Large Format Photography

By shendyNo Comments
Is this the end? I started with my large format camera in mid-2016, having ordered an Intrepid 5x4 on the back of their Kickstarter campaign in late 2014.It's a beautiful bit of kit - I even have a black cloth to put over my head while I focus it. No exploding hand-held flash though. Large format was one of those things that had been at the back of my mind for a long time as I experimented with photography, but it was always way out of reach because the cameras were so expensive - Intrepid changed that. I hadn't shot much film beyond a little bit of pinhole work for several years, but I couldn't resist when I saw the Intrepid Kickstarter - it was only £130 on the original offer, although they are now £280 now, on the 4th version of it. OK, I had to buy a lens as well (I eventually bought a second), and I had buy some...
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2020 Bits and Pieces

By shendyNo Comments
This is just a small selection of other photos taken during the year - for obvious reasons I didn't get out much. The one of the SS Great Britain was actually taken at the end of December 2019, the same day as I photographed Ezku (see Ezku – December 2019) - and is actually processed a lot less than you might think. The next two were just particularly nice sunsets I saw walking from work to the bus stop in January and February. I haven't even seen the office since the 16th March... The lilac was photographed in next door's garden, the squirrel on the fence just outside the living room window. Then two from archery, which was open long enough to have a Halloween special. The last one isn't by me - it's of me. In February I ticked off something from the bucket list by going to a life drawing class. As a model.One of the artists, Lila, very kindly gave me her...
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Clevedon Marine Lake, September 2020

By shendyNo Comments
The photos here are from two separate visits to photograph the seawater swimming lake in Clevedon, just a few days apart. I wasn't happy with the results from the first visit, so actually went back and had another go. We visited the lake last summer (see Clevedon & Portishead, June 2019), when I realised that it would be perfect for some long exposures - so having some time off work in September, I decided to give it a go. I specifically avoided a sunny day, as that wouldn't work so well. One other thing I had to do was make sure that the swimmers knew I wasn't taking photos of them - it's a public space so you can just pitch up and take photos. I made it clear to everyone that I wasn't photographing them and was using long exposures - it actually made for a few conversations as people were interested in the film cameras and the technique. The first set...
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Purton Hulks, September 2020

By shendyNo Comments
I'd only been to the Purton Hulks once before, on a bitterly cold December day in 2017, so visiting on a warm September day was a bit of a change.Basically, the spit of land between the River Severn and the Sharpness/Gloucester Canal was shored up in the 1950s with a number of boats and barges, which have decayed over the decades - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purton_Hulks It's a fascinating location, definitely worth a visit. These are a mix of digital and film, with the film being taken on the Hasselblad. I tried a new film - Lomography Metropolis, which had been recommended to me as something with de-saturated colours. It's lovely stuff, but not cheap. I realised when I looked for a link to the 2017 shots that I'd never blogged them - so here's a selection....
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Newport Transporter Bridge, September 2020

By shendyNo Comments
I had been vaguely aware of Newport Transporter Bridge for a fair while, but for some reason it popped up in my Instagram feed during the summer, so I decided to head over for a look during September. It was lucky that I did, as I was there only a week or two before it closed - and that might be for a couple of years, as they are going to be refurbishing it. And what a spectacular thing it it, very much the sort of industrial thing I like to photograph.Even better, you can walk across the top - the steps up weren't too bad, and the walk across was quite something....
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