Alongside my digital camera I also shot a roll of film in one of my pinhole cameras during my visit to Long Melford Church. Normally I’d expect to be waiting several minutes for each image to exposure but on this occasion I’d taken a roll of Ilford Delta 3200 film with me. I wasn’t sure how grainy it would be, but it had the advantage of giving me exposure times of just a few seconds.
Click on any of the thumbnails to see them larger
When I first arrived the sun was shining, which gave me some lovely contrasts of light and shade. Sadly this didn’t last long, and after a few minutes the sky clouded over and we were treated to heavy snow instead!
One of the quirks of Holy Trinity, Long Melord is the Clopton tomb and chapel. One of the Clopton family, William, gave the nearby town of Hadleigh the money to build a Guildhall and some land for a market during the 16th century. In return all he expected was payment of a single rose each year. A rose has been ‘paid’ every year since 1536 and is thought to be the longest rental agreement in England. Sure enough, on the tomb I found a single red rose, which just had to be included in one of my photos.
Just before I left the church I spent a few minutes finishing up the roll of film which remained in my little Rollei 35S. I wasn’t sure whether I’d get away with shooting ISO400 film indoors, but a couple of the photos worked well and I was lucky enough to catch some of the sunshine outside as I arrived at the church.
9 December 2021