Astute readers may have noticed my last entry for 10 Shots on Instax did not contain 10 shots. In truth I used three packs of film between the two trips, Cragside and Gibside, with the difference between those shown and that number being images taken of my little ones. I’m going to be upfront with this entry. There will be around 16 or so images, I shot two packs at Beamish, again with the difference between 20 images and those shown below being that the ones excluded are family images. But this time the two packs were not created equally… One was colour, one monochrome.

Beamish is an Open Air museum in the North East of England, located on what3words at roughly ///only.rebounded.cheese

Many of the exhibits are buildings rebuilt brick by brick in the grounds from across the region in towns/villages of the same era, with the staff also dressing to match.

Even with the extra images shot, I still want to show my hits and misses. Though I think I’m starting to get a handle on my misses a little more. This is trip number three with the camera, and I have two more that I’ve already shot, and hopefully from after those are shared the quality (at least of the worst images) will start to go up.

Worst things first

I hadn’t started to note my setting yet, but I think most of my misses are on the auto setting. I don’t think this is the camera’s fault or anything. I think the auto ones are more snapshots, so I’ve taken them without checking if there is enough light, sometimes this has paid off, and sometimes the images look very soft (sometimes downright shaky) as you will see below.

I also have a couple of misses on the monochrome where I’ve tried to shoot a higher contrast scene and ended up with an image of purely black and white, but with no greys in between. Some of the images captured in this way I feel even on the colour film would have had more detail whilst retaining the extreme contrast I am a fan of (see my tenebrism section of my portfolio for more on this here).

Rather than talking through each of my misses one by one, given the flaws are aligned as above, the collection of them is below as a gallery.

Images that I think are OK

The below images as with my previous entry are the images which I find OK. Not bad, but not anything that stands out as being particularly brilliant either.

The train below was taken not long after the image above of the train shed. This image is sharper as I think the shutter is faster, but also works more due to being closer to the subject, despite being behind a fence. I think this is probably the highest contrast image I was able to get away with using the monochrome. I think next time I am out with the RF70 I need to practice with this stock some more.

Although higher contrast than the image above, I still like it. The detail is completely lost in the blacks and the whites of this image which probably prevents it from being in my favourites section. One or the other I can live with, but both at the same time? I do like these images of soft light through a window though. It’s like a more industrial version of the Cragside vase image from a few weeks ago. A touch more detail around the objects on the windowsill would have made this for me…

The church in the pit-village from the school playground. I can almost smell the fish and chips as I look at this image, the smell from Davy’s Fish Shack just out of the frame was quite strong when we were there! I think this is an average composition, but where the black and white suits the scene. Not sure how I could have improved this enough to class it as a favourite, but I think it stands as a good example of when the monochrome is the perfect choice to load.

The below image was of the pit-village as we left to head towards the farm. Compositionally it’s a bit of a snapshot. In truth this was the last frame I had left of the monochrome and wanted to swap in to colour before getting to the farm buildings.

I love the below image for the fact it contains a camera that I find quite cool, a Twin Lens Reflex Voightlander. The image is a bit soft though, shot wide open at f5.6 combined with being inside with no flash, and no tripods being allowed at Beamish, means that I’m surprised its as clear as it is in all honesty… If I could take this on a tripod I have no question this would be in the favourites category…

The last two images in this category are very similar for me, and as such I’ve grouped them together. Both were taken as we walked back from the town to the exit. Both are of buildings as they caught the late afternoon light. Both are snapshot-ish in composition and both are a little dark in the foliage. Not bad, but could do better.

My Favourites

In this entry, my favourites section consists of 6 images. Given that I am still learning so much with this camera, I’m rather happy with that return.

The first below is of the wheel above the mine buildings. This was manually exposed for, but the camera suggested I was underexposing and that it required an ND2 filter. I added the filter, and at first I was disappointed at how dark it came out. Over time it has grown on me, and it’s now probably one of my favourites from the day.

The below is the light coming in through the windows of the band building in the pit-village. This image has bounced between my OK shots and my favourites. I just loose a touch too much detail in those highlights on the floor… but at the same time, I’m trying to start embracing imperfection with the film. Ultimately feeling about the image won over technical execution.

I had actually metered for those highlights and added just one stop so they wouldn’t be middle grey. That was probably a good demonstration to me how little latitude the monochrome film has.

With the below image of the chimney stack at the farm, I like the warmth of the stone against the blue. If I was to scan it again I’d maybe try to tweak the white balance to make it warmer, but still, as it is I like it. I also like the shadows of the trees. Whilst I would have loved slightly more detail there I know it would have come at the cost of blowing out the sky, I think I balanced that trade off well.

The comment about warmth against the blue of the sky also stands for the below image, the helter-skelter. I had to restrain myself from my wacom tablet and the clone stamp tool and stop myself removing the branches at the bottom. If I moved a couple of steps to the left I could have not had them in the image, but there would have been people visible at the coconut shy and I preferred to not have them in the frame (I’m anti-social like that).

What is the etiquette for photoshop on instax and polaroids? Answers on a postcard.

I took the below image in the dentist’s office. One of my little ones had chosen to come inside with me, rather than wait outside with their mother (who was also holding their ice-cream) and were starting to get fracious. They shouted of me whilst I was framing which resulted in this rather off and not quite straight angle as I hadn’t meant to press the shutter. The camera was on auto however, so it will have dropped the exposure from my original composition (I didn’t have the window in, at least not where it’s above the net curtain) and I like the tones that it resulted in on the wall on the left. I like light golden colours of the light, and even the solarisation of the light bulbs (where they have gone negative and blue because they have got so bright). Whilst I wouldn’t say this was photo of the day or anything, I still think it was a happy accident.

The below is my last image. I feel like I am starting to like these simple compositions of framing against a blue sky (make the most of them whilst you can, we don’t get too many in England!). I will have to start collating from different trips to see if any themes emerge to do a photographic project. At the moment I think windows and shooting up at a blue sky are probably neck and neck in that regards.

If you would like to see more of my landscape work, moving forward most of the images will be here in blog format, but I will notify of new entries on my Instagram page for landscapes - @photog.righ

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