Tag: crazy golf

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Out of season mini-golf

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This mini-golf course in Queen’s Park, Mablethorpe was the only thing open, besides the cafe, when I visited in October. The children’s paddling pool was drained and the colourful fountains removed, the miniature railway wasn’t running, the locomotive and carriages presumably parked in the storage tunnel for the winter, the paddle-boats on the boating lake had been removed from the water, and the small kid’s play area locked up behind a threatening-looking barbed wire topped fence.

But this couple were enjoying their game of crazy golf nevertheless.

Mini golf

Yashica Mat 124G and Fujifilm Pro 400H. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 11 October 2025

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Oddballs

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I was going to write more about photography stuff today but, just as I sat at the computer, one of the fence panels on the back garden blew over. It’s not really windy, but a stray hazelnut tree has sprouted behind the panel and has grown over the past few years. The wind on it’s leaves is pushing the branches against the fence and applying extra force.

I’ve fashioned a very makeshift repair (I’ll be surprised if it lasts the night) and also cut a few of the tree’s branches back which will hopefully help. I think I need to cut the tree back more though and also find a more permanent repair for the fence panel.

Anyway… Here’s a crazy golf hut that I photographed a few months back.

Oddballs Crazy Golf

Yashica Mat 124G & Fujichrome Provia 100. Lab developed and home scanned on an Epson V850.

Taken on 30 March 2025

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

A wet morning in Blackpool

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Back at the end of June I spent the day in Blackpool for The Big Film Photowalk, a series of events around the country that had been organised by Analog Wonderland, the UK based film stockist. I posted about the events of the day here.

While the photowalk in Blackpool took place in Stanley Park, about a mile or so from the seafront, I parked near the town centre as my wife and her sister had accompanied me for the day and were planning on wandering round the shops while I went to take photos. As I was early for the photowalk, I took the chance to go and shoot some photos on a second camera I’d brought with me – my OM-10 – loaded with a roll of expired Fuji C200.

As I said in my other post, the weather on the day was not what I would have chosen. And while the photowalk had its share of drizzle and gloom, the beginning of the day along Blackpool’s seafront was worse, with bouts of full rain and a stiff breeze to contend with. I wasn’t confident of success, especially as I would usually prefer black and white for these conditions, not expired C41 film. Thankfully though, I was wrong, and I really like these colour pictures. They certainly capture the mood, and where there is colour in the scene, it really jumps out of the frame.

I managed to get pictures of the central and north piers, some (unused!) deckchairs, the sea defences, and obligatory shot of Blackpool tower, a shelter, a slightly pitiful looking crazy golf course, and some hardy metal detectorists on the beach.

Sheltering deckchairs
Curving to the pier
Central Pier
North pier
North pier (partial)
Beneath the North Pier
Gimme shelter
Blackpool Tower and reflection
Detectorists
Overgrown crazy golf
The Regent

Olympus OM-10 & G.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 on Fujifilm C200 (expired 2012 and shot at 100asa) . Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 29 June 2024

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Crazy golf

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One of three crazy gold courses at Mablethorpe. When I was younger, this was part of the Arnold Palmer chain of courses. The Arnold Palmer course had a hazard in the form of a windmill with ball-blocking rotating blades (which, for all I know, is still present on this new pirate-themed course, but it was closed so I couldn’t take a look). The trick to beating the windmill was to bounce the ball from the sides of the course, bypassing the rotating sails completely, and still allowing for a skillful hole-in-one if you were good enough.

The final hole was a sloping contraption with a single hole in the centre and a set of traps. Missing the hole would result in your ball rolling back into one of the traps and being lost (or, as I suspected, conveyed back to the hut where you payed and collected your club and ball via some sort of underground channel – you could hear the balls rolling back when you were paying for your game). A successful shot however would cause a bell to ring and allow the lucky player to claim a gift and a free pass for another game. I still have a free game pass in my wallet, despite it having being rendered useless decades ago. It’s worth more for the memories than the free game ever was.

Crazy golf

Yashicamat 124G & Fujifilm Pro 160NS. Lab developed, home scanned, & converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 17 September 2022

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Crazy golf

fishyfisharcade1 Comment

In yesterday’s post I mentioned some of the attractions at Queen’s Park in Mablethorpe. One of those was the crazy golf course. It’s one of (I think) three courses in Mablethorpe. the other two being at the other end of the sea-front. All three courses have been there as long as I can remember – so since the 1970s at least – and most likely they were around for some time before too. All three have seen changes and updates.

The northernmost course was, for many years, an Arnold Palmer’s branded course.

There were a number of these Arnold Palmer courses at various seaside resorts around the country. These all had full branding in place with brightly painted red and white obstacles (most of the ones I visited had a windmill with spinning blades to putt your ball past) and professional-looking felt “greens” upon which the ball would roll smoothly and with precision. At the end of the course, the final hole gave a chance to win a free game if you got the ball in a central hole (which would ring a bell, alerting the staff to the fact). Missing this target would result in your ball being lost down an alternate, prize-less, chute and your game would be over. I still have a free game pass in my wallet that I won sometime during the 1990s. Alas, the course at Mablethorpe is under different ownership now (although it still looks pretty snazzy with it’s new pirate themed looks)

The other two courses had a more independent feel to them. The central course had obstacles that felt homemade, but inventive nonetheless, with a variety of brightly painted bridges, pipes, and chutes to get your ball through. The southernmost course always seemed the more basic of the three, less fantastical in nature and almost akin to a pub-game with pegs, chicanes, and barriers making up it’s obstacles (and there’s a part of me that remembers it having concrete “greens” too, upon which your ball might be prone to sudden disruption, although this might just be down to a faulty memory circuit).

Today’s picture is of this southernmost course as it is today, still in use (although not when I took my photo). Long may it live.

FILM - Crazy golf

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Kodak Portra 400.

Taken on 13 September 2019