Out and about in Duxford and beyond

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.

Last Christmas

One of the quirks of film photography is that delay between taking pictures and seeing the developed negatives. I’m able to minimise this by developing my black and white film at home now, but colour films still have to be sent off.

Over Christmas I popped a roll of colour film in one of my pinhole cameras to take some festive long exposures and I finally completed the roll a couple of weeks ago. The negatives arrived back while I was away in Somerset so I’ve only just had an opportunity to scan them and see how my experiments turned out. Two of them were long exposures of our festive meals, on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

I took a pair of similar photos as we unwrapped our Christmas presents on the two days - one from a high vantage point and one from a much lower perspective.

My final experiment features some of the baubles on the Christmas tree, albeit with a twist. I made a double exposure, with a change of composition between the two shots so the final image shows both views. Making double exposures is an unpredictable affair, but I’m pleased with the way this one has turned out - enough to encourage me to have a go with some different subjects in future.

Photos taken 25 & 26 December 2022

Glancing back

Although we’re now firmly into 2023 I still haven’t share all my photos from 2022. This final set is a collection of pinhole images from a visit to West Wittering beach on the afternoon of Christmas Eve.

Having spent the morning in the dark confines of the yew trees at Kingley Vale it was great to be out on the open beach, with more light to play with. I’d come armed with my wellies so I could be fairly brave in how close I got to the waves, and I just avoided the water overtopping by boots.

A closer look at the structure of the groynes

This flag warns off would be swimmers but I don’t think there would have been too many that day!

Getting down low among the marram grass.

I’ve often wondered what these posts set into the beach are for - I’m no closer to finding the answer!

Click on any image to see them enlarged.

Photos taken 24 December 2022

Photos as slow as nature

Following on from the digital photos from my Christmas Eve visit to Kingley Vale I can now share the pinhole images I took that day. Pinhole photography is a slow process at the best of times, but in the low dark spaces beneath the ancient yew trees some of my photos seemed to take almost as long as the trees did to grow!

I had a feeling the creeping forms of these trees might be a great subject for the otherworldly look of pinhole photography and I think my gut instinct was right. I’d be interested to see the same trees with some low, raking winter sun, but the overcast conditions were almost certainly easier to manage from a photographic point of view.

Click on any image to see it enlarged.

The ground was pretty bare beneath the trees but this fern caught my eye as an ideal subject for some close up photography.

My favourite tree is definitely this one, whose branches stretch endlessly outwards.Even my super-wide angle pinhole camera couldn’t encompass its full reach!

Photos taken 24 December 2022

A month ago today...

If I’m out about about exploring I’ll often see if there’s a redundant church nearby. After my visit to Bury St Edmunds, a month ago, I discovered St Mary’s in the Suffolk village of Icklingham. By now the sun was beginning to drop in the sky and that gave me some beautiful light inside.

I loaded a roll of film into my pinhole camera and set myself the task of finding sufficient subjects to photograph so I could develop it when I got home. I often find 35mm film rather overwhelming as it’s rare for me to find 36 subjects to photograph in one place. The 12 frames on a roll of 120 film is perfect though - just right for an afternoon’s project.

Church music…

Glorious winter sun catching the screen in front of the sanctuary.

By the altar - yet more irresistible light

I presume this cart was used for bearing coffins.

Getting really to the pulpit to capture some of the beautifully ornate carving.

One final image, including the texture of the north door…

Photos taken 25 November 2022

Away from the chaos of the Christmas Market

When I visited the Christmas Market in Bury St Edmunds last month I was rather surprised to find most of the stalls inside the Cathedral. The resulting scrum of people didn’t inspire me to loiter for long, so instead I walked down the Street to St Mary’s - the other church which was considered when the town’s Cathedral was being chosen.

I’ve always found more photographic inspiration inside St Mary’s than in the cathedral - it has so many fascinating details. Although it’s quite a dark building, with lots of deep hued woodwork, the sun was shining today and that helped me as I sought out pinhole images which wouldn’t require massively long exposure times.

