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An early morning drive down to Sussex left me with some spare time before a rehearsal so I took a stroll along the quayside at Bosham. I’ve rarely seen the tide so high and the road along the foreshore was completely flooded.
Photos taken 8 March 2024
My initial photo from Baker Street Station which sent me down this creative rabbit hole…
During a visit to London recently I changed trains at Baker Street and fell down a rabbit hole exploring the possibilities of exposing photos slowly so as to capture some ‘ghosts’ as people walked along the platform. The creative possibilities got me excited enough to turn this into a new personal project and I was itching to try some more.
A few days later I had another day in London, so I set my camera up to take photos of half or a quarter of a second and started out on the platform at Fenchurch Street Station. As I wasn’t travelling anywhere I needed a platform ticket to get past the barriers and was pleasantly surprised to discover that, not only do platform tickets still exist, the price is the same as it was thirty years ago - just ten pence!
While my Baker Street image works well in colour, I decided the overcast weather on this occasion better suited monochrome. Whether I’ll stick to this for all situations remains to be seen, but I like the coherence of this set in black and white.
I spent a while loitering in some of the narrow alleys which wind through the City of London. This made for some atmospheric images and also helped me keep dry while the rain poured down outside!
Heading into Bank tube station offered up some interesting possibilities.
I got some very strange looks hovering at the top of the travelator to the Waterloo and City line but it was worth it.
Using the curvaceous shapes of the Elizabeth Line station at Faringdon to frame my ghost.
My initial plan was for this project to focus on railway ghosts (I seem to spend a lot of my life on trains and at stations) but I think I’ll keep an open mind for now - who knows where it might lead!
Photos taken 24 & 29 February 2024
A recent work trip to Milton Keynes brought me a very welcome opportunity to visit the town’s art gallery where a new exhibition of Saul Leiter’s photography had just opened. Armed with my little Fuji X100V camera I found I could take some photos without being intrusive and these two were my favourites. I wouldn’t say they are particularly ‘Saul Leiter-ish’ but his observation of every day scenes and the mundane certainly influenced me. I took several frames of the two chaps looking at the central display (above) but this one was the winner because of the way the man on the right had his arms extended just as I opened the shutter!
Photos taken 21 February 2024
It’s taken a while to build up a sense of trust with our neighbours’ cats, but after feeding them on numerous occasions while their humans have been on holiday they’re pretty relaxed about me and my camera now. These were taken on morning when I popped in to top up their food and water, but Sookie and Cwtch definitely seemed more focused on relaxing than eating!
Photos taken 18 February 2024
By its very nature pinhole photography is a slow process, with each frame often taking several minutes to expose. While I waited patiently for my pinhole photos to develop at St Mary’s Church recently I used the time to take a few iPhone snaps - some of scenes which interested me and a couple of behind the scenes photos too.
Photos taken 15 February 2024
I’ve visited the church of St Mary the Virgin in Stansted Mountfitchet before, but on that occasion I was on a mission to find some suitable photos for an educational blog I was writing. On this occasion I had a much needed morning off and was determined to do some pinhole photos but needed a location close to home. With a journey of just three miles St Mary’s fitted the bill perfectly!
One should always have in mind that you can never get too close with pinhole photography - a strategy which worked well with the church piano.
More close up details.
As I ventured out into the porch the sun was positively warm (much warmer than inside!) and the ornate wooden arch was throwing interesting shadows onto the door.
Along with the warmth of the sun, the snowdrops in the churchyard also gave a hint of spring to come…
Photos taken 15 February 2024
At the start of February my travels took me to Somerset so I made a brief foray across the border into Devon to visit a redundant church. Sadly (despite assurances to the contrary) it was locked so I followed my nose until I found somewhere else to photograph.
Unlike my original destination, All Saints’ Church, Monksilver is a working church so I enjoyed photographing some small scenes which tell a little about the building’s life.
The pew ends were carved with some quirky decorations - I wonder what the animal on the left is supposed to be?!
Shadowy patterns in the porch.
Photos taken 2 February 2024
Alongside the digital photos I took at St Mary’s Church, North Stoke on the 22nd January I spent time indulging in some slow photography with my pinhole cameras. Having developed the film I have a set which looks very different but still captures the shafts of low winter sun.
While I was there I also used my 6x6 Rise pinhole camera, but with an adapter fitted which split the frame into thirds. That film is still waiting to be finished off as every frame requires three separate photos (somewhat more time consuming!) but it’ll be fascinating to see how they turn out when I get some time to complete the roll.
Click on any image to see it enlarged.
An architectural curiosity - three stone seats for the clergy to use during services.
This is my favourite photo from my visit to St Mary’s. Getting really close is one of the things a wide angle pinhole camera really excels at, and my camera was really close to the bible on the lecturn!
After I’d finished at St Mary’s I sought out some food and then travelled on to Climping Beach. Despite living fairly close by for most of my life I’d never visited before and it’s an extraordinary piece of coastline. The soft, golden sand is interrupted by jagged chunks of chalk and littered with flints - I’d never come across a beach quite like it before!
Peaks and troughs of chalk, kissed by the low winter sun.
The tide was a long way out but there was still plenty of scope to use the breakwaters as focal points for my photos.
A mini-landscape of its own, created by a pool of water on its way across the beach.
Photos taken 22 January 2024
With a day off and the promise of some winter sunshine I went in search of a church to photograph and I wasn’t disappointed when I reached St Mary’s in North Stoke. Tucked away in the depths of the Sussex countryside, not far from the River Arun, it’s redundant these days and cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust.
The light inside was so beautiful, with parts of the building bathed in golden sunshine, which looks much warmer than it really was!
Two of the charming carvings I found around the church - a sheep’s head and a hand mysteriously reaching out from a corbel.
These three nooks are intended as seats for the clergy during services, although I can’t imagine they’d be terribly comfortable.
The church may not be used regularly these days but it still has some lovely handmade kneelers.
Remnants of a medieval wall painting.
I couldn’t resist this pool of light on the font cover.
A symphony of stripes in the porch.
Photos taken 22 January 2024
Before I made it to the Barbican during my last visit to London I also spent some time walking the streets of the City, photographing whatever caught my eye. Sometimes it was imposing architecture, but I was open to any photo opportunities, such as the light patterns on the paving stones.
Just a few yards away I found some wonderful lines in a spiral staircase.
An opening in the tunnel beneath the Barbican Centre allowed in the light and I made sure I waited to catch a silhouette of a person against the bright buildings beyond.
One of the more curious sights around Smithfield Market…
With beautiful light like this even the humble street bollard can be elevated to a thing of beauty! I made sure to carefully line up the decorative bollards between the more utilitarian ones closer to e=me
It’s unusual to see vans this old on London’s streets and it seems to me the scene could be from an earlier era. I’d love to know the story behind the crooked lampost too!
Another sight from a bygone age - a K2 phonebox. Most surviving red phone boxes are the later K6 version with larger windows, but perhaps that’s shows an excessive level of geekery on my part!
Racing to the line…
Photos taken 19 January 2024
