St Michael and All Angel’s church

Another set of photos from Hathersage today but these are all of (and in the grounds of) St Michael and All Angel’s Church.

The church dates to the 14th century and sits on a hill just outside the centre of the village. Perhaps its main claim to fame is that the graveyard contains the alleged grave of Little John, companion of Robin Hood. His grave is Surrounded by a small iron fence and is notably long. Close by an old-fashioned coin parking meter is embedded in the earth to collect donations for the upkeep of the churchyard.

Sadly, my roll of film ran out before I had chance to photograph the grave, but you can see a picture on the Wikipedia page for the church and also for Little John himself.

Olympus XA3 & Ilford Delta 400 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 4 November 2022

Peak District houses

After developing some film this morning and then an afternoon spent putting the Christmas decorations up (a little earlier than usual this year) I’m ready to veg out (in the festive living room:)) and so am just going to bung up a load of photos from a visit to the Peak District a few weeks ago for today’s post.

Olympus XA3 & Ilford Delta 400 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 4 November 2022

Bakewell bridge and willow

The bridge that carries the A619 Baslow Road across the River Wye at Bakewell can be quite frustrating to photograph. It’s an attractive structure but, due to it carrying traffic on one of the main routes into and through the town, along with the popularity of the place as a tourist trap, it can be difficult to catch a moment where some vehicle isn’t raising it’s distracting head above the top of the walls. I’ve nearly managed to avoid it in the picture published here today. But not quite. If you look carefully there’s a van peeping into view. Not a bad picture though and I have almost the exact same composition to come in a future post, but this time on 6×45 and in colour.

Olympus XA3 & Ilford Delta 400 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 1 November 2022

Keep absolutely still. It’s vision is based on movement.

A few weeks ago my wife an I visited some local garden centres to see if they had their Christmas sections in place (they did, of course, it was late October – practically the big day already!). While wandering around the displays in one I spotted this festive T-Rex and the terrified snowman quaking in the background. The snowman was literally shivering – some mechanism causing it’s movement – and it amusingly reminded of the words spoken by Alan Grant in Jurassic Park when the T-Rex escapes its paddock.

I’m quite surprised the picture turned out ok – it wasn’t well lit in there and I have no control over the XA3’s shutter speed or aperture.

Olympus XA3 & Ilford Delta 400 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 31 October 2022

Save the Children

I’ve been away for a few days and scheduled a bunch of posts to auto-publish. Unfortunately I didn’t draft one for today, when I’ve just arrived home exhausted! So a very quick post today with a bit of street photography (the people that can be seen to the left of the frame are part of the march that I’ve posted images from over the past few days).

Olympus XA3 & Ilford Delta 400 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 1 October 2022

Enough is Enough – Gathering

At the end of the Enough is Enough march, the protestors and speakers gathered in front of the City Hall.

Olympus XA3 & Ilford Delta 400 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 1 October 2022

Country store (no more)

The light falling on this shopfront – a combination of contrasty tones and shadows from the trees to the left of frame – attracted me to make the picture. It’s a shame that the shop is not trading, but I guess that’s the way the country is changing. Demographically, villages like this are altering, and combined with that a change in shopping habits and the introduction of online shopping, means that trading conditions have become much more difficult for such stores. Hopefully it will re-emerge in some new guise.

Olympus XA3 & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.

Taken on 30 April 2022

Broken gate and crumbling wall

Two individual frames of the same scene here today. Both shots are opportunistic – I sometimes like to just go out in the car and drive along roads I’ve never travelled in the hopes of spotting something I think will make a good photo. The gate and the crumbling drystone wall in the field behind it were one such random find.

Sometimes such trips can reap dividends, sometimes they turn up dry or (potentially more disappointing) great shots but with nowhere to pull over and take the shot. But even the latter case still records an entry in the memory bank for a possible (better prepared) future visit.

Olympus XA3 & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.

Taken on 30 April 2022

Lines in the sky

It’s been a while since I posted a photo of powerlines on the blog, so let me rectify that…

There were two things that attracted me to this shot. The foreground and distant pole providing a sense of direction and travel through the scene were the first thing that caught my attention as I approached in the car. Then, after parking I noticed that the best angle to make the picture would also result in the contrail mirroring the track of the powerlines.

I don’t think the picture works as well as I thought it might, mostly because the foreground fence is a bit of a distraction. Unfortunately, given the focal length of the camera and the available places where I could position myself to take the shot meant I couldn’t avoid this. I tried cropping the fence out, but the result didn’t look right.

Olympus XA3 & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.

Taken on 30 April 2022

Edgefield Obelisk

This obelisk sits on the hillside above Low Bradfield. It covers a roadside spring and stands in memory of a child who drowned at the site in 1832. The shed behind the obelisk is connected but is a later addition.

Olympus XA3 & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.

Taken on 30 April 2022