One of the fiercer characters I found in the choir.

I found this chap loyally guarding his master’s feet on a tomb.

Photos taken 25 November 2022

Exploring without wheels

Last month I took my car into Saffron Walden for its annual service and knowing I’d have an hour or two to kill, I wandered down into the town for a mooch with my pinhole camera.

I had no fixed ideas about what I might photograph, although I had a feeling I might find myself drawn to the church at some point as I’ve always had good results in St. Mary’s. My first discovery was this rather impressive cast iron bridge, crossing a rather unimpressive small stream!

Sure enough, eventually I ended up in St Mary’s, where I happily pottered around for half an hour.

Photos taken 25 November 2022

North east tour

A work engagement in Middlesbrough in October gave me the chance to take my pinhole camera on a little photographic tour, taking photos on my travels. I began with a few photos from York Station as I waited an hour between trains. I was travelling light, with just my little table top tripod so I had to get creative, using my suitcase to prop it up, or going for a station mouse’s eye view!

From there I went to Scarborough where I took a stroll down the promenade and along to the lighthouse, which presented lots of lovely pinhole opportunities.

I almost got soaked for this one - just a second or two after I stepped away the waves came right over where I’d just been sitting!

Marina views and some spectacular sun flare.

Finally, on Sunday morning my friend Sandra took me to see the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough before I caught my train home. It’s not working at the moment, so I was able to position my camera right in the middle of the road to capture this vertiginous view.

Photos taken 7-9 October 2022

Exploring Kings Cross

There are occasions when my work presents me with opportunities to fit in some photography along the way. On Saturday I’d allowed extra time to get into London in case of problems resulting from the train strike that day so I took a pinhole camera along in the hope that I may get a little extra time if all went well. My final destination was a church not far from Kings Cross Station, so I took the opportunity tovisit both Kings Cross and St Pancras Stations, as well as some other local sights.

At St Pancras I realised I’d forgotten the tool for removing my tripod plate so I couldn’t use my table top tripod (which doesn’t need a plate). Normally it works loose spontaneously, but of course today it was stuck fast, refusing to move so much as a millimetre! Fortunately I’d brought a back up solution so I spent the rest of the morning using my small beanbag to wedge my camera in interesting spots!

The image above is a close up of the huge statue which stands on the concourse at St Pancras. A passing security guard thought perhaps my little wooden box was a radio and was rather surprised to learn it was actually a camera!

Moving next door to Kings Cross Station, I found a large cinema screen in exactly the spot I’d hope to place my camera, so I improvised, and went behind the stations lattice structure. I can’t help feeling the photo has probably turned out better as a result!

The view from the upstairs gallery, with my camera held firmly against the handrail with my trusty beanbag.

A ten minute walk took me to the Coal Drops Yard area just north of Kings Cross, beside the Regents Canal. The cold weather we’ve had for the last ten days had frozen much of the canal and I managed to find a bridge on which to rest my camera.

The old gas holders here have been turned into a framework for luxury apartments and I couldn’t resist resting my camera at the base of one of the pillars to capture the framework above me.

Down by the canal again, looking for details I could get really close to. One of the canal trust volunteers watched me with much curiosity as I crouched down to take this one and we had a chat about it afterwards!

One of the gas holders has been left as a framework surrounding a public garden area, It’s circled with long mirrored posts so I tried a hand held self portrait of my reflection - my camera even made it into the photo!

A final look back at the gas holders before I headed off to do my afternoon’s work.

Photos taken 17 December 2022

A quiet moment at St John's

Periodically I return to St John’s Church in Duxford as it’s a building which always has something to offer for my camera. On this occasion I had a couple of frames of film left in my pinhole camera so it seemed like a good place to use them up.

The light is always changing in St John’s - no two days look quite the same.

Photos taken September 2022