Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Abandoned farmhouse

This abandoned farmhouse is an interesting subject to photograph, but you need to pick the right time of day, and I don’t think I did that here. At this time of year the sun is low in the sky and there is a wooded area beside the field where the structure stands (off to the right of the photo). As a result, the building had only limited direct light falling on it. Later in the afternoon when the sun will cast light directly onto the walled side of the building would be better, or even perhaps earlier in the day and photograph it form the other side.

I rarely have the luxury of picking what time I get to photograph such things unfortunately, and even then I’m at the mercy of the weather, so sometimes it’s a case of taking whatever I can get and making the most of it.

Abandoned in a field

Yashicamat 124G with close-up lens #1 & Ilford Delta 400 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 20 January 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

NOT an aerial shot of paddy fields

A couple of people commented that this image looked like an overhead shot of rice paddies. It is an overhead shot, just taken from a couple of feet overhead, and it isn’t paddy fields, but a frozen puddle at the edge of a farm field. It’s odd how the brain interprets things sometimes, especially without the information that the photographer has regarding the actual subject matter.

Ice

Yashicamat 124G with close-up lens #1 & Ilford Delta 400 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 20 January 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Ivy-clad

The spread of ivy on this tree gives it a strange, unbalanced, top-heavy appearance. It stands within easy eyesight of a road I travel sometimes and I’ve thought about photographing it on more than one occasion while driving past, but this was the first time I’ve done so.

Colonised

Yashicamat 124G with close-up lens #1 & Ilford Delta 400 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 20 January 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Decaying leaves

This is one of those posts where I present my entry for whatever theme the monthly photo contest I take part in has selected. This month the theme is “Decay”.

I was starting to think that I might not get anything to enter – my output has been somewhat low over the past month or so – but on Friday, knowing I had a few frames remaining on this roll of Delta 400, I decided to get out the little mini-studio thing I have. It’s basically a collapsible lightbox into which you can put small objects to photograph them. It has a set of LED lights built in which provide plenty of illumination, plus a set of foam sheets in a variety of colours to use as backdrops.

It’s not very sturdy, but it didn’t cost very much either and I’ve found it to be useful within its limitations. It works better when I use a macro lens and a smaller subject as the edges of the backdrops can start to creep into the frame – as happened with this picture as the close-up lens I used on the Yashicamat doesn’t allow me to get too close and resulted in my cropping in to remove the “behind the magic” rubbish at the top, bottom, and sides.

It worked well enough for me to photograph this bunch of maple leaves that I picked up in the back garden.

Decay

Yashicamat 124G with close-up lens #1 & Ilford Delta 400 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 20 January 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Green energy

Two of the turbines making up part of Penny Hill Wind Farm lit up by the bright Christmas Eve sunshine.

Clear blue skies meant that this was always going to be somewhat minimal, with a lot of negative space. I took some effort to get just a thin strip of the roadside hedge into the bottom of the frame to ground the picture a little.

Near Penny Hill wind farm

Yashicamat 124G & Ilford HP5+ . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 24 December 2022.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Trunks

Another photo from my Christmas eve outing. I saw this scene as I drove past in my car but, due to the roads being narrow with no place to stop or turn around, I had to do a loop of several miles to bring me back to the same location so I could park up and go make the picture.

I think it might have worked well had I been able to face the trees head on, but there was limited space and my shadow would enter the scene if I positioned myself in certain places, so this was what I got.

Tree trunks

Yashicamat 124G & Ilford HP5+ . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 24 December 2022.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Low arches or high water?

Another photgraph taken at Ulley Reservoir on Christmas Eve. It was the first time I’d ever taken this road around the edge of the water and so I’ve never seen this viewpoint of the bridge where it crosses this part of the reservoir. I’m not sure if the water level was particularly high, or if those arches are designed to leave such little space beneath the roadway. No-one is going to be taking a boat under them, that’s for sure!

Again, due to my tripod-plate mishap, this was another picture shot at a lowere shutter speed and wider aperture than I’d have liked.

High water or low arches?

Yashicamat 124G & Ilford HP5+ . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 24 December 2022.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Across Ulley reservoir

The only real photography I did in December (apart from the odd snap here and there) took place on Christmas Eve. The weather was bright and clear and I wanted to run a roll of film through my Yashicamat 124G which I had taken the lens off the week before in an attempt to remove some haze. The haze was between inside the rear lens element and I couldn’t remove it unfortunately, although I otherwise gave it all a good clean. This outing was to see if the camera was still working and hadn’t been destroyed by my meddling.

I went out with good intentions, taking a tripod and cable release with me in case I needed to shoot in lower light locations. What I forgot to do was to afix the quick-release plate on the bottom of the camera before I left the house, rendering the tripod useless. As a result I had to make quite a few shots on the roll at wider apertures or with slower shutter speeds than I would have liked. This was annoying as I wanted to make sure my attempted repair hadn’t affected the cameras focusing in some way, and any hint of softness due to camera shake or shallow depth of field would make this troublesome.

I think a few shots on the roll suffer in this way. Not terribly, but if I zoom right in I can see some softness. Other shots are plenty sharp however, so I guess the repair was successful (insofar as me not having broken the camera, at least – the haze is still present).

The shot shown here today is one from the roll and shows a view across Ulley Reservoir with a tower on the far shore – I presume this is used as part of the boating activities that make use of the lake.

Reservoir's edge

Yashicamat 124G & Ilford HP5+ . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 24 December 2022.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Bush and building

Another photo taken outside The Hepworth gallery in Wakefield. I think this one is definitely my favourite from the roll. The use of a shallow depth of field was deliberate to throw the building out of focus but still keep its presence in the frame.

I had the chance to go out with a camera today (well, I was Christmas shopping, but had the Trip 35 in my pocket). Sadly, the beautiful – if very cold – frosty weather also came to an end today, being replaced bith grey overcast skies and rain. So I took not a single picture. Sigh.

Bushes and buildings

Yashicamat 124G & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 5 November 2022.