Tag: woodland

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Sometimes it’s not as bad as you thought…

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Over a year ago, I wrote this post about a disappointing outing with my large format camera. You can read the post for the details, but the gist of it was that I wasted a sheet of very expensive 4×5 format Kodak Ektar by not paying attention and messing up the exposure.

I remember thinking at the time that I might as well just pull the sheet of film from the holder and throw it in the bin, such was my certainty that I’s messed it up beyond salvation. In the end, I decided to leave the sheet in the holder until I shot the remaining three sheets I had loaded on some other outing. It took almost a year before that next outing with the 4×5 Ektar came around.

Tempting fate somewhat, I returned to the same location – Padley Gorge – although the weather wasn’t particularly inspiring, it being a typical UK dull and overcast autumnal day. Nonetheless I decided to shoot the remaining three sheets I had loaded into my film holders. This being the first time I’ve shot colour 4×5 film, and as I don’t have the chemicals or equipment I’d need to develop the film at home (as I do with black and white), I had to find somewhere to send the film to be processed. I also had to locate a spare film box that I could use to send the sheets (they need to be sent in a light-tight container, usually a double box with a lightproof bag inside). It ended up being a month before I managed to post them out to the lab I chose, then another week to get them back.

When I saw the negatives, the original badly exposed shot looked a little thin, so I was expecting a bad result. Imaging my surprise when the picture you see below appeared from the scanner! It’s the best of the four sheets by far, I think. Yes, I’ve done some post-processing to make it look its best, but nothing too dramatic, and I’m extremely happy with the result. If you click the photo you can see the full-size version on Flickr, with all the lovely detail that a large format photograph provides.

There’s a lesson here about not giving up on things, even when they seem a lost cause…

Autumn in Padley Gorge

Chamonix 045n-1, Schneider-Kreuznach Super-Angulon 5.6/90 & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 30 October 2024

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Sunlit woodlands

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While walking around the Derwent reservoirs, my descent back to my car took me through some pine forest where the low winter sun was shining beneath the canopy illuminating the trunks of the trees.

I attempted two shots with the XA3, which didn’t turn out badly at all – I was expecting camera shake as, despite the sunlight, it was still quite dim beneath the canopy, and braced myself against trees to attempt to keep the camera steady. Luckily there is only perhaps minimal evidence of any shake.

The way back down
Forestry

Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 9 January 2024

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Yikes!

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I almost forgot to write and post my blog this evening!

I faffed around doing stuff on the computer for a bit after work, then took a shower and headed downstairs to veg out for the evening (“veg out” actually means “be remorselessly harassed by my two self-centred cats for a couple of hours“…). I was about to take my cup of tea into the living room when I remembered.

I’m approaching my two-thousand-consecutive-daily-post milestone this year, so I’d like to try and make it there if I can. Not that it really means anything. But, yet, somehow it does…

Conifers

Yashicamat 124G & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 9 January 2024

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Sherwood Forest Scenes

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I’ve never visited Sherwood Forest before, despite it being only half-an-hour’s drive from where I live. I’ve visited Clumber Park and it’s surrounding woodland on many occasions though, and I guess that’s all part of the original much larger area of forest.

The trip I took last month was mostly intended to photograph the Major Oak but, if I’m honest, it’s not all that photogenic and, due to the fences that surround it, the compositions are a bit limited. I’m sure that, under good conditions, there are many good photographs to be had, but I feel that the other trees (including many other ancient oaks) withing the forest are perhaps better subjects.

Today I’ve posted a few other pictures from the trip. I think I might try to return in a few weeks when tthe autumn colour is in full effect.

A forest
Somewhere in Sherwood
A stand of birches
Still standing
Slant
Ferns

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE, & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed, home scanned, and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken 23 September 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Large format difficulties

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I had a day off work yesterday and decided that I would take my Chamonix 045N-1 for a second outing. After my initial test a couple of weeks or so back, I felt confident enough to take a slightly longer trip out into the Peak District. By some miracle, the weather was actually good too – warm, with plenty of sunshine and cloud. There was a risk of rain predicted but not until later in the day.

My initial plan had been to visit a few locations but, in the end, I only went to a single spot as I soon discovered that, despite everything else, there was still sand in the gears (not literally!).

