St Audrie's Bay

As I pondered where to go with my camera on my second morning in Somerset I rediscovered a pin I’d previously saved in Google Maps marking St Audrie’s Bay. This is a private bay which is access by a steep path down the side of the cliff from a caravan park. Fortunately non-resident are allowed to park there so I headed down to the beach with my iPhone and two pinhole cameras.

This was the sight which greeted me - miles of sand and layered rock formations and with high tide several hours away there was no chance of be getting cut off here.

Continuing my mission to learn more about the abilities of my phone camera I snapped away at any details, small or large, which caught my eye.

My main reason for visiting St Audrie’s Bay was the waterfall which tumbles off the cliffs. A stream runs across the hills above and, judging by the incessant stream of water, there had been plenty of rain to feed it recently.

My other focus that morning was pinhole photography so I also took a few behind the scenes images to share in an Instagram story about my adventures. I’ll share the photos from my wooden pinhole cameras in a separate post.

Photos taken 3 February 2023.

Travelling light

I’ve recently agreed to run a photography workshop focused on shooting with a smartphone rather than a traditional camera, so when I visited Somerset earlier this month I decided to travel light and begin learning more about the camera I carry in my pocket.

I’d recently watched a video showing how handheld long exposures can be taken on an iPhone using the camera in the Lightroom app so I was eager to try this out around the harbour at Weston-super-Mare. I was frankly astonished at how good it was - the static parts of the view are pin-sharp, while the waves gain drama as they’re blurred during the course of a second long exposure.

Click on any image to see it enlarged.

Elsewhere there were a couple of scenes where I just couldn’t bring myself to remove the colour.

Photos taken 2 February 2023

St John's in colour

While visiting St John’s Church in Duxford recently I took the opportunity to finish off the roll of Kodak Portra 400 film I had left in my pinhole camera from Christmas. When I arrived the sky was cloudy but those clouds swiftly parted, allowing sunlight to flood into the church - what a wonderful sight!

These shafts of sunlight threw some beautiful pools of light onto the floor and walls of the church - such a magical effect.

Click on any image to see it enlarged.

Photos taken 27 January 2023

Out and about in Duxford and beyond

A couple of weeks ago I visited St John’s Church in Duxford once again, this time with two of my pinhole cameras in my bag. I started in the church, using my large format camera to capture some beautiful views of the way the light falls on this wonderful ancient building.

I also took a view of the exterior, although unfortunately it features a curious smudge - I can only assume it’s a quirk created by a problem with that particular darkslide containing the sheet film. One of the joys of film photography - you never quite know when it’ll go wrong!

From there I decided to take a stroll around the rest of the village, using my 6x9 camera to photograph sights which caught my eye.

Click on any image to see it enlarged.

A brace of self portraits - one as I enjoyed lunch in the local cafe, and the second in one of the village’s many handy footpaths.

With a few frames of film left over I departed Duxford and went in search of somewhere to use them up. I was surprised and delighted to find a ford crossing a quiet lane near Hinxton.

Soon after I stopped there a car went racing through the water, creating a spectacular bow wave. That made me realise a passing vehicle could make a good pinhole photo so I set up my tripod out of reach of any splash and mounted my large format camera. Ten or fifteen minutes later no more cars had come through so I was about to give up when as Sainsburys delivery lorry camera along the road. He slowed down by me and I noticed his window was open so asked if he might be willing to hang on for a few seconds so I could set my tripod up again. He kindly agreed and when he slowly drove through the water I opened my shutter. The result isn’t as dramatic as the other car, but his cautious technique probably allowed me to capture a greater sense of movement.

Eventually I ended up in the village of Hinxton where the low winter sun was illuminating the church beautifully. I used my final sheet of large format film to capture this and then headed inside. There I managed just one successful image before the sun dropped below the nearby buildings so I took that as my cue to head home after a successful day’s photography.

Photos taken 27 January 2023.

Last Christmas

One of the quirks of film photography is that delay between taking pictures and seeing the developed negatives. I’m able to minimise this by developing my black and white film at home now, but colour films still have to be sent off.

Over Christmas I popped a roll of colour film in one of my pinhole cameras to take some festive long exposures and I finally completed the roll a couple of weeks ago. The negatives arrived back while I was away in Somerset so I’ve only just had an opportunity to scan them and see how my experiments turned out. Two of them were long exposures of our festive meals, on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

I took a pair of similar photos as we unwrapped our Christmas presents on the two days - one from a high vantage point and one from a much lower perspective.

My final experiment features some of the baubles on the Christmas tree, albeit with a twist. I made a double exposure, with a change of composition between the two shots so the final image shows both views. Making double exposures is an unpredictable affair, but I’m pleased with the way this one has turned out - enough to encourage me to have a go with some different subjects in future.

Photos taken 25 & 26 December 2022

Light and colour in Docklands

Every January the Canary Wharf area of London’s Docklands puts on a light show, with illuminated installations dotted among the buildings. I’ve never been able to go before, but as Peter and I were in London to visit St. Paul’s Cathedral last Monday we decided we’d stay on to see the lights.

