Small scenes

We enjoyed a short break in north Norfolk recently and while we were there ticked off a National Trust property that’s been on my ‘must visit’ list for a long while - Felbrigg Hall. I tend to visit stately homes without a pre-planned agenda, photographically speaking. Sometimes I’ll be taken by wide, sweeping shots of the architecture, while on other occasions it’ll be the smaller details which draw me in. On this occasion most of my photos fall into the latter category.

More often than not it’s the light that draws me in, as it falls on something photogenic or creates a lovely contrast of light and shadow. Felbrigg was full of such corners and Kevin ended up having to wait for me to catch up as I kept getting waylaid by interesting photo opportunities.

Click on any of the photos to see them larger.

I’m always drawn to libraries, and this one even had a private room with a chamber pot!

Photos taken October 2022

Accompanied by bells…

Today’s post is a collection of photos I took more recently. The day after the Queen died I travelled down to Sussex for work and stopped on the way at the Tuxlith Chapel at Milland. This tiny chapel was outgrown by its congregation and a new, larger church was built right next door during the 19th century. When I arrived, the bells were tolling for the Queen in this Victorian building, offering a very atmospheric mood in which to photograph the chapel next door.

A window on the world…

Photos taken on 9th September 2022

Going solo

After my darkroom workshop with Andrew Bartram back in April I was keen to put my new founding film developing skills into practice. About ten days later I took myself off to Audley with my pinhole camera to take some photos, with the intention of developing them when I got home.

I found plenty of photographic inspiration and had no difficulty in completing the 12 shots on my roll of film. Once I was home I light proofed our our downstairs toilet with the blackout cloth I’d bought for the job. As a room with no windows it’s only a case of sealing the tiny slivers if light which sneak in around the door - the perfect darkroom! Loading the film took a couple of attempts but once it was done I spent half hour at the kitchen sink developing, fixing and rinsing my negatives.

When the film emerged from my developing tank I was very relieved to find I had photos, but disappointed to discover I’d made a bit of a horlicks of loading the film on the spiral. It had stuck together in a couple of places, so a handful of the shots were lost. Just as well I’d gone somewhere I can easily return to in order to recreate the same photos another time!

Overall I’m pleased with the results though and since then I’ve been careful to make sure I don’t make the same mistake. Even better, each roll of film costs me about a fifth of what I was paying to have them developed commercially so that leaves me more cash to buy film!

Photos taken on 14 April 2022

Revisiting Northern Ireland

Hot on the heels of my pinhole photos from our Northern Ireland holiday, I’m back with my digital images. I travelled light for this trip, taking just my little Fuji X100V, which has a fixed 23mm lens. Some people might find this limiting but I’ve known for a long while that I ‘see’ best with a prime lens - it just makes me work harder to seek out compositions.

My photographic explorations began before we’d even left England, taking a few photos from my seat on our aeroplane, including a view of Hatfield Forest as we took to the skies.

Our first view of Northern Ireland - so green!

When we arrived we went for a jaunt around Castlerock, the village where we were staying and after a rainy start the sun came out!

The next morning we explored Portstewart, where we found some great street art, including a small painting which may or not be a Banksy…

A duo of digital images from the Mussenden Temple to complement the pinhole photos I took there. It’s amazing to think that once upon a time you could drive a horse and carriage right round this building!

Looking across the harbour at Port Rush

My main photographic focus at the Giant’s Causeway was my pinhole images, but I did take a few digital photos on our walk from the visitors’ centre.

Towards the end of our holiday we visited Derry City but chose to take the train rather than driving. The views across the river estuary were glorious so I took some minimalist photos of the landscape as it whizzed past the train window.

One of Derry’s most striking landmarks is the Peace Bridge, crossing the River Foyle which runs through the centre of the city. I love its curvaceous lines - so photogenic.

The Peace Bridge, crossing the River Foyle in Derry

While the lines of the Peace Bridge seemed to call for a monochrome treatment the rest of Derry was too vivid for me to remove the colour!

On our last day we took a diversion to the Titanic museum in Belfast. Such a wonderful structure and it was astonishing to see SS Nomadic, a tender which ferried some of the passengers to the Titanic when it moored just outside Cherbourg Harbour.

