A month ago today...

If I’m out about about exploring I’ll often see if there’s a redundant church nearby. After my visit to Bury St Edmunds, a month ago, I discovered St Mary’s in the Suffolk village of Icklingham. By now the sun was beginning to drop in the sky and that gave me some beautiful light inside.

I loaded a roll of film into my pinhole camera and set myself the task of finding sufficient subjects to photograph so I could develop it when I got home. I often find 35mm film rather overwhelming as it’s rare for me to find 36 subjects to photograph in one place. The 12 frames on a roll of 120 film is perfect though - just right for an afternoon’s project.

Church music…

Glorious winter sun catching the screen in front of the sanctuary.

By the altar - yet more irresistible light

I presume this cart was used for bearing coffins.

Getting really to the pulpit to capture some of the beautifully ornate carving.

One final image, including the texture of the north door…

Photos taken 25 November 2022

Away from the chaos of the Christmas Market

When I visited the Christmas Market in Bury St Edmunds last month I was rather surprised to find most of the stalls inside the Cathedral. The resulting scrum of people didn’t inspire me to loiter for long, so instead I walked down the Street to St Mary’s - the other church which was considered when the town’s Cathedral was being chosen.

I’ve always found more photographic inspiration inside St Mary’s than in the cathedral - it has so many fascinating details. Although it’s quite a dark building, with lots of deep hued woodwork, the sun was shining today and that helped me as I sought out pinhole images which wouldn’t require massively long exposure times.

One of the fiercer characters I found in the choir.

I found this chap loyally guarding his master’s feet on a tomb.

Photos taken 25 November 2022

Exploring without wheels

Last month I took my car into Saffron Walden for its annual service and knowing I’d have an hour or two to kill, I wandered down into the town for a mooch with my pinhole camera.

I had no fixed ideas about what I might photograph, although I had a feeling I might find myself drawn to the church at some point as I’ve always had good results in St. Mary’s. My first discovery was this rather impressive cast iron bridge, crossing a rather unimpressive small stream!

Sure enough, eventually I ended up in St Mary’s, where I happily pottered around for half an hour.

Photos taken 25 November 2022

North east tour

A work engagement in Middlesbrough in October gave me the chance to take my pinhole camera on a little photographic tour, taking photos on my travels. I began with a few photos from York Station as I waited an hour between trains. I was travelling light, with just my little table top tripod so I had to get creative, using my suitcase to prop it up, or going for a station mouse’s eye view!

From there I went to Scarborough where I took a stroll down the promenade and along to the lighthouse, which presented lots of lovely pinhole opportunities.

I almost got soaked for this one - just a second or two after I stepped away the waves came right over where I’d just been sitting!

Marina views and some spectacular sun flare.

Finally, on Sunday morning my friend Sandra took me to see the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough before I caught my train home. It’s not working at the moment, so I was able to position my camera right in the middle of the road to capture this vertiginous view.

Photos taken 7-9 October 2022

Exploring Kings Cross

There are occasions when my work presents me with opportunities to fit in some photography along the way. On Saturday I’d allowed extra time to get into London in case of problems resulting from the train strike that day so I took a pinhole camera along in the hope that I may get a little extra time if all went well. My final destination was a church not far from Kings Cross Station, so I took the opportunity tovisit both Kings Cross and St Pancras Stations, as well as some other local sights.

At St Pancras I realised I’d forgotten the tool for removing my tripod plate so I couldn’t use my table top tripod (which doesn’t need a plate). Normally it works loose spontaneously, but of course today it was stuck fast, refusing to move so much as a millimetre! Fortunately I’d brought a back up solution so I spent the rest of the morning using my small beanbag to wedge my camera in interesting spots!

The image above is a close up of the huge statue which stands on the concourse at St Pancras. A passing security guard thought perhaps my little wooden box was a radio and was rather surprised to learn it was actually a camera!

Moving next door to Kings Cross Station, I found a large cinema screen in exactly the spot I’d hope to place my camera, so I improvised, and went behind the stations lattice structure. I can’t help feeling the photo has probably turned out better as a result!

The view from the upstairs gallery, with my camera held firmly against the handrail with my trusty beanbag.

