Golden balloon

October 16, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Back in August I visited Renishaw Hall, a local stately home. The main reason for my visit was to take some photographs in the Italianate gardens for a photo comp I’m involved with. My photo did pretty badly, as it turned out, so from that point of view the visit (and £8 entrance fee) was a bit of a waste of time, but I still enjoyed the day and it might be nice to visit again when the autumn colours are in better evidence.

Anyway, I took some other photos during the visit, including shooting half a roll of Ektar. For some reason, several of the Ektar shots are very contrasty with little shadow detail – looking almost like underexposed slide film – but some came out ok, including this one.

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Kodak Ektar.

Taken on 26 August 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Faceless man

September 10, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

But not from Bravos…

I’m very impressed with the way the Fuji Provia has captured this scene. While there might be a slight loss of shadow detail between the leaves, the colours and tones in this are pretty impressive to my eye. So far I’ve been very pleased with the results I’ve had from Provia, especially given they’ve all been based on readings from my little Sekonic L-208 analog meter. It’s an accurate, but somewhat basic meter, so coupled with the meterless Zeiss Mess-Ikonta and it’s completely manual (and click-free) shutter-speed and aperture dials, there’s almost certainly some drift from the true settings taking place, but the film handles it with aplomb.

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Fujifilm Provia 100.

Taken on 26 August 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Renishaw Hall

September 9, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Yesterday I showed a small section of Renishaw Hall, little more than a tease, really. Today you’re getting the whole shebang. I know, I know! Calm yourselves! 🙂

Anyway, this is the southern aspect of the house from the Italianate gardens. The portion I showed yesterday can be seen at the middle-right of today’s image. It’s a bit of a traditional shot of the place, but the light was nice – again, not a cloud in the sky, but it doesn’t suffer for it (and clouds might have obscured the water from the fountain). That said, I’ve cropped it to a 6×7 format to remove some of the blue sky from the upper part of the photograph and I think it works better like this.

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Fujifilm Provia 100.

Taken on 26 August 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

The corner of Renishaw Hall

September 8, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Renishaw Hall sits within its grounds a few miles from where I live. It was built in 1625 and has been the seat of the Sitwell family since. The gardens are open to visitors and, although pretty close by, this was the very first time I’ve visited the place. It made for a pleasant few hours and the grounds of the house are lovely and quite extensive, including formal gardens, woodland, parkland and a couple of lakes.

Although it was a bright (and hot!) sunny day when I visited, I got a number of images I liked, and I think it will be well worth another visit when the autumn colour arrives. I don’t tend to favour clear blue skies for photography, but sometimes it works and I think this is a case where it does.

This photo is of the south easterly corner of the house rearing up from behind a large hedge.