The steamy days of summer

This summer was a particularly hot one, so when I had a free day in September I took a leisurely trip to Audley End with my pinhole camera and a small tabletop tripod to search for photos.

Getting really close to the succulents in the glasshouse

Inside the garden bothy, with just a hint of flare from the window.

Looking up into the branches of a huge plane tree.

In the laundry I used my little tripod to get really close to things.

And finally, relaxing with an ice cream in the sunshine!

Photos taken September 2022

Unlikely subjects

There are certain subjects you expect to make good pinhole photos, but aviation photography is not an obvious choice. When we visited Duxford over the summer, rather than taking a digital camera with a long lens, I plumped for my large format pinhole camera. I knew this would severely restrict my options but that wasn’t going to stop me!

Sally B was out on the concrete apron, surrounded by people so I set my tripod up over the fence and took a slowish exposure. This meant the people blurred as they milled around, creating a ghostly effect.

Elsewhere on the airfield the two seater Spitfire was being readied for flight so, once again, I took the opportunity to capture a sense of movement in the human element in the frame as the passenger slipped into the cockpit.

Another Spitfire, albeit one made of fibreglass, which is why I was able to get quite so close!

Photos taken 21 August 2022

The Recorder Summer School, with a difference

I always spend a lot of time taking photos at the Recorder Summer School, but mostly they’re images of the musical activities during the course. This year I decided to give myself a personal photographic project - to take at least one pinhole photo somewhere around Bishop Burton College.

I loaded up two of my pinhole cameras - one with black and white film and the second with colour so I had maximum flexibility, depending on what I found around the grounds.

The first morning it was surprisingly misty - not what you expect in August - but that made for some suitably atmospheric photos.

Driftwood sculptures in the College grounds

Colour seemed a good choice for the glasshouses.

I photographed some of the musical activities too, including a concert by the recorder quartet Palisander.

One of my wackier ideas - a stick man strolling past the wheelie bins!

Scrap metal sculpture in the walled gardens. This chap’s drums are made out of cut down beer barrels and the drum from a washing machine!

A seventeen minute exposure while I conducted the massed ranks of players one evening.

A close up of nature in the glasshouse

Photos taken August 2022

The Queen's church

During our brief holiday in Norfolk in October we enjoyed a day at the Sandringham Estate. Photography wasn’t permitted inside the house but there was an opportunity to use my camera inside the church. This is the church the Queen would attend on Christmas Day every year and you could certainly sense its royal connections from its sheer luxury.

Photos taken October 2022

Essex churches

A day off at the beginning of August gave me an opportunity to go exploring with my pinhole camera again so I went in search of some churches to photograph. I set myself a challenge by only taking my little tabletop tripod so that meant I had to find photos which would suit this low perspective.

I started off at the church in Takeley - sadly closed but there was plenty of opportunities in the churchyard. Creative limitations always make me work harder and this low perspective certainly helped me consider possibilities I might otherwise have overlooked.

A mouse’s eye view of the north door

Getting down among a carpet of ivy in the churchyard

From Takeley I took to the road again and ended up in the village of Aythorp Roding. Here the church was open, but with slow film in my camera I was looking at exposure times of an hour or more so I gave up on that idea and finished off my film around the churchyard.

Churchyard sunflare and a rusty old bootscraper. Click on any of the photos to see them enlarged.

Photos taken 4 August 2022

Exploring Essex

We may have lived in Essex for nearly a decade now but there are still plenty of places left to explore. I recently had the opportunity to spend some time down by the River Blackwater in Maldon with my pinhole camera. The Thames Barges lining the riverside provided me with lots of inspiration and I enjoyed exploring the details I found in their rigging and the quayside.

A few days later I was out and about again, on the hunt for somewhere to finish off my roll of film and I discovered St Michael and All Angels Church in the village of Copford.

Inside I found some beautiful wall paintings and with a little patience I realised I could capture a handful of images with the film I had loaded in my camera. As the afternoon light began to fade I searched for the light switches and found I needed to feed some coins into the meter to get them going. Fortunately I had some change and the added light meant my photos would take just a few minutes each, rather than an hour or more!

Of course, the unknown quantity was how many minutes of illumination my pound coin would buy me and for both these interior photos I had to dash down to feed the meter again mid-exposure!

After those two photos I decided to move outdoors to explore the churchyard as the rain had stopped and the gloomy conditions allowed me to catch some very atmospheric photos.

Photos taken in November 2022.

Taking it slowly in Wells

When I visited Wells back in July I took lots of digital photos around the Cathedral, but for the Vicar’s Close I took things more slowly, shooting with a pinhole camera.

This may be Europe’s oldest residential street, but even the slow process of pinhole photography can’t magic away the modern cars!

Photos taken 1 July 2022

Wonderful Wells

One of my favourite cathedrals is Wells and I never pass up an opportunity to visit if I’m nearby. In July I had some work in Bath so I sneaked in an extra day to visit this wonderful building.

I divided my time here between digital photography and some pinhole work too, but I’ll stick to my precise digital images in this post.

Looking up at the cathedral’s organ through those magnificent scissor arches.

Photos taken 1 July 2022

Pinhole pottering

When I get an occasional day off from work there’s nothing I like better than pottering around with my pinhole camera. The act of foraging for photos and then figuring out how they’ll work with the simplest of cameras is so satisfying and just what I need to switch off from work.

At the end of October I had to go to Thaxted for my flu vaccination so I took the opportunity to go for a wander around the church with my pinhole camera and a roll of film. One of the things I love about medium format film is the limited number of frames on each roll. With just 12 photos to find it’s much easier to shoot a roll in one day, whereas the 36 exposures on a 35mm film can take me weeks to use up!

On this occasion I took some wide shots of the church, as well as looking for smaller details.

With small subjects you have to get in really close with a wide angle pinhole camera, although without a viewfinder you have to accept that sometimes you’ll misjudge just how close!

Photos taken 26 October 2022

Church crawling

While others may enjoy partaking of several pubs in an evening, from time to time I employ the same principle to explore churches. On this particular occasion I was on the hunt for a trio of redundant churches in Monmouthshire, although one of them remained rather elusive!

My first port of call was St Michael and All Angels in Gwenesney, tucked away down a single track road. Maintained by the Friends of the Friendless Churches this was a gem of a church, with some beautiful contrasts of light and shadow inside, created by sun percolating through the leaded light windows.

Click on any of the photos to see them enlarged

From Gwernesney I continued my explorations at a larger church just a few miles down the road in Llangwym Uchaf. I arrived just before a torrential downpour and as the skies darkened I wondered how I was going to take photos inside, with no artificial light to help me.

Gradually the clouds lifted and my eyes adjusted to the gloom and I found that perhaps photography was going to be possible.

My plans for a third Welsh church were scuppered by my unimaginative satnav, which insisted I should try crossing a field from a dual carriageway sliproad to reach it. I decided against the necessary off-roading so it would have to wait for another day!

Instead I continued my journey to Wiltshire and found an alternative church to visit…

My final church of the day was St Margaret of Antioch in the village of Leigh Delamere in Wiltshire. Inside I found another dark interior, but one illuminated by some vividly coloured stained glass.

Photos taken 25 June 2022