When it is wet, grey and generally dull with a gale blowing, apart from waves and barnacles on rocks it is generally a difficult time to try and make images. I was having one of those days last Wednesday, where it didn’t matter where I went, I just was struggling to find subjects that seemed to work. I eventually ended up at Arthur’s Stone on Cefn Bryn. Due to the rapidly declining weather I was up there on my own, so when a severe rain storm hit and visibility was reduced to 100m at least I didn’t have to fight with anybody to get the only sheltered spot under Arthur’s Stone itself. It doesn’t matter how good your waterproofs are, eventually the rain gets in, so I was glad for some shelter. I’m actually quite surprised that I was wearing my waterproofs. Normally I forget to take any for me and only carry the ones for my camera and bag!
As the rain cleared a few beams of sunlight came through the clouds and spotlighted some of the landscape. Unfortunately none of them hit Arthur’s Stone, which stayed in rather boring dull light. I knew when taking the images that conversion to black and white would have to be done. The colours were so dull and fairly monochrome anyway, the images wouldn’t work in colour. I like to work with black and white film, plus all the processing and darkroom work. I think that it has a craft feel to it. Unfortunately with my darkroom in boxes at the moment, digital is my only real route to choose from. At least I can now reduce the number of camera bodies that I have to carry. In the days of film I had a couple of bodies loaded with slide and black and white film. This was no problem with the interchangeable backs with my medium format system. but with 35mm it was a bit of a pain.
Stuck in a rain storm, Cefn Bryn, Gower Peninsula
When it is wet, grey and generally dull with a gale blowing, apart from waves and barnacles on rocks it is generally a difficult time to try and make images. I was having one of those days last Wednesday, where it didn’t matter where I went, I just was struggling to find subjects that seemed to work. I eventually ended up at Arthur’s Stone on Cefn Bryn. Due to the rapidly declining weather I was up there on my own, so when a severe rain storm hit and visibility was reduced to 100m at least I didn’t have to fight with anybody to get the only sheltered spot under Arthur’s Stone itself. It doesn’t matter how good your waterproofs are, eventually the rain gets in, so I was glad for some shelter. I’m actually quite surprised that I was wearing my waterproofs. Normally I forget to take any for me and only carry the ones for my camera and bag!
As the rain cleared a few beams of sunlight came through the clouds and spotlighted some of the landscape. Unfortunately none of them hit Arthur’s Stone, which stayed in rather boring dull light. I knew when taking the images that conversion to black and white would have to be done. The colours were so dull and fairly monochrome anyway, the images wouldn’t work in colour. I like to work with black and white film, plus all the processing and darkroom work. I think that it has a craft feel to it. Unfortunately with my darkroom in boxes at the moment, digital is my only real route to choose from. At least I can now reduce the number of camera bodies that I have to carry. In the days of film I had a couple of bodies loaded with slide and black and white film. This was no problem with the interchangeable backs with my medium format system. but with 35mm it was a bit of a pain.