Month: July 2026

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Gathered Leaves

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My plan for today had originally been to meet up with a bunch of other photographers for a wander around a midlands heritage museum. Alas though, due to the continuing hot weather, it was decided it was best to postpone until later in the summer. So, with time on my hands, I decided to drive instead to Newark where I knew there was an exhibition on featuring the work of a photographer whose work I enjoy: Paul Hart.

The Gathered Leaves exhibition is in the newly opened Vibrant Matter gallery, and details can be found here. While there were some framed prints from artists featured, the exhibition was focused on publications rather than prints – you can see where it got it’s title – and I browsed most of what were on display as well as having a nice chat with the owner, Daniel Rapley, whose work was also on display (in the shape of experimental images formed from found photographic images, creating a colourful and eyecatching display of overlaid scenes. There was a feeling of Christopher Nolan’s Inception in some images, where inverted cities loomed above foreground figures). While there were a number of photography books present, the scope was wider, and there were publications dealing with more experimental art, design, and typography.

After my visit to the gallery I wandered around Newark taking pictures of my own, finally finishing a roll of Kodak Pro Image that’s been in my Olympus XA-3 for a couple of months now, as well as starting on rolls of Portra 160 (which I’d forgotten was in my camera bag – not sure how long it’s been cooking in there. It’s a good job Portra doesn’t cost much, eh..?), Ektar (in my Yashica Mat 124 G), and some expired Ilford Delta 400 in my Olympus OM-10). I took a new camera bag with me which has space for more stuff. I’m not sure if that is a good or bad thing just yet…

Newark is a nice place to wander around. The architecture is pretty, with lots of charming red-brick buildings, a colourful market square, the River Trent, and the ruins of a castle (although it is currently undergoing some sort of renovation so could only really be viewed from across the river).

I also bought myself a new book from a used book seller in the market. They had a few photography books, but none that really interested me, so I bought a book on the life of Edward Seago which is full of his beautiful paintings. I first came across his work while admiring the work of fellow blogger -N- on her Ink, Yarn, and Beers blog. She’s posted about being inspired by Seago’s work on more than one occasion, and I thank her for bringing it to my attention. Go check out her blog and her lovely paintings.

Because all my pictures from Newark today were shot on film, I don’t yet have any to show, so here’s a picture from a previous visit back in 2022. I shot a very similar image today!

Floating pub

RETO Ultrawide & Slim & Kodak Gold 200

Taken on 18 March 2022

Digital · Photography

Still hot

fishyfisharcade5 Comments

It’s a whole degree cooler than yesterday’s 33.9°C in my home office today. That’s still over ten degrees hotter than I’d like it to be.

My expensive new fan arrived this morning, and is doing a decent job of taking the edge off the heat, but it’s not an air conditioner and there’s only so much that moving air flow can achieve, so it still feels oppressive and it’s been pretty hard to get motivated while working today.

Thankfully the temperatures are forecast to begin dropping over the weekend to a much more manageable mid-20s range (and, more importantly, overnight temps below 20°C, so there’s a chance to open the windows and flush out the hot air).

The sub-tropical climate of Madeira felt more manageable than this, mostly due to infrastructure designed to deal with it – air-con, tiled floors, window-shutters and the like, most of which go against the standard UK building methods that are designed to keep heat inside. If the summer temperatures in the UK continue to rise in future, then there is going to be a real need for change to prevent severe disruption.

But anyway, this is meant to be a photography blog, not an essay on climate change, so here’s another shot from the holiday. It’s another digital picture (although I have received four sheets of film negs back in the post today, so plenty of those to share too when I get around to it).

Being a Portugese territory, you’d expect to see plenty of Portugese flags in Madeira, but there were probably more than usual due to the World Cup tournament taking place while we were there (Madeira also being the birthplace of their famed striker, Christiano Ronaldo – there’s even a museum in Funchal dedicated to him). At this stage Portugal had not yet been knocked out…

Inbetween

Ricoh GRIII

Taken on 27 June 2026

Digital · Photography

Coastal puzzle

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I like the way that these concrete coastal defences have been painted. Looking down on them from above (they’re maybe 5 feet long on each side) reminded me of some sort of puzzle videogame.

If you click through on the image to the larger Flickr version, you can see where footprints have set into the surface of a few of them before they hardened.

Coastal puzzle

Ricoh GRIII

Taken on 27 June 2026

Digital · Photography

Fortress of São João Baptista do Pico

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A few days into the Madeira trip, I took a walk from the hotel to an old fortress that I’d seen featured in an online tour guide. While only half a mile or so from the hotel “as the crow flies”, it was a somewhat more meandering hike “as the human walks” – and not just side to side, but also up and down as the fort was on the other side of a ridge from where we were staying. The final leg of the walk was particularly steep, proper thigh-master stuff.

Fortified
Out

Once at the fortress the views across Funchal and out south across the Atlantic were very nice. The fortress had scope for a bunch of pictures and I shot several on both film and digital (I’ll share the film pictures on a later date). In terms of other things to do, there wasn’t a great deal. There was a single open room containing paintings of the fort from various times in its history, plus a couple of small empty turret areas, but the rest of the structure was out of bounds. At first I thought I must’ve missed something but, upon asking an attendant, I was informed that more of the structure was planned to be opened at some future date. Perhaps I’ll get to revisit it one day and see the rest.

Stormlight
Prisoner's view

Ricoh GRIII

Taken on 26 June 2026

Photography · Digital

Hotel overlook

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No, not the one from The Shining!

This is a view overlooking the lawn area beside one of our hotel’s swimming pools (there were three – one indoor, and another outdoor pool on the same level from which I took this picture). The hotel was quite maze-like and it took almost until the end of our holiday to get a decent feel for how the different areas and levels all interconnected.

The white building in the picture is also part of the complex and housed one of the hotel’s a la carte restaurants on its ground floor (which is a floor below what you can see here!). The hotel reception is below the swimming pool.

This was shot on our first day at the hotel. We had a couple of days where it became quite overcast in the afternoon, although even on otherwise sunny days, the mountain tops would usually be lost to cloud come mid-afternoon.

Below a heavy sky

Ricoh GRIII

Taken on 22 June 2026

Photography · Digital

Back in the UK

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I’m home again after 11 days on the beautiful island of Madeira. I have loads of pictures to come from the trip (five rolls of film to get developed), plus a bunch of digital shots as well.

I’ll probably not get around to posting the film shots for a while as I still have a backlog of other stuff to post, but I’ll be dropping some of the digital pictures in over the coming week or so. As usual, it will be a mix of whatever caught my eye, such as this staircase in our hotel.

Going down

Ricoh GRIII

Taken on 22 June 2026