I drove out to Surprise View car park in order to photograph Mother Cap, a large gritstone outcrop, and then to photograph the birch woodland in the same area. Although Mother Cap isnt too far from the car park, it is quite a bit higher and the footpath requires some scrambling over rocks – nothing too challenging, but still enough to work up a sweat when you’re carrying a big tripod and a heavy backpack.

The first two shots went well, I thought, although I found focusing a little difficult because I had fitted a yellow filter to the lens (note to self, focus before fitting the filter enxt time). As it turned out, I managed to get some camera shake on the first shot, probably because the tripod was stood on springy heather covered ground and wasn’t stable enough.

The next shot was taken on firmer ground but the issues with the filter meant that there are a few minor focusing problems where I hadn’t set the camera movements as well as I might. It was at this point that my cable release also broke, the threading on the end somehow coming undone slightly, so the next shot had to be taken using the shutter release on the lens without the benefit of the cable. It was at 1/60sec though, so it came out ok. I’ll post these two pictures tomorrow.

The final shot I took was of the birch woodland. This time the camera was placed in a stable spot, and I managed to finagle the cable release enough that it functioned properly again (although I’ll be using a different one in future AND taking a spare). Despite this, a new problem came to bear…

Because it was a warm day with hot sunshine, and because I was quite hot from hiking around with my gear, I now found that beiing under the darkcloth for more than about ten seconds resulted in my spectacles completely steaming up, rendering any attempt to focus of check the scene nigh on impossible (and made even more difficult by the yellow filter).

I did my best with it, but it wasn’t good enough, and the resultant image has a number of problems with soft focus in various parts of te scene. Thankfully it’s not terrible, but it’s not what I wanted. I do like the resulting picture though and it might be worth another visit to try and get a technically better result.

Here it is. It probably looks fine on a small screen, but it loses a lot of sharpness when viewed large.

At the edge of the birch wood

Chamonix 045N-1. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 12mins @ 20°

Taken 19 June 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Across the Moss once more

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Here’s another photo of a bridge crossing the River Moss (as I mentioned the other day). I took this photo just after my wallaby / kangaroo encounter (see here if you want to find out about that) and regaled a couple of other people with the tale of my unexpected encounter.

I had pretty high hopes for this photograph. I’d switched from black and white film to some Kodak Gold by this time and, while the light was dim due to the fog and the tree cover, the camera was tripod mounted and the composition was nice.

Sadly this roll of film is one that Negative Lab Pro (or perhaps me, as the user) struggled with – usually Negative Lab Pro works a treat, and I’ve had no issue with it converting Gold in the past. It could be the fact that I’m scanning on a V700 rather than a V550, but I’m not really sure. A couple of the colour images look ok, but many of them had a nasty green and purple cast to them that I was unable to remove. In the end I decided to cut my losses and convert them to black and white using Lightroom. Happily all the shots I converted suit the monochrome treatment pretty well.

I still have the un-converted RAW DNG scans so I may yet re-visit them to see if I have more luck with a further attempt but, for now at least, some of this roll will be sans colour.

Crossing the Moss

Fujica GW690 & Kodak Gold (converted to B&W in Lightroom).

Taken on 21 January 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Is this what an insect sees when walking through the grass?

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Trees. Big, solid, tall, impressive things, aren’t they. But what if you were a giant? What if you stood several hundered feet tall? Would a forest become a lawn? Would the people walking beneath their canopies become like bugs?

This is what popped into my head when I was composing this shot.

Wooded hillside

Fujica GW690 & Ilford HP5+ (@1600asa) . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 13mins @ 20°

Taken on 21 January 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Mystery log frame

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On my wander through the woods at Clumber Park the other week I came across this log frame besde the path. I’m not quite sure what it is, but suspect it’s likely some form of nature conservation set up. The inside of the frame was filled with logs, many of which were showing signs of decay and growths of fungus and the like, so I think it could be to provide a habitat for small mammals and invertebrates. I could be wildly off the mark with this though – my knowledge of conservation and woodland management is not at an expert level I’m afraid.

It’s another frame from the roll of Ortho Plus I spoke about a couple of days ago, but in this case the sun was managing to peek through the cloud cover and provide a bit more light and, as a result, it’s not got the dour, dark look of some of the other pictures.

Cage

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford Ortho Plus 80 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10.5 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 6 November 2021