An avenue

March 3, 2026 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

The thing that originally attracted me about St. Winifred’s church was not the structure itself, or its grounds, or even its history – it was the avenue of trees than runs outside.

Such things tend to be photogenic.

The first time I visited there was a wedding due to take place and so a number of cars were parked along the road to the church, spoiling my intended composition. This time though, I had the place to myself.

I took three frames of the road and its trees, the first on Ilford Delta 400 before I explored the churchyard, the latter two on Ilford HP5+.

I think I will try to revisit the location again to capture it at different times of the year, and under different conditions (a touch of mist would be very welcome!)

Yashica Mat 124G and Ilford Delta 400 / Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 8mins (9mins for the HP5+) @ 20°.

Taken on 24 January 2026

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

St. Winifred’s church, Holbeck

March 2, 2026 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

St. Winifred’s church in Holbeck, Nottinghamshire, a former private chapel build for the 6th Duke of Portland between 1913 – 1916.

Holbeck sits within an area of Nottinghamshire known as The Dukeries, because at one point there were four ducal seats, one of which – Welback Abbey – was home to the Dukes of Portland, who still maintain ownership of the estate along with the Dukes of Newcastle.

It’s a significant estate and much of it is private, although there are public rights of way allowing visitors to explore the area. I have more photos to come at a later date where I did just that.

Yashica Mat 124G and Ilford Delta 400. Ilfotec DD-X 8mins @ 20°.

Taken on 24 January 2026

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Dandelion gravestone

July 17, 2024 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I wasn’t sure how this photo would turn out when I took it. The lighting was quite challenging, with a dark, backlit gravestone, with a bright halo of leaves and a bunch of glowing dandelion sugarbabies in the foreground. It worked out better than I expected, with the F80’s meter making a good job at balancing the scene and capturing the lichen on the gravestone.

Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 18 May 2024

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

All Saint’s church, Hooton Pagnell

April 7, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

As I’ve been posting pictures of churches over the past few days, I might as well post another. This one wasn’t shot on 4×5 large format, instead it’s a small-by-comparison 6×45 medium format ratio. Despite the smaller negative, the Bronica ETRSi still produces very nicely detailed photographs, such as this one of All Saint’s church in the village of Hooton Pagnell.

I managed to get out and make more photos today. Amazingly, given my usual poor luck when it comes to the weather, it was a beautiful spring day – all blue skies and (later on) fluffly little cumulus clouds. I had a momentary mini panic this morning when I woke to see the lovely conditions but without having a clue where to go to take advantage of them. In the end I decided to visit Newark Air Museum and take some large format photographs of the old aircraft they have there. I exposed 8 sheets of 4×5 and also managed to finish off a roll of 35mm HP5+ in the Canon Sure Shot Supreme that I had in my coat pocket. I’ll try and develop some of the 4×5 pictures tomorrow all being well.

All Saints church, Hooton Pagnell, South Yorkshire, UK

Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Ilford Delta 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10 mins 30 secs @ 20°

Taken 5 February 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

St. Peter’s Church, Thorpe Salvin (including an exciting hidden pigeon challenge!)

April 6, 2023April 6, 2023 fishyfisharcade9 Comments

Another church, and another named after St. Peter just a couple of days after I posted a photo of its namesake at Elmton.

Quite a difference in architecture between the two buildings though.

When dust-spotting the scan I spotted a lone pigeon hiding in the scene. Can you spot it? You’ll probably need to click through to Flickr to see the full resolution version in order to find it though.

I’m now very much looking forward to the four days off work that the extended Easter weekend will bring. I’m hoping to do some more photography if the weather remains decent.

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 12 mins @ 20°

Taken 2 April 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

A near miss in a churchyard

March 3, 2023March 4, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I took this picture a few weeks back on a quick trip out to shoot some sheets of film with my 4×5 camera. It was a bright day with plenty of light and, with a dark-cloth attached, I was able to see the image on the camera’s ground glass quite clearly. I still messed up the composition though.

Ideally I should have either taken a few steps back to get more of the scene into frame, or moved a little to the left (either physically or using some shift on the camera). This would have allowed me to get the whole grave marker on the left in frame, which I think would have improved the picture.

I still like the shot, and it’s impressive to see the amount of detail that the format can provide, but I do need to get better with my composition when using the ground glass.

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Fomadon R09 1+50 9 mins @ 20°

Taken February 2023. (I can’t remember the specific date. I normally look at my Google Timeline to check such things but remeber that I forgot to take my phone out with me on this occasion so it didn’t record the trip).

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Continuing the 4×5 journey

February 18, 2023 fishyfisharcade1 Comment

Another couple of shots taken this week and then developed today. The good news is that I’m now fully confident that the light leak issues I had before are now resolved. The bad news is that I think I somehow managed to load these two sheets incorrectly. Not in a significant way, but negatives from both sides of the film holder indicate the the sheet wasn’t aligned properly and the photos are wonky as a result. You can see what I mean in this photo of the negs on my lightbox – if you look at the film border you can see how it’s out of whack:

I’m not sure how I managed to do this and, to be honest, I didn’t even realise it was possible! None of the other sheets I’ve loaded have suffered from this problem so I will have to keep an eye on things in the future. Sadly it means that the side-on picture of the church is spoiled as the wonky frame has chopped the top off the church – this is made worse when scanned as the border isn’t included in the scan.

The other image was retrievable though as I’d not framed the subject so tightly. The good news is that these were really just a couple of final test shots to make sure everything was working ok. I think I’ll make sure not to tightly frame my subjects for the time being though, just to be safe.

Here’s the shot that worked ok. If you click through to Flickr you can see that there’s a lot of detail.

Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Beighton, South Yorkshire

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 15 February 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Holy Trinity Church, Ashford-in-the-Water

May 24, 2022 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Just a quick post today with a couple of photos showing Holy Trinity Church in Ashford-in-the-Water, and a view across its graveyard. The church dates back to the 12th century but was apparently re-modelled extensively in the 19th century.

Yashicamat 124G & Fujifilm Pro 400H. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 19 April 2022

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Old Holy Trinity church, Wentworth

March 12, 2022 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

As a direct follow on from yesterday’s post, which showed the new Holy Trinity church – that’s if something nearing one-hundread-and-fifty years old can be considered new I suppose – today’s post shows the old church that preceded it.

The old church tower predates the new one by four or five hundred years, with the rest of the structure having been rebuilt in 1684. The construction is of sandstone and the centuries have taken their toll with the masonry being quite worn by erosion in places, particularly the decorative stonemasonry elements such as carved figures.