At the end of the week

It’s been a long week. I’ve been very busy at work but managed to complete the main task I had yesterday, leaving today feeling somewhat more relaxed and, as a small reward, I’ve treated myself to an earlier finish than usual.

The weather for the coming weekend looks to be mixed. Tomorrow is forecast to have heavy cloud and perhaps rain but Sunday looks brighter with sunny intervals. If the forecast is correct (we’ll see…) then I might try and get out with the 4×5 camera on Sunday afternoon, though I’ve not yet given much thought as to where to go.

Tomorrow will be utilised to develop the roll of film I shot last weekend while visiting Photo North and possibly scanning some E6 positives that should be on their way back to me in the post. I’m also hoping to watch some stuff on TV, do some reading, and maybe continue playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on my recently acquired Nintendo Switch. Does anyone have a four day weekend going spare?

After a long week, here’s a picture of a house with a long driveway (which is also a public right of way).

Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Ilford Delta 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10 mins 30 secs @ 20°

Taken 5 February 2023.

Over the hedge and behind the gate

More farm stuff today, this time another silo / tank seen from two vantage points. While I was unsure as to the specific use of the silos and equipment in yesterday’s pictures, the one featured today I feel I can be more certain about.

The silo features the branding of “Yara” which, after a quick search on Google, is a company that specialises in providing fertilizers, including liquid fertilizers (which is what I believe is stored in the tank seen in the pictures today).

I promise more exciting (and incredibly undetailed) farm-storage equipment posts to come, but not for a few days. Don’t get too excited. 🙂

Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 5 February 2023.

On a farm

As a city boy I know little detail about farming beyond the basics – the sort of stuff that I imagine most people will know. I pick up additional knowledge from watching TV shows like Countryfile on BBC One (although I don’t watch that nearly as much these days), or Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon Prime Video which, despite it’s host’s tomfoolery, has a surprising amount to say about the challenges facing farmers in the UK today.

The structures in today’s photos then are slightly mysterious. There are silos in both shots, and I expect that these will hold harvested crops or possibly silage or animal feed. But I don’t know for definite.

The second image shows a structure that wouldn’t look out of place in a chemical plant, and is to my ignorant eye, even more mysterious. There are a whole host of pipes and ducts, some connected to the barn, and a huge vent poking out the side. What is this for? I’m guessing that perhaps it treats harvested crops in some way, perhaps drying them, or perhaps helping to ferment grass into animal feed. Againthough, I really don’t know.

What I do know is that they can make for interesting photographs.

Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 5 February 2023.

Beyond the field

I was drawing a blank on what to talk about today, so I asked ChatGPT to write a poem about my picture:

Across a small and verdant field,
A farmhouse stands with pride and yield,
With a fence of white tape that’s real,
Where horses roam and sometimes feel.

The fence divides the field in two,
A line that’s clear and pure in hue,
It’s a place where horses gallop through,
With grace and strength they shine anew.

The farmhouse has seen many days,
Where love and life have found their ways,
From spring’s first buds to autumn’s blaze,
The memories linger and never erase.

With windows bright and walls of stone,
The farmhouse feels like home alone,
It’s a place where peace and joy are sown,
And the heart and soul are fully grown.

So let the horses run and play,
In the field with the fence of white tape,
As the farmhouse watches from far away,
A place of beauty, serenity and grace.

Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 5 February 2023.

Procrastination

I have a task to complete. It has to be done by Friday. I have enought time to complete it, and yet…

I seemingly have an inate ability to sabotage myself via the medium of procrastination. Instead of just knuckling down and getting the job done, my mind wanders, I am distracted by less important things, and the time passes while I put off doing the task at hand. At some point (I’m probably already at this stage now) I will start to feel stressed and anxious at the situation I find myself in, worried that I will not be finished in time.

This happens on many occasions and, while I usually manage to get things done on time, I always worry that maybe this time will be the occasion where I don’t suddenly pull a rabbit out of the hat and end up in some sort of trouble instead.

