A walk in the woods

One hot summer’s afternoon I decided that if I was going to have my daily walk it would need to be somewhere shady, so I headed for Alsa Woods.

Naturally I took a camera along and on this occasion I decided on some slow photography. I had no fixed ideas about what I wanted to photograph, but just kept an open mind and looked for interesting subjects and views through the woods.

There was barely a breath of wind but I wanted some movement in this photo, so I created my own by blowing across the leaves during the 45 seconds the shutter was open!

A ghostly self portrait on the footbridge crossing the M11 motorway.

I intended to take another ethereal self portrait sitting on the tyre swing, but I found a teenage boy sitting on it next to his bike. It struck me this might be even better than my planned photo and fortunately he didn’t mind me including him in the photo!

Photos taken 24 June 2023

Colour or mono?

It’s very rare I use colour film in my pinhole cameras but for my trip to Wales in June I loaded up a roll of Kodak Ektar.

Castell Coch

Getting really close to the daisies on the platform at Cynghordy Station.

Frustratingly the rest of the film didn’t quite live up to expectations. Pinhole photography often induces colour shifts because of the longer exposure times, but on this occasion the colours were completely crazy! I didn’t want to throw the photos away so instead I experimented with converting the negatives to monochome instead.

To my astonishment they work much better in mono than colour. I guess, with strong sunshine, I should have realised it was really a black and white sort of day so at least I’ve learnt a lesson!

Photos taken June 2023

Keeping an eye on the neighbours

Every so often we have the pleasure of looking after our neighbours’ cats while they’re on holiday. Cwtch and Sookie have gradually grown accustomed to us and I often use their more relaxed moments to catch some photos of them.

During my second visit they had come downstairs, ready for breakfast and a spot of sunbathing, although initially Sookie decided she would observe me from a chair beneath the dining room table!

Cwtch watching the garden intently for intruders….

Followed by a spot of unashamed lounging in the sun - not always in the most elegant way!

Eventually Sookie gained some more courage and came out into the sunshine.

Photos taken June 2023.

Travelling light

My experience of teaching a smartphone photography workshop last month proved to be a great way of learning more about my own phone’s camera, but not without its temptations. As I researched what the cameras we all carry in our pockets can do I realised just how much more the latest iPhone can do now.

After much indecision I took the plunge and upgraded from my three year old iPhone SE to the latest iPhone 14 Pro and I haven’t regretted it for one moment. Yes, it still does all the phone stuff the same as any mobile, but having a larger sensor and three different lenses to play with brings many more possibilities when I want to travel light. The day after I bought the new phone I decided to use it as my sole camera for our monthly visit to the Barrington car meet and it was strangely liberating.

The super-wide angle lens offers some fun possibilities if you get really close.

On the new phone’s camera it will allow you to use the portrait mode on subjects which aren’t human which allows for all sorts of creative possibilities.

A beautiful 1948 Healey.

Photos taken 2 June 2023

Church crawling

After my pinhole photography binge in Scotland it was a couple of weeks before I got round to finishing off my final roll of film from our holiday. During my travels for work I kept an eye open for interesting locations and my last five photos were all taken around churches I discovered along the way.

My first stop was the redundant church of St Michael and All Angels near Caldicot in South Wales, now cared for by the Friends of the Friendless Churches. It’s tucked away in the corner of a working farmyard so it was no surprise to find I had the place to myself - it’s not as if you’re going to come here by accident!

Looking out from churchyard to farmyard!

A few days later I found myself near Salisbury and had a little time to while away before work. I stopped off at the church in Coombe Bissett, where I’d stayed the previous night, and caught this image as the stiff breeze wafted the tree branches above my head.

It was too dark to take any photos inside the church (each image would have taken about an hour!) so I continued on my way and stopped in Bishopston for a walk around the church there. Again, the interior was too dark for pinhole photography, but I found this intriguing mausoleum on the exterior of the church which was the perfect way to use up the final frame of my film.

Photos taken May 2023

Introducing Dilly

I always enjoy photographing animals I meet on my travels and I recently had the pleasure of getting to know this little cutie. She’s called Dilly and she came along to the recorder I was teaching at in Wales with her owners.

On the final evening she’d lost some of her perpetual bounce (lots of walks in the Welsh countryside) and had settled beside the sofa while her owners, Sally and Stephen, enjoyed a quiet drink and conversation. This was too good an opportunity to miss so I grabbed my camera and laid down on the floor nearby to take a few photos of Dilly.

Photos taken 10 May 2023

A misty Welsh morning

My thrice yearly visits to Wales always offer some lovely photographic opportunities and it’s wonderful to see the area around Llanerchindda Farm in different seasons. During my recent visit we had one particularly misty morning so I took my camera along for my brisk walk to the Cynghordy Viaduct and back.

