain that dead black finish. Forget all the camera-black paint in your dealer's shop. Proceed to the nearest D.I.Y. stores and obtain a can of Rustin's Blackboard Paint. This is the deadest black I have seen - it's also the cheapest since you get 250 ml for well under a pound. Another very ~se:tul acc••sory, which I did not mention ia a rubber eye-cup. This prevents eye damage when leaning out into the slipstream for vertical shots. There are at least two on the market. The Minolta version is deep and stiff and provides more protection to the eyeba11 than the more anatomicallyshaped ones. The best way to use the cup is to place the eye to the viewfinder before leaning out, and remove it after leaning back.
11
PHOTOGRAPH: Arthur
Page,
A.R.P.s.
D.irham City
Town Hall
Published £or the Archaeo1ogica1 Group 0£ the RPS by RPS Publications Ltd. Printed in London, by Swiftprint, Campden Hill Road. Group Office: 7 Ladbroke Walk, London, ~
12
Wll.