Duxford on film

Back in August I spent some time using my diminutive Rollei 35S film camera, getting to know it better. It’s a tiny camera, with an amazingly sharp 40mm lens so it’s great to keep in your pocket for impromptu photo outings.

Work in progress in the restoration hangar

Light levels tend to be quite low in the old hangars at Duxford, but the Rollei coped with this easily and I enjoyed finding compositions which suited its lens.

Click on any of the images to see them enlarged.

Photos taken August 2022

Cats and cathedrals

It’s not that unusual for a Cathedral to have a resident cat - I’ve met several over the years. However, Southwark Cathedral’s cat, Hodge, has his own Twitter account and has quite the cult following. Each August the Cathedral hosts a feline themed day of talks and this year I was able to go along.

The day started with a stroll down from Liverpool Street Station, taking in some of the city architecture in the early morning sun.

I arrived at Southwark Cathedral early so I went inside to look for Hodge. Fortunately, he was in a chilled out mood, lounging near the door to the vestry, one of his favourite snoozing spots.

A couple more snaps from around the Cathedral as I headed to Borough Market to grab some lunch.

Photos taken 6 August 2022

Colour and chrome

When we lived in Sussex we regularly attended the themed Breakfast Clubs at the Goodwood Motor Circuit. These days it’s rare to have the opportunity so when Kevin found himself playing with the Chichester City Band at the July event I went along with my camera too.

There was no shortage of beautiful cars to photograph, dripping with chrome decorations.

I think Mr Bean must have been there somewhere as I found his teddy on this car!

Photos taken 24 July 2022

Return to Romsey

The first time I visited Romsey Abbey was to perform in a concert. It was so cold that March evening that all I remember is feeling utterly chilled to the bone and the beauty of the architecture certainly didn’t register with me! It was time I made a return visit so in May I made a small detour on my way to Somerset to see what I’d missed the first time.

Photos taken 17 May 2022

London in slow motion

Back in April I spent a day in London with two of my pinhole cameras, foraging for interesting imagery which would work in this slow genre of photography.

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One of my early stops was St Mary at Hill Church, in the City, whose dramatic lines suited the wide angle view of my 6x6 camera.

From there I strolled down to the River to capture some of the movement in the water with both my 6x6 and large format pinhole cameras.

One of the joys of pinhole photography is the way it captures periods of time, rather than just fractions of a second. This shows best in photos which have some movement, especially water. This was the only excuse I needed to hop on one of the clipper boats on the River and take a ride down to Greenwich.

I got off the clipper at Greenwich and took a stroll around the Old Royal Naval College. The architecture has so many possibilities, and I only just scratched the surface - I’ll definitely need to come back another day.

Another large format image - the wide angle field of view makes the building seem to stretch for miles!

On the boat back to central London I had another try at some action pinhole photography with my large format camera, as we passed Canary Wharf. I’d like to claim I timed this perfectly to catch the buildings beneath the canopy of the boat, but it was complete luck!

Exploring Tower Bridge

Further along the south bank of the River Thames, the area around City Hall offered all sorts of interesting lines which suit the wide view of a pinhole camera.

Eventually my feet began to ache so I took the bus back to Liverpool Street - taking a photo en-route, naturally!

Finally, a selection of images from around the area behind Liverpool Street Station.

Photos taken 28 April 2022

City colours

I never pass up the opportunity for some photography around the City of London so today I travelled into town an hour early for my meeting so I could take a leisurely stroll down to the River Thames.

Looking out for subjects that interested me, my first stop was the Bloomberg Building, which has some interesting lines and details, along with some rich golden colours.

Further south, I stopped at St Paul’s Cathedral, where I explored the way it interacts with the modern glass architecture of the nearby One New Change shopping centre.

Photos taken 2 November 2022

Just chilling...

We’ve often looked after our neighbours cats, Cwtch and Sookie, while their humans have been on holiday and it’s always a pleasure. Cwtch is always confident and friendly towards us, but Sookie is a much more reserved character, often apparently afraid of her own shadow!

A big stretch from Cwtch

This summer they’ve both spent more time in their front garden, mostly keeping clear of their canine siblings, so I’ve taken this opportunity to gain Sookie’s trust a little more. Often you’ll find me on my hands and knees, giving her a cheek rub as if I stand up she’ll run a mile! One week over the summer though we spent several days feeding the two of them as this proved a real turning point. Realising I was a purveyor of both cheek rubs and food, Sookie became a total convert and she even relaxed enough for me to take some photos one morning.

I’ve never seen Sookie this relaxed before!

Photos taken August 2022

The long shadows of March

One of my favourite local churches is St John’s in Duxford. It’s no longer used for worship but is instead cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust. A couple of times a year I visit and even though the architecture doesn’t change the light is different every time.

On this occasion I visited in mid-March, when the days hadn’t yet started to lengthen but the shadows were definitely still long and dramatic. There’s something about the light in St John’s which is irresistible, whatever the season, but on this occasion it just called out for a spot of black and white.

Photos taken 17 March 2022

Heading west

A few days after my visit to Ely Cathedral I headed west to Gloucester. It’s been several years since I visited this Cathedral, during which my photographic skills have improved so it was interesting to look at it with fresh eyes and find new opportunities for photos.

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The Cathedral’s 14th century lavatorium - where the monks would once have washed.

Photos taken 8 April 2022

An ecclesiastical week

The first week of April turned out to be a week of cathedrals, with two of them bookending the week.

I started off at Ely with two friends, helping them with their architecture photography and sharing the way I look at buildings when I photograph them. We spent the day exploring the building in detail and although the main focus of my attention was on teaching I did take a few photos myself.

Photos taken 4 April 2022