A massive failure this afternoon. 😦

I took a half day off work as I knew the weather was nice for once, and it was one of the only chances I had to try and photograph some autumn colour. So after lunch I headed out to Padley Gorge in the Peak District with the Chamonix large format camera and a bunch of film with the intent of shooting some of the Kodak Ektar that I have, and which I had four sheets loaded in film holders.

I found a nice scene with a backlit oak tree, so set everything up, carefully checked my focus and the camera settings and then took the shot. I then headed a little further down the gorge to try and find the next one. By this time, the light was low enough that a lot of the area was already in shadow, so I looked to photograph a clump of autumnal leaves on a sapling which were illuminated in a shaft of sunlight. It was a slightly tricky shot to focus, requiring some tilt to get everything sharp. After setting up the shot and feeling relatively confident about the sharpness, I went to meter the scene and then noticed with dismay that my meter was set to ISO400. This meant the first shot was two stops underexposed. This was very frustrating and, to be honest, set the ball rolling for the rest of the afternoon’s disappointment.

As I’d already wasted one expensive sheet of colour film I was now even more conscious of the need to not waste any of the remaining three sheets on sub-par images, especially given the fact I’d have to send them away for developing at notable cost, so I binned the shot of the leaves and decided to move elsewhere for something better. I was now in the wrong frame of mind though – everything I considered seemed like it wasn’t worth the effort (or cost) – and so I set up and then dismissed several shots while the sun sank lower in the sky. Eventually (and now in a pretty bad mood) I just said to myself “f**k it” and packed everything away and came home.

I was seething in the car all the way back because a) the weather and light was beautiful and I had been unable to take advantage of something I rarely get the chance to, and b) I wasted an afternoon’s off work for the privilege. I saw several beautifully lit scenes on the way home which, had I had a smaller format camera with me, I could have photographed, but I just had to drive past them all.

The weather looks good again tomorrow, and I’m going to have another attempt at capturing autumn colour, but I’ll be taking some medium format gear this time to make sure I actually capture something on film. I expect the same locations will be much busier tomorrow, unfortunately.

Anyone else have “one of those days”?

The pictures shared today are a few older digital shots from previous visits to the same area. You can see why I’m disappointed to come away empty handed….