Photos taken 9 May 2023

Pinhole day on steam

The last Sunday in April is always a red letter day for pinhole photographers as it’s Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. This year it happened to coincide with our holiday in Scotland so I was sure to find some good photo opportunities.

Our chosen destination for WPPD was the Bo’ness and Kinneil Railway - a heritage steam railway on the south coast of the Firth of Fort. I decided to take just my pinhole camera and tripod so I could focus all my attention on slow photography. We hopped on the first train of the day and I couldn’t resist taking a selfie as we steamed through the Scottish landscape. Old steam trains rarely move quickly. but this one minute exposure makes it look like we’re traveling at warp speed!

A trio of platform scenes from Bo’ness station. Click on any image to see it enlarged.

I’d also taken my table top tripod along so I was able to get down really low if I wanted to.

Views of the station and tracks from ground level and up on the bridge.

The restoration shed is home to several ongoing projects, in various states of decay/rebuild.

The museum sheds over the bridge were full of interesting engines and carriages but most were too dark to contemplate taking a pinhole photo. I’m prepared to wait for a few minutes, but when the exposure time runs into half an hour or more I usually admit defeat!

In the post train it was only going to take four and a half minutes to take a photo so I decided to have some fun. I settled on one of the seats and patiently posed as though I was sorting post into the cubby holes, shifting every minute or two so I could show the passing of time. I had no idea if this would work, but it’s come out just as I’d hoped!

I made sure I was up on top of the bridge ready for the arrival of a train back in the station and this is what it looks like as a steam train passes directly beneath your feet. Just as I closed the shutter I was engulfed in steam!

The engine steams gently as the water tank is refilled, ready for its next journey. One of the joys of heritage railways is that nothing happens in a tearing hurry so I was able to plan all my images and then still had time to dash to the other end of the platform to catch it manoeuvring to hitch back up to the carriages.

I caught the left hand image as the freshly refilled engine steamed out from beneath the station canopy and then had just enough time to wind my film on before it reversed up from the points to rejoin the carriages.

The engine team were fascinated by my pinhole camera and kindly posed for a team photo!

My final two shots were captured as the train went out on its last journey of the day. I realised I’d just got time to take two photos but didn’t quite wind the film on far enough so I ended up with an accidentally overlapping double image. A complete mishap but I rather like the result!

Photos taken Sunday 30th April 2023

From Pittenweem to the Cold War

One of our days out during our Scottish holiday featured a very curious combination of destinations. We began at the delightful fishing village of Pittenweem, on the Fife coast.

After a stroll through the village we ended up at the harbour where we found a plethora of colourful fishing boats. Chatting to one of the locals we learnt that the iron structure pointing out from the top of the harbour building a winch which is used to fill the boats with ice to keep the catch cold.

As we stood on the harbour wall, a trawler returned to harbour, followed by a flock of gulls.

Click on any image to see it enlarged.

One of the local inhabitants.

After a tasty fish and chip lunch we headed back out into the Scottish countryside and found a flock of sheep who were intrigued by our presence!

During our drive to Pittenweem that morning we’d noticed a tourist sign announcing ‘Scotland’s Secret Bunker’ (not so secret now!) which piqued our interest so we headed there to investigate. This unassuming house was the access point for a bunker where the government would have kept track of nuclear radiation over this area of Scotland and helped keep what was left of the country running in the event of a nuclear attack during the Cold War.

There were a number of these scattered around the UK and we’ve visited the one at Kelvedon Hatch (not far from our home) in Essex before so it was interesting to compare them. Like its Essex counterpart, the Scottish bunker is accessed via a long corridor and some stairs, leading you deep beneath the surface.

As we explored the building we saw the different activities which would have taken place there, from monitoring the weather and wind (to see which way the nuclear fallout would have travelled) to keeping the core functions of government going.

Because staff would have lived here for many months the bunker also has dormitories, a chapel and a canteen.

Rather unexpectedly we learnt the bunker is home to two cats these days - no doubt tasked with keeping the mice under control. One of them, called Cleo, obligingly posed for a photo. Of course, the cat flap is a more recent addition - it certainly wouldn’t have been up to the task of keeping out the nuclear radiation!

Many of the spaces were decorated to give a sense that the staff had just popped away for a moment. These human details and the dramatic lighting made these places quite eerie.

Telephone switchboards and weather monitoring. One of the tools that would have been used to learn more about a nuclear attack was a giant pinhole camera positioned on the surface. In the event of a nuclear blast someone would have been sent above ground to unload the photographic paper from the camera and then develop it. The image of the explosion would then have shown the direction and size of the explosion. Fortunately none of these plans were ever needed but it’s a fascinating glimpse back at this period of history and how government would have continued if the worst had happened.

The station doctor has evidently been here a very long time!

Photos taken 28 April 2023.