A pylon in the fog

It’s been a while since I posted a power-lines picture I think, so let me rectify that. If you’ve read this blog for a while you’ll perhaps realise that I find pylons and power lines an appealing choice of subject matter. Not to the extent that I go looking for them purposefully, but they often draw my eye. This pylon, stood like some metallic sentinel on the foggy and frosty Woodhouse Washlands certainly caught my attention.

I took myself off for a trip to the seaside today. I don’t often tend to go there on cold January days, but I figured that a change of scene would get my creative juices flowing (plus I could eat some fish and chips while looking out at the sea…). The day was sunny and bright, but bittely cold with chill winds – the remnants of storm Malik that was now headed east out to sea – so a hat, gloves and a fully zipped up jacket were a definite necessity. I’m feeling tired now, and ready to hit the shower when I finish typing this, but my belly is full of my fish and chip dinner, and I have two rolls of 35mm film to be developed, so the day counts as a success. The pictures will turn up here in a bit, although I’ve got two other rolls of stuff to root through before that happens. It’s nice to be back in the black again, photographically speaking.

Back to the usual routine of work tomorrow.

Yashicamat 124G & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 1600asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 13mins @ 20°

Taken on 15 January 2021

Padlocked gate

I usually tend to write these blog posts later in the day, after I finish work and have eaten, but I’m writing this one earlier. It’s Sunday, so I’m not at work, but I am going out to eat lunch with my wife shortly, so don’t have unlimited time. And I can’t think of what to write.

It’s something that I often fret about when composing these blog posts, probably as a factor of putting them out every day. What to put into words without it feeling like it’s for the sake of it. I doubt my success rate is high.

I could go down the route of describing how the picture was made, giving background on the events that led to its capture along with the equipment and techniques I used. Or I could describe the picture itself, breaking it down as I see it. Or I could talk about something completely unrelated and drop the picture in either to illustrate a point or, more likely, just to publish a picture. Sometimes it’s just a sentence to get it over and done with.

It’s not so much writer’s block on days such as today, more a lack of direction and no particular topic inspiring me to words. It feels frustrating and that the blog post serves no purpose on these occasions – either to anyone reading, or to me as the author.

Don’t forget to come back for more random blathering tomorrow! 😀

Yashicamat 124G & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 1600asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 13mins @ 20°

Taken on 15 January 2021

Beneath the viaduct

I’ve spent this afternoon developing a roll of Ilford FP4+ that I shot last weekend, and also scanning a roll of Fujichrome Provia 100 that I also shot suring the same session (but which I had developed by my local lab as I don’t have the gear for developing E6). I’m pretty happy with the Provia scans, and they’ll start to appear on here after the weekend. The FP4+ negatives look nice too, although I can never truly tell until the scan appears before my eyes.

Today’s photo is another from the foggy morning’s walk a few weeks ago and was shot beneath the viaduct that featured on the blog a couple of days ago.

Yashicamat 124G & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 1600asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 13mins @ 20°

Taken on 15 January 2021

Washlands tree on pushed HP5+

This pollarded tree has featured on the blog at least once before (and probably more times, but this is the only one that my quick search pulled up). It’s usually difficult tophotograph in isolation due to all the surrounding elements. There are other trees close by that can creep into the shot and cause background distraction, there are power lines and pylons in the area, a concrete viaduct spanning the valley, and older brick railway viaduct, plus a whole bunch of industrial units on the valley side. It’s still possible to get interesting pictures, but you generally have to work the other elements into the shot.

On foggy days though most of these things fade away. There’s sight of some of the other trees in this shot, plus the vague lines and shapes of the power lines and some factory buildings, but the fog serves to mostly obscure them.

I shot this roll of HP5+ at 1600asa and pushed it in development as the light was very dim. There is added grain in the resulting images and perhaps a little more contrast, but I think they serve to add some grit to the pictures.

Yashicamat 124G & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 1600asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 13mins @ 20°

Taken on 15 January 2021

Dimly seen viaduct

Two quite similar photos today, both of the A57 viaduct where it crosses the River Rother and railway lines. There was thick fog on the morning they were shot and it just disappeared into the blankness. I’m not sure which of the two I prefer though. I like the composition of the first, which is quite clean and layered, but I like the interest of the foreground grasses in the second (although they’re maybe a little messy). Anyway, both here to see, whichever you prefer.

