Tag: clouds

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Skate park

fishyfisharcade1 Comment

This is a feature of Mablethorpe that didn’t exist when I used to visit as a child. It stands on a patch of open grass that leads up to the pirate-themed crazy golf course (which used to be an Arnold Palmer Putting Course, and for which I still have a never-to-be-redeemed voucher for a free play that I got after getting a hole-in-one on the final obstacle many years ago). I didn’t walk up to the course, but having seen this YouTube video, it appears that this may also now be closed. But fear not, there’s another pirate-themed course, just at the bottom of the slope (possibly owned by the same people).

Anyway, I digress. The skate park was devoid of skaters when I took this shot, but I liked the slightly confrontational look of the foreground ramp facing down the others.

Skate park

Yashica Mat 124G and Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 11 October 2025

Digital · Photography

A figure by a lighthouse

fishyfisharcade6 Comments

A quick post this evening as I’ve just got back from the cinema (where I saw TRON Ares, which I enjoyed a lot).

Here’s another digital shot from our recent trip to Menorca. This is the Far d’Artrutx lighthouse on the south-western tip of the island. The woman in the shot was there by happenstance, but I think her presence adds a lot to the picture.

Figure by a lighthouse

Ricoh GR III

Taken on 29 September 2025

Digital · Photography

Battling the storms of a new PC

fishyfisharcade2 Comments

I got a new PC this week. It’s not brand new – it’s my son’s old PC – but it’s still vastly more powerful than my old machine. It has the luxury of a solid-state drive being installed meaning it boots up fast and the applications I use are similarly speedy to get going. I swapped out the secondary storage drive for a larger capacity model, so I now have a lot of room to add more pictures too.

It’s not all smooth sailing though. I have my files backed up via a cloud service and it’s taken days to download all the files back onto the new machine. I’ve also had headaches getting Lightroom to play nicely with the catalog I exported from the old machine and, while I have my scanning software installed, as well as Negative Lab Pro, I’m having problems getting Epson Scan to work. A lot of people don’t seem to like Epson Scan very much, but I’ve always found it very effective when scanning B&W medium and large format negatives, so I would like to get it working if possible. I can fall back on Vuescan (which I use for scanning colour negatives and slide film anyway) and do the inversions in Negative Lab Pro, which I’ve tried and had good results, but it means getting used to a different workflow. I’m not sure if I can scan multiple negatives in a batch with Vuescan either (although I haven’t looked into it properly yet).

Anyway, hopefully the storm-clouds of getting everything configured to my needs will soon thin and I can enjoy the benefits of a faster PC.

A rare foray into digital pictures for the blog today, with the shot below coming from my Ricoh GR III. These sorts of clouds are very rare hereabouts, so I had to grab a picture when I saw them. I thought we might be in for a huge storm, but they just drifted by without much fuss in the end.

Stormy weather

Ricoh GR III

Taken on 7 November 2023

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Dead tree and pylons

fishyfisharcade1 Comment

Another large format shot. And another with faults, this time some out of focus elements in the middle right of the frame. I’m not sure whether this might not just be a gust of wind blowing the power lines and trees about though. I’ve had similar issues with other shots however, including some I’ve just developed, so it could well be something else causing it. More (time consuming and tedious) trial and error work will no doubt be required. So far I have to say that it’s the promise of large format that is keeping me going rather than the actual process – 35mm and medium format are sooo much less faff!

Still, the problem in this picture is barely noticeable unless you start pixel peeping, and otherwise I like the picture. Maybe I should give myself a break. I used a yellow filter here which has really given the skies some nice contrast.

Dead tree and pylons

Chamonix 045N-1. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken 1 August 2023.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

A house behind a hedge

fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

And so the “photos of houses” (or a “guest” house in theis case) continues. I expect thwo or three more days of these to go – although a couple of them are not houses, so there’s that…

I did manage to finish and develop a roll of HP5+ yesterday though, so the future of the blog, insofar as having some fresh photos, is assured for another week or so if I can get my finger out and start scanning them. 🙂

White against blue sky
A guesthouse gable-end shines
In September sun

White Heather gable

Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Lomography Xpro Chrome 100 (expired 2012)

Taken on 16 September 2021

35mm · Film photography · Photography

After the parade has gone

fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

An impromptu image for today’s post. A few weeks ago when the local signalbox was being demolished, my wife and I walked down to see what was going on – it would have been the last day the box was standing and I wanted to get some farewell photos in case I wasn’t able to withness its removal the following day. On the way there I glanced upwards and saw this forlorn strand of bunting hanging from some lights, probably left over from the last local community fun-day which takes place in the summer (but which didn’t happen last year due to Covid, and which similarly won’t take place this year either). I liked the way it looked against the blue sky and high-altitude clouds.

Dangling from above
Lone triangle of colour
A Fun-day remnant

After the parade

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Kodak Colorplus.

Taken on 13 March 2021

35mm · Film photography · Photography

The departing storm

fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

We had some pretty heavy showers recently (for the UK, at least – I’m not talking hurricane season here), and I took this from the bathroom window both because clouds are ace, but also because I’d received a red filter in the post that day and thought it would be a good shot to try it out with).

FILM - The departing storm

Nikon F70, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D (with red filter) & Fujifilm Acros 100.

Taken on 15 September 2017