Another shot made possible by having the XA3 in my coat pocket. I did have my Fujica GW690 with me on the day, but that had already greedily eaten all my 120 film in it’s limited eight-shot stomach. So the XA3 came to the rescue for any other pictures I spotted.

I honestly didn’t know if this would be a nothing shot at the time I took it. I spent a bit of effort to make sure the trees all had separation (as much as possible, at least – there’s a background tree hiding behind one of the foreground ones), but the scene didn’t look all that inspiring to the naked eye. However, seeing it appear in black and white, I realise what it was that had caught my eye, and it’s one of the best pictures from the day. There’s something about the way a camera renders a scene that can make it different, and more interesting, than what was seen with the naked eye. The opposite can be true as well, of course, but in this case the camera captured it better.

Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 27 January 2024