As the weather had forecast fog and mist this morning, I set my alarm to get up in time to catch it. As there was very little near home, I decided to head out into the Peak District and visit Padley Gorge.
There was plenty of fog and mist on the journey there, and plenty during the walk from the car to the location, but when I got into the gorge the mist was pretty much non-existent. I guess some microclimate effect was in force because the mist was still visible when I looked up towards the road.
Some fog an mist would have come in handy not only to add atmosphere to my pictures, but also to hide some of the other photographers. And, boy, were there a lot of them. I’ve never seen the place so busy with other people with cameras. Pretty much every direction I looked would reveal someone with a camera, a tripod, or both – often wearing a vivid red waterproof jacket too!
I can’t really complain as I was there doing exactly the same thing, but it did mean that care was required to avoid getting one (or more!) of them into my shots.
While I had my XA3 in the bag, the morning ended up being a digital-only affair, shooting with my Nikon D810 – the camera I bought for scanning my film negatives, but also with the bonus of being a good camera for other uses too, despite it being released 14 years ago. I don’t think I did the best job with it, if I’m honest – I need more practice with it – but I was able to get a few pictures I’m happy with, including the ones in this post.
When I was a child I, like countless other children in the UK, read and owned a considerable number of Ladybird Books.
Ladybird Books was one of the best-known publishers of children’s books in Britain. They produced affordable, pocket-sized books that introduced whole generations of young readers to a wide range of subject matter, including original and well-known stories, history, science, nature and the world in general. Their aim was to make learning accessible, enjoyable and visually engaging, whether through reading schemes such as Peter and Jane or through their extensive range of non-fiction books.
A selection of just some of the Ladybird books on display at the Wonderful World of the Ladybird Artists exhibition
Ladybird used some of Britain’s finest illustrators to produce the artwork for the books, which were packed with images full of detail, accuracy and warmth. They might show a medieval castle, a steam locomotive, a fairytale character, or simply an ordinary family kitchen, but the illustrations had a realism and beauty that made the subject matter extremely engaging and memorable, and they remain one of the defining features of the Ladybird Books series.
About ten years ago there was a documentary (The Ladybird Books Story: The Bugs that Got Britain Reading) produced and broadcast by BBC4 in the UK about the books and their legacy. The programme featured, amongst others, a lady by the name of Helen Day, who runs the wonderful Ladybird Fly Away Home website and has been a collector of not just the Ladybird books themselves, but also the history of the publisher and the writers and artists who made the books what they were.
In 2018 she was asked to produce an exhibition on the books, and The Wonderful World of the Ladybird Artists has been touring the country since then. It has been at Mansfield museum, which is less than an hour from me for the past few months, and I’ve been meaning to get along to it for a while (especially as it is only there until November). I finally got the opportunity to do so this past weekend.
The exhibition was a delight, full of fascinating information, and packed full of artwork, historical artifacts related to Ladybird Books, plus a huge number of the books themselves, including a reading corner with a range of title to brows and enjoy. The exhibition isn’t huge but I found it interesting enough to devour everything there and enjoyed a good couple of hours of happy nostalgia.
I don’t have any of my original Ladybird books (unless there are some squirreled away at my dad’s house still) but I do have a small collection that I have picked up in the past couple of decades – including some of the titles I originally owned, plus a bunch of others. They’re still an absolute delight to look at and the artwork is gorgeous, enriched by the fact it depicts a world as it was fifty years ago and beyond. I’m not someone who thinks everything was better in the “good old days” – I think most things were worse – but some things are to be treasured. Ladybird Books are one of them.
One of the Ladybird books I have in my current collection. I feel this 1970-published title is apt for the blog!
These are the final handful of pictures from my trip to Newark-on-Trent back in the summer. Shot on Kodak Pro Image, which I’ve found to be a pretty agreeable film. It’s more expensive than it once was, but still easier on the pocket than the Portras and Ektars of this world.
Olympus XA3 & Kodak Pro Image. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
I took one shot with my XA3 on this walk near Carlton in Lindrick and I’m very glad I did as all the other pictures I shot (on B&W film) came out underexposed and many couldn’t be rescued. This one is a peach though.
Olympus XA3 & Kodak Pro Image. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
