Mablethorpe Rock

September 30, 2019 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

A couple of shots of Mablethorpe Rock, a shop that has been there as long as I can remember (or perhaps mis-remember).

Rock is one of those great British seaside traditions that is still going strong today – although, personally, I don’t really like the stuff – it’s overly sweet, sticky, and feels like it will rot the teeth right out of my head as soon as I touch it.

For those not in the know, rock is basically sticks of boiled sugar. It traditionally has the name of the resort you buy it from cleverly running through the length of the stick – something that is done by adding pieces of different coloured sugar to form the individual letters during the manufacturing process while the substance is still soft and malleable – as can be seen in this film from 1957. As well as sticks, you will also find it shaped into all manner of other things – a cooked English breakfast formed out of pure sugar and served on a paper plate is another firm favourite.

Rock comes in a variety of flavours, but plain sugary-sweet, and peppermint are probably the best sellers. The fruit flavoured ones are best in my opinion (if forced to choose), but you can now find all manner of exotic varieties, including such culinary horrors as Tikka Masala flavour!

My favourite part about receiving a stick of rock – it was a traditional gift brought back when someone had been on holiday – was the little black and white photo of the resort that would be inside the clear plastic wrapper. Thanks to the miracle of modern technology, these photos are now in colour.

As you can see from the bottom picture, the shop also sells ice cream, so I had one of those instead.

Olympus 35 RC & Kodak Portra 400.

Taken on 13 September 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Oddly appealing

September 29, 2019September 29, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Sometimes I make photographs that I like for obvious reasons. Maybe it’s the composition, the light, the subject, place or whatever. Sometimes though, I make a photograph that I like for reasons that I can’t quite put my finger on. Obviously there must have been something about the scene that caused me to take the image in the first place – these aren’t just random, shot from the hip accidents.

Todays photo is one such picture. I like it a lot but can’t put my finger on the precise reason(s) why. I guess it could be the way the scene is lit – there are plenty of shadows in the scene, but they’ve been lent a subtlety by the white painted gable-end of the house acting as a giant reflector and this has created some nice lighting. Maybe it’s the colours – it’s got a bit of that blue and orange thing going on, which is nice. The composition is ok – the tree in the background is nicely placed and the green pops in the scene. Or maybe it’s just little details – the satellite dish, the plants in the window, the garden shed with the barely-visible bins in front of it, or the flag.

Or maybe it’s just a combination of all these things that appeal specifically to me and my brain just said “Yep! That’s a nice photo!” and so I clicked the shutter.

It’s one of those images that I suspect many others won’t really take to, but it fires some circuits in me, and I’m even wondering what it would look like as a print.

Olympus 35 RC & Kodak Portra 400.

Taken on 13 September 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Painting (a part of) the town red

September 28, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

It was mid-morning when I took this photograph and the fish and chip shop had not yet opened for business (although there was a man off shot to the right who appeared to be making preparations to do so). Prior to opening some maintenance was taking place, giving rise to the gloriously saturated red doors in the image. These reds, along with the morning light (and subsequent shadows) and the lone painter busy at work, are what attacted me to make the photograph.

Olympus 35 RC & Kodak Portra 400.

Taken on 13 September 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Chalets

September 27, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

These chalets sit along the promenade, just south of Mablethorpe town centre and behind Queen’s Park – which is where I stood to take this photo. It’s almost the same spot where I made the photo of the crazy golf course that I posted about a few days back, which is behind where I was stood when I took this shot.

I’ve got an older, digital photo of these chalets on my Flickr stream too – that one shot on my Nikon D3200 and 18-55mm kit lens back in September 2015.

I shot this whole roll of Portra 400 at 200asa and really like the way it’s handled the tones, with lovely cornflower blue skies while still keeping a good deal of pop in the primary colours.

Olympus 35 RC & Kodak Portra 400.

Taken on 13 September 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Tail-light

September 26, 2019September 26, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

After yesterday’s lengthy (for me) post, it’s a quickie today. So here’s the tail-light of a black car, which I believe is a Ford Zephyr.

Olympus 35 RC & Kodak Portra 400.

Taken on 13 September 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Crazy golf

September 24, 2019 fishyfisharcade1 Comment

In yesterday’s post I mentioned some of the attractions at Queen’s Park in Mablethorpe. One of those was the crazy golf course. It’s one of (I think) three courses in Mablethorpe. the other two being at the other end of the sea-front. All three courses have been there as long as I can remember – so since the 1970s at least – and most likely they were around for some time before too. All three have seen changes and updates.

