I have such a backlog of film to shortlist, edit, blog, and maybe even print, and at times I find it quite upsetting! So many images to be properly discovered and appreciated (by me I mean!), but most of the time I only just manage to find time to develop and scan my film, and then the results have to wait patiently on my hard drive, hoping they won’t be forgotten. I love the process of taking photographs, and then the fact that I don’t get to see them straight away. Then it’s such an exciting feeling, waiting for each image to come up on the scanner, able to see for the first time how well I’ve captured whatever beauty it was that inspired me to press the shutter button. And then I want to do more, create more, get and give more from my images. Putting together a blog post can be a rewarding next step in that creative process, but too often I find myself holding back in some way and for some reason. Sometimes this delay can occur for the simple reason that my eyes and brain are just too tired from working on my clients’ photographs in the lab, to want to strain them further by working on my own photographs. Sometimes I might feel I have something to say to accompany the images, which I overthink until it feels like there’s nothing meaningful or worthwhile left. This time around I’ve taken my delay tactics a step further…I actually put together this little collection over a month ago, pasted them into the blog and then ran away before the words would come!
I took these photographs during the Christmas holidays last year, when we had a wonderful trip to see family and friends back in the UK on our first visit since we moved to Canada. This pretty town is Bridgnorth in Shropshire, very close to where my sister lives, and I enjoyed a ramble around its charming narrow streets with my family, armed with my Canon AE1 and my ‘go to’ winter film, Kodak Portra 800 (as always I then developed and scanned the film back at my lab, Canadian Film Lab). This was a lovely day, with great company, and lots of interesting and engaging sights. What I love most about these images is that I feel the film has transcended what was actually quite flat light. I’m usually inspired by contrast in light; by shadows and sunlight, whether that be in the form of vibrant direct light, rich, colourful shade, or soft, subtle backlight. Grey days – unless they’re moodily dramatic – don’t usually float my photographic boat, but I was quite keen to capture lots of uniquely British images on this trip, particularly of the types of architecture that I miss, and so I took photographs even when the light wouldn’t usually compel me to do so. And I love how they turned out! So the moral of this particular photographic adventure for me was to be prepared to take a few risks, taking shots where the outcome is a little uncertain, and trusting that with sound shooting, film can produce subtle, beautiful results in unexpected circumstances.
