Olympus OM-10 & G.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 on Ilford FP4+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 @ 20° 10mins.
Taken on 2 August 2024
Bridlington boats
Tag: Seaside
Written in sand
The beach at Bridlington is backed by a sea wall along the stretch in front of the town north of the harbour area. This means there’s a good vantage point for looking down upon the sand and seeing the activities of the people enjoying the seaside, including writing messages in the smooth wet sand.
Despite my own spelling often being atrocious (albeit usually due to my inaccurate keystrokes, rather than an inability to spell), I seem to be quite good at seeing other peoples typos, such as the ones present in the first two pictures shared today. To be fair to the authors, it’s a lot easier to spot them from up on the promenade, than it probably is a beach level.
The third shot is spelt accurately, although it’s missing an apostrophe in “mums” and the spacing leaves a little to be desired. It’s not lacking in impact though, and I wonder what “mum” thought about the message?
😀
Olympus OM-10 & G.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 on Ilford FP4+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 @ 20° 10mins.
Taken on 2 August 2024
Bridlington beach
Back to black and white again. The coming series of posts will be photographs I made during a day trip to Bridlington with my wife back at the start of August.
This shot seems quite grainy for FP4+, but I do like the light and the expansiveness of the beach, with the coast curving around to the distant promontory of Flamborough Head.
Olympus OM-10 & G.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 on Ilford FP4+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 @ 20° 10mins.
Taken on 2 August 2024
A wet morning in Blackpool
Back at the end of June I spent the day in Blackpool for The Big Film Photowalk, a series of events around the country that had been organised by Analog Wonderland, the UK based film stockist. I posted about the events of the day here.
While the photowalk in Blackpool took place in Stanley Park, about a mile or so from the seafront, I parked near the town centre as my wife and her sister had accompanied me for the day and were planning on wandering round the shops while I went to take photos. As I was early for the photowalk, I took the chance to go and shoot some photos on a second camera I’d brought with me – my OM-10 – loaded with a roll of expired Fuji C200.
As I said in my other post, the weather on the day was not what I would have chosen. And while the photowalk had its share of drizzle and gloom, the beginning of the day along Blackpool’s seafront was worse, with bouts of full rain and a stiff breeze to contend with. I wasn’t confident of success, especially as I would usually prefer black and white for these conditions, not expired C41 film. Thankfully though, I was wrong, and I really like these colour pictures. They certainly capture the mood, and where there is colour in the scene, it really jumps out of the frame.
I managed to get pictures of the central and north piers, some (unused!) deckchairs, the sea defences, and obligatory shot of Blackpool tower, a shelter, a slightly pitiful looking crazy golf course, and some hardy metal detectorists on the beach.
Olympus OM-10 & G.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 on Fujifilm C200 (expired 2012 and shot at 100asa) . Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 29 June 2024
Beach huts
Today was the day I picked for my annual pilgrimage to Mablethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast. Although the weather forecast stated good weather for the location, it was drizzly, grey and even foggy for much of the 80-odd mile journey there, only brightening up after I crossed the Wolds to the coastal area. By the time I arrived it was a beautiful day with nary a cloud in the sky. Although, being a photographer, a few clouds to give the skies some interest wouldn’t have gone amiss. 🙂
Normally I tend to stay in Mablethorpe itself during these day trips, but today I set off early so that I could walk down the coastal path to Sutton-on-Sea, where I shot the picture below.
I shot four rolls of B&W film (using the GW690, so 32 shots in total), but none of those are developed or scanned yet. So in the meantime, here’s a digital photo from the outing.
Ricoh GR III
Taken 21 September 2024
The Big Film Photowalk
At a number of locations around the UK today, Analogue Wonderland organised a series of film photography photo walks – over forty of them! As they not only provided a roll of 36exposure Kodak Gold film, but also developing and scanning too, this was quite the deal, and it didn’t take much thought to decide to join in.
