A walk in the country

August 6, 2026 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

The black and white pictures I’ve been sharing over the past week were from a walk I took near Carlton-in-Lindrick, a village in Nottinghamshire not too far from where I live. It’s a place I’ve visited for a walk and some photography three times now. The first was in 2025 on a day where the ground was waterlogged and muddy, which made for a less than pleasant walk (especially when it began to rain), but still produced some nice pictures. On that occasion I’d planned on a longer walk that took in the countryside to the west and east of the village, but I only managed the western side due to the conditions.

The third visit took place in mid-June, and was when I took the shots I’ve posted this past week. That walk took me to the east of the village, out past Hodsock Priory, and was a nice hike spoiled only by the fact that my film was underexposed, spoiling many of the pictures as a result.

So here today are the results from my second visit (I know, I’m posting these out of order, a fact that niggles me somewhat). This was almost a mirror of my first hike, with me walking much (but not all) of the same route, only in reverse and, thankfully, in far more pleasant conditions, passing through a mix of farmland and woodland, before finishing at the church close to where I’d parked my car.

I only shot with my Yashica Mat 124G, and here are the pictures that I saw fit to upload (the full roll except for a slightly boring picture of some crops – imaging the first picture but without the interest of the footpath). I shot a roll of Ektar, a film that normally gives me pleasing colours straight out of the scan, but on this occasion I really had to faff around with it to get the colours looking correct (and I’m still doubtful that they are). Further tweaking may resolve things, but I haven’t had the time or inclination to do so. Yet, at least.

But, apart from the slight concerns about the colours, I do like most of the pictures I got.

Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Portra 160 & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 2 May 2026

Digital · Photography

Still hot

July 10, 2026 fishyfisharcade5 Comments

It’s a whole degree cooler than yesterday’s 33.9°C in my home office today. That’s still over ten degrees hotter than I’d like it to be.

My expensive new fan arrived this morning, and is doing a decent job of taking the edge off the heat, but it’s not an air conditioner and there’s only so much that moving air flow can achieve, so it still feels oppressive and it’s been pretty hard to get motivated while working today.

Thankfully the temperatures are forecast to begin dropping over the weekend to a much more manageable mid-20s range (and, more importantly, overnight temps below 20°C, so there’s a chance to open the windows and flush out the hot air).

The sub-tropical climate of Madeira felt more manageable than this, mostly due to infrastructure designed to deal with it – air-con, tiled floors, window-shutters and the like, most of which go against the standard UK building methods that are designed to keep heat inside. If the summer temperatures in the UK continue to rise in future, then there is going to be a real need for change to prevent severe disruption.

But anyway, this is meant to be a photography blog, not an essay on climate change, so here’s another shot from the holiday. It’s another digital picture (although I have received four sheets of film negs back in the post today, so plenty of those to share too when I get around to it).

Being a Portugese territory, you’d expect to see plenty of Portugese flags in Madeira, but there were probably more than usual due to the World Cup tournament taking place while we were there (Madeira also being the birthplace of their famed striker, Christiano Ronaldo – there’s even a museum in Funchal dedicated to him). At this stage Portugal had not yet been knocked out…

Ricoh GRIII

Taken on 27 June 2026

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Ice

April 6, 2026 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Looking straight down onto a small frozen puddle/

Nikon F80 and Nikkor 70-200mm f/4 ED VR on Fomapan 400 (@320asa). Semi-stand in Rodinal 1+100 for 1 hour @ 20°.

Taken on 8 February 2026

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Landscape scene

April 5, 2026 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Power lines cross a field, it’s crops just beginning to show, before passing a lone farmhouse. In the distance the buildings and chimney-stack of Steetley dolomite works are visible. This chimney can be seen from miles around in this part of the countryside.

Nikon F80 and Nikkor 70-200mm f/4 ED VR on Fomapan 400 (@320asa). Semi-stand in Rodinal 1+100 for 1 hour @ 20°.

Taken on 8 February 2026

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Bird on a wire

March 29, 2026 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Ah, one of my old favourite subjects; power-lines marching across the landscape to destinations unknown. This one enhanced, I think, by the compression given by the telephoto lens and, most of all, by the hawk perched upon the wires.

Nikon F80 and Nikkor 70-200mm f/4 ED VR on Fomapan 400 (@320asa). Semi-stand in Rodinal 1+100 for 1 hour @ 20°.

Taken on 8 February 2026

Digital · Photography

Trees in the fog

March 22, 2026 fishyfisharcade3 Comments

As promised yesterday, here are some more pictures from my foggy day walk yesterday.

These were all shot on the outward leg of the walk. They would have been very different had I shot them on the return, when the thinning mist had increased the visibility enough for distracting background details to emerge.

Ricoh GRIII

Taken on 21 March 2026

Digital · Photography

An odd couple

March 16, 2026 fishyfisharcade1 Comment

I’m not going all digital, promise! But I just wanted to post something quickly and easily today, mostly because I can feel the effects of staying up half the night watching the Oscars catching up on me.

This is another from the few pictures I took when out testing the D810 the other day.

Nikon D810 and Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-f/5.6 D.

Taken on 14 March 2026

Digital · Photography

It’s that copse again

March 15, 2026 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I’ve shared pictures of this same copse of trees on a few occasions, and here it is again.

Slightly different this time in that it’s a digital image, taken with my newly acquired (but pre-owned) Nikon D810, with which I’m going to attempt some DSLR scanning of 35mm negatives (and perhaps medium format too at some point if all goes well).

It would be a shame to use it just for scanning negs though as it’s a pretty accomplished camera, despite the model originally launching back in 2014, and I quite fancy doing some landscape photography with it when time and conditions allow.

I’ll post more on how the neg scanning goes once I have everything I need.

Nikon D810 and Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-f/5.6 D.

Taken on 14 March 2026

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Punta Carena lighthouse

February 23, 2026February 24, 2026 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

I’ve recently re-scanned some older negatives from when my wife and I visited Sorrento in Italy in 2018. While I was happy with my scans at the time, I can produce much better results now and I also realised that a lot of the pictures I’d taken were never uploaded, including the one posted here today.

This isn’t Sorrento, but the south-western point of the island of Capri, named Punta Carena, upon which stands this lighthouse. The photo was taken from the boat we were on which circled around the island before heading to port.

There’s a nice sense of scale to the picture, I think, with the foreground coast, the lighthouse, and then the dramatic cliffs beyond.

Mountains of Capri and the Punta Carena lighthouse

Olympus OM-1 and G-Zuiko Auto-W 28mm f/3.5 on Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 21 August 2018

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

A touch of frost

February 21, 2026February 21, 2026 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I had one of those situation where I had just a few shots remaining on a roll to be used. I generally prefer to finish an entire roll on the occasions where I’m taking lots of pictures, but sometimes it doesn’t happen, and I’m not the sort of person who likes to waste frames on subjects I don’t find interesting just for the convenience of using up the film.

So on this frosty morning I went out to shoot the four remaining frames (three of which can be seen below). The first two are at Ulley Reservoir, where the cold weather had formed a thin skein of ice on the water’s surface, and the third is at Penny Hill Wind Farm, which lies a mile or so up the hill.

Officially, these were my first shots of 2026, albeit not on a new roll of film.