Future Gateway

Happy new year to you! I must start off today with an apology; unfortunately the internet went down for both Bex and I yesterday, and despite our best efforts we were unable to upload a post for you, so we both hope that you accept our apology. Now down to the photography.

As it is new years day and people are making resolutions for the new year ahead I thought I should upload a photo that could relate to this. This photo wasn’t taken today but instead I took it a few weeks back. Bex and I were out on a walk and we went past this gateway, I liked the composition with the tree so I used an aperture of F7.1 to keep an adequate depth of field.

When I came back to this photo while looking for one to upload, I thought that it would be perfect. I think that the gateway resembles the new year and the field behind it resembles our expectations and resolutions for the new year. This photo is exactly what I was looking for today’s upload; I believe this summarises the concept of the new year resolution perfectly.

Bex and I hope that you all have a very happy new year and if you’ve made a new year resolution, we hope that you stick to it!

Happy new year

Mat

Old Barn

To make a change away from all the festival photos that we’ve been showing I thought I would upload a photo that I took a while ago. This one is from one of our holidays away together, when we had gone for one of short wanders.

We had walked down a country road for a short while when we past a small farm yard. The land owner saw us walking along the road with our cameras and we got talking, after a while he let us take some photos around his yard. When I saw this old cow shed, the composition was perfect so I had to take a photo. I thought it would look interesting if I took it in sepia. To improve the composition I used a small aperture (F11), by doing this it means that the whole scene is in focus. I also underexposed the photo to introduce a moodier atmosphere.

While editing the photo I decided leave the photo exactly as it was. I think the photo came out just right. The composition is exactly how I wanted it and the sepia effect suites the scene perfectly.

I haven’t uploaded any black and white/sepia photos for a while. The next time I’m out I think I shall sneak in some black and white photos. I really love the effect of black and white photography, and I shall do some more when I next get a chance.

Mat

All In A Row

This is (yet) another photo from the country fayre I went to. I found this photo, and fortunately it had an artistic side to it. It shows one of my main interests quite well! I spent quite a long time just walking up and down all the vintage tractors looking at each one individually.

Instead of taking a photo of every tractor I took one of a whole row of them; I thought it might be a bit more arty. I used a narrow aperture (F16) to ensure that most of the scene was in focus. I actually focused on the Fordson Major (the blue tractor for the less knowledgeable), so this ensured that almost all of the tractors are in focus. There was plenty of sunshine about so I didn’t need to worry about the shutter speed.

The only editing I did to the photo was to crop down the top of the frame. I didn’t edit anything else because I was happy with how the photo had been exposed. And the overall effect was spot on what I wanted.

I hope I can find some time to go for a wander with Bex soon, because I’m starting to run out of photos to upload! We’ve got some wanders planned soon, so I’m sure we will have many more interesting photos to upload.

Mat

The Lone Farrier

This is another photo from my trip to the Earls Barton country fayre. After I had looked round the vintage farm machinery I saw this mobile forge, I thought it would make an interesting candid photo.

I preset the camera; first I calculated the correct exposure using the inbuilt light metre, then I pre-focused the lens so I could take the photo quickly. When the farrier went to work on the horseshoe, he made the composition perfect, so I brought up the camera and took the photo.

As the photo was taken in quite a hurry the exposure I calculated wasn’t spot on, so when I was checking the photo I decreased the brightness, and increased the contrast a bit. This is the main advantage of having my negatives scanned onto a computer; I can edit them and repair any mistakes that I made when taking the photos.

I really enjoy candid photography, and I think I shall do some more when I’m out and about next. I enjoy using film SLRs, I love the grainy effect that the film gives the photos, I think it makes them more interesting. There’s another country fayre that is coming up soon, I’m hoping to give it a visit, if I do I shall be taking my trusty Pentax cameras with me.

Mat

Steam Traction

Last weekend while I was away, I went to the Earls Barton country fayre. While I was there I had decided to take my new camera out (Pentax P-30), I also decided to try out a new type of film: Kodak 200 colour plus.

