In the bleak midwinter

December 27, 2022

We had dinner in Walberswick on Wednesday evening but missed out on seeing much beyond the pub as it was so dark. To learn what we’d missed out on we stopped there again on the way home the next day.

The fog of the previous evening hadn’t completely lifted, leaving a soft covering of moisture in the air. Combined with the heavy skies, the result was a very bleak view of the harbour - almost monochrome even when photographed in colour! I decided to go black and white for my photos to emphasise their dank quality.

Photos taken 22 December 2022

Sunset at Southwold

December 26, 2022

We enjoyed a short pre-Christmas break in Suffolk last week and the lure of the beautiful sunset colours over Southwold were too good to resist.

Playing with slower shutter speeds and the waves breaking on the shore.

Photos taken 21 December 2022

A month ago today...

December 25, 2022

If I’m out about about exploring I’ll often see if there’s a redundant church nearby. After my visit to Bury St Edmunds, a month ago, I discovered St Mary’s in the Suffolk village of Icklingham. By now the sun was beginning to drop in the sky and that gave me some beautiful light inside.

I loaded a roll of film into my pinhole camera and set myself the task of finding sufficient subjects to photograph so I could develop it when I got home. I often find 35mm film rather overwhelming as it’s rare for me to find 36 subjects to photograph in one place. The 12 frames on a roll of 120 film is perfect though - just right for an afternoon’s project.

Church music…

Glorious winter sun catching the screen in front of the sanctuary.

By the altar - yet more irresistible light

I presume this cart was used for bearing coffins.

Getting really to the pulpit to capture some of the beautifully ornate carving.

One final image, including the texture of the north door…

Photos taken 25 November 2022

Away from the chaos of the Christmas Market

December 24, 2022

When I visited the Christmas Market in Bury St Edmunds last month I was rather surprised to find most of the stalls inside the Cathedral. The resulting scrum of people didn’t inspire me to loiter for long, so instead I walked down the Street to St Mary’s - the other church which was considered when the town’s Cathedral was being chosen.

I’ve always found more photographic inspiration inside St Mary’s than in the cathedral - it has so many fascinating details. Although it’s quite a dark building, with lots of deep hued woodwork, the sun was shining today and that helped me as I sought out pinhole images which wouldn’t require massively long exposure times.

One of the fiercer characters I found in the choir.

I found this chap loyally guarding his master’s feet on a tomb.

Photos taken 25 November 2022

Exploring without wheels

December 23, 2022

Last month I took my car into Saffron Walden for its annual service and knowing I’d have an hour or two to kill, I wandered down into the town for a mooch with my pinhole camera.

I had no fixed ideas about what I might photograph, although I had a feeling I might find myself drawn to the church at some point as I’ve always had good results in St. Mary’s. My first discovery was this rather impressive cast iron bridge, crossing a rather unimpressive small stream!

Sure enough, eventually I ended up in St Mary’s, where I happily pottered around for half an hour.

Photos taken 25 November 2022

Forgotten photos

December 22, 2022

I’m usually pretty swift at downloading and editing my photos, but occasionally I find images I’d forgotten about, still lurking on a memory card. This week I rediscovered some digital photos I took when I visited Copford Church with my pinhole camera. Each pinhole photo took about ten minutes to expose, so while they were ‘cooking’ I made a few digital snaps too. There weren’t many, but these three struck me as worthy of sharing.

Copford Church has some amazing wall paintings - definitely worthy of a second visit on a brighter day as I was working as light which was fading fast!

A close up of the domed painting above the alter.

Photos taken 17 November 2022

North east tour

December 21, 2022

A work engagement in Middlesbrough in October gave me the chance to take my pinhole camera on a little photographic tour, taking photos on my travels. I began with a few photos from York Station as I waited an hour between trains. I was travelling light, with just my little table top tripod so I had to get creative, using my suitcase to prop it up, or going for a station mouse’s eye view!

From there I went to Scarborough where I took a stroll down the promenade and along to the lighthouse, which presented lots of lovely pinhole opportunities.

I almost got soaked for this one - just a second or two after I stepped away the waves came right over where I’d just been sitting!

Marina views and some spectacular sun flare.

Finally, on Sunday morning my friend Sandra took me to see the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough before I caught my train home. It’s not working at the moment, so I was able to position my camera right in the middle of the road to capture this vertiginous view.

Photos taken 7-9 October 2022

Taking things slowly

December 20, 2022

Back in September we went to the monthly car meet in Barrington for our fix of classic cars. Instead of taking a digital or pinhole camera I went with my uncle’s loaned Rolleiflex - a camera I haven’t used for a while. Photos are composed via the camera’s focusing screen, which presents everything reversed horizontally. This messes with my brain and makes me slow down, although that’s probably no bad thing!

Photos taken September 2022

Exploring Kings Cross

December 19, 2022

There are occasions when my work presents me with opportunities to fit in some photography along the way. On Saturday I’d allowed extra time to get into London in case of problems resulting from the train strike that day so I took a pinhole camera along in the hope that I may get a little extra time if all went well. My final destination was a church not far from Kings Cross Station, so I took the opportunity tovisit both Kings Cross and St Pancras Stations, as well as some other local sights.

At St Pancras I realised I’d forgotten the tool for removing my tripod plate so I couldn’t use my table top tripod (which doesn’t need a plate). Normally it works loose spontaneously, but of course today it was stuck fast, refusing to move so much as a millimetre! Fortunately I’d brought a back up solution so I spent the rest of the morning using my small beanbag to wedge my camera in interesting spots!

The image above is a close up of the huge statue which stands on the concourse at St Pancras. A passing security guard thought perhaps my little wooden box was a radio and was rather surprised to learn it was actually a camera!

Moving next door to Kings Cross Station, I found a large cinema screen in exactly the spot I’d hope to place my camera, so I improvised, and went behind the stations lattice structure. I can’t help feeling the photo has probably turned out better as a result!

The view from the upstairs gallery, with my camera held firmly against the handrail with my trusty beanbag.

A ten minute walk took me to the Coal Drops Yard area just north of Kings Cross, beside the Regents Canal. The cold weather we’ve had for the last ten days had frozen much of the canal and I managed to find a bridge on which to rest my camera.

The old gas holders here have been turned into a framework for luxury apartments and I couldn’t resist resting my camera at the base of one of the pillars to capture the framework above me.

Down by the canal again, looking for details I could get really close to. One of the canal trust volunteers watched me with much curiosity as I crouched down to take this one and we had a chat about it afterwards!

One of the gas holders has been left as a framework surrounding a public garden area, It’s circled with long mirrored posts so I tried a hand held self portrait of my reflection - my camera even made it into the photo!