A moment of Welsh solitude

During my recent travels to Wales I spent a night staying in the village of Cilycwm. I arrived mid afternoon and decided to make the most of the day’s remaining light to take a short stroll around the village. To my surprise the village church was open so I wandered in and spent some quiet time there exploring its photographic possibilities.

For some reason I’m always drawn to solitary chairs…

A lovingly crafted cushion on one of the pews.

There had evidently been a wedding in the church within the last few days and it was lovely to see the small posies of flowers adorn the pews.

Photos taken 19 September 2024

The grandeur of Greenwich

Every so often my Dad and I enjoy a day out together in London, and we always find an interesting exhibition or a place to visit. Last month we decided to head east to Greenwich, to explore the historic buildings around the Old Royal Naval College.

We started off in the chapel, which is an absolute riot of colour and decoration. I could really have done with a wider angle lens to fully capture its grandeur, but that didn’t stop me finding some interesting scenes around the building.

From there we moved on to the Painted Hall, whose name perfectly describes what awaits visitors - every inch of the building is decorated with ornate friezes and even the panelling around the windows is painted to give the impression of ornately carved frames.

In the neighbouring Nelson Room, this beautiful pool of light caught my eye, catching the bench in a golden sunspot.

Photos taken 17 September 2024

Church light

With a few frames left on my roll of Ilford FP4+ after my jaunt to Portsmouth I found opportunities to finish them up in two churches I visited recently. The first came at Boxgrove Priory where I was giving a concert the following day. As Yat-Soon tuned his harpsichord I spent a few minutes looking for photos, unsure how well my little camera would fair in a dark church with ISO125 film. As it happens, the f2.8 lens did me proud!

The beautiful painted ceiling of Boxgrove Priory…

A few days later I made a fleeting visit to St John’s Church in Duxford - one of my favourite places for beautiful light combined with medieval architecture.

On this occasion the light was quite flat, but I did see a fleeting glimpse of the sun on the floor of the church…

Photos taken 3 July 2024

Portsmouth in monochrome

While I was in Portsmouth last month for the Big Film Photowalk I took a second a camera with me, loaded with black and white film, to shoot alongside the Rollei 35S I had loaded with Kodak Gold. This second camera is my all time best bargain when it comes to buying old film cameras - a Yashica Electro 35MC which I bought on eBay for the princely sum of £11.40 including postage! It works perfectly and has a lovely sharp f2.8 lens.

Rather than repeating the images I took in colour I kept my eyes open for scenes which better suited monochrome, like the silhouetted figures above.

Lazing on a sunny afternoon…

One of the stranger sights I saw - a rocking horse abandoned on a street corner!

Photos taken 29 June 2024