Back beneath the bypass viaduct

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

Taken on 11 February 2024

Writer’s block

I’ve been struggling to find things to write the past week or so. Or, in some cases, I’ve had something to write, but not the time to do so. Either way, a lot of my posts of late have been pretty short. This has happened before (and my posts are rarely particularly verbose anyway), so I expect the situation will self-correct at some point. I guess it’s just a side-effect of daily posting.

Anyway, today is not really any different, so here’s a picture of a tree for no reason at all. 🙂

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

Taken on 11 February 2024

A line of trees

Another shot made possible by having the XA3 in my coat pocket. I did have my Fujica GW690 with me on the day, but that had already greedily eaten all my 120 film in it’s limited eight-shot stomach. So the XA3 came to the rescue for any other pictures I spotted.

I honestly didn’t know if this would be a nothing shot at the time I took it. I spent a bit of effort to make sure the trees all had separation (as much as possible, at least – there’s a background tree hiding behind one of the foreground ones), but the scene didn’t look all that inspiring to the naked eye. However, seeing it appear in black and white, I realise what it was that had caught my eye, and it’s one of the best pictures from the day. There’s something about the way a camera renders a scene that can make it different, and more interesting, than what was seen with the naked eye. The opposite can be true as well, of course, but in this case the camera captured it better.

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

Taken on 27 January 2024

House on a hill

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

Taken on 27 January 2024

Fence posts and pylons

This landscape shot, taken on a walk along the Cuckoo Way a couple of months back, turned out pretty nicely, I think. The pylons and the concrete fence posts (no actual fence though) belie the area’s industrial heritage, but that’s fine. I think the concrete posts work as well as weathered wooden ones would, and I’ve always got room in a photo for a pylon or two. 🙂

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

Taken on 27 January 2024

Waiting for a train

This picture was taken while I waited for my train to take me to a meeting in Leeds. It was the only picture I took that day but I do like this one. It has a nice tonality and plenty of leading lines to draw the eye into the picture.

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

Taken on 5 February 2024

Ozzy the bull

Ozzy the bull resides in the Grand Central hall at Birmingham’s New Street railway station. Weighing 2.5 tonnes and standing 10 metres tall, the animatronic bovine beast was first unveiled as part of the Commonwealth Games in 2022 before finding his new home after a major redesign and rebuild.

He’s named after Ozzy Osborne who hails from the city.

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

Taken on 20 January 2024

Minion

Walking through the Bullring shopping centre in Birmingham, my wife asked me why I was taking a picture of the roof…

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

Taken on 20 January 2024

Behold, the market

Another of my pictures, for reasons I can’t ascertain, that found its way into Flickr Explore.

Why do my better pictures never end up in there? I don’t dislike this one, but it’s very much a quick snap.

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

Taken on 20 January 2024

Fancy Silk Store

In a moment of synchronicity, a day or so after I posted this picture to Flickr, I saw the exact same location on an article on the TV news.

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

Taken on 20 January 2024