Welsh meanderings

After my music course in Wales last month finished I took a very enjoyable meander down the hill to the Cynghordy Viaduct and beyond - some much needed fresh air and exercise after several days of intense music making.

One of our course students was on this train as it chugged across the Cynghordy Viaduct!

I had no preconceived ideas as to what I might photograph along the way and came back with a pretty varied selection.

Just beyond the viaduct is a goat farm and some of the local residents came out to greet me!

A closer view of the viaduct

The view across the valley never fails to surprise and delight me - this is a photo I snatched from my bedroom window on the first morning I was there - a wonderfully misty autumn morning and even a train on the viaduct.

And finally, a couple of my canine friends from my final morning in Wales. On the left we have Barney, who belongs to one of our students, and Jasper, the resident cockerpoo, on the right.

Photos taken October 2022

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day

Every April one Sunday is adopted by the pinhole photography community as their day - an opportunity to slow down and see the world in a different way. This year the day coincided with the Society of Recorder Players’ National Festival, so naturally I decided to combine the two!

During our final massed playing session (some 150 musicians) I explained that I’d be going around taking photos with what looked like a wooden box and gave an idea of what the photos might look like, although I’m sure many of the players still thought I was crackers!

My friend Moira has turned into a whirl of energy as she conducts the orchestra!

Some closer shots of the players below, including a self portrait in the second one! Click on any of the images to see them larger.

John kindly allowed me to get very close as he played his contrabass. Because the instrument roots him to the same spot more than the smaller recorders he’s still recognisable in the resulting photo!

After the festival had finished I still had some film left over so I took a detour to Flatford on my way home - home of John Constable and a familiar sight through his painting ‘The Haywain’.

And finally, a quick stop at East Bergholt Church to complete the roll of film before I headed home to develop it!

Photos taken 24 April 2022

Many years later....

We often visited north Norfolk when I was a child to visit my grandmother in Ingoldisthorpe. There are many places I remember from those trips, but on this holiday we found a building I had no recollection of whatsoever. We stayed in Snettisham, just a mile or two from granny’s house and on our drive home from Felbrigg Hall we noticed the church - an imposing structure on the outskirts of the village.

I don’t recall ever seeing the church all those years ago, but it was fantastic find, albeit somewhat belatedly! The light was fading but that just added even more character and mood to the resulting photos.

Photos from October 2022

Small scenes

We enjoyed a short break in north Norfolk recently and while we were there ticked off a National Trust property that’s been on my ‘must visit’ list for a long while - Felbrigg Hall. I tend to visit stately homes without a pre-planned agenda, photographically speaking. Sometimes I’ll be taken by wide, sweeping shots of the architecture, while on other occasions it’ll be the smaller details which draw me in. On this occasion most of my photos fall into the latter category.

More often than not it’s the light that draws me in, as it falls on something photogenic or creates a lovely contrast of light and shadow. Felbrigg was full of such corners and Kevin ended up having to wait for me to catch up as I kept getting waylaid by interesting photo opportunities.

Click on any of the photos to see them larger.

I’m always drawn to libraries, and this one even had a private room with a chamber pot!

Photos taken October 2022

Accompanied by bells…

Today’s post is a collection of photos I took more recently. The day after the Queen died I travelled down to Sussex for work and stopped on the way at the Tuxlith Chapel at Milland. This tiny chapel was outgrown by its congregation and a new, larger church was built right next door during the 19th century. When I arrived, the bells were tolling for the Queen in this Victorian building, offering a very atmospheric mood in which to photograph the chapel next door.

A window on the world…

Photos taken on 9th September 2022

Decay in colour

I thought I’d follow yesterday’s post with the digital photos I took during my visit to the boat graveyard at Pin Mill. A very different look - so colourful and crisp but you can’t deny there’s still a beauty in decay!

Click on any image to see it larger.

Photos taken on 24 March 2022

Where boats go to die....

Pin Mill is a popular location for East Anglian photographers. It’s home to a boat graveyard - a spot along the edge of the River Orwell where lots of wooden vessels have been left to quietly rot away. Decay is almost always photogenic and this spot had long been on my must visit list.

Through the wonders of social media I’ve got to know lots of other pinhole photographers so on this occasion I met up with Andrew Keedle, who lives not far from Pin Mill in Suffolk. We spent a most enjoyable morning exploring the wrecks together, figuring out what would suit this slow medium best.

With an ultra wide focal length, it pays to get really close to your subject with pinhole cameras and I played with just how close I could get to some of the boats without sinking into the mud!

After a spot of lunch Andrew took me to one of his favourite locations, the Orwell Country Park which runs alongside the river. Here I crept beneath the canopy to capture a vertiginous view of the trees above, as well as photographing an amazing ancient oak tree.

Photos taken on 24 March 2022.

A different view

In my last post I shared some digital images from my birthday wander along the beach at West Wittering. While I was there I also spent some time taking pinhole photos to bring out some of the movement in the waves. Pinhole photography is so good at this - you can capture whole chunks of time in a longer exposure.

The following morning I drove down to Aldwick, arriving just in time for low tide. I wanted to photography the chunk of the D-Day Mulberry Harbour which lies on the beach but the only time you can get close is when the sea is out. This enormous chunk of concrete escaped en-route to Normandy back in 1944 and has sat here ever since.

On this particular occasion the tide wasn’t especially low and the blustery wind was whipping up the waves. Sometimes you can walk right around it, but this time I had to keep a sensible distance so as not to get swamped!

With a couple of frames left on my film I used them to catch a couple of other watery scenes before retreating to my car to avoid getting soaked by the incoming rainstorm!

Photos taken 9 & 10 March 2022

Birthday meanderings

Back in March I happened to be travelling to Sussex on my birthday, ready for a music course the next day. I never pass up the opportunity to visit the seaside so I decided to take a birthday stroll along the beach at West Wittering.

While I was there I spent some time taking pinhole photos, which I’ll share in a separate post, but I fancied some instant gratification too, for which my little Fuji X100 was perfect!

Photos taken on 9 March 2022

Going solo

After my darkroom workshop with Andrew Bartram back in April I was keen to put my new founding film developing skills into practice. About ten days later I took myself off to Audley with my pinhole camera to take some photos, with the intention of developing them when I got home.

I found plenty of photographic inspiration and had no difficulty in completing the 12 shots on my roll of film. Once I was home I light proofed our our downstairs toilet with the blackout cloth I’d bought for the job. As a room with no windows it’s only a case of sealing the tiny slivers if light which sneak in around the door - the perfect darkroom! Loading the film took a couple of attempts but once it was done I spent half hour at the kitchen sink developing, fixing and rinsing my negatives.

When the film emerged from my developing tank I was very relieved to find I had photos, but disappointed to discover I’d made a bit of a horlicks of loading the film on the spiral. It had stuck together in a couple of places, so a handful of the shots were lost. Just as well I’d gone somewhere I can easily return to in order to recreate the same photos another time!

Overall I’m pleased with the results though and since then I’ve been careful to make sure I don’t make the same mistake. Even better, each roll of film costs me about a fifth of what I was paying to have them developed commercially so that leaves me more cash to buy film!

Photos taken on 14 April 2022