The northernmost course was, for many years, an Arnold Palmer’s branded course.

There were a number of these Arnold Palmer courses at various seaside resorts around the country. These all had full branding in place with brightly painted red and white obstacles (most of the ones I visited had a windmill with spinning blades to putt your ball past) and professional-looking felt “greens” upon which the ball would roll smoothly and with precision. At the end of the course, the final hole gave a chance to win a free game if you got the ball in a central hole (which would ring a bell, alerting the staff to the fact). Missing this target would result in your ball being lost down an alternate, prize-less, chute and your game would be over. I still have a free game pass in my wallet that I won sometime during the 1990s. Alas, the course at Mablethorpe is under different ownership now (although it still looks pretty snazzy with it’s new pirate themed looks)

The other two courses had a more independent feel to them. The central course had obstacles that felt homemade, but inventive nonetheless, with a variety of brightly painted bridges, pipes, and chutes to get your ball through. The southernmost course always seemed the more basic of the three, less fantastical in nature and almost akin to a pub-game with pegs, chicanes, and barriers making up it’s obstacles (and there’s a part of me that remembers it having concrete “greens” too, upon which your ball might be prone to sudden disruption, although this might just be down to a faulty memory circuit).

Today’s picture is of this southernmost course as it is today, still in use (although not when I took my photo). Long may it live.

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Kodak Portra 400.

Taken on 13 September 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Little red boats

September 23, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Queen’s Park at Mablethorpe sits just behind the promenade atop the sea defences and rows of chalets and consists of a boating lake, a paddling pool, a miniature railway, miniature (or “crazy”!) golf course, and a small funfair for younger kids. I remember spending one happy summer in the paddling pool sailing a toy boat that I’d had bought for me from a toy shop (now sadly closed) in the town centre. The boat was battery operated and had a fan on the rear that would propel it across the water. It felt like the best thing ever at the time.

These boats are probably battery operated too.

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Kodak Portra 400.

Taken on 13 September 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Record breaker

August 6, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

By the end of today this is likely to be my most viewed photograph on Flickr (in the fifteen years or so that I’ve had an account on there). It managed to get into Explore today and, while I’ve had quite a few photos in Explore before, I think this one is the closest to the top of the page I’ve ever had – it’s the 25th photo in Explore today. It’s far from the highest in terms of favourites though (it has 100 at the time of writing, although that’s still a huge amount compared to what most of my photos get – I usually get 10 to 20 faves on average).

That said, I’m not really someone who seeks faves and likes. I do feel good when I get them, but I don’t take photos for that reason, so it’s not a big deal if they don’t get heaps of attention. I might have mentioned this before, but it always seems to be the case that the photos that I really like, and which I think might deserve special attention, are rarely (if ever) the ones that get into Explore. It always seems to be something slightly random. It’s not to say I don’t think they’re good shots, but they’re not the ones I’d expect to get in there.

EDIT: In the time it’s taken me to write this, it’s now surpassed my previous most viewed image (this one, which had 15,614 views, should you be interested).

Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Kodak Portra 400.

Taken on 17 June 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

A man sat below a yellow wall

August 5, 2019August 5, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I guess that today must be “literal blog post title” day or something. In my head, at least.

This is what I assume to be a vacant lot in Barcelona, in the Gothic Quarter. The wall at the rear of the shot certaily has that “not intended for public view”-look about it, all rough concrete and clearly visible lines where the floors once stood.

Someone, however, has decided to paint it a bright yellow. It’s has a mustard tint to it in this Portra 400 photo, although I seem to remember it being more vivid at the time (this could be my brain frazzling out bad memories though). Whatever the case, I thought it was worth a photo, especially with the chap in the chair.

Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Kodak Portra 400.

Taken on 17 June 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Red No. 7

July 17, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Inside the Maremagnum shopping mall at Barcelona marina were this pair of Ferrari’s. I don’t have a great deal of interest in cars, but they often make for great photographic subject matter and I liked the colour and light so took the picture. It was amusing to see just how many men took selfies or got someone else to take their photo in front of the cars. This included me too, as my wife took a shot of me on her phone. 🙂