A couple of weeks into the new year and I’ve almost run out of new pictures to publish on the blog. This happens from time to time and isn’t really a problem as I have loads of photos that have never appeared here before, so it’s not like I’ll run dry or have to start repeating images or anything. Nonetheless it bothers me. I like to have a stream of new pictures, mostly due to the weird way my brain works and puts internal pressure on me to do things that, at the end of the day, really aren’t that important. I doubt a lack of newly shot pictures on my blog will make front page news.
I have a roll of Delta 400 in my Yashicamat 124G with four frames left to shoot. If I manage to do that, then I can develop and scan the full roll at the weekend and keep the fresh photo express on the tracks. I also have a couple of 4×5 large format sheets to develop, but I’m wary as to how succesful they might be as photographs until they’re scanned. If all goes well that should give me enough pictures to keep me going another week, but I’ll be in the same position of self-imposed stress about it by the following weekend. Sheesh!
Is anyone else crazy like me?
Apropos of nothing, here’s a picture of some power lines…
Narrow lanes like this can be a frustrating place for photographers. You’ll be driving along them and suddenly see an amazing composition only to realise that there’s nowhere to pull over and make a picture. This road does have pull-ins in a few places, hence my ability to have taken this photo, but I’ve had situations in the past where there is nowhere to stop at all and the picture is effectively lost without a very long walk.
I had a similar situation today when I went out at lunchtime to try and shoot a few frames while the weather was good. I saw a scene that I really liked but there was nowhere to stop. There were a few passing places that I could have used, but had I done so my usual bad luck would have resulted in a farmer coming down the lane in a tractor or something and the resultant awkwardness as I had to remove the roadblock I’d created. And so I missed the picture.
A couple of duplicate photos today. Duplicates in terms of the subject matter, at least.
I shot both these same locations on my Yashicamat 124G on the same outing but, because I’d forgotten my tripod plate, had to shoot them handheld and wasn’t comfortable that they would be free from shake (or that the wide apertures I’d used might spoil the images). So I took the same shots with my Olympus Trip as well.
You can see the original medium format versions of the images here and here.
Yesterday didn’t work out how I’d hoped. My plan was to go out in the afternoon and make some photographs, and that’s what I did. However it was a disappointing experience. Firstly, because the weather was rainy and gloomy in the morning, I had to wait until the afternoon before I could go out (well, I suppose I could have gone out and took some rainy-day pictures in the morning, but that wasn’t what I wanted to do). The weather forecast for the afternoon showed it would be a mixture of sunshine and sunny spells but the reality was that it was largely overcast, with the sun only being visible as a vague disk behind the cloud cover most of the time. This annoyed me – I have a dim view of weather forecasting apps, most of which can’t even seem to show the current weather correctly, much less what it’s going to be like later on or the following day. The untrustworthiness of them is frustrating. However, the weather was what it was and I would have to make the best of it.
I took my Yashicamat 124G, but I was hoping to shoot some more pictures using the Chroma 4×5. I decided to head out to Shireoaks and maybe take a picture of Steetley Chapel before driving to Shireoaks and walking along the Chesterfield Canal to Turnerwood.
I visited the chapel first and spend time setting up my large format gear. I was careful to check the exposure, setting up the correct aperture, shutter speed, making sure the focus was correct, and then checking the shutter was firing as expected before taking the shot. I removed the dark slide, took the picture, and then packed everything up, got in the car and drove to Shireoaks. After parking the car, I set off towards the canal, grumbling under my breath about the poor light that was filtering through the clouds. On top of this a breeze had gotten up, placing ripples ont the surface of the water to kill any reflections and also jeopardising any longer exposures with the big large format camera, whose bellows are great for catching the wind.
When I arrived at Turnerwood I set the camera up for a picture of the lock keepers cottages that sit beside the water there. It’s an attractive location, but the conditions were dull and not particularly flattering. Nevertheless, I got everything ready for the picture. And then I realised something unfortunate…
I became uncomfortably aware that when I’d made the first shot back at Steetley Chapel that, after taking great care to get everything set up properly, I’d then gone and removed the wrong darkslide from the film holder, effectively exposing the sheet of film through the ground glass on the back of the camera rather than through the lens. I could even remember seeing the dark slide moving behind the ground glass as I removed it ferchrissakes! This didn’t help my already low mood, but I decided to take the second shot anyway, making sure that I was using the unexposed sheet of film. I took the shot and then tried to reinsert the dark slide.
