Blessed with fine weather and on a day where I could take advantage of it, I headed out to the area around Padley Gorge and the Longshaw Estate one Saturday morning in early November with the hopes of catching some autumnal scenes.
The pictures posted today are ones I shot on a roll of Lomography Color Negative 400 with my Bronica ETRSi. Tomorrow I’ll post another, smaller set, that I shot on Fujifilm Pro 160NS.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE / Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 MC & Lomography Color Negative 400. Lab developed, home scanned & converted with Negative Lab Pro.
I took a half day off work as I knew the weather was nice for once, and it was one of the only chances I had to try and photograph some autumn colour. So after lunch I headed out to Padley Gorge in the Peak District with the Chamonix large format camera and a bunch of film with the intent of shooting some of the Kodak Ektar that I have, and which I had four sheets loaded in film holders.
I found a nice scene with a backlit oak tree, so set everything up, carefully checked my focus and the camera settings and then took the shot. I then headed a little further down the gorge to try and find the next one. By this time, the light was low enough that a lot of the area was already in shadow, so I looked to photograph a clump of autumnal leaves on a sapling which were illuminated in a shaft of sunlight. It was a slightly tricky shot to focus, requiring some tilt to get everything sharp. After setting up the shot and feeling relatively confident about the sharpness, I went to meter the scene and then noticed with dismay that my meter was set to ISO400. This meant the first shot was two stops underexposed. This was very frustrating and, to be honest, set the ball rolling for the rest of the afternoon’s disappointment.
As I’d already wasted one expensive sheet of colour film I was now even more conscious of the need to not waste any of the remaining three sheets on sub-par images, especially given the fact I’d have to send them away for developing at notable cost, so I binned the shot of the leaves and decided to move elsewhere for something better. I was now in the wrong frame of mind though – everything I considered seemed like it wasn’t worth the effort (or cost) – and so I set up and then dismissed several shots while the sun sank lower in the sky. Eventually (and now in a pretty bad mood) I just said to myself “f**k it” and packed everything away and came home.
I was seething in the car all the way back because a) the weather and light was beautiful and I had been unable to take advantage of something I rarely get the chance to, and b) I wasted an afternoon’s off work for the privilege. I saw several beautifully lit scenes on the way home which, had I had a smaller format camera with me, I could have photographed, but I just had to drive past them all.
The weather looks good again tomorrow, and I’m going to have another attempt at capturing autumn colour, but I’ll be taking some medium format gear this time to make sure I actually capture something on film. I expect the same locations will be much busier tomorrow, unfortunately.
Anyone else have “one of those days”?
The pictures shared today are a few older digital shots from previous visits to the same area. You can see why I’m disappointed to come away empty handed….
Why is Toad from the Super Mario games so popular? Becasuse he’s such a fun guy!
Ho ho ho. 🙂
It’s autumn and toadstools, mushrooms, and fungi of all manner of varieties are in full evidence. There were numerous examples to be seen when I visited Padley Gorge the other week, including some teeny-tiny specimens growing from the trunks and stumps of trees. I’m glad I had my macro lens with me!
Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Fujichrome Velvia 50. Lab developed & home scanned.
Another lone Velvia 50 autumn photo today – probably the last of these single images with a group of pictures realted by theme tomorrow and then, if I have time, the remaining decent photos from the roll as a kind of autumn blowout.
Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Fujichrome Velvia 50. Lab developed & home scanned.
There was a lot of bracken in this area, but this plant stood alone and was catching the sun. I wish I’d done a better job of checking my corners and moved that encroaching frond at the bottom-right of the picture though…
Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Fujichrome Velvia 50. Lab developed & home scanned.
A few years ago I bought myself a roll of Fuji Velvia 50 as a treat. At the time I think it cost me in the region of about £11 for the roll, which seemed expensive. Little did I know…
Anyway, moaning about the price of film aside, the reason I bought it was to try and photograph some autumn colour. Unfortunately, when that autumn came around I either didn’t have the time, or the conditions weren’t right, and so the season passed. I kept the fim in the fridge though, thinking it would keep until the following year. But I didn’t shoot it again. And then covid arrived and limited my ability to shoot it even further. In the subsequent time I actually picked up a few more rolls of Velvia 50, albeit expired, and I’ve shot a couple of of those (although, given its cost, it always feels like a “special occasion” sort of film), but none of it during autumn. This year though, I had my chance – I booked a week of work for the first week of November which, this time, would be unperturbed by pandemic related lockdowns.
I went out a couple of times during the week to do some photography – the first trip to Bakewell (images to come at a later date), and then, later in the week, a visit to Padley Gorge and its surrounding environs. It was there that I finally shot the full roll of Velvia 50. I’ll probably share most of the worthwhile results in a seperate autumal-themed post, but there are a few that I like enought to post individually, or in small sets, today’s picture included.
This was the first day of the season that I had encountered frost – I had to scrape the car windows before heading out and, although I didn’t set off too early, there was still a little frost left on the ground when I arrived (although it was quickly steaming away where the sun hit it). Just across the road from where I parked my car there were numerous fallen leaves right beside the footpath, all with a light frosting of ice, and the one shared here today grabbed my attention. I was very glad to have taken my Sigma macro lens, and used it for almost every shot on the roll, even the non-macro stuff. It’s a very nice lens and one I should make better use of.
Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Fujichrome Velvia 50. Lab developed & home scanned.
Just a few metres from the picture in yesterday’s post but facing the opposite direction, the morning sun was beginning to be snuffed out by cloud-cover when I took this photo. The trees are not glowing as much as they had been when I’d driven past on mornings with clearer skies. Nontheless, there’s still a hint of autumn in the leaves and I like the damp road and it’s slightly reflective surface. And it has a pylon. 🙂
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
The last frame from the roll of Colorplus that had been left in the DL-270 – literally so in two cases (I don’t think I’ll be posting any of the others AND it was the last frame on the roll, hence why it’s cropped to a slightly stunted ratio).
I tested the capability of the lens on the camera quite strongly by deliberately making a number of shots straight towards the sun, albeit trying to obscure its disk behind scenery – in this case the counterweight that helps balance the cable-pulled waterski structures. It passed all tests in this regard.
Fuji DL-270 Zoom Super & Kodak Colorplus. Grain2Pixel conversion.
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.
Fuji DL-270 Zoom Super & Kodak Colorplus. Grain2Pixel conversion.
Steel City Snapper photography 