Truly unexceptional

Every summer the antidote to most car shows takes place. Most classic car owners want their vehicle to stand out because it’s exceptional in some way - the best preserved or most beautiful. At the Festival of the Unexceptional the opposite is true - to be eligible your car must be the sort of model which was once familiar but is now rare because no one’s really cared about saving them.

We’ve been threatening to attend for years, but things have never quite worked out until this summer. The centre attraction is the Concours d’Ordinaire - the creme de la creme of ordinaryness. The competition was won this year by a Vauxhall Astra 1.3 which was so ordinary we walked straight past it! There were lots of other fascinating cars to see in the Concours, mostly beautifully restored examples of the sort of cars we grew up with. There was even an Alfa Romeo Giulietta, very similar to the one my Dad had when I was at school!

For those who’d come in cars which either weren’t eligible for the Concourse (we couldn’t have entered Morris as he’s now too old) but were still pretty unexceptional, there was a huge parking area where your pride and joy could be admired. This is where I took most of my photos.

Another car from my childhood driving into the display area - an Austin 1800.

Details from a Citroen DS - definitely too exceptional!

I went minimalist for my photography, taking two small film cameras - a Rollei 35S and a cheap and cheerful RETO plastic camera. This slowed me down and I rather enjoyed the experience of shooting retro cars with retro cameras.

A brace of Bond Bugs!

An Alfa Romeo Sud - a great little car, but most of them have long since rusted into oblivion.

Photos taken 30 July 2022

Museum life

I never tire of photographing the British Museum, especially the Great Court. Today I went for a different approach, using my pinhole camera. The security guard at the entrance was intrigued by my little wooden box, but he eventually decided accept my explanation as to what it was!

I decided not to risk a full size tripod, but instead too my little table top one. This limited my options a little, but also meant I could try some unusual angles!

Click on any of the photos to see them enlarged.

The joy of long exposure photography - you’d never know a hoard of children walked up the stairs in front of these mosaics while my shutter was open!

I took another approach for this photo, propping my camera on a small beanbag beside these carved heads.

The classic view of the Great Court. All I had for support was a handrail so I clamped my camera to it with the beanbag for cushioning and, to my amazement, it worked!

On the steps outside the Museum.

With a few frames of film left I went off exploring to find more scenes to photograph and ended up at Daunt Books in Marylebone High Street for this view from their beautiful gallery.

Finally, some fun on the Elizabeth Line on my way back to the station!

Photos taken 1 December 2022

Time and motion on the Elizabeth Line

I’ve wanted to take some photos of the new Elizabeth Line stations since they opened and an opportunity presented itself recently. I’d spent some time in London doing some pinhole photography (I’ll share those photos in due course) and on my way back to Liverpool Street Station I had some time to spare for a spot of digital photography.

We were heading into the rush hour, although the station wasn’t too busy yet, so I decided to use the commuters to create some movement in my photos. Thanks to the miracle of an image stabilised camera I was able to hand hold it for just long enough to capture a sense of motion through their blurred movements.

I like the results, but I’m sure there’s scope to do something even better - I just need some more time to hang around and play without the pressure of rushing off to catch a train myself!

Photos taken 1 December 2022

Meandering around the Fitzwilliam

I felt the need to escape the house for my day off as I’ve been working at home all week. The freezing weather wasn’t conducive to outdoor activities, so I headed for the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge for a wander with my camera.

I chose it use a single lens, picking out smaller sections of the building - a strategy which also proved useful for avoiding the crowds of school children!

This corner of one of the staircases took my fancy with its elegant lines and beautiful, soft light.

Photos taken 9 December 2022.

Slow motion automotive

This summer was a particularly good one for car shows and we got to lots of events with one of our classic Minis. In early September we went to the car show in the Hertfordshire village of Redbourn and I decided on a slow motion approach to the day, with a pair of pinhole cameras.

Knowing I wouldn’t be distracted by any faster photography I took along my large format camera, with four sheets of film loaded into dark slides. For these I had to choose my subjects carefully, with only four photos at my disposal!

I love the way the crowds turn into a blur of human motion during the long exposures - that puts all the focus on the cars.

Click on any image to see it enlarged.

We had a mid-afternoon downpour so Kevin and I retreated to the car until the rain had passed. Then he wiped the car down to remove all the raindrops - the perfect excuse for an action pinhole photo!

The view from inside a rather wet Morris!

My last two large format photos of the day.

Photos taken 3 September 2022

Inside Sally B

While it’s so cold outside I thought I’d look back to a hot summer’s day when we visited Duxford. Kevin’s been a member of the Sally B Supporters’ Club for over thirty years now and one of the perks of this is being able to take a tour inside Sally B, the last airworthy B17 in Europe.

The last time we did this was one winter when she was still inside the hangar, so it was lovely to see her in the sunshine this time.

I’d taken my little Fuji camera with me (handy to have a small camera in the tight confines of an aircraft) and focused on capturing some of the details I saw around us.

Photos taken 7 August 2022

A pinhole adventure

At the camera club this week we had a workshop evening and one of the activities on offer was the opportunity to try out some pinhole photography. I took one of my cameras along, loaded with Ilford Delta 3200 film and gave other club members a chance to try their hand at taking photos with it.

We tried out a variety of scenes, including still life and some very slow portraits, and I along the way I took three shots myself. For the chess board my camera was about 5 centimetres from the closes chess piece, showing just how close you have to get with an equivalent of a 14mm focal length!

One of the other activities on offer was large format photography so I couldn’t resist take a photo of my friend Paul as he set up for a still life shot. His camera and the toolbox are sharp, while he appears blurred as he moved around setting up the camera. I couldn’t resist taking a portrait of him too, although 30 seconds was a bit too long to maintain a rock steady pose!

Photos taken 6 December 2022

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