A little late for Halloween, but it’s the last shot from this roll of Portra 400 that I’ve been posting pictures from, so here it is anyway.
I’m happy that I’ve now got the next two weeks off work. Plenty to do when I return, but I’m hoping to make the most of the next fortnight and do a bunch of stuff that I normally never seem to find the time to do, including a trip or two out with a camera, hopefully.
Yashica Mat 124G and Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Donkey rides have been a staple of British seaside resorts going back a few hundred years and it would be commonplace to see a small herd of them, bedecked with saddles, bridles, and often their name on a nose strap, giving rides up and down the beach to children.
I think they are a little less commonplace now as greater emphasis on animal welfare has been introduced, and the owners of donkeys used for rides need to be licensed and inspected to ensure that the wellbeing of the animals is properly maintained. There has also probably been a change in public attitudes, with more people seeing the practice as cruel and it being challenged by animal welfare organisations.
I remember as a child seeing the donkey being led through the town centre to the beach where the rides could be had, their hooves making that familiar clip-clopping sound as they walked, but they are now brought in an animal transporter, though possibly because they are no longer stabled within walking distance.
Here are a couple disembarking before beginning their day’s work.
Yashica Mat 124G and Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
There’s something alluring about seaside architecture, I find. It’s unusual to find similarly styled buildings that you find occupied by seaside cafes or beach-front chippies further inland, except maybe in some public parks and gardens.
In a lot of cases these places feel a little run down (although not always) which can add some extra attraction to them as photographic subject matter. In this case the opportunistic weeds and peeling paintwork.
Yashica Mat 124G and Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
This is a feature of Mablethorpe that didn’t exist when I used to visit as a child. It stands on a patch of open grass that leads up to the pirate-themed crazy golf course (which used to be an Arnold Palmer Putting Course, and for which I still have a never-to-be-redeemed voucher for a free play that I got after getting a hole-in-one on the final obstacle many years ago). I didn’t walk up to the course, but having seen this YouTube video, it appears that this may also now be closed. But fear not, there’s another pirate-themed course, just at the bottom of the slope (possibly owned by the same people).
Anyway, I digress. The skate park was devoid of skaters when I took this shot, but I liked the slightly confrontational look of the foreground ramp facing down the others.
Yashica Mat 124G and Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Fernlea garden centre has been doing business in the village of Maltby-le-Marsh near Mablethorpe for as a long as I can remember. I have a vague memory of my grandparents buying some plants from there one time when I was a kid – the caravan site where their caravan was berthed was in the same village (and still is, although considerably changed from how it was when I used to visit).
Each year when I visit Mablethorpe I drive through the village and see the garden centre. Unlike the caravan site, it seems remarkably unchanged (in my memory at least) from all those years ago, and whenever I go past I have a slight worry that it will no longer be there and another little piece of my life’s history will have gone. It hasn’t happened yet, thankfully, but this year when I drove past I decided to stop and take a couple of pictures so that, in the event that it ever disappears, I’ll still have a picture to remember it.
Yashica Mat 124G and Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
These pictures are from the same roll of Fuji Pro 400H as this pictures I posted yesterday. Unlike those, the light leaks on these were unrecoverable (by my level of skill, at least, although I suspect anyone else’s too).
I think the problem was caused by keeping the roll of film in the camera for two long. I shot a single frame when I visited Hull back in August but, because the film advance wheel fell off thew camera after that shot, it meant that I wasn’t able to shoot any more frames that day and only got around to shooting more in September, before finishing the final four frames in October when I went on my annual day-trip to Mablethorpe.
I shot all those during the journey, three in Gainsborough, and the final picture in Legbourne, and it’s the first of the Gainsborough pictures, and the Legbourne picture shown below.
It was after taking the picture in Lebourne and removing the roll of film from the camera that I became aware that I had a “fat” roll, the film and backing paper wrapped much more loosely around the spindle than required, meaning that light was able to get to the film when I opened the camera back. I put the roll somewhere dark as quickly as possible but not matter how fast I might move, it’s still slower than the speed of light, so the damage was done.
It’s a shame these two photos were damaged in this way as I think they would have been good pictures (I’ve since returned to Gainsborough and re-taken the first, but the weather conditions were different and the plume of steam wasn’t there, so I don’t think it will be as good). Still, despite the obvious issues, I still liked the results enough to post them on my Flickr account. I think the first one could make a pretty decent album cover!
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Fujifilm Pro 400H. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
I thought I’d post something befitting the date today.
This stand of pumpkins and squashes was beside the road in a village I passed through on my way to Mablethorpe, and I turned the car around so I could go back and get the photograph.
Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Another digital picture from my recent visit to Mablethorpe. The tide had receded and left a lovely reflective sheen on the flat sand, over which this person and their frolicking dog crossed.
As Flickr seems to be having considerable issues today due to the significant AWS outage, I’m uploading a picture directly for a change.
I’ve just picked something I shot a week ago on my trip to Mablethorpe – the place where The Cut, empties into the North Sea via a concrete outfall. It’s another of those things that I’ve photographed on numerous occasions, but the light is quite nice here.
Steel City Snapper photography 