A ten minute walk took me to the Coal Drops Yard area just north of Kings Cross, beside the Regents Canal. The cold weather we’ve had for the last ten days had frozen much of the canal and I managed to find a bridge on which to rest my camera.

The old gas holders here have been turned into a framework for luxury apartments and I couldn’t resist resting my camera at the base of one of the pillars to capture the framework above me.

Down by the canal again, looking for details I could get really close to. One of the canal trust volunteers watched me with much curiosity as I crouched down to take this one and we had a chat about it afterwards!

One of the gas holders has been left as a framework surrounding a public garden area, It’s circled with long mirrored posts so I tried a hand held self portrait of my reflection - my camera even made it into the photo!

A final look back at the gas holders before I headed off to do my afternoon’s work.

Photos taken 17 December 2022

A quiet moment at St John's

Periodically I return to St John’s Church in Duxford as it’s a building which always has something to offer for my camera. On this occasion I had a couple of frames of film left in my pinhole camera so it seemed like a good place to use them up.

The light is always changing in St John’s - no two days look quite the same.

Photos taken September 2022

Life on the rails

I often take a camera with me when I’m travelling for work, but one day back in September I picked a pinhole camera to document my travels. I was heading down to the south coast for a rehearsal, with a longish wait at Havant station for my final train of the morning, so I perched my camera on a bench and captured my foot as a train whizzed through on the opposite platform.

The train departing from platform 2….

Doing some work on the train home…

Photos taken 26 September 2022

Museum life

I never tire of photographing the British Museum, especially the Great Court. Today I went for a different approach, using my pinhole camera. The security guard at the entrance was intrigued by my little wooden box, but he eventually decided accept my explanation as to what it was!

I decided not to risk a full size tripod, but instead too my little table top one. This limited my options a little, but also meant I could try some unusual angles!

Click on any of the photos to see them enlarged.

The joy of long exposure photography - you’d never know a hoard of children walked up the stairs in front of these mosaics while my shutter was open!

I took another approach for this photo, propping my camera on a small beanbag beside these carved heads.

The classic view of the Great Court. All I had for support was a handrail so I clamped my camera to it with the beanbag for cushioning and, to my amazement, it worked!

On the steps outside the Museum.

With a few frames of film left I went off exploring to find more scenes to photograph and ended up at Daunt Books in Marylebone High Street for this view from their beautiful gallery.

Finally, some fun on the Elizabeth Line on my way back to the station!

Photos taken 1 December 2022

Slow motion automotive

This summer was a particularly good one for car shows and we got to lots of events with one of our classic Minis. In early September we went to the car show in the Hertfordshire village of Redbourn and I decided on a slow motion approach to the day, with a pair of pinhole cameras.

Knowing I wouldn’t be distracted by any faster photography I took along my large format camera, with four sheets of film loaded into dark slides. For these I had to choose my subjects carefully, with only four photos at my disposal!

I love the way the crowds turn into a blur of human motion during the long exposures - that puts all the focus on the cars.

Click on any image to see it enlarged.

We had a mid-afternoon downpour so Kevin and I retreated to the car until the rain had passed. Then he wiped the car down to remove all the raindrops - the perfect excuse for an action pinhole photo!

The view from inside a rather wet Morris!

My last two large format photos of the day.

Photos taken 3 September 2022

A pinhole adventure

At the camera club this week we had a workshop evening and one of the activities on offer was the opportunity to try out some pinhole photography. I took one of my cameras along, loaded with Ilford Delta 3200 film and gave other club members a chance to try their hand at taking photos with it.

We tried out a variety of scenes, including still life and some very slow portraits, and I along the way I took three shots myself. For the chess board my camera was about 5 centimetres from the closes chess piece, showing just how close you have to get with an equivalent of a 14mm focal length!

One of the other activities on offer was large format photography so I couldn’t resist take a photo of my friend Paul as he set up for a still life shot. His camera and the toolbox are sharp, while he appears blurred as he moved around setting up the camera. I couldn’t resist taking a portrait of him too, although 30 seconds was a bit too long to maintain a rock steady pose!

Photos taken 6 December 2022