There’s something of a trend for British post boxes to wear knitted hats of late. The trend apparently began around Christmas in 2012 but has then expanded to take in all sorts of other festivals and reasons.
The name for the “hats” is “post box toppers” and the activity of making and placing them is “yarn bombing”.
This is something I learned today when I decided to post this picture. 🙂
Yashica Mat 124G & Lomography Color Negative 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
These patches of red were what caught my eye in this scene. The postbox, the Hot Chilli shop sign, and the car parked outside, but also the other car and, I guess, the tail-lights of the vehicle beside the postbox too. It’s a shot that wouldn’t have worked nearly as well without the sunlight setting the reds alight, but also if the cars were missing. I also like the boarded-up window which looks like it has a fragment of some pixelated creation on display – the arm of a Spcae Invader perhaps?
Olympus Trip 35 & Kodak Colorplus. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Postboxes are another of those subjects to which I seem to be drawn quite often. Usually it’s when I’m shooting colour film as I think that the bright red paintwork lends itself best to that format, but I have more than a few pictures in black and white too, as with today’s photo.
Colour would have worked well too, although the box was in shad so might not have “popped” in the same way as when illuminated, but this particular example has the added interest of a bunch of stickers pasted to its side – a mixture of random art and political messaging of varying persuasions. I made the picture with the lens wide open af f/2.8 as I wanted to remove the background clutter, but perhaps a little narrower might have better benefited the ability to read the stickers.
When we had a day of snow a couple of weeks ago, I made the effort to go out and make some photos. I had an excuse to go out as my wife had a birthday card that needed to be posted, plus it was a chance to get in my allowed exercise too.
I pondered which camera to take out, taking consideration of the fact that none of them are particularly weather-sealed. I wondered about the Zeiss folder at first, as I could easily drop that into a pocket, but the thought of big, wet flakes of snow landing on the bellows gave me pause. In the end I decided on the Holga. While I doubt it’s in any way water-sealed, it’s almost entirely plastic, so as long as I put it back in my bag between shots, I reckoned it would be ok.
The Holga gives very little control beyond zone-focusing and the ability to switch the aperture between f/8 and f/11, but that limitation also makes it very easy to use. I knew I’d keep it at the f/8 aperture setting, so it was just a matter of estimating the distance, framing the shot, and making the picture. The Holga is a genuine pleasure in this regard.
I walked around for about an hour and fired off all twelve frames on a roll of HP5+ and I think I have a decent number of keepers from the bunch. The fixed 1/100s shutter speed did a great job of capturing the movement of the falling snowflakes. As the day was heavily overcast (as you might expect during snow!) I decided to push the roll a stop during development, which I think was a good choice.
As the lockdown (and the demands of my Couch-to-5K plan) are limiting the chances to get out with the camera slightly, I’m rationing the photos a little, so they’ll be spread out over the next few days while I develop another roll of film I’ve shot and, hopefully, get out and make some more images this weekend.
Out posting a card Off to a friend of my wife On a snowy day
I really like the way this quaint village scene came out (it’s in Eyam). It has a nice contrast and crispness about it. It has a somewhat nostalgic air, or a least it does until you notice the modern cars in the background and the fact that the phone box has now been modified to house a defibrillator instead of a payphone. Hopefully no-one will attempt to make a call with it! 🙂
I have a slight fascination for taking photos of postboxes – I think it’s because of the way colour film renders red (although, that said, I have some black and white shots of them too!). I liked the way the low autumn sun was lighting this one.
Steel City Snapper photography 