Autumn 2021 part 1 – Blaise and Westbury Court

By shendyNo Comments
These two sets come from the tail end of the summer and early autumn. After the photos I took at Cumberland Basin at the end of April, I didn't take any photos (other than a few on my phone, mainly food) until the end of August when I forced myself out to Blaise Estate, which is only really at the end of the road but which I've hardly visited. This trip out was also an opportunity to try out my latest camera - an Agfa Synchro Box from the 1950s. 1 shutter speed, two aperture settings, a very simple lens and a basic viewfinder. To be honest, the results weren't great - these are the best two, and they're not much to write home about. Hazel Brook | Agfa Synchro Box, Catlabs 80 film St Mary's Church | Agfa Synchro Box, Catlabs 80 film The second set are from a trip to the Dutch water garden at Westbury Court, over on the other...
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Spring 2021

By shendyNo Comments
It would appear that I didn't blog any photos during 2021 - OK, I didn't take a lot (actually the fewest in a year since I switched to digital), but I do have some to share. I'll share three sets here from Spring 2021. First up are images from a stroll round parts of Westbury-on-Trym in March - down the side of Henbury Golf Club, and then to the church in Westbury-on-Trym village.These are all on film - my dad's old Pentax MX 35mm and my new Ondu Panoramic Pinhole camera, also 35mm. The colours in the panoramic pinhole aren't great, but in my defence it was the first roll of C41 I'd developed. The second set are from an April visit to Abbey House Gardens in Malmesbury, Wiltshire - somewhere I have visited many times over the years, but usually for their clothes-optional days. This was a "normal" visit - I wanted to go earlier in the year than usual, and also...
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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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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

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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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