This one was lurking at the start of a film which finally got finished last week. It's always nice to come across some shots you've forgotten about although generally I try not to leave a film in a camera too long. The OM-1 that I acquired some years ago has some marks on the chrome runners inside the back of the camera, due, I was informed by the guy who serviced it, to a film having been left in it for a very long time. Must have been years, I reckon. The marks are still visible even after the cleaning but don't cause a problem.
Anyway, here we are at the entrance to the Downhill Demesne sometime earlier this year, with the sun casting nice shadows of the impressive ironwork gates:
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| Entrance gates at Downhill. M6 on HP5+ in HC-110. Foma 313 paper. |
Shooting contra-jour is always an exposure balancing act - do you meter for the highlights, or the shadows. The former and you'll risk the shadows going to black, the latter and you'll risk blowing the highlights. I'll either take a couple of shots and bracket or I'll go somewhere in the middle and hope for the best, as I did here. Assuming your negative holds detail in both shadows and highlights the trick then is to get it on the paper in some sort of acceptable form. In this case, there's a still a hint of detail in the stone arch and the highlights aren't paper-white, so while it isn't going to win any awards I'm OK with the print.
It looks like you did a good job in the exposure and printing. The dark shadows reinforce the heaviness and strength of the gate.
ReplyDeleteThanks. It's an impressive structure and beautiful gates. You can just imagine the Earl Bishop coming through in his coach and horses all those years ago.
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