An occasional Photo Blog
A Misty morning and a bright, sunny afternoon. Local farmers are busily doing what local farmers do at this time of the year and local photographers are happily adjusting their toys to meet the challenging lighting conditions that make this time of the year so exciting.
Vic’s Blog posts have become somewhat scare recently the last entry being almost a month ago. Despite the motivation gained from the new camera there have been many reasons for not posting; bad weather, dark mornings and uninspiring evenings. Aha! what I need is a new project!
Being one of my favourite seasons and for want of a better idea the very original title ‘Autumn 2013’ sprang to mind. So, during the next month or so I hope to bring a few autumnal scenes.
My two weeks holiday is drawing quickly to a close and although the weather could have been better, it really was a most enjoyable couple of weeks. Thanks to the weather, various bits and pieces have been done around the house, and this week we even managed a couple of days in the black forest. A splendid place, and on the day of departure the sun shone brilliantly for several minutes. Today’s images seem to sum up the holiday quite well really…. very relaxing 🙂
The first time I saw these evening shadow on a nearby hillock I was walking the dog without a camera. The following days would have been perfect, but arriving at the spot too late I missed several opportunities because the sun was already far too low. Sunday evening would have been good, but a trace of cloud diffused the light and produced no shadows at all. Then, on Monday everything worked worked out well. These two pictures take within less than ten minutes of each other.
I’m sure nobody really cherishes the thought of living across the road from a building site, but at the time of writing it seems our pleasantly quiet agricultural village is being developed by people who seem set upon turning the place into a bustling hub, a commercial centre serving parishes for miles around,
Apart from building a multimillion pound something or other slap bang in the middle of the village for the benefit of all (it remains to be seen who exactly ‘all’ is) there are also two blocks of flats being built just across the road. Gone are the trees and flowers of the house opposite. Instead of bright early morning sunshine flooding the breakfast table I will have to get used to living in the shadows of some architect’s dream.
Arriving home from work last Wednesday it was yet another warm and sunny evening, so imagine by delight when wife suggested I could take the dog and perhaps have a pint on the way! Good idea! No sooner were the words uttered than I was seen scampering off through the woods heading towards the local beer garden.
“Always take your camera with you” That’s a phrase that can be read almost on a weekly basis in all those glossy photography magazines. Last Friday I realised what good sense those words really make. I was gazing lazily out of the morning train window at a truly beautiful sight. Through layers of morning mist, cows strolled casually about their field, silhouetted by the morning sunshine in the background. Truly fantastic! Of course my camera was sitting at home. Despite a very short Friday night I jumped out of bed bright and early on Saturday morning and eagerly made my way to the scene. Not a drop of mist in sight and the sun was hiding partly behind a scatter of clouds. I am assuming a moral to this story… If you can’t shoot a fantastic picture, fiddle with a mediocre one 😉
Those of us who were brought up on film can surely remember the excitement and indeed trepidation as we left the photo shop clutching an envelope full of freshly developed photos. What was on that film? Would they all have come out alright? Well, I experienced similar excitement just last week.
I think it was sometime in January 2013 that I plopped a roll of Ilford HP5 into my 30 year old Pentax ME Super. The big question was whether the camera would still work after many years shut away in a cupboard? As it happens the photos were OK, certainly nothing to shout about, but OK. I must confess I had, with few exceptions, completely forgotten what was on the film. It was therefore quite interesting, on hot Saturday afternoon in August, to be sent back in time to cold, bleak landscapes taken six months or so ago.
Compared with images taken on the little Yashica T5, the latest photos proved to be considerably more grainy, which I would expect from a 400ASA film, but most of them were a stop or two underexposed. This may perhaps be partly due to the fact that the film was several months past its ‘develop by’ date, and partly due to exposure errors on my part, It may even be that the old Pentax’s battery needs replacing or the metering system is not as reliable as it once was. Not to worry, The Gimp saved the day.
All the latest film images can be viewed at:
http://www.harding.ch/Gallery21/main.php?g2_itemId=1346
This evening’s weather didn’t produce the fascinating golden light which we’ve been used to recently, but nevertheless it it was pleasant enough for an after dinner stroll.
I’m still feeling my way around the K-30’s numerous settings and was delighted to capture the water mill movement despite the low light. Unfortunately the nights are drawing in at an alarming rate and the third photo was shot at quarter past nine and it was already dark. On the camera’s programme wheel there are two programmable ‘User’ settings which I find very useful. I have now set User1 to shoot Black & White with all the fine adjustments and yellow filter according to my taste and so a mere twiddle of the wheel finds me in B&W mode without having to fiddle about in the menu.
This last set of images heralds the end of the summer holidays and another completed holiday project. Five weeks of sunshine and lazy days doing very little. Although for me, like so many others, it has been five weeks of work as usual, I have nevertheless enjoyed the freely available empty seats in the train and the balmy summer evenings. It has been mainly during these evenings that I’ve been out and about with the camera. The light is steadily becoming more golden and shadows longer and longer.
