35mm · Film photography · Photography

Life ring

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Dotter around the shore of the lakes at Rother Valley Country Park are these life ring holders. They all show environmental wear with cracked paint and algae growth. I expect that they are regularly checked to ensure that they’re fit for purpose, but they have a definite patina’d look about them now.

Although the lens on this compact camera doesn’t feel as sharp as some others I use, it still has a nice took to it. There’s a painterly feel to some of the images it’s made and I like the way it has rendered the waterski cafe on the opposite side of the lake, along with the caravan and (way back on the top of the hill) a white-sided building.

Life ring

Fuji DL-270 Zoom Super & Kodak Colorplus. Grain2Pixel conversion.

Taken on 26 November 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Golden willow and white swan

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Another photo from my “Whoah! Where the heck did those colours come from?!?!” series. I know I’ve mentioned it on more than one occasion already but, just, wow. The shots with this willow lit by the rising sun have got beautiful complementary tones – that classic, and perhaps over-used, orange and teal thing. I’ve not tinkered with the colours at all in these shots – it’s how they popped into being after converting the negatives with Grain2Pixel. Sometimes I can have to work at things with certain film stocks and Grain2Pixel, but these just landed perfectly.

I will confess to a bit of Photoshoppery to remove a trio of distracting ducks (or maybe they were gulls) bobbing about in the water behind the swan. I’m usually relucant to edit my photos in this way (apart from getting rid of bits of debris), but in this case I think it made the picture a lot better.

Swan and willow

Fuji DL-270 Zoom Super & Kodak Colorplus. Grain2Pixel conversion.

Taken on 26 November 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Once more through the willow and into the sun

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This is almost the same composition as the one I published last week here, albeit that being a medium format black and white image made with the Bronica. Again, the colours on this Colorplus shot are, I think, beautiful. While it might not have the detail of the medium format version, and I’m slightly miffed that I cut off the tree on the left (I should have kept all of it in frame, or omitted it altogether, but I think I was too busy concentrating on getting the sun behind the trunk of the willow to have noticed at the time), I think that this version is more impactful. The colour film has captured the lovely subtle tones in the clouds and the golden light on the grasses of the lake side.

This time in colour

Fuji DL-270 Zoom Super & Kodak Colorplus. Grain2Pixel conversion.

Taken on 26 November 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Across from the misty path

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One of the photos I posted yesterday showed a footpath between trees. This path is at the edge of the River Rother. Glancing to the right from that location presents the scene shown in today’s image. The dead trees on the far bank make striking shapes, but I’m not sure if there’s a way to get closer to them or not.

Those dead trees beyond

Fuji DL-270 Zoom Super & Kodak Colorplus. Grain2Pixel conversion.

Taken on 7 November 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

More woodland mist

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These shots were take on the same day as the ones made with the Bronica which I posted about here. These were a bit of an afterthought really – I had the Fuji in my coat pocket and decided to make a few photos. I wasn’t really expecting much for a number of reasons: I had no idea of the provenance of the film; the camera had not been tested by myself; and because the lens is somewhat slow (starting at f/5.6 at the wide end I think), so I doubted I’d have much joy on a dimly lit morning with 200asa film. As it happened, they turned out very well. They maybe don’t stand up to close , pixel-peepy, scrutiny, but otherwise they are nice pictures. The colours from this roll, as I think I mentioned yesterday, are really nice.

Broken trunk
Beside the river

Fuji DL-270 Zoom Super & Kodak Colorplus. Grain2Pixel conversion.

Taken on 7 November 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Three Tuns

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The Three Tuns pub in Sheffield. I was told by a friend that it is supposedly haunted, and a quick bit of Googling reveals reports on people being prodded by an invisible finger, and the sounds of an unseen crying woman in the cellar. If it says it on the internet then I guess it must be true, eh? 🙂

The shot was made with my £1-from-a-car-boot-sale Fuji DL-270 Zoom Super (which already had this roll of film loaded). I don’t think I’ll keep the camera – I have several other compacts already – but I’m very happy with a lot of photos from this roll. Not necessarily in terms of sharpness or anything, but in the way they look. I got some great colours in a lot of the pictures.

Three Tuns

Fuji DL-270 Zoom Super & Kodak Colorplus. Grain2Pixel conversion.

Taken on 1 November 2020

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Love locks

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Padlocks denoting couples love hang afixed to the mesh fence over the railway line. It’s hardly the Seine, but the sentiment will still stand. I see these locks when I cross this bridge on occasion and wonder about their origins. Some of them have been there for years and now are gaining more and more rust. Some are engraved. Others have the names of their originators written upon them in ink, and those are fading away in some cases. How many of the couples are still together, I wonder? And do those who didn’t make the distance remember making their mark in this way? Have any been removed by those spurned? Little monuments to people’s lives.

Secured

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 50mm f/2.8 MC & Ilford HP5+ (@1600). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 20mins @ 20°.

Taken on 26 November 2020

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Through a willow and into the sun

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This willow stands at the lake’s edge at Rother Valley Country Park and I’ve photographed it on more than one occasion – there will be more photos of it to come soon, in fact!

It was a bright morning, with a hint of mist on the water and a touch of frost on the ground. I had a few frames left on the roll of HP5+ that I was pushing to 3200asa in my Bronica ETRSi, so I took a walk down to the lake before work.

The sun was low in the sky, peeking under a blanket of high cloud, and casting long shadows across the ground, so I decided to shoot into the light and use the branches of the willow to block the bulk of the glare. A small star of brilliance peeks between the branches.

Rother Valley willow

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 50mm f/2.8 MC & Ilford HP5+ (@1600). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 20mins @ 20°.

Taken on 26 November 2020

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Pond and pylon

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I was struck by just how much growth has occured in this small marshy area since the last time I walked through during the summer. Back then the area had been landscaped to produce a number of small ponds from the previous patch of marshy reedbeds. It was mostly bare earth with some patches of reeds. Now it is in full growth – so much so that it was a little difficult to spot the path that I’d followed previously. Hopefully it will be a haven for wildlife, especially amphibians.

Pond and pylon

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 50mm f/2.8 MC & Ilford HP5+ (@1600). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 20mins @ 20°.

Taken on 22 November 2020