There was no event taking place in my home city of Sheffield, so I decided to join the Blackpool event. There were closer locations I could have chosen, but I fancied a trip to the seaside. In the end, the Blackpool photo walk took place in Stanley Park, which is about a mile or so inland from the seafront, but I engineered my visit to get to the town early enough to have at least some time to wander around the more seasidey part of the place.
Sadly, though not surprising for the UK, the weather was less than ideal today, with rain and heavy overcast skies through much of the day, and my time at the seafront mostly consisted of a walk along the beach, my camera hidden inside my waterproof jacket, only to appear when there was something worth photographing. Spoiler – trying to take photographs with a fully manual SLR camera while simultaneously holding an umbrella in the wind and rain is a challenge! Nevertheless, despite this, the grim weather actually made for some atmospheric looking scenes, so I’m hopeful these will look good when I get the roll developed.
After this I set of for the walk to Stanley Park to meet the organiser of this event (Peggy Marsh of Camera Go Camera fame) and the other photographers. In all, there were around 15-20 people taking part), so there was a mini crowd of analogue-camera-carrying-people that set of from the start.
The event consisted of a gentle ramble around the park – past the cafe, to the boating lake, through some woodland, and beside a golf course, amongst other sights. The rain, while never far away, did ease off to a degree in the afternoon – it was even almost sunny for a short while! – but the day remained mostly overcast. I usually favour black and white film in these conditions, but colour was the order of the day, so I tried to take care to find subjects that would suit the medium. Whether I’ve been successful will remain to be seen…
At the end of the walk, we all had to give out completed rolls of film back to Peggy to be sent to Analogue Wonderland for their Analogue Wonderlab to work its magic. I’ve never used Analogue Wonderland for developing or scanning before, so this will be a good opportunity to see what their results are like and compare them to my usual lab.
Although I shot a full roll of film today, I don’t yet have any pictures to share from the event, so instead here’s a picture of the stretch of the beach I walked this morning, although this photo was made way back in 2006. It’s interesting to note that, while the pier looks very similar today, the sea defences have changed quite considerably, with a curving (and photogenic) set of steps now running along this part of the seafront.
Canon PowerShot S2 IS.
Taken 13 September 2006.
Expiryment #4: Kodak Portra 400NC (expired 2007)
Despite my hopes and promises of doing one of these posts each month, I seem to have failed miserably when it comes to doing so – the last post in this (very occasional!) series was back in November 2022.
I did shoot another roll of expired film last summer but I was unhappy with the results and ended up converting the pictures to black and white. While they looks pretty nice after the conversion, these posts are aimed to be about keeping to the original results from the film used with a minimum of post processing. Converting to monochrome was a step too far.
No such worries with the next roll though, some 120 format Kodak Portra 400NC that expired in 2007. 2007 doesn’t feel like that long ago but it was prior to the global financial crisis and is fast approaching twenty years ago!
Portra 400NC was discontinued by Kodak in 2010, when the current range of Porta films (160, 400, and 800) was introduced. Kodaks description of 400NC was: “Offers fine grain, low contrast, and colors and skin tones that look real and natural in a variety of lighting situations.” There is a brochure online on Kodak’s website which covers the full rang of (as was) Portra films from this period. There’s a strong hint that it was aiming for the wedding photography market…
I don’t photograph weddings and, even if I did, there’s no way I’d risk a seventeen year old expired roll of unknown provenance on such a once-in-a-lifetime event. For the sort of subjects I normally photograph however, I was willing to take the risk.
Despite the limited number of shots, I decided to shoot it with my Fujica GW690 6×9 medium format camera, giving me just eight potential pictures from the roll. The first outing was to my favourite seaside haunt of Mablethorpe. Normally when I visit Mablethorpe I will wander around all day making photographs. However, this year, I took my dad along for a day out, so knew from the outset that I wouldn’t be shooting as much. In the even I only used three frames on this outing, and one of those was a misfire when the camera was in my bag! I’ve since started to avoid winding the film in the GW690 after taking a shot to prevent this expensive mistake from reoccurring. Unfortunately, the Mk I GW690 that I own doesn’t have the shutter button lock that the later models do.
