Cumberland Basin, July & August 2020

The photos here are from two separate visits to Cumberland Basin in Bristol, pretty much my favourite concrete place to photograph. The first, in July, was my first post-lockdown photographic trip out and was an all film affair - some of the shots are on the Hasselblad (mainly Fuji Acros, with a bit of Kodak Tri-X), while the others are from the Intrepid 5x4 large format (on Ilford Delta).These are fairly standard stuff, the sort of thing I take a lot of. For the second visit, at the end of August, I actually went out with a plan - I wanted to shoot a lot darker than normal, and to use shadow a lot more.I used the Fuji digital on manual mode (I'm normally on aperture-priority), and sometimes with an old Helios lens I bought. I also used my dad's old Pentax MX with some old Ilford Delta film. And I'm really pleased with what I took, it's quite different to what I...
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Arnos Vale, September 2020

Making the most of some time off work in September, combined with a relatively relaxed period of lockdown, I met a friend for a socially-distanced wander around Arnos Vale. It's been tidied up a lot since I first went there back in 2003, but there are still large areas that are heavily overgrown - it's a fascinating place, well worth a visit. The square ones here were taken on the Hasselblad, with Ilford XP2 film. ...
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Abbey House Gardens, August 2020

I visit Abbey House Gardens in Malmesbury most years, but this one was a bit different to the usual trips - I normally go to their clothes-optional days, and this was only the second time I've visited and kept my clothes on. As well as wanting to visit (and support) what is a rather lovely garden, they also had a sculpture exhibition on, which is something we've taken quite a liking to - see previous posts Quennington Fresh Air Sculpture and Quenington Fresh Air Sculpture, June 2019. Most of these were taken on my Fuji digital, but I was also shooting on slide film in the Hasselblad (the last one is from that) as well as some expired film in what was my dad's Pentax MX (a lovely all-manual SLR). The expired film thing was a bit of an experiment, not hugely successful if I'm honest. ...
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France 2019

We'd been to the same gite in SW France for the last 4 holidays, but this time we booked late and it wasn't available. The one we went for this time was a bit more expensive, but absolutely lovely - and huge for the two of us, given that it can accommodate 16 people!The gite was booked via Halcyon Leisure - we've booked with them since 2000. We really didn't do very much at all - I took a couple of trips out to take photos in Fumel and at Chateau Bonaguil, but that was about it apart from going out to buy food and wine. The first set of photos are from the gite, with a couple from one of the trips out. The second set are images of the sky.Disappointingly we didn't have many good sunsets at all - just in the last half of the second week. Mind you, the main reason for the lack of them was because there...
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Severn Beach 2019

The logical follow-on from Aust photos is Severn Beach - just along the Severn estuary, and another slightly bleak landscape. These were taken in March and April 2019, and are all on film - I probably went out and shot film more times than digital last year.These are a mix of 35mm (when I was testing my dad's Pentaxes), medium format (Hasselblad) and large format. You will notice one recurring subject - that tower, hugely photogenic. Well, for my definition of photogenic anyway.One on 35mm, one on medium format, one on large format! ...
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