I have a self-diagnosed (always a great thing, thanks Internet!) suspicion that I might have Attention Defecit Disorder – have always had it probably – but it feels more noticeable to me now. Most of the symptoms are bang on the nail. Whether a symptom of getting older, or perhaps because I have more responsibility, I don’t know.

I’ve made decent progress today. Now to see if I can make the most of the relatively free day I have tomorrow.

A random shed picture follows…

Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 5 February 2023.

Vegging out in the house

No photography stuff for me today. I have a roll of film to develop but I couldn’t be bothered with faffing around with that (or rather, all the getting stuff out, and then having to wash it all and put it away again afterwards). The weather has been overcast, although with some definition in the cloud cover, but after walking around Leeds taking pictures yesterday I didn’t feel the need to go out agin today. Yesterday’s trip left me with a full roll of HP5+ (the one I have to develop) and also some Provia 100 to be sent off to the lab (fingers crossed as it’s an expired roll).

So instead, after my dad came over to visit, I spent the day watching TV and YouTube. Sometimes it maked me feel a bit guilty that I didn’t use my free time more productively, but at the same time sometimes a day vegging on the sofa is a productive use of time in terms of re-charging your batteries.

A friend of mine once said the following: “When I say I’m doing nothing, that doesn’t mean I’m free. It means I’m busy doing nothing.“. Sometimes doing nothing is what you need.

Here’s a random photo of a house. Not mine, and not the one I’ve been vegging out in.

Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 50mm f/2.8 MC & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 5 February 2023.

A visit to Photo North

I took a trip to Leeds today to visit Photo North. It’s the second time I’ve visited the event – the first being when it was on at Manchester last year. There are a number of photographer’s work being exhibited and a variety of lectures taking place over the three days of the event. I visited today and sat in two of the lectures.

The first was by Barry Lewis, a photographer whose work I was first aquainted with via his book Butlins Holiday Camp 1982, an excellent collection of his work photographing the Skegness holiday camp during what was probably a period of decline at a point where many Britons were starting to venture to the continent for their holidays (where sunshine and warmth would be almost guaranteed), rather than holiday camp experience that had ran largely unchanged since the 1930s. It was an entertaining lecture where he presented excerps from a number of his bodies of work. I bought myself a copy of one of his books, Miami Beach 1988-1995, which he kindly signed for me.

The second lecture was by Richard Davies who gave an autoboigraphical account of how hismove to Manchester from Birmingham in the late 1980s coincided with one of the most progressive times in the city’s musical scene – something he was well placed to take advantage of at a time when few others were making photographs of the bands and acts emerging from the Madchester scene at the time.

It was a good day out, and I also managed to get some nice light to shoot a roll of film in the nearby university complex, an location full of interesting architecture, and I’m hoping the pictures turn out ok.

Today’s picture has nothing to do with the events of my trip, it was taken six weeks ago near Kelham Island in Sheffield. It’s a nice photograph though, so it gets a place here on the blog.

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400. Lab Developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken 5 February 2023.

A curtain of trees

Just downstream from the Ball Street Bridge lies a weir on the River Don. The weir diverts part of the flow towards the former industrial workings at Kelham Island (where the museum is these days).

Today’s picture is from the bank of the Don with the top of the weir just visible as a regular line across the foreground water. The trees sit on an island and made an attractive sight with the more regular shapes of the industrial buildings visible in the rear.

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400. Lab Developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken 5 February 2023.

Architectural mish-mash

This picture was the last frame on the roll and had been cropped by the lab (presumably where it had been clipped as part of the developing or drying process), which it is why it’s not the standard 35mm ratio. Despite the crop, it’s quite a satisfying photograph, I think.

I like the contrasting styles of architecture, whether it be moderm, more classical (any architects reading this, please excuse my ignorance of building styles), or the remnants of industrial walls in the centre of the frame.

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400. Lab Developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken 5 February 2023.

False autumn

There’s a definite autumnal feel to the picture in today’s post, I think, despite it being made in early February.

It’s the colours that do it, lots of browns and oranges here in the buildings, bricks, and boughs.

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400. Lab Developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken 5 February 2023.