A windmill, a door, and a door bell

August 21, 2020 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Three more photographs of North Leverton windmill today (there will probably be at least a few more to come in future posts too). Today’s pictures were made with my Sure Shot Supreme compact. While it doesn’t provide the same detail as the medium format Zeiss I used for my earlier photos, the 38mm lens was a much better focal length for geting the whole mill in shot.

This next shot is my favourite of the three here. I like the simplicity of it, but there are nice details to be had if you look for them too – the shadow of the windmill’s blades on the left tof the frame, the shed to the right, plus the bell (and what appears to be some sort of cat-flap – although I could quite easily be wrong about this) on the door.

And finally, a detail shot of the bell itself.

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 7 mins 45 secs @ 22.5°.

Taken on 25 July 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Down a back street in Retford

August 20, 2020 fishyfisharcade1 Comment

Another photograph from my short stop-off in Retford after visiting North Leverton windmill. I was just wandering around looking for pictures when I spotted this back street behing the town hall building that looked like a nice shot.

Overdeveloped again (from the same roll as yesterday’s photo), but I think it works pretty well still.

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 7 mins 45 secs @ 22.5°.

Taken on 25 July 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Man in an (overdeveloped) trilby

August 19, 2020 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

The first shot on this roll of HP5+. A roll that I’m pretty sure I’ve overdeveloped. From the point of hanging the negatives to dry I had a feeling something was amiss as they looked noticably denser than I might have expected. Once scanned it became apparent that the highlights were much brighter than they should have been and there was more grain than expected along with the loss of some fine detail.

The reson for this, I believe, was my developing the roll on a hot day where controlling the temperature of the developer was difficult. By the time I was ready to start the process, it had risen from 20 degrees to 22.5, so I had to consult the Ilford compensation charts to see how that would affect the time. While the charts are very helpful, they only show compensations for whole degrees, so I made a best guess to put my time somewhere between those quoted for 22 and 23 degrees. I think I should probably have shaved another 15-20 seconds from the time.

I’ve managed to save pretty much every frame with some post-processing tweaks in Lightroom, but they’re not what I’d planned. Still, everything’s a learning experience, eh?

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 7 mins 45 secs @ 22.5°.

Taken on 23 July 2020

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Moored on the Cuckoo Way

August 18, 2020 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I took this shot while using up the final frames on this roll of Shanghai GP3. The walk along the towpath beside the Chesterfield Canal is known as The Cuckoo Way and can be followed from Chesterfield all the way to the point where the canal enters the River Trent, approx 50 miles away.

Although it was a very hot and bright day, the place where this canal-boat was moored was in shadow from the trees beside the canal towpath and I had to open the Zeiss to it’s widest aperture to get a decent shutter speed on the 100asa film.

I don’t normally shoot the camera wide open as it performs better when stopped down, plus the uncoupled rangefinder design can make it a bit of a best guess for fine focusing.

In this case though, the boat was far enough away for the focusing to not be too much of a concern and I quite like the way the lens has rendered the scene. It’s hardly some kind of “bokeh monster”, but has given a nice hint of seperation in the focus.

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Shanghai GP3. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 10 mins @ 24°.

Taken on 31 July 2020

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Another church – Grove St Methodist church, Retford

August 17, 2020 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

After mentioning yesterday that I seem to photograph a lot of churches, here’s another one. I didn’t realise that this was a church until just now, when I looked up the location on Google maps. On the day the photo was made, I just noticed an impressive looking building. I didn’t actually go around the front of the structure, where the purpose of the building would have been revealed, instead turning right and heading towards the town centre after taking the shot.

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Shanghai GP3. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 10 mins @ 24°.

Taken on 25 July 2020

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

North Wheatley methodist chapel

August 16, 2020 fishyfisharcade1 Comment

Another place of worship. I make quite a lot of photographs of churches and similar, despite rarely visiting them for their intended purposes. Despite this, I find them to be interesting locations, visually, cultually and historically, and they are often strikingly beautiful.

This chapel is in a village that I have driven past countless times in my life, but never before this occasion actually ventured within. The village (actually North AND South Wheatley as they’re pretty much joined together now) is skirted by the A620 Gainsborough Road, the route that I always take when visiting Mablethorpe on the east coast – a place I’ve been visiting since I was a young child. While it’s obvious that the village is there, it’s not a place that I, or my grandparents when they drove us as children, ever sought to stop off at.

While this was the first time I’ve ever visited the village, it was still a last minute decision while driving home from North Leverton windmill, and I didn’t really explore the place properly. There is a church, but I didn’t look there, instead taking a few photos down near the methodist chapel, which stands beside a small brook. Maybe I’ll visit again one day, or maybe this will have been a once-in-a-lifetime thing and I’ll simply go back to bypassing the place en-route to other destinations.

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Shanghai GP3. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 10 mins @ 24°.

Taken on 25 July 2020

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

North Leverton windmill

August 15, 2020 fishyfisharcade3 Comments

I mentioned my photos of North Leverton windmill a couple of days ago, so here are a few of them

The mill was built in 1813 by a collective of local farmers to grind their corn. It was also agreed that the mill would grind corn from other farmers and “industrious poor persons” for an agreed fee.

The windmill is completely without electrical power, relying on the wind to operate – although there are a set of engine stones for use when the wind is too low to turn the sails.

The windmill still sources locally grown grain to produce flour and animal feed, using traditional millstones to grind it.

I had a couple of cameras with me on the day – my Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & my Canon Sure Shot Supreme (plus my phone). Because of the hedges and fences that surround the mill, it was sometimes difficult to frame shots with the fixed focal length lenses of both cameras. Ironically in the next shot, I could have used a longer lens perhaps.

The final shot is of the cottage beside the mill, which had a group of chickens roaming about the place – presumably the source of the eggs in the photo I posted the other day.

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford Delta 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 25 July 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

A window on work

August 14, 2020 fishyfisharcade1 Comment

I sometimes wonder at the purpose of these windows placed in the barriers that surround construction projects. Is there a specific purpose for them? Or are they there, as might seem obvious, to allow passers by to have a nosey at what’s taking place on the other side of the fence?

It seems that the obvious reason in this case is the actual reason. The windows are there for public engagement to allow them to see what’s happening on the construction site from behind the safety of a barrier.

I’m not sure that I would want someone to have a little window to peep in on me doing my work whenever they felt like it. Then again, my work is likely far less interesting to the average passer by. Perhaps I should buy an excavator…

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Agfa APX100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10.5 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 23 July 2020

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Which came first? The chicken or the egg?

August 13, 2020 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

…Clearly the chicken, because I posted a picture of her yesterday! 😀

This self-service dresser full of fresh eggs was in the driveway of North Leverton Windmill, which I visited three weeks ago. Time really flies! – it only feels like last weekend that I made the trip!

There will be a bunch of photos of the windmill over the coming days and weeks as I made several photos on both my Zeiss and my Sure Shot Supreme.

Who knew there was a national egg-box shortage!

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford Delta 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 25 July 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Big chicken (it’s too hot!)

August 12, 2020 fishyfisharcade6 Comments

It’s still ludicrously hot here today. Well, compared with the normal temperature at least. It’s undoubtedly positively cool in comparison to many places, but we’re not prepared for it. Whereas it would be the norm for people to have air-con units, or buildings designed specifically to keep cool in locations that regularly get heat, we don’t generally have the need for that in the uk – It’s usually cold and rainy. 🙂

Anyway, it’s too hot to type for long and I’m almost finished scanning a strip of negatives and very much looking forward to a cool shower, so another quick post today I’m afraid.

So, somewhat randomly, here’s a big chicken…