Gibside is a National Trust property based in the North East of England. On what3words it is roughly ///birds.happen.intro

This is where I took one of my favourite photos of all time a couple of years ago. I think with the way the timings of the light would work, I don’t think this photo would be possible now, unless you can stay after the scheduled closing times, or are happy to have the framework for the winter lights displays in your images. Check out this post on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/p/CTu11RoIkQe/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY= (as you may be able to tell from the numbers, this is from back in the day before instagran killed pure photography accounts, I haven’t hit 600 reach on a post, never mind 600 likes for a long time now).

I have been trying to post a blog a week, but since getting my Mint camera, I’ve been out at least twice a week most weeks with it. I’m generating quite a backlog of content. Due to this, I’m struggling to remember chosen settings etc. With my trips out recently I’ve been taking a fine line sharpie to note them on the wide strip, but for the next couple of entries you may have to bear with me as I fumble through them. For some of the images I can’t even remember if I exposed them using auto or manual settings, never mind what the manual settings were!

My last instax blog, from Cragside, I split my images into two categories. Ones that worked, ones that didn’t. That didn’t really work for me, because one of the photos that didn’t work, I really liked. There was another than did work that I wasn’t keen on. This time I have chosen to split the images into three categories. Those I like, those I don’t like and those somewhere in the middle.

Worst things first

As in my last instax blog, I also want to show my failures. With that in mind, lets rip that plaster (band aid) off quickly and start with them to get them out of the way.

The first image I haven’t even bothered to in to. I was half pressing at the subject to see if the camera needed an ND filter, and accidentally full pressed it as I was lowering my camera. This resulted in an overexposed image of nothing really of note in the frame.

I have definitely had a steep learning curve so far with this camera. This trip was a couple of weeks ago, and I think there is already a marked improvement on my latest batch of images in comparison. Part of that is shots like the two below. There are limitations of dynamic range compared to what I am used to having with digital. I have used that creatively to great effect (not this trip, but one to come), but sometimes it still catches me out. With the below image I wasn’t expecting all of the foliage and grass to be black and underexposed, but I knew there was a chance it would be dark if I exposed for the whole scene.

It’s also knowing when there is enough light, or recognising that without support/leaning on something/a tripod the photos the photos will end up a blurry mess. With digital and OIS/IBIS you can take several photos of a subject and chance an image at 1/4 will end up sharp, but not so much with this… (I have fluked a couple but they are definitely the exception, not the rule).

With this first image, not only is the foliage underexposed, the subject is too far away meaning that even though the hall itself is probably correctly exposed, there is no detail. Again, learning curve.

This was taken on auto. I know because I’d manually exposed one and blown it out so thought I’d try auto. I think the sky was too bright, and it overcompensated, resulting in the dark frame below. I doubt you can tell, but this is of the stable buildings. Those horses must have been some of the luckiest in the land when the stables were in use, they are nicer than some country houses we’ve been to!

Images that I think are OK

These are not my favourites, but also not complete misses like the above section.

The below image is of the Orangery. It has a similar feel to the image of the hall above. It isn’t as dark, you can see that the grass is actually green. The sky instead is blown out, but that is due to the dynamic range. As the grass is only just showing green and is still pretty dark, I don’t think there’s a way I could have had a blue sky and green grass at the same time. I’m also closer to the subject so there is more detail.

In truth, it’s nothing to write home about, but I like it more than the comparable one above.

This was a closer up image of one of the doorways in the Orangery. I was trying to preserve the sky but failed, it’s blown out. Had I realised the sky was going to blow out anyway I’d have shot for the brickwork to be lighter.

The column of liberty. Taken from the end of the avenue. One of the cliche images from the property, but as with the images from Cragside, this type of shot is my friend whilst learning. As with all of the images in this section, I don’t see too much wrong with it, they’re just a bit average.

This is the stables. I knew I was taking a chance with this image as I was shooting into the sun. I tried to expose it manually (as mentioned above) but didn’t quite get it right. I’m actually surprised it didn’t solarise (when a bright part of instax gets too bright it looks negative). I quite like the flare. If you didn’t lose the left hand side of the building completely I’d have actually been tempted to have this in my favourites section as I do strangely like it.

This is my last image in this section, the chapel. I took two versions of this image. Square on exposed for the building and then from a view point chosen by my son but exposed for the sky to get a silhouette. I prefer his framing! I think if there was the hint of blue I’d have probably loved this one too in all fairness.

My Favourites

We have never walked the route that takes you past the octagonal pond before, so it was nice to see something new. I think this is one of those times where I don’t think the digital file does justice to the actual print. It looks much sharper and more detailed in my hand. My subsequent adventures after this I did trial a different way of capturing a digitised render, so hopefully they will be more true to life soon.

As mentioned above, I do like both of the images I took of the chapel, I’m just leaning more towards this one that is more silhouetted against the blue sky. Had the other image had some of that blue, it may have been a different selection for my favourites.

The column to liberty. My worst shot at the start of the blog was taken by accident as I was framing this one up. I didn’t get it quite as centred as I’d hoped (although I’m not finding it as hard as I thought I would to adjust to the parallax as I thought I would). Even with the framing being slightly off I think this is hands down my favourite shot of the day. It’s simple. The exposure is on pointe. I like the colour contrast between the blue of the sky and the warm tones in the stone. For me, the stand out image of the day. If the stables image had been a shot more under this one might have had competition, but it wasn’t.

Hopefully you are enjoying seeing the Instax content, and liking the fact I am showing the bad with the good. There is more instax related Mint Camera adventures to come in the next few weeks. Knowing what instant film is like for needing a lot of light to soak up, for once I can’t wait for photography in the summer, normally my least favourite photography season…

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

If you are interested in following my portrait and product work, links to my instagram and twitter for those accounts are just below at the bottom of this page