It wouldn’t go in.
Instead of sliding true it instead hit some resistance which I’m pretty sure was the sheet of film. After several attempts I came to the realisation that there was nothing else to do but remove the film holder, thereby ruining a second sheet. Great going eh?
I decided to have another attempt at the shot, this time using a remaining sheet of Fomapan 100 that was in another film holder (the other shot on there was of a silver birch tree I photographed in the Peak District a couple of weeks ago). This time all seemed to go well and I was able to reinsert the dark slide correctly and then pack everything away. I took a shot of the scene on the Yashicamat too while I was there, just in case.
I shot another couple of sheets of HP5+ back in Shireoaks and these seemed to work ok with no obvious problems. I’ve not developed these yet though, so who knows?
As I drove home the sun emerged from the clouds and bathed everything in perfect light. Sigh.
I’ve developed the Fomapan sheets today with somewhat mixed results. The Silver Birch picture was largely a write off, having a massive light leak that took out around a third of the image. I’ve attempted a crop, but it’s not great. Partially because it wasn’t what I wanted from the picture and also, from a technical point of view, because I’ve got some unwanted camera movements in there which has done odd things with the plane of focus.
The shot made at Turnerwood was much better, but the light wasn’t great, so it’s a little flat looking. It also has some issues with camera movements – this time some front swing that means the left and right edges have some softness. I’m going to have to pay close attention to these things in future to avoid them creeping into my pictures again.
I also loaded my first sheets of film into the holders today. The camera came with four film holders already loaded with film, so I’ve had to shoot those before getting the chance to load some myself. This also seemed to got well though, thankfully.
More large format cock-ups to come soon no doubt. 🙂
Two similar, but still different views of Blackpool Tower today.
Apologies for a brief post today – I’ve been out to do some photography this afternoon and it turned out to be a dissapointing experience. Things went wrong and I ended up making mistakes and feeling annoyed and sorry for myself as a result. And now I have a headache. 😦
I’ll probably provide details of the events in another post (assuming some of the photos turn out ok..).
The Big One was, for a couple of years, the tallest and steepest rollercoaster in the world. It opened in 1994 and was 213 feet tall. It has since been surpassed by a considerable margin with the current world’s tallest rollercoaster being over twice as tall at a stomach-churning 465 feet (Kinda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, USA).
The Big One was branded as the Pepsi Max Big One until 2011.
I’ve ridden on it once, about twenty years ago, when I went on it with one of my sons. It was a great experience riding it, but not the most comfortable of rides. Not as terrifying as the Wild Mouse ride that also used to be present in the Pleasure Beach.
A couple of shots showing the Sandcastle Waterpark at Blackpool, the UK’s largest indoor waterpark. It houses multiple attractions including the Masterblaster – the world’s longest rollercoaster waterslide. I wasn’t aware that such a thing even existed before writing this post! You can see a video of someone riding on it here on Youtube. I expect that the waterpark is a lot of fun but I’ve never been inside.
I’m not sure that my two black and white photos do the place justice, them making it look like a cross between an industrial plant and something constructed by the Empire from Star Wars!
The structure to the right of the first image is The Big One, the tallest rollercoaster at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. I may publish some more pictures of that tomorrow..
This giant mirror ball stands on the promenade at the southern end of Blackpool’s seafront. Erected in 2002, it is the world’s largest mirror ball with a diameter of six metres.
The actual title of the artwork is “They Shoot Horses Don’t They?“, named after the depression-era story by Horace McCoy (later turned into a Jane Fonda movie) that tells the tale of young people attempting to win a $1,000 prize by dancing until they can no longer stand.
Blackpool is famed for its glitzy entertainment, music, and dancing – including the famous Tower Ballroom – so the mirror ball is a fitting piece.
Two of the turbines making up part of Penny Hill Wind Farm lit up by the bright Christmas Eve sunshine.
Clear blue skies meant that this was always going to be somewhat minimal, with a lot of negative space. I took some effort to get just a thin strip of the roadside hedge into the bottom of the frame to ground the picture a little.
