Steaming pinholes!

One day back in September I treated myself to a day out and a spot of slow photography at the Nene Valley Railway. Sadly there were no steam trains running that day, but I did get a ride on an old Intercity 125 and there were some nail-biting moments watching a newly engine and tender being unloaded from a truck so I had plenty of photographic opportunities!

A slow self portrait as the Intercity 125 took us back to where we started.

Scenes from around Wansford Station

After we arrived in Peterborough I took a stroll along the by the River Nene in search of some lunch in the city,

My other photographic companion that day was my trusty Olympus Trip 35 so I took some lensed photos too.

Photos taken 1 September 2023

In search of slow photography

Every so often I feel the need for some slow photography - my cue to get a pinhole camera out and find a suitable location for some low-tech imagery. Back in August I decided to follow my nose and ended up at Debden Church.

I had a few frames to finish off with my 6x9 camera so I used these in and around the churchyard, before heading inside to take some square format photos with my 6x6 camera.

A ghostly self portrait in the church porch.

The view of the chancel

Click on any image to see it enlarged.

A final glimpse of the porch before I set off for home.

Photos taken 4 August 2023

Bridging the Humber

I’ve stopped and taken photos of the Humber Bridge on my to Yorkshire before, but this time I went with a different intention - to capture this amazing structure and the local area with a pinhole camera. Although it was low tide, the local boatyard offered some interesting possibilities, with acres of wrinkled mud as a backdrop, while the wide focal length of my camera created a very dramatic shape when placed directly beneath the bridge’s span.

Photos taken 6 August 2023

Classic motoring

We’ve had a busy summer with numerous car shows. At some I’ve used a digital camera to take pictures, but at Welwyn I plumped for my pinhole camera. The advantage of this is I have relatively few photos to select from when the films are developed so I’m not left wading through hundreds of digital files!

Photos taken 1 July 2023

Sunday activities

Last month we spent a Sunday at home, catching up on jobs around the house. I decided I’d document them using my pinhole camera, starting off with Kevin washing my car.

From there I did a spot of gardening, a huge pile of ironing and eventually we sat down to watch the Grand Prix on TV - an active day in slow motion, pinhole style!

Photos taken 23 July 2023

A walk in the woods

One hot summer’s afternoon I decided that if I was going to have my daily walk it would need to be somewhere shady, so I headed for Alsa Woods.

Naturally I took a camera along and on this occasion I decided on some slow photography. I had no fixed ideas about what I wanted to photograph, but just kept an open mind and looked for interesting subjects and views through the woods.

There was barely a breath of wind but I wanted some movement in this photo, so I created my own by blowing across the leaves during the 45 seconds the shutter was open!

A ghostly self portrait on the footbridge crossing the M11 motorway.

I intended to take another ethereal self portrait sitting on the tyre swing, but I found a teenage boy sitting on it next to his bike. It struck me this might be even better than my planned photo and fortunately he didn’t mind me including him in the photo!

Photos taken 24 June 2023

Colour or mono?

It’s very rare I use colour film in my pinhole cameras but for my trip to Wales in June I loaded up a roll of Kodak Ektar.

Castell Coch

Getting really close to the daisies on the platform at Cynghordy Station.

Frustratingly the rest of the film didn’t quite live up to expectations. Pinhole photography often induces colour shifts because of the longer exposure times, but on this occasion the colours were completely crazy! I didn’t want to throw the photos away so instead I experimented with converting the negatives to monochome instead.

To my astonishment they work much better in mono than colour. I guess, with strong sunshine, I should have realised it was really a black and white sort of day so at least I’ve learnt a lesson!

Photos taken June 2023

Church crawling

After my pinhole photography binge in Scotland it was a couple of weeks before I got round to finishing off my final roll of film from our holiday. During my travels for work I kept an eye open for interesting locations and my last five photos were all taken around churches I discovered along the way.

My first stop was the redundant church of St Michael and All Angels near Caldicot in South Wales, now cared for by the Friends of the Friendless Churches. It’s tucked away in the corner of a working farmyard so it was no surprise to find I had the place to myself - it’s not as if you’re going to come here by accident!

Looking out from churchyard to farmyard!

A few days later I found myself near Salisbury and had a little time to while away before work. I stopped off at the church in Coombe Bissett, where I’d stayed the previous night, and caught this image as the stiff breeze wafted the tree branches above my head.

It was too dark to take any photos inside the church (each image would have taken about an hour!) so I continued on my way and stopped in Bishopston for a walk around the church there. Again, the interior was too dark for pinhole photography, but I found this intriguing mausoleum on the exterior of the church which was the perfect way to use up the final frame of my film.

Photos taken May 2023