Photos taken in June 2022

Northern Ireland in slow motion

Back in June we flew over to Northern Ireland for a holiday and for the first time in nearly three decades I took a film camera with me. I chose to take my little wooden 6x6 pinhole camera - about as simple a machine as you can use for image making. Getting the film to our destination was a tad stressful, not knowing whether the scanning machines at security would be old fashioned X-rays (which are ok with slower film) or the newer CT scanners, which will wipe your film before it’s even been developed! Fortunately all was well and the fact that you’re seeing my photos means they made it through unscathed.

The beautiful sand dunes at Portstewart Strand

Our destination was a cottage on the north coast, at Castlerock, which gave us endless places to visit along the coastline. One of our early ports of call was Portstewart Strand, a beautiful sandy beach, with dunes stretching as far as the eye can see.

Just a couple of miles from our cottage was the charming Mussenden Temple, a Georgian gem. Once upon a time it stood far enough inland that it was possible to drive a horse and carriage right around its circumference. With coastal erosion this is now far from possible and one wonders whether it will ultimately fall into the sea, or perhaps steps will be taken to dismantle the Temple and move it away from the precipice.

On the same site, but further inland stands Downhill House, another Georgian building which hasn’t survived as well as the Temple. During World War II it was used to house RAF servicemen and women, but all that remains today is a shell - it’s amazing how quickly a building can be reclaimed by nature if it’s left untouched.

Kevin kindly loitered in the doorway to create a human silhouette for me here

One of the places at the top of our ‘must visit’ list was, of course, the Giant’s Causeway. I’ve seen countless images of these amazing basalt columns but it was even better to see them firsthand. I took a leap of faith and used only my pinhole camera to photograph the causeway, trusting that the slowish exposure times would blur or remove many of the tourists. I’m so pleased I did as the resulting photos are more atmospheric and characterful than anything I could have made with a digital camera. Naturally, I received some curious looks from the other tourists as I climbed around the rocks with a wooden box atop my tripod, but I’m used to that now!

Do click on the thumbnails to see these larger - it’s worth it!

A Giant’s Causeway selfie with a difference - we had to remain as still as possible for ten seconds!

Views of the Causeway from our walk back to the visitor centre…

My final pinhole location of the holiday was the magical Dunluce Castle, just a few miles west of the Causeway. Standing on a rocky outcrop and reached by a bridge, it’s astonishing that building such an impressive structure here was possible in the early 16th century. It must have been an imposing sight in its heyday but today it remains as a decaying shell.

Photos taken in June 2022

The drama of Bosham

There are some types of light which just cry out to be photographed in black and white - particularly sunny winter’s days. When I visited Bosham back in February there was low winter sun in abundance, creating a glorious contrast of light and shadow in the church.

This sort of light is guaranteed to get my photographic juices flowing and everywhere I looked the church was bathed in a wonderful glow.

Click on any of the images to see them larger.

As I walked back through the churchyard to the car a couple more small scenes caught my eye, also enhanced by the winter sun.

Photos taken 25 February 2022

The colours of Llandovery

It’s been a long while since I posted anything here but I’m back! Over the coming days and weeks I plan to catch up on posting some of the photos I’ve taken this year. I’ve been out there with a camera, but my working life now includes so much more time on the computer for my music work that sitting down to write blog posts in the evenings has had less appeal. Of course, there’s no reason why I can’t let the photos speak for themselves a little more though and I’m keen to have an outlet for my images beyond Instagram. So let’s get started!

A couple of weeks ago I was back in mid-Wales for a music course and I was able to steal a morning of me time with my camera. Getting anywhere in Wales seems to take at least an hour so rather than heading for a big destination I stayed local and went into Llandovery. I had no specific idea what I was going to take photos of but gradually a theme emerged - colour. Even on a grey day Llandovery is quite a vivid place - lots of painted house in every colour of the rainbow so I simply followed my nose and snapped whatever took my fancy.

Looking back on my images, there are ones which stand alone, and others which seem to naturally fall into sets according to their colour palette so I’ve decided to share them that way here. Any of the thumbnail images will come up larger on your screen if you click on them so I hope you enjoy the colours of Llandovery!

Perhaps this one doesn’t quite fit the colour theme, but I was curious about the story behind the banner over what appears to be a private driveway!

Colour and texture…

Who can resist a brightly coloured front door?

Photos taken 14 October 2022