As I mentioned the other day, I needed to get a photograph that met the “magical” theme for the film photography contest that I’ve been taking part in this year. So today, I went out and made a few pictures that I hope will allow me to enter something suitable. They’re a pretty literal take on the theme, but I’ve not had the time or (mostly) the inclination over the past couple of weeks to do anything else. Anyway, I hopefully have three photos to choose from – I’ll try and get them developed tomorrow in order to meet the deadline on Tuesday.
The weather has so far been pretty awful this weekend. The UK is being battered by storm Arwen, which has brought strong winds, cold temperatures, and lots of rain and snow. Some parts of the country have been reporting gusts of up to 100mph and, sadly, there have been some deaths as a result of the conditions. We woke this morning to lower winds than we had overnight, but with a coating of slushy snow. Had it not been for my need to get a photo for the competition I’d have been very likely to have stayed tucked up in the house where it is nice and warm.
At the last minute I decided that I’d wear my hiking boots while out. My wife and son were heading into town, so I got a lift from them and was dropped off at the location for my picture-taking. As soon as I left the car my feet were submerged in inches of cold, waterlogged slush. Had I worn my trainers then my feet would have been soaked and frozen within a matter of minutes I think, so I was grateful for my boots. This was my first trip out with a camera since we lost Stan a couple of weeks ago and, if I’m honest, my mind wasn’t fully on the task. Nontheless, I still shot 11 of the 12 frames of medium format film in the camera, and will use the final frame tomorrow – possibly a portrait of my dad if the weather isn’t too bad and he visits in the morning. If my dad doesn’t visit, then I might photogrph my backup prop for the photo contest instead – a £2.99 Harry Potter eraser that I bought from Blackwell’s bookshop. I think most of the photos on the roll will be quite mundane, although one is of a big flock of pigeons perched atop tram power cables which I’m quite interested to see.
My son (who came into town with us) was supposed to have had his second Covid vaccination this morning but we received a message saying the appointment had been cancelled – presumably due to the bad weather – so we’ve had to re-book that for a couple of weeks time.
Another photo of Stan to close off the blog. This was his idea of helping me get on with work by trying to fall asleep in my arms. Love him.
Steel City Snapper photography 
Golly, it’s pushing the season for you to have a little snow already, huh? Ten years ago, we had an awfully big snow event in November. The oldest and I made an incredible fort in the front yard. But ever since then it has mostly been after the new year that we have anything happen, even a dusting. This makes my boys impatient because they get so excited about ski season. I try to explain to them it’s better to just leave the snow up at the pass above the city.
I’ll be interested to see how your frame of the pigeons turned out!
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It’s certainly unusual for us to have snow here in November, It might fall in some parts of the country where there’s high ground, particularly the further north you go, but I’m not sure I’ve ever known it to snow at the elevation that we are at at this time of year, certainly not the several inches we got. It didn’t last long. We had one night of freezing temperatures when it all iced over, but the next day the temperature raised and all the snow was gone 24-hours later. I’m not sure if this was just a freak event or if we can expect more of this sort of thing as a result of climate change. I guess we’ll fine out in time…
I’ve not published the pigeons photo yet, but will post it on the blog when I do. It’s probably not a great photo, but it’s interesting I think.
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