35mm · Film photography · Photography

A compulsive attraction to power?

Nine days. a whole nine days… That’s how long I managed to go without posting more photos of powerlines. I wonder if there’s a name for this weird attraction to them as photographic subjects? There are definately a number of groups devoted to the subject matter on Flickr – I know this because I post my pictures to them sometimes!

I’m probably over-egging this a bit to be fair – it’s not as though I go out of my way to take pictures of them deliberately. I never plan a day out to travel around photographing pylons or anything like that. It’s just that I find that they have a look to them that appeals.

FILM - Empty fields

Sometimes, as in the case of the photos today, it’s their surroundings – this time following a route across empty autumnal fields in a way the evokes big empty spaces and calls Glen Campbell’s Wichita Lineman to mind. It’s a false evocation – here in the UK you’re rarely more than a few miles from civilisation, or at least evidence of such, but that’s one of the beauties of a photograph – they can tell other stories than their reality.

FILM - Empty fields-2

I did wonder about leaving these as colour images. They were shot on a dull, ovecast day with flat light and of a largely muted colour scheme – the only real colour being a soft yellowy beige of the autumnal cropped grasses in the fields – which did have it’s own faded charm. On the whole though, I prefer the black and white versions.

FILM - Empty fields-3

Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Kodak Colorplus (converted to B&W).

Taken on 9 November 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Faces in the trees

When new commercial developments are built in Sheffield there is often a requirement for them to install a piece of art somewhere on the site. These can often be seen at shopping centres and suchlike. I suspect that this sequence of metal faces is a similar thing, probably installed when the nearby housing development was added. Or I could be completely wrong.

Whatever the case, it’s an unusual and striking thing to come across, it being tucked away on a footpath behind the houses close to the back of a nearby supermarket.

A piece of debris on the rightmost face gives the illusion of a teardrop.

FILM - Teardrop

Pentax Espio 140m & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 22 September 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Another bridge chapel

Back in April of this year, I posted about the bridge chapel in Wakefield that stands over the River Calder. I mentioned in that post that it was one of only five such structures in the country, the others being situated in Rotherham, Derby, Bradford-on-Avon, and St. Ives (Cambridgeshire). The picture in today’s post is of the Chapel of Our Lady of Rotherham Bridge, in Rotherham, which dates back to 1483. This bridge crosses the River Don.

It was raining heavily on the day I took the photograph (you can just about make out the diagonal streaks of the raindrops if you look at the image at larger sizes), but the door was ajar and a service looked to be just about to start. I did try and get a photo of the worshippers inside, but someone came and closed the door just as I took the shot and I instead captured a somewhat blurry image of a clergyman who looks a little bit like a ghost!

This one turned out nicer, and was the last shot on the roll. As I was thoroughly soaked by this time, I treat myself to a fresh cream scone to eat when I got home. 🙂

FILM - Bridge chapel

Pentax Espio 140m & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 1 October 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

The Riley Graves

Just to the east of the village of Eyam lie the Riley Graves. This is a small cluster of graves (six in all) surrounded by a drystone wall. Depsite the name, the graves are of the Hancocke family, who all lost their lives to the plague in between the 3rd and the 17th August 1666. The name of the graves comes from Riley’s field, which is where they are situated.

FILM - The Riley Graves

Minolta Hi-Matic G2 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 8 August 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Twisting track

Another picture from the lane near Eyam. I was on my way back to the start point when I took this one and the track made a short twist here. I’m not sure why – I couldn’t see anything that would physically require the bend, but who knows what might have been there in the past – either trees, or maybe different ownership of plots of land or something?

FILM - Twist in the track

Minolta Hi-Matic G2 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 8 August 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

A lane under a tree

A shot from a walk in the countryside near Eyam on Thursday morning. The trip was ostensibly for a recce of a location (as seen in this shot) and I took a bunch of photos on digital with the plan being, if they look ok, to come back in the autumn for an early morning picture with some colour on the tree.

I also had the Minolta Hi-Matic G2 with me as I’ve been running a roll of HP5+ through it to check it’s all ok prior to selling it on. It’s a nice little camera, but this is only the second time I’ve used it since I got it nearly three years ago, and it doesn’t really do anything that my Olympus Trip 35 doesn’t. The action on the advance lever is sweeeet though!.

I’m not sure if the battery in the camera is running low or if it’s the wrong voltage, but most of the shots came back a little underexposed. This, however, has resulted in some wonderfully gritty and atmospheric results that I’m really taken with. You will probably be seeing more of them over the coming days. 🙂

FILM - Lane beneath a tree

Minolta Hi-Matic G2 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 8 August 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Record breaker

By the end of today this is likely to be my most viewed photograph on Flickr (in the fifteen years or so that I’ve had an account on there). It managed to get into Explore today and, while I’ve had quite a few photos in Explore before, I think this one is the closest to the top of the page I’ve ever had – it’s the 25th photo in Explore today. It’s far from the highest in terms of favourites though (it has 100 at the time of writing, although that’s still a huge amount compared to what most of my photos get – I usually get 10 to 20 faves on average).

That said, I’m not really someone who seeks faves and likes. I do feel good when I get them, but I don’t take photos for that reason, so it’s not a big deal if they don’t get heaps of attention. I might have mentioned this before, but it always seems to be the case that the photos that I really like, and which I think might deserve special attention, are rarely (if ever) the ones that get into Explore. It always seems to be something slightly random. It’s not to say I don’t think they’re good shots, but they’re not the ones I’d expect to get in there.

EDIT: In the time it’s taken me to write this, it’s now surpassed my previous most viewed image (this one, which had 15,614 views, should you be interested).

FILM - el Periodico

Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Kodak Portra 400.

Taken on 17 June 2019