At Tickhill

August 27, 2025 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Following directly on from yesterday’s post where I had a short wander around Oldcotes, today’s pictures are from the walk I took around Tickhill on the same day.

Tickhill is a small town in Nottinghamshire a few miles north of Oldcotes. It’s quite a pretty little place with what appears to be a busy high street (certainly without the usual array of charity shops, tattoo parlours, vape shops and the like that tend to appear where a place is struggling). I’ve driven through the place on a number of occasions, but have only stopped when we’ve been strawberry picking at a farm just to the northern edge of the town. This was the first time I’ve had a walk around the place.

Tickhill has the remains of a castle, although it’s in private ownership so you can’t see much of the place other than a few sections of the wall and it was close to there that I parked my car. Walking towards the castle led me to a millpond where an ice cream van was parked and it was in this area that I took the first of the three pictures below.

After this I set off to the east following a public footpath, taking the next three images along the route. I was getting close to the end of the roll of film and had planned on finishing the remaining frames, but then a sudden heavy rain shower made its presence felt and I had to seek shelter, at first beneath a tree, and then in a cafe on the high street.

I shot the remaining few frames in the church, along with a bunch of medium format pictures too. Those will appear here soon.

Olympus OM-10, Zuiko Auto-S 35mm f/2.8 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 22 June 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

At Oldcotes

August 26, 2025 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Back in June my wife and I went strawberry picking at a farm near Tickhill. It was a hot day so, on the way home, laden with three large tubs of delicious berries, we decided to see if we could find a cafe. Looking on Google Maps, I found a place called Manor Farm (which is the building in the last photo below) in the village of Oldcotes which has a cafe and makes its own ice cream. The ice cream was very nice, as was the cafe which had seating in a lovely courtyard as well as indoors.

In getting to the place, I noticed a few other things in the area that might make for interesting photos. I didn’t have my camera with me at the time so, a few days later, I returned, parked the can and went and took some pictures (I also returned to Tickhill on the same trip, and took a bunch more there, but those are for another day).

As tends to be my thing quite often these days, most of the pictures are of buildings I found interesting (although I snuck a kissing gate in too…).

Olympus OM-10, Zuiko Auto-S 35mm f/2.8 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 22 June 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

A busy long weekend

August 25, 2025 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I thought I’d just throw out the remaining pictures from my trip to Bury for today’s post. It’s the last day of a bank holiday weekend here in the UK, and it’s been quite a busy one. It feels like it’s still Sunday, but I’m back at work tomorrow (I could do with another bank holiday to recover from this one!).

Saturday started with me developing a roll of film first thing in the morning. Normally I would do this later in the day, but we had plans to visit our eldest and I wanted to get the roll sorted out and hung to dry before we set off. We got back in the afternoon, so I had time to cut and sleeve the negatives before going back out to visit my dad.

Sunday was my day out with a camera (actually three cameras, more fool me) on a trip to Spurn Head on the east coast. I’ll post more about the trip when I have some photos to share, but suffice to say that the lighthouse at the end of the head is a lot further than it looks!

More developing today, and I managed to get through three rolls. Two rolls of Acros developed together in the same tank while, at the same time, I used semi-stand development on a roll of Fomapan 400. The Across looks good, but there are problems with the Fomapan. Some of it might be down to my development (I can see bromide drag – the first time this has happened when I’ve used semi-stand), but it’s also beset by the tiny white specks issue that I’ve had in the past with Foma stocks, plus some other weird artefacts that I think are also film related. I’ll do what I can to rescue the shots, but it’s disappointing, especially given some of the shots are from my lengthy walk yesterday and look nice otherwise. I’ll say more about this when I post the shots.

I did shoot more (non-Foma) film on the trip too, so hopefully those will work out better.

Olympus OM-10, Zuiko Auto-S 35mm f/2.8 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 16 May 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

I finally photographed this derelict farm building

April 1, 2025April 1, 2025 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

I’ve seen this building on numerous occasions when driving through the area and on this day I finally found myself well placed (and equipped) to photograph it.

It might look like it’s out on the open plains somewhere remote, but is right on the edge of Whitwell and it’s only the gentle curve of the land that allows this illusion of space.

I took a number of pictures of the building (and the tree to the right of frame – which featured in yesterday’s post) using different focal lengths and am happy with all of them. I did have another shot which is zoomed out a little further than the third shot below which I think I liked best of all, but I managed to beat the lens’ vibration compensation and introduce some camera shake. A shame.

One thing I didn’t notice until I processed the scans is that there is a solitary figure sat on the corner of the wall of the structure. You can make them out better if you click on the images and view them larger in Flickr. They were some distance away, so I wonder if they noticed they were being (unknowingly) photographed?

Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD & Agfa APX 100. Rodinal 1+100 (+2ml) semi-stand 1 hour @ 20°

Taken on 8 March 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Yonder tree

March 31, 2025April 1, 2025 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

Two photographs of the same tree.

The first is my favourite of the pair. I like the simplicity of the lone tree, but more than that, I like the layered tones created by the fields which neatly divides the picture into thirds. I’m not sure what focal length I used for this one, but expect it was somewhere between 150mm-200mm.

I like the second image too, but I had an ulterior motive when composing the shot to see what it would look like if I utilised the Tamron’s full 300mm range. The image falls apart a little when viewed larger, although I’m not sure how much of that is weakness in the lens at 300mm, and how much is atmospheric effects from zooming in through what was quite hazy air.

Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD & Agfa APX 100. Rodinal 1+100 (+2ml) semi-stand 1 hour @ 20°

Taken on 8 March 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Cow parsley

March 30, 2025 fishyfisharcade4 Comments

One of the trees form the picture in yesterday’s post can be seen again in today’s picture, lthough it has been relegated to a supporting role in this shot. Instead, the star of the show today is the head of some dried cow parsley which was growing (or had been growing) at the edge of the country lane I was walking down.

As I already mentioned yesterday, I’m very happy with a lot of the pictures that I got from, what was in effect, a test roll.

Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD & Agfa APX 100. Rodinal 1+100 (+2ml) semi-stand 1 hour @ 20°

Taken on 8 March 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Two trees

March 29, 2025 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

Considering this outing was primarily to shoot a roll of film to test my semi-stand developing process, I managed to get quite a lot of pictures I really like. Including this one.

Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD & Agfa APX 100. Rodinal 1+100 (+2ml) semi-stand 1 hour @ 20°

Taken on 8 March 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Through hazy lands

March 28, 2025March 28, 2025 fishyfisharcade4 Comments

This is the type of scene that I would miss without a telephoto lens. It was a bright, sunny day, but as well as whisps of high-altitude cloud, there was a haze in the air which meant the landscape became layered as it fell to the distance. This is a relatively mundane scene, but the layering provided by the mist makes it into something much more interesting, and the farm is placed so it doesn’t become too obscured, I think.

I did wonder about cropping out a lot of the sky and going for a more panoramic frame, but in the end decided against it – I quite like the way the distant wind turbine protrudes into the emptiness.

Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD & Agfa APX 100. Rodinal 1+100 (+2ml) semi-stand 1 hour @ 20°

Taken on 8 March 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

One lane, three views

March 27, 2025March 27, 2025 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

All three of today’s pictures were taken while walking along a narrow lane that led me out of Whitwell and towards the main road (the A619, or Clinthill Lane) and from there, back to where I’d parked my car in the layby in front of Whitwell Woods. The weather was fine and I had to remove my fleece long before I reached the road.

I like the middle shot the best. The power pole almost feels like it’s beckoning me closer, and then point the way I need to go.