Month: June 2020

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Gateway to yonder

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Please excuse the somewhat pretentious title of today’s post, but I think it fits the photo. It was made during the same walk as yesterday’s picture, although this was a few miles further along the route and getting back to where I’d parked my car.

In the same way that I seem to have a fondness for photographs of power lines crossing the landscape, so I also like gates, fences, stiles and signposts it would seem. Gates and stiles especially though, as I find them evocative and good subjects for drawing the eye into a scene.

While I know exactly what was on the other side of this gate, another viewer almost certainly won’t, and I hope the picture triggers thoughts of exploration and curiosity as to what might be on the other side. Where might it lead? What sights might you see?

I have a tendency to use a wide aperture to produce a shallow depth of field on such shots which, for me at least, adds to the feel of such photographs.

Anyway, hope someone else likes it too. 🙂

Gateway to yonder

Yashica Mat 124G & Shanghai GP3 (expired). Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 10 mins @ 24°.

Taken on 23 May 2020

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

No cycling. No horses. Up yours. :)

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I made this photo back on the 23rd May and posted about the walk I’d taken on the same day. In that post there’s a section about me accidentally going off my planned route and ending up in some private woodland. The tree in today’s photograph was one of the first things I saw when entering.

Clearly some cyclist or horse-rider has taken umbridge with the suggestion that they are not allowed in the woods and had responded with a coarse, but good natured retort. It made me smile and take the time to make the photograph.

I wondered how the Yashica Mat would cope with the light as the bright sun was directly in frame – if partially obscured by branches – and I half expected a lot of lens-flare or loss of contrast in the shot. As it turned out, it’s coped very well and I really like the glow around the disk of the sun as well as the backlit trees in the woodland.

The sunlight was so bright that it’s light crossed over into the next frame on the roll of film!

 

No cycling. No Horses. Up yours :)

Yashica Mat 124G & Shanghai GP3 (expired). Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 10 mins @ 24°.

Taken on 23 May 2020

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Architecture in miniature

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Someone had constructed this small tower of stones in a stream-bed that I crossed while out for a walk a few weeks ago. It’s not as precise and artistic as some of the piles of rocks that people make – some of which feature incredibly fine balancing of smooth stones. This one is somewhat utilitarian in appearance but yet still attractive enough to have caught my eye as I passed. A few minutes before I’d seen a deer a little further up this same stream – the first time I’ve ever come across a deer in some woodland like this – and I was feeling glad about it.

Architecture in miniature

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 16 May 2020

 

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Baslow

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A photograph today that was taken back at the start of the year. I made it during a trip out to Baslow Edge and shot it using the Zuiko 75-150mm f/4 lens I had with me.

While I published several photographs taken during that trip here on the blog, this one has lain untouched on my hard-drive.

It shows the view looking down on the village of Baslow from atop the edge that is named after it.

While I don’t do it often, sometimes it’s nice to just have a look back through photographs I made previously. I often find a few surprises in the form of images I’d forgotten about completely, or ones which, while not doing much for me at the time, now hold appeal on a fresh viewing.

Baslow

Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 75-150mm f/4 & Ilford Delta 400.

Taken on 4 Jan 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Fence in the lake

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I’ve often wondered what the purpose is (if any) of this short section of fence that extends a few feet into the lake. There’s a gap on the shore (with the remains of a latch where a gate presumably once stood) so it serves no purpose in preventing passage. I guess it could be a holdover from before the lake was there (when it used to be a quarry) and was never removed when it was filled with water and the country park developed.

Whatever the case, it makes a nice subject for the occasional photograph.

Water's edge

Pentax P30T, Rikenon 50mm f/2 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 2 May 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Old weathered bench

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There are a number of these benches dotted aroung the edge of the lakes at Rother Valley Country park. I’m unsure as to when they were installed, but they certainly look like they’ve seen their share of the elements. The park is almost 40 years old now, but I’m not sure if the benches have been there all that time.

Weathered wooden bench

I’ve photographed them before on previous occasions. The shot below was originally posted on here back in 2017.

FILM - Experiments with a cheap plastic camera-2

First picture: Pentax P30T, Rikenon 50mm f/2 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 2 May 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Pandemic scenes #10

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A slightly larger selection of photographs today made up of most of my remaining pandemic-related pictures. I have a few others, but I’m not sure if they’re worth posting or not.

As retail opens up and the lockdown measures ease, there might be opportunities to make more photographs relating to the situation (and if the whole thing goes belly-up, there might be a whole bunch of new lockdown pictures too!), but for now this is the last of what I have to show.

The photos were made over three seperate outings, using two different cameras (and film stocks). The first three follow on directly from the trig point images I posted yesterday, being made on the same walk. The first shows the KFC restaurant at the local retail park. This place would normally be full of cars at the time I walked past, but on this day is was completely deserted. I think it may have re-opened for drive-through sales now but on this day it was shut. The McDonald’s to the right of the image was similarly closed (although it was part way through renovation as the lockdown took effect, so won’t reopen until that is complete anyway). There’s a Pizza Hut off the edge of the frame to the left too, but that was also closed. Probably good for people’s cardiovascular systems though.

Empty at the chicken place

After walking past the KFC I dropped down to the shopping mall to get some items from Sainsbury’s. The usual socially-distanced queue was in effect and took me past these signs on the store window close to the entrance. The rightmost sign is for the Big Night In, a television special made by the BBC where the majority of the performances came from the act’s own homes. You can just make out the ghostly reflections of other socially-distanced shoppers in the window too.

Pandemic scenes - Please queue here

Walking home I passed by a local pub restaurant, closed up since before the lockdown started. Like many similar venues, the noticeboard features a thank you message to NHS and other key workers.

Pandemic scenes - Thank you

This next photo was taken from practically the same spot as the second picture in this sequence, but on a different day. It shows the supermarket’s promotion of technology to make it easier for people to avoid contact with others while in the store.

Pandemic scenes - Stop the spread

And finally, this is one of the children’s play areas at Rother Valley Country Park, the gates taped up, warning notices applied, and fastened shut with plastic cable ties.

Pandemic scenes - No dogs, no children, no-one

Shots 1-3. Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Ilford Delta 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 25 April 2020

Shots 4-5. Pentax P30T, Rikenon 50mm f/2 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 29 April & 2 May 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Pandemic scenes #9

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The British Isles is dotted with triangulation pillars. These “Trig points” were placed by the Ordnance Survey as a means of triangulating locations when mapping the country back in the 1930s. They can be found all over the country and are generally marked on Ordnance Survey maps (certainly the 1:25,000 scale Explorer maps at least).

Todays post shows a trig point a mile or so from where I live. I’ve known it was there for a long time, but had never walked up to it before this occasion. While the pillar is the usual concrete obelisk, this one has a significant number of rocks, stones and pebbles deposited around it’s base, many of them decorated with pictures and messages.

Pandemic scenes - Trig point

During the Covid-19 pandemic many of these messages are in support of the NHS and frontline workers. Some of them are brightly coloured and this was an occasion where colour film might have been a more suitable choice.

Pandemic scenes - Trig point leavings

Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Ilford Delta 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 25 April 2020