Yashicamat 124G & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 1600asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 13mins @ 20°

Taken on 15 January 2021

Inconvenience store

It’s not really inconvenient, it’s just that it was closed at the time I took this picture.

I think the place opens a little later in the morning and then stays open until late in the evening, so actually pretty convenient. It’s not a place I use often and isn’t that close to where I live, but it accepts parcel returns so it’s very useful in that regard. I didn’t set out with the intent of photographing the store – I was heading out to the washlands to get some foggy-morning pictures – but it caught my eye as I drove past and so here it is.

Yashicamat 124G & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 1600asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 13mins @ 20°

Taken on 15 January 2021

Looking up

The last of my three Yashicamat photos from Doncaster in today’s post. Of the three, I think this one is the best. It only came about when I took an idle glance upwards while walking back to the shopping centre where the car was parked. I liked the curved layers of the building.

It always pays to look up every now and then. There’s a lot to miss otherwise.

Yashicamat 124G & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 1600asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 13mins @ 20°

Taken on 8 January 2021

No swimming

While wandering around doncaster in the rain, waiting for my wife and her sister to finish their shopping, I walked past the building in today’s photo. Not being a Doncaster resident I had no idea as to what it was, only that it was boarded up.

A little online research today reveals it to be the Grade II listed St James’ Street Baths. Historic England describe it as: Public Baths, Turkish and Russian baths suite, and winter concert hall, 1932. Built to designs by the Borough Estates Surveyor, Mr R E Ford. Red brick with sandstone dressings and slate roofs.

There is a lot more information about the building and it’s history on the Historic England website.

Yashicamat 124G & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 1600asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 13mins @ 20°

Taken on 8 January 2021

Rainy day

I fianlly got around to developing a new roll of film today, so I have fresh images to use in the blog. I’ve also got the two rolls I shot yersterday, but one of those will be going to the lab (it’s a roll of Provia 100 and I don’t have the means to develop it at home), and the other (a roll of FP4+) will wait until next weekend. I have 12 potential shots from the roll I developed today though. Or I will when they’re all scanned – I’ve only had time to scan the first three shots so far.

This one was taken a couple of weeks ago on a trip to Doncaster with my wife and sister-in-law. My aim was to try and get “rainy” photos as that’s the theme for the photo-comp this month. Heavy rain had been forecast, so all looked like it might be good to get a bunch of suitable pictures but, in the end, this is the only one I got. I took two more shots on the day, but neither of them feature much rain. The problem was that, while it had rained earlier, when we arrived it had stopped again so all I had to play with was damp streets and heavily-overcast skies. I felt somewhat annoyed by this betrayal by the weather – made worse by the fact that I had to hang around for ages while my wife and her sister did some shopping. Luckily though, the heavens opened for a short while and I was able to get the picture below. It was a very quickly grabbed image, but it fits the theme. It’s not really rained much since that day (at least not when I’ve had opportunity to go out with a camera), so this image will have to suffice.

Knowing it was going to be a glomy day I decided to push the HP5+ to 1600asa to enable useable shutter speeds without opening up the aperture too much for what I wanted to achieve.

Yashicamat 124G & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 1600asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 13mins @ 20°

Taken on 8 January 2021

On a North Sea beach

My plan to get more film developed today has not borne fruit, so for now it means I’ll have to dip into the archive to find a shot (for today at least – I still plan to get another roll developed tomorrow). The good news is that it wasn’t procrastination at fault, but the fact that I went out with the camera this morning and shot a couple of new rolls. I was using the ETRSi, so that should mean 30 more potential shots to feed the fires that keep the blog going.

Today’s photo then is from late spring last year, made during a daytrip my wife and I made to Bridlington, a seaside town on the Yorkshire coast. I thought that I’d posted this one before, but looking through my posts I can’t see it on here. It’s one of my favourites from this roll too.

Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 27 May 2021