Almost four weeks ago I went out for a walk to get some fresh air and to try and clear myself of the cold I had (having read that light to moderate exercise could help). Being me I also took my Olympus Trip 35 with the intent of finishing the half-shot roll it held. The latter task was achieved. The cold-curing part didn’t work out so well and I had to take a couple of sick days, although I think that would still have been the case had I not gone for the walk. Even now I still have the cough and don’t expect to see tha back of it any time soon.
At least I got some photos, including the two shared here today. The first is the wooded area below the crags of Birchen edge, and I think this picture has turned out very nicely. The second was taken after I climbed atop the edge. On the edge of the rocks can be seen Nelson’s monument, a three metre high gritstone obelisk that was erected in 1810 to commemorate Admiral Nelson. The three large boulders to the right of the image are called the Three Ships, named after Nelson’s ships: Victory, Defiance and Royal Soverin, each of which has their name carved into one of the outcrops.
Yesterday I posted about my encounter with what I thought was a wallaby. It actually turns out that it was a kangaroo!
After posting about it on social media, one of my friends alerted me to the fact that someone living not far from where I’d sighted the animal had reported their pet kangaroo missing. There were a whole series of photos of the creature spotted in various locations around the local area. The kangaroo is named Duncan.
Thankfully, by the end of the day he had been found and reunited with his owner, who I assume will now be re-visiting the security of Duncan’s enclosure.
As is becoming a bit of a habit, here are some photos that bear no relation to my story whatsoever…
The weather forecast over the past few days has been forecasting fog and mist for this morning, so I made pland to try and go out and do a bit of photography. I’m a big fan of misty conditions but don’t see them as often as I like – mostly because I’m at work five days out of every seven, and my luck dictates that it’s generally during those days that the mist will appear. I put little trust in weather forecasting apps any more – I’ve been let down by them constantly – so treat whatever they say with a large dose of skepticism, but today they were spot on and I awoke to a lovely misty morning.
I decided to head out to the Moss Valley and walk from Eckinton up in the direction of Ford as I figured there would be plenty of woodlandy scenes to take advantage of, with the added bonus of it only being about ten minutes drive away. I had the GW690 with me, loaded with a roll of HP5+ that I rated at 1600asa, plus a roll of Kodak Gold. In the end I shot both rolls (although one of the HP5+ shots was lost as the shutter button must have been accidentally fired while in my camera bag). It was good to get out on a lovely morning, everything coated in thick frost and with a beautiful soft mist adding further atmosphere.
The most memorable thing wasn’t photography rated at all though, it was this…
While walking along a path between two rows of trees I suddenly saw what I first thought was a kangaroo come bounding around a curve and along the path towards me! It spotted me and froze, sitting in the position you see it in above (please excuse the poor quality – it’s a grab from some zoomed in phone video). A face off then took place with us both wondering what the other would do until, after a couple of minutes, I decided to move forwards. After a few steps it turned tail and hopped back up the path and out of sight again.
I felt quite elated by the experience. It’s nice to come across wildlife while you’re out and about, but to spot something that is so alien to the local environment is quite the thing to witness. I expect that it’s a wallaby rather than a kangaroo (although I’m no expert) and I know that there are some wallaby populations here in the UK that have evolved from captive animals escaping and going feral but, as far as I know, there are none in our local area. Perhaps it was another escaped captive, or maybe one of the existing wild groups has expanded its territory or something? Whatever the case, it made my day. 🙂
Again, apropos of nothing, here’s a picture I took in the Peak District a few weeks ago. There were no wallabys to be seen.
Eagle-eyed viewers might recognise this scene (and tree) as the same one that I attempted to photograph on large format film. Recognising that there would be a chance that my 4×5 picture might not work out, I took the opportunity to photograph it with the Olympus Trip 35 I also had with me. In fact, while my large format camera took up the bulk of the gear I was carrying, it was finishing the roll of HP5+ in the Trip that was my primary goal.
A couple of weeks into the new year and I’ve almost run out of new pictures to publish on the blog. This happens from time to time and isn’t really a problem as I have loads of photos that have never appeared here before, so it’s not like I’ll run dry or have to start repeating images or anything. Nonetheless it bothers me. I like to have a stream of new pictures, mostly due to the weird way my brain works and puts internal pressure on me to do things that, at the end of the day, really aren’t that important. I doubt a lack of newly shot pictures on my blog will make front page news.
I have a roll of Delta 400 in my Yashicamat 124G with four frames left to shoot. If I manage to do that, then I can develop and scan the full roll at the weekend and keep the fresh photo express on the tracks. I also have a couple of 4×5 large format sheets to develop, but I’m wary as to how succesful they might be as photographs until they’re scanned. If all goes well that should give me enough pictures to keep me going another week, but I’ll be in the same position of self-imposed stress about it by the following weekend. Sheesh!
Is anyone else crazy like me?
Apropos of nothing, here’s a picture of some power lines…
Narrow lanes like this can be a frustrating place for photographers. You’ll be driving along them and suddenly see an amazing composition only to realise that there’s nowhere to pull over and make a picture. This road does have pull-ins in a few places, hence my ability to have taken this photo, but I’ve had situations in the past where there is nowhere to stop at all and the picture is effectively lost without a very long walk.
I had a similar situation today when I went out at lunchtime to try and shoot a few frames while the weather was good. I saw a scene that I really liked but there was nowhere to stop. There were a few passing places that I could have used, but had I done so my usual bad luck would have resulted in a farmer coming down the lane in a tractor or something and the resultant awkwardness as I had to remove the roadblock I’d created. And so I missed the picture.
A couple of duplicate photos today. Duplicates in terms of the subject matter, at least.
I shot both these same locations on my Yashicamat 124G on the same outing but, because I’d forgotten my tripod plate, had to shoot them handheld and wasn’t comfortable that they would be free from shake (or that the wide apertures I’d used might spoil the images). So I took the same shots with my Olympus Trip as well.
You can see the original medium format versions of the images here and here.
Two similar, but still different views of Blackpool Tower today.
Apologies for a brief post today – I’ve been out to do some photography this afternoon and it turned out to be a dissapointing experience. Things went wrong and I ended up making mistakes and feeling annoyed and sorry for myself as a result. And now I have a headache. 😦
I’ll probably provide details of the events in another post (assuming some of the photos turn out ok..).
The Big One was, for a couple of years, the tallest and steepest rollercoaster in the world. It opened in 1994 and was 213 feet tall. It has since been surpassed by a considerable margin with the current world’s tallest rollercoaster being over twice as tall at a stomach-churning 465 feet (Kinda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, USA).
The Big One was branded as the Pepsi Max Big One until 2011.
I’ve ridden on it once, about twenty years ago, when I went on it with one of my sons. It was a great experience riding it, but not the most comfortable of rides. Not as terrifying as the Wild Mouse ride that also used to be present in the Pleasure Beach.
A couple of shots showing the Sandcastle Waterpark at Blackpool, the UK’s largest indoor waterpark. It houses multiple attractions including the Masterblaster – the world’s longest rollercoaster waterslide. I wasn’t aware that such a thing even existed before writing this post! You can see a video of someone riding on it here on Youtube. I expect that the waterpark is a lot of fun but I’ve never been inside.
I’m not sure that my two black and white photos do the place justice, them making it look like a cross between an industrial plant and something constructed by the Empire from Star Wars!
The structure to the right of the first image is The Big One, the tallest rollercoaster at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. I may publish some more pictures of that tomorrow..
Steel City Snapper photography 