We started off at the new Elizabeth Line station at Canary Wharf where the access tunnel was covered in an ever-shifting display of colours.

One of the installations was a tunnel full of fine fibre optic cables hanging down from the roof. I used their movement in the breeze to create an abstract image with some intentional camera movement.

Striking a pose in a crimson tunnel

Photos taken 23 January 2023

In the footsteps of Peter Marlow

Some weeks ago I read about the work of the late photographer Peter Marlow, whose exhibition ‘The English Cathedral’ is now touring the UK. He visited 42 Cathedrals at dawn, making a photo facing east towards the altar, using a large format film camera. This was a sight I couldn’t miss, so my friend Peter and I visited St Paul’s Cathedral last week to see his photos and perhaps make our own photographic record of this dramatic building. The exhibition was wonderful, although it made us realise how few of our ancient Cathedrals have architecture which is truly symmetrical and properly aligned! Given the challenges of building a Cathedral today, never mind several centuries ago, that perhaps shouldn’t be a surprise but seeing these structures together, all photographed in the same way makes it more evident.

After we’d explore Peter Marlow’s photos we spent the afternoon exploring St Paul’s with our cameras, searching for interesting photographic compositions. Ironically, we didn’t actually take any photos looking east like Marlow did!

Sir Christopher Wren’s wonderful geometric staircase, as seen in the Harry Potter and Paddington films.

Photos taken 23 January 2023

Two for the price of one

A recent day off gave me the opportunity to do a little church hunting with my camera. I’d earmarked a little church in Caldecote which is maintained by the Friends of the Friendless Churches so I took the drove over towards the Hertfordshire town of Baldock. A little way short of where my satnav reckoned my destination was I found a church beside the narrow country lane so I parked up and headed indoors. It was only when I looked at the notices on the board inside the porch that I realised I was in the wrong church! This was St. Vincent’s when I was expecting St. Mary Magdalene.

The winter sun illuminating the building was so beautiful it seemed to waste it so I stayed a few minutes and took some photos here anyway. A bit of an unexpected bonus - two churches for the price of one!

Click on any image to see it enlarged.

Once I’d finished I jumped in the car and continued the last half a mile to my intended destination. This turned out to be in the middle of a farm so I parked among the cars and tractors and picked my through the mud to the church’s north door.

The interior of St Mary Magdalene’s was rather more spartan than St. Vincent’s, but charming nonetheless. Rather impressively it had two organs - a surprise for a redundant church tucked away, so far from an obvious congregation!

The last rays of afternoon sun kissing the altar.

Photos taken 20 January 2023.

Still searching

In one of my earlier posts I shared the photos from a day in London when I dipped my toes back into some street photography. That was in preparation for a workshop with Brian Duckett where we learned to shoot in the style of American street photographer Saul Leiter - the images from which I have for you here.

We gathered at a cinema cafe in Shaftsbury Avenue for a briefing and some guidance on the style we’d be aiming for. before walking down to Jermyn Street. Brian set us a series of assignments to shoot and here we were looking to play with reflections - in windows, cars and wherever else we might find them. Frustratingly there were many white vans in the street, along with workmen in high-vis jackets, which spoilt many of the reflections but I still found a few photos.

After lunch we moved on to Bond Street where our new challenge was to use things around to use as frames or as out of focus foreground colour and texture.

From there we walked on to Savile Row, where we hoped we might encounter some well dressed characters about town. The plan was to look for interesting details, such as stylish hats, shoes and the like. Naturally, all the well dressed folk had vanished but I did find one dapper looking chap inside one of the expensive shops.

Normally it’s typical to use a wide angle lens for street photography but Saul Leiter tended to use a longer focal length - often around 85mm, and frequently with a large aperture. I’d spend the day so far using a 75mm effective focal length but for the rest of the day I swapped to 135mm. This gave me a greater reach as the light faded and I found it really helpful for our final assigment.

Brian asked us to use shop fronts to shoot through, using colour and steamy windows to create layers as we walked through Chinatown and Soho.

Click on any image to see it enlarged.

By the end of the day I had a much better idea of the style we’d been searching for. My photos from the workshop have some of the qualities we’d been looking for, but I can see my search for Saul Leiter’s elusive style will continue.

Photos taken 16 January 2023.

Glancing back

Although we’re now firmly into 2023 I still haven’t share all my photos from 2022. This final set is a collection of pinhole images from a visit to West Wittering beach on the afternoon of Christmas Eve.

Having spent the morning in the dark confines of the yew trees at Kingley Vale it was great to be out on the open beach, with more light to play with. I’d come armed with my wellies so I could be fairly brave in how close I got to the waves, and I just avoided the water overtopping by boots.

A closer look at the structure of the groynes

This flag warns off would be swimmers but I don’t think there would have been too many that day!

Getting down low among the marram grass.

I’ve often wondered what these posts set into the beach are for - I’m no closer to finding the answer!

Click on any image to see them enlarged.

Photos taken 24 December 2022