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.