A couple of people commented that this image looked like an overhead shot of rice paddies. It is an overhead shot, just taken from a couple of feet overhead, and it isn’t paddy fields, but a frozen puddle at the edge of a farm field. It’s odd how the brain interprets things sometimes, especially without the information that the photographer has regarding the actual subject matter.

Yashicamat 124G with close-up lens #1 & Ilford Delta 400 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 20 January 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

A footpath beneath ice

February 23, 2021 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

The flooded field in the two images presented here today is where a footpath runs. It leads down from the Trans Pennine Trail towards Eckington and passes close to a copse of trees that I’ve photographed on a number of occasions (see here and here for instance). On the day I made these photos it was unpassable however. It probably wasn’t too deep, but likely deep enough to overflow my walking boots with frigid liquid, and I doubt the ice was thick enough to support me upon its surface. I knew I should have started that diet!

A thin crust of ice
The footpath submerged below
Waiting for the sun

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 12 February 2021

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Colour in black and white

June 21, 2019 fishyfisharcade4 Comments

Here’s a photo of a couple of chilled fruit drinks that my wife and I enjoyed in a cafe / bar on the first day of our short break in Barcelona. The drinks were extremely pleasant on a hot day, and consisted of a fruit cocktail enlivened with ice-cubes and frozen fruit. It made for a colourful display.

My first choice was to take a shot on the Portra 400 that was in my Z135 as this would have picked up the colours in the liquid and, especially, the reds, purples and oranges of the berries and mango pieces. However, try as I might, I just couldn’t get a composition I was happy with using the camera – although it has a macro mode, it didn’t frame the scene well, and shooting wider at the camera’s minimum focus range led to far too much of the surroundings getting into the shot.

So, I took the shot with the OM-10 and 28mm lens I had attached (in the interests of travelling light and not annoying myself with the urge to switch lenses all the time, the 28mm was all I took for the SLR, and it turned out to be a pretty good choice of focal length for the streets of Barcelona). The 28mm lens in question is a Cimko model that allows close macro focussing, so I was able to get in nice and tight even with the wide-angle of view, and the f/2.8 maximum aperture meant I could get enough light in the slightly shaded position we were in. The only real issue with using the OM-10 was the fact that I’d loaded it with HP5+, so I had to forego the lovely colours on show and hope for the sense of cold refreshing beverages to still shine through in B&W.

I love black and white film, but colour film does have the advantage of being easily convertible to monochrome if required, whereas (short of fancy techniques to combine three images shot using red, green and blue filters) black and white film is pretty much what-you-see-is-what-you-get.

I’m not sure if it’s a better shot in B&W, but it still works pretty well, and was “interesting” enough to get into Flickr Explore yesterday. I’m happy with it though and, given I take photos for myself, that’s what matters I suppose. 🙂

Anyone else had a similar conundrum with colourful scenes and black and white film?

Olympus OM-10, Cimko 28mm f/2.8 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 16 June 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Bedgreave Mill

March 27, 2018 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Bedgreave Mill was built in the late 16th century and operated until 1947. It lay unused for the next thirty or so years until it was restored when Rother Valley Country Park (in which it resides) came into being in the early 1980s.