Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 for 8 minutes @ 20°
Taken on 25 January 2025
A grand entrance
Tag: gate
Along the farm track
Not far from the Trans Pennine Trail at Renishaw stands a farm. A public footpath runs along the farm track, fields to one side, and a wooded area to the other.
When the track reaches the farm gate the footpath forks away across a grassy field, beneath a row of power lines, and then descends down a stony path, passing an impressive tree with an large hollow exposing its roots.
After this point, the path is rejoined by the one I showed in yesterday’s post and they then descent to the railway line, which can be crossed by a footbridge.
Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 28 December 2024
A gateway to the mist
There’s a footpath beyond this gate that I haven’t walked before as I always take an alternate route that skirts some arable fields (you’ll see a couple of pictures from there soon). That mist does look tempting though. Perhaps next time I’m in the vicinity I will take the pass less well trod.
Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 28 December 2024
Two thousand days
Back on the 26th September 2021, I wrote a post marking my one thousandth day of consecutive posting. Today, a little under three years later, marks the two thousandth.
I always find milestone posts like this to be difficult. They’re the sort of thing that would normally be celebrated – in that way that we humans seem to like celebrating things that reach a certain, nicely shaped, number. I’m quite a modest person though, so shouting out about my achievements isn’t something I relish or feel particularly comfortable about. I would probably have had greater success in some aspects of my life had I “bigged myself up” a little more, but I’ve always felt that my achievements should speak for themselves, and not be reliant on too much self promotion.
So here I am, having posted without fail for the last two thousand days, and instead of a party, it’s more of an acknowledgement. I reached a big number, and tomorrow I will surpass it (and why will my two-thousand-and-first post be less worthy of celebration anyway?).
It might be nice if I had some sort of special “2,000th post” image that I’ve saved for the occasion, but I don’t, so I’m going to use a picture I took on a trip to Castleton back in May. It shows a gap in a drystone wall part way up Cave Dale. It feels somehow optimistic in tone – a gateway to whatever might come next, I suppose.
Yashica Mat 124G & Fujifilm Pro 400H. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 18 May 2024
Gateway to Ladybower
I quite like this picture. It has a lot of layers, from the gate in the foreground right through to Ladybower reservoir and the hills beyond. I did wonder at the time I took the photo whether it would be successful given the limited control over focus possible with the XA3 but, again, it proved itself more than up to the task.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 9 January 2024
Snow hiking
Although it was a cold day when I made these photographs in the snow, it was also very bright. And I was wearing dark clothes. This had two detrimental effects.
The first was the sheer amount of light reflected back off the snow. As a wearer of spectacles, I don’t tend to have the luxury of just popping on a pair of sunglasses when it’s bright. I don’t have a pair for my prescription, not do I have any clip-ons (although those just tend to be an annoyance). But without sunglasses, the light bouncing back into my eyes from the floor was verging on painful. I’ve never suffered from snow blindness before, but now know what it must feel like in its onset. Even with my eyes shut the blankness of my eyelids was a glowing red.
The second thing was that it didn’t take me long to become pretty hot and uncomfortable. The light absorbancy of my dark trousers and jacket soon raised my temperature and then this was booster even further by the physical effort of walking through snow (or trying my best to keep balanced on the icy areas). It didn’t take long until I was sweating profusely!
Despite these drawbacks it was a beautiful day to be out. We don’t get snow all that often, so it’s good to take advantage of it when I can.
Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins 30 secs @ 20°
Taken 11 March 2023.
Over the hedge and behind the gate
More farm stuff today, this time another silo / tank seen from two vantage points. While I was unsure as to the specific use of the silos and equipment in yesterday’s pictures, the one featured today I feel I can be more certain about.
The silo features the branding of “Yara” which, after a quick search on Google, is a company that specialises in providing fertilizers, including liquid fertilizers (which is what I believe is stored in the tank seen in the pictures today).
I promise more exciting (and incredibly undetailed) farm-storage equipment posts to come, but not for a few days. Don’t get too excited. 🙂
Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°
Taken 5 February 2023.
Not keeping anyone out
After yesterday’s photo of the gate with the “Keep Out” sign, here’s another gate which is unlikely to be keeping anyone out. Even in it’s supine state the undergrowth is still getting through, much less any man or beast who wants to pass through the gap it has left somewhere.
Yashicamat 124G with close-up lens #1 & Ilford Delta 400 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 20 January 2023.
Keep out
A metal gate with handwritten “keep out” sign warns passers-by not to venture into this farmer’s field. Nothing to stop me photographing it from the roadside though.
I think, had I had my close-up lens with me at the time, a shot focusing just on the warning might have been more interesting. But I didn’t so this is what I got.
Yashicamat 124G with close-up lens #1 & Ilford Delta 400 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 20 January 2023.
Broken gate and crumbling wall
Two individual frames of the same scene here today. Both shots are opportunistic – I sometimes like to just go out in the car and drive along roads I’ve never travelled in the hopes of spotting something I think will make a good photo. The gate and the crumbling drystone wall in the field behind it were one such random find.
Sometimes such trips can reap dividends, sometimes they turn up dry or (potentially more disappointing) great shots but with nowhere to pull over and take the shot. But even the latter case still records an entry in the memory bank for a possible (better prepared) future visit.
Olympus XA3 & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 30 April 2022
Steel City Snapper photography 