So the first two shots from the roll were of beach chalets / huts that stand along the beach promenade. The weather on the day was bright, but a layer of thin high-level cloud, robbed the light of contrast. Nevertheless, for outdated film the results were pretty good.
The second batch of shots – the remaining five on the roll – were shot one misty morning at Rother Valley Country Park. While I find the park a little uninspiring due to over-familiarity, cold misty morning usually provide some nice pictures, and this occasion bore that out.
The first shot is a little dull perhaps, but the light was nice. It’s just a suburban street I walked on my way to the park. You can just make out the mist hanging over where the lake is in the middle of the shot though. There’s a line of pylons that run between the houses and the park. The towers are out of frame, but the powerlines themselves can be seen.
The next shot is one of my favourites from last year, a beautifully autumnal scene of a small maple tree, it’s leaves turning but not yet fallen, nicely separated from the background by the mist. I’m not sure if the colours are true to life, but they look gorgeous, so I’ll take that as a win.
The mist was already burning off under the gaze of the morning sunshine when I took the next picture. A simple landscape scene of the lake with the boating centre on the far bank. There’s still enough mist left to provide some pleasant atmosphere to the photo though.
I took another photo very similar to the one above which had a couple of swans in the frame, but the one above is the best, I think.
The last shot is another lone tree, but this time I shot directly into the light. It’s not as good as the other tree picture, but I do like the way the tufts of dew and cobweb covered grass are illuminated at the bottom of the frame. The lens of the GW690 shows no signs of flare, even in this challenging scene.
So, apart from a wasted shot, this was another expired film success. When I shoot old colour film I’m not really expecting accurate colours, just pleasing ones, and this delivered on that.
Overall outcome: Success!
Expiriment #5 coming soon (Yeah, I know…)…
Fujica GW690, Kodak Portra 400NC (expired 2007). Shot at 160asa and lab developed for box speed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 30 September and 25 October 2023
Other posts in the Expiriment series:
Expiriment #1: Ilford HP5 (expired 1982)
Bright or dull, which is best?
I quite often try and pick days with nice light for photography. Alas, living in the UK, dull weather is never to far away, particularly through late autumn to early spring when it can persist for days on end. There’s nothing that puts me of going out with my camera more than a flat grey sky. But should it?
The two pictures published here today were taken on the same day in Cleethorpes at the end of December last year. When I arrived the sky was bright and clear and strong contrasty light was present. However, as the day progressed, clouds began to gather until they pretty much filled the sky. By the time I set off for the drive home the light had diminished considerably and it was raining.
Yet, despite this and my normal preference for good light, it’s the second photograph made in the supposedly worse conditions that I like the best. It just has bags more atmosphere. I guess the different composition of both could be having some effect, but I don’t really think that’s the reason.
Maybe I should just embrace the grey.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 28 December 2023
Shelters by the sea
The weather in the UK is, being generous, changeable. A day at the seaside, no matter what the forecast might promise, always bears a risk of it raining for the full duration of your visit. So what are you meant to do in these situations? Get wet?
Well we inventive Brits have a solution to everything, and so many seaside resorts around the country have you covered with a selection of shelters in which you can attempt to avoid the elements. They come in a variety of sizes and shapes, from simple bus-shelter-style to grandiose Victorian architectural gems. And if the weather is nice, maybe you can just take the weight of your feet and enjoy your fish and chips or an ice cream or something.
I really like this couple of photos. I don’t think there are any other shelters like this in Cleethorpes, but I know there are many dotted around the country’s resorts. maybe a long-term project is a possibility?
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 28 December 2023
Digging for bait
An angler digs for bait at low tide on Cleethorpes beach. The beaches around the uk are a prime habitat for lugworm, which are a popular sea fishing bait. They can be bought from fishing tackle shops, but can also be harvested from the sea shore in areas where it is permitted to do so.
The worms are filter feeders and live in u-shaped burrows with a small dimple at one end and a distinctive squiggly cast at the other meaning they are easy to locate when the tide is low.
Fujica GW690 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 28 December 2023
Steel City Snapper photography 