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A recent concert took me to Lancing College and a bonus photo opportunity. I arrived early for our rehearsal so I stole a few minutes inside the college chapel, where the low sun was casting some beautiful pools of light.
Click on any of the images to see them enlarged.
I can never resist this sort of light in churches - selectively illuminating the architecture.
Photos taken 3 November 2022
I was back in Thaxted Church last weekend, but this time music was in my viewfinder rather than the architecture. Haverhill Silver Band give a concert in this beautiful building each year and I was asked to take some photos of them in action.
While Thaxted Parish Church can be a light and airy building on a sunny day, at night it’s a different story. The band had brought some extra lighting with them but the gloom brought some photographic challenges. Fortunately I’d packed my fast prime lenses and these helped me use what light there was as efficiently as possible.
Two of the evening’s soloists - click on any of the images to see them enlarged.
The photos I provided for the band were in colour, but the drama of the lighting gave things a film noir feel, with deep contrasts of light and shadow, so I couldn’t resist trying my favourites in black and white too.
Photos taken 12 November 2022
When I visited York in May I had plans to spend the day inside the Minster, exploring with my camera. Sadly that wasn’t to be as it was closed to visitors on the one day I had in the city. Instead I strolled the streets with my eyes open to whatever came my way.
I may not have been able to go inside the Minster but that didn’t stop me photographing the exterior!
Buskers near the Shambles - this young boy was having great fun dancing to the music!
Speeding tourists along The Shambles
Down by the River Ouse
My bed for the night was at the Bar Convent, just outside the city walls. An unlikely place to stay, but the accommodation and breakfast were both excellent. Even better, I stole a few minutes to look around the Convent’s chapel after I’d finished exploring the rest of York.
The chapel is hidden in the centre of the convent, with its dome not visible from the road. It’s a perfectly formed Georgian chapel and in the few minutes I was there I found no end of interesting photographic inspiration.
Photos taken 20 May 2022
I don’t often choose colour film for my pinhole photography but for my visit to the church in Coggeshall in April it seemed a good fit. On a previous visit I discovered some lovely carving on the choir stalls which I knew would work well in colour and I had some Lomography 400 colour film I was keen to try out too.
I was en-route to an event in Ipswich so this was a good point to stop off and I had a most enjoyable hour exploring the church, looking for compositions which would suit the pinhole approach.
Photos taken 22 April 2022
On the same roll of film as the Duxford images I shared yesterday, I found a collection of cars from the Enfield Pageant of Motoring. Shooting classic cars on a 1970s film camera seems rather appropriate - retro photography and motoring!
Photos taken August 2022
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
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
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
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
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.
Click on any of the photos to seem them enlarged.
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
