This weekend marks the seventh Photo North festival, and the fifth of which I’ve attended. As usual it was a great mix of lectures, exhibits, and retailers.
Apologies that this is quite a short post – I’ve been out of the house for the entire day and don’t have it in me for a detailed recap, but suffice to say that if you get the chance to attend, then please do. It’s well worth the visit, and it’s on until Sunday, with a different selection of talks and speakers on each day.
My wife and I visited the Wakefield Rhubarb Festival today. It’s the first time we’ve been and it was an enjoyable few hours out.
Wakefield is one of the towns that delineate the area known as the Rhubarb Triangle*, famed for producing forced rhubarb, a method of growing the vegetable in dark sheds which encourages the plants to convert carbohydrates into glucose, forming stalks with a sweetly sour taste. Rhubarb has many uses, but is often served in sweet pies and crumbles,sometimes accompanied by other fruits. Wakefield Council holds the annual festival each February.
Fresh bundles of rhubarb on one of the stalls.More rhubarb being delivered
The event itself was somewhat akin to a Christmas market and I was surprised at how many stalls were present, along with various activities taking place, and local bars, cafe’s, and restaurants also laying on rhubarb themed food and drinks. We bought a number of items, including some orange and rhubarb marmalade (I’m on a bit of a marmalade voyage of discovery at present, having it with toast for breakfast several times a week), some rhubarb candles (which my wife will gift to a friend), a sausage and rhubarb focaccia (to be eaten tomorrow!), and some fresh stalks of rhubarb (some of which we ate with custard this evening).
Two friendly rhubarb ladiesEverywhere you looked, people had stalks of purchased rhubarb protruding from bags and backpacks.More rhubarb purchasersA girl with rhubarb in her hairThere was honey for sale too
As well as the stalls, there were a number of other events taking place during the event (which ran from Friday until today), including live music, arts and crafts, cooking demonstrations, various performers in rhubarb costumes, and no less than three different morris dancing groups (or sides, as I believe they are known) .
*the legal definition of the Rhubarb Triangle is apparently as follows…
“from Ackworth Moor Top north along the A628 to Featherstone and Pontefract. Then on to the A656 through Castleford. It then goes west along the A63 past Garforth and West Garforth. Head north passing Whitkirk, Manston and on towards the A6120 by Scholes. Follow the A6120 west, round to pass Farsley which then leads south west via the A647 onto the A6177. Pass Dudley Hill to pick up the M606 south. At junction 26 take the M62 south to junction 25 head east along A644 toward Dewsbury, passing Mirfield, to pick up the A638 towards Wakefield. At Wakefield take the A638 south to Ackworth Moor top.”[
The last of the pictures from Ciutadella that I’ll post (although I might put out some of the digital shots I took at some point).
I’m quite fond of this one because of the placement of the figures; the man reclining on the bench; the couple looking at directions; the mannequin in the shop window; and, most of all, the bewigged individual watching us from the doorway.
Olympus 35 RC & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008). Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
One evening on our holiday we walked to the nearby lighthouse (pictures coming tomorrow!). It had rained heavily earlier and the sky was still full of impressive clouds. On the edge of this road lay a large scimitar, or crescent shaped puddle, and I grabbed a quick photo of this couple reflected in its surface.
Olympus 35 RC & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008). Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Last year my wife and I spent a week in Menorca at the resort of Cala n Bosch, right on the south-western tip of the island and I shot a couple of rolls of film (my, still reliable, expired Superia 100) during the holiday.
This first set were taken on the first day or two as we wandered around the place – while the biggest “resort” on the island (not counting the two main cities, and other inland towns) – Cala n Bosch is still a relatively small place and easy to wander around (it’s actually two areas, if you count the adjoining Cap d’Artrutx). There’s a marina area with a bunch of restaurants, bars, and shops, but the rest of the resort consists of hotels, apartment complexes, and villas. Oh, and a lighthouse.
There will be more pictures to come, both from the resort, and also shots I took when exploring other parts of Menorca.
Olympus 35 RC & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008). Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
I was walking around town a while back and, largely out of nowhere, wondered how effective if might be to try using my Yashica Mat 124G with zone-focus. It was a bright day, and I was shooting 400asa film, so I could set the camera to a relatively narrow aperture of f/8 (although, on a 6×6 medium format camera, the depth of field at f/8 at short distances is still pretty shallow).
The Yashica has a handy scale guide on the focus knob, so I set it to around 8 feet and shot a few pictures of passersby, using the focus screen to compose, but not the magnifier. And it worked quite well. If I pixel peep the full size pictures then they’re not perfectly in focus on the main subjects, but they’re certainly within an acceptable level of sharpness.
It’s probably not going to be a technique I use often, but it might be worthwhile at events such as carnivals or similar where there are lots of interesting subjects, but not enough time to finesse the focus for each shot.
Yashica Mat 124G and Kentmere 400. Ilfotec DD-X 10.5mins @ 20°.
I visited the city of Ciutadela twice during our recent holiday in Menorca. The first time was withe my wife, although we didn’t stay long, instead catching the bus across the island to the current capital, Mahon (or Mao as it appears on all the signs).
The second visit I made solo, leaving my wife to read her book beside the swimming pool, while I took the bus so I could explore and take photographs.
I took a whole bunch during this visit, both on film and digital, and below are a few of the latter, taken on the gorgeous (and quiet) backstreets of the city’s old town area. Interestingly, almost all my pictures in this part of the city are in portrait orientation, suiting the narrow streets, I think.
I still have a bunch more photos to share from the trip to Menorca, but I haven’t even started scanning the film photos yet!
Steel City Snapper photography 