While walking around there was a display of steam traction engines. I am very interested in vintage haulage and farming machinery, so I’m always the first around the traction engines, tractors and classic lorries. I’m amazed that I used just one film cartridge!

This traction engine was the first that I saw and I just thought it looked amazing! The bright red paint finish was very striking and eye-catching. When I saw the light on the front I could see an interesting photo opportunity forming. So I crouched down and used a large aperture to limit the depth of field. The P-30 has a depth of field preview so I could test to see if I could get the desired effect. I liked the effect I could see in the viewfinder, so I took the photo. When I got the film developed I could see the depth of field was spot on. I really like the effect of having just the light in sharp focus; it creates a really interesting composition.

I didn’t edit the photo because I like showing what film SLR’s are still capable of; I will always think they are as capable as brand new DSLRs like Bex’s Olympus. I took plenty of photos at the fayre and hopefully I shall be able to upload a few more. The new type of film works very well with quite a fine grain but I think Fujifilm just beats it (But with a small increase in price).

Mat

Country Contrast

This photo was taken a while ago at TruckFest South West. I must confess I have a slight obsession with heavy goods vehicles, so TruckFest was heaven for me. I had taken the trusty Pentax ME Super with me and I managed to use up a whole reel of film while out. I’ve been quite busy recently, which is why I haven’t had a chance to get the film developed until a few days ago.

It was about half way through the day when we saw this pair of Tractor Units from country supplies specialist: Countrywide. The cab art really caught my eye, the bright and vibrant scenes that surrounded the cab were very impressive. I thought that the contrast between the classic country scenes and the very modern cab was very interesting; it shows how much farming and transport have changed and improved together over the years. With each decade more efficient and cheaper processes have been introduced: starting with horses towing everything on the farm and on the road; and culminating in today’s incredibly modern and high precision designs, with computers controlling every process.

I really think that this is more than just a photo, it contains much of our agricultural and transport history, showing the legacy that we have produced over the past 100 years. A legacy that will be left to the future, to increase the efficiency and profitability of agriculture and transport. This could be good or bad depending on your own opinions, making agriculture and transport more efficient could be good because less fossil fuels will be burnt and the world will be a greener place; but on the other hand, with more machinery and even tighter tolerances the work will become more stressful and the green country will become much more mechanised with vehicles working everywhere.

What you take away from this photo is dependent on your own opinions, but maybe take a minute to think about how much progress has been made in the past 100 hundred years; and then think: what do we do now, where does this take us? These are the questions that future generations will be asking themselves.

Mat

Ongoing Alley

I took this photo on our recent holiday on one of our wanders in the local town. I saw some bollards in a small side alley that Bex and I had ventured down to look for photos.

This time I had my own camera on me- I’ve recently taken on my Dad’s old Pentax ME Super 35mm film SLR camera. When I get the film processed I also order a copy of the photos on a CD, so I can upload my own pictures to the blog.

In this photo I used a telephoto lens (135mm) so that I could get a small depth of field and create an interesting effect. The effect being that the further down the line of bollards, the more out of focus they become. I really like it because it focuses the attention on the first few bollards and then it draws your eyes down the line towards the end.

Another good thing about being able to get my photos on CD is that I can edit them! This time the only editing I did was to crop the photo down a little. I left the exposure unchanged to show how good 35mm film SLRs are in comparison to modern digital cameras. I think that 35mm film SLRs still have a good case against modern cameras but I’ll leave it for you to decide: Film or Digital?

Mat

Vintage

I didn’t have chance to go for a wander today, which worked quite well as I’ve been meaning to upload this picture for a while.

I took this picture as a “messing around” shot, and partly to annoy Mat as he still has a film camera! A friend of mine is learning how to develop film, and on the desk was a tub of empty film canisters. Next to the tub were some strips of negatives, with one hanging over into the tub.

I took this while messing around with depth of field and didn’t mean for it to turn into an arty shot- but I actually really like it! I love how you can see the shadow of the scrap of film on the tub, and how only very few canisters are in focus.

Considering it wasn’t meant to have any artistic qualities, I’m quite pleased with it!! I love “happy accident” shots. Sometimes they are the best kind.

Bex

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