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The summer air show season seems a long while ago now, but I was lucky enough to attend one of the flying displays at Duxford at the end of August. The grey skies didn’t exactly offer perfect conditions for aviation photography, but I caught a few of the aircraft in flight - in particular the Blenheim and one of the Spitfires.
Photos taken 31 August 2024
A glimpse of St John's from one of the village's prettiest gardens.
Back in July a free afternoon coincided with the Open Gardens weekend in Duxford, so I took the opportunity to go exploring. It was a lovely chance to see some corners of the village which are rarely open to the public and a spot of slowish photography seemed in order. Instead of going digital I took my Uncle’s Rolleiflex camera, loaded with Kodak Gold 200 film. Composing with this camera is always a challenge as the scene in the viewfinder is a mirror image of real life - a great way to slow me down as I figure out what should be placed where in each frame!
One of Duxford's many secluded footpaths...
Somewhere for two to relax in the vicarage garden
One of my favourite churches - St. John's.
Photos taken 20 July 2024
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
I made my first visit to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford today, after a long absence. I’d hoped to be able to train my camera towards the skies, testing the new model’s tracking abilities on aircraft in flight. Sadly the sky was full of white, puffy clouds but not planes. Instead I simply photographed what interested me and these two images were my favourites from the afternoon. They may not share a common colour palette but one thing they do have in common is their purpose - portals through which aircraft scale to head off into the skies. I’ve always loved the architecture of the old hangars at Duxford, but there was something irresistible about the way the light was catching these elegant wooden doors.
The metal doors to one of the more recent hangars are more industrial in nature, but their weatherbeaten metal was positively glowing in the sunshine and addition of a red tractor and yellow trailer made a colour combination I just couldn’t pass up!
Photos taken 29 March 2024
One blustery day in July we joined a group of friends from our local camera club for a photo day at Duxford’s Imperial War Museum, exploring some of the commercial aircraft. What a fascinating day it proved to be. Our tour guides had a tremendous knowledge of the aircraft and their history and we were allowed free reign to stick our lenses into every nook and cranny of them!
I found myself fascinated by the smaller details, especially on the flight decks where there were lots of atmospherically lit corners.
Kevin’s grandfather worked for Airspeed during World War II so we had to have a photo of Kevin beside the Airspeed Ambassador, even if it was a bit blowy!
The view from the navigator’s seat…
Enjoying the pilot’s seat
Many of the aircraft had been decorated with period features, such as crockery for the in flight refreshments.
Aboard one of the Queen’s personal aircraft
Buttons and dials everywhere on the flight deck of Concorde.
Photos taken 21 July 2023
It’s been a long while since I had a proper chance to test my aviation photography skills but late in July one of the flying displays at Duxford coincided with some a dry day. The sky was grey but with some texture in the clouds and this set off the colours of the aircraft well.
Photographing aircraft in flight is always a balancing act. You want a slow enough shutter speed to capture some movement in the propellers, but if you go to slow it becomes difficult to keep the camera still enough for a sharp photo. I usually begin with a faster shutter speed and then gradually reduce this as I get back into practice with my panning skills.
A trio of different Spitfires…
Spooling up for take off.
Happy landings.
The Mustang ‘Miss Helen’ readying herself for the skies
Photos taken 29 July 2023
It’s often said that the best camera is the one you have with you. I almost always tend to have a camera in my bag, but I know for most people the one they have to hand is their smartphone. I recently agreed to teach a short workshop on smartphone photography at St. John’s Church, Duxford, so it only seemed sensible to do visit this lovely church again and do some more practical research on the subject.
I wanted to create a selection of photos I could print and share with my students to show what’s possible with a phone camera. I’ve learnt a lot while preparing for the workshop and, even with my basic iPhone, the camera is capable of much more than I realised before.
To try and tell a story about the church I looked for smaller details to photograph too.
You can always rely on St John’s for beautiful shafts of sunlight.
I made prints of all the photos I’ve shared here, but I made the finally one into an A3 sized print to show what a phone camera is capable of producing.
Photos taken 19 April 2023
While visiting St John’s Church in Duxford recently I took the opportunity to finish off the roll of Kodak Portra 400 film I had left in my pinhole camera from Christmas. When I arrived the sky was cloudy but those clouds swiftly parted, allowing sunlight to flood into the church - what a wonderful sight!
These shafts of sunlight threw some beautiful pools of light onto the floor and walls of the church - such a magical effect.
Click on any image to see it enlarged.
Photos taken 27 January 2023
A couple of weeks ago I visited St John’s Church in Duxford once again, this time with two of my pinhole cameras in my bag. I started in the church, using my large format camera to capture some beautiful views of the way the light falls on this wonderful ancient building.
I also took a view of the exterior, although unfortunately it features a curious smudge - I can only assume it’s a quirk created by a problem with that particular darkslide containing the sheet film. One of the joys of film photography - you never quite know when it’ll go wrong!
From there I decided to take a stroll around the rest of the village, using my 6x9 camera to photograph sights which caught my eye.
Click on any image to see it enlarged.
A brace of self portraits - one as I enjoyed lunch in the local cafe, and the second in one of the village’s many handy footpaths.
With a few frames of film left over I departed Duxford and went in search of somewhere to use them up. I was surprised and delighted to find a ford crossing a quiet lane near Hinxton.
Soon after I stopped there a car went racing through the water, creating a spectacular bow wave. That made me realise a passing vehicle could make a good pinhole photo so I set up my tripod out of reach of any splash and mounted my large format camera. Ten or fifteen minutes later no more cars had come through so I was about to give up when as Sainsburys delivery lorry camera along the road. He slowed down by me and I noticed his window was open so asked if he might be willing to hang on for a few seconds so I could set my tripod up again. He kindly agreed and when he slowly drove through the water I opened my shutter. The result isn’t as dramatic as the other car, but his cautious technique probably allowed me to capture a greater sense of movement.
Eventually I ended up in the village of Hinxton where the low winter sun was illuminating the church beautifully. I used my final sheet of large format film to capture this and then headed inside. There I managed just one successful image before the sun dropped below the nearby buildings so I took that as my cue to head home after a successful day’s photography.
Photos taken 27 January 2023.
Alongside the pinhole photos I shared from St John’s yesterday, I spent some time using my digital camera for a different view.
Click on any image to see them enlarged.
The play of light in St John’s is always beautiful
A small detail I’ve never noticed before - coat pegs!
Photos taken 25 September 2022
