I’ve always been wary of skip guys and scaffolders since I was attacked by a wrench-wielding scaffolder on Effra Road in Brixton about 20 years ago. The lorry had nearly run me down driving the wrong way up a one way street and I was stupid enough to point this out. Exit pursued by lorry, but I didn’t make it to Brockwell Park and they caught me outside the betting shop.

The gates were open and these skips piled high caught my attention though, so I went in and snapped.

Laban is in the middle background and the new apartments ”inspired by dance” (ffs!) far off. Boxes, containers and skips stacked from foreground to background.

And sure enough, behind me I heard a van pull up and a voice said ”Why are you taking photographs of my yard?” It sounded a bit like the three bears in Goldilocks, ‘Who’s been eating my porridge’?’

”Because I’m a photographer” I replied. I didn’t particularly care since I’d got the photos but I was slightly concerned about the camera. It was also private property so I was very likely in the wrong. Maybe having a non-threatening folding camera (the Super Ikonta) and a gangsta dog beside me helped. I got the health & safety spiel and it got left at that. Ho hum.

Otherwise I may have ended up in here. It was that kind of yard.

Today I was travelling light with the 55 year old Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta 532/16 (6×6) with the Opton Tessar f/2.8 80mm lens.

Saturday was a glorious break between the incessant rain and generally crap weather. From a photographic point-of-view the light was somewhat challenging, intensely bright sunlight suddenly disappearing behind thick cloud leaving relative darkness, usually just after I had metered.

The cemetery is full of broken things and statuary in various states of decay and dilapidation and decomposition. Angels at angles.

I find it hard not to be drawn into imaginary life stories of the people in these graves.

Alice Maud Embleton who ”fell asleep” aged 28. Who was she and what did she look like? The shaft of light on her urn influences my imaginary backstory.

Another angel, only about 30cms high, overshadowed by an ugly memorial.

”Peace, perfect peace” is inscribed on the stone. I wish.

There are so many striking memorials and statues that it is easy to forget the more simple graves. The strong sunlight makes some of them stand out through the undergrowth.

The highlights are blown in the photo below but I like the randomness of the trees and the pillar:

I’m not sure why the area to these graves is restricted but I like the contrast between the fence and the chaotic background:

I’ve said this before, but the photographs of corroded stone monuments, graves and statues sometimes give the impression of softness but I don’t always think it is the lens or my lack of technique (sometimes). Even to the naked eye they look soft and crumbly but that is the surface texture. The photograph below of the coy foot illustrates this. The plinth is super sharp and is in the same plane of focus as the statue. The surface texture appears soft however, and I think it is because it really is soft. Lichen covered and corroded, possibly sandstone or limestone, it lacks sharp edges and definition.

I’d have preferred to use f/11 or f/16 but I had no tripod so (from memory) this was f/5.6 to enable handheld (no tripod today).

Because of the lighting and contrast I decided to stand develop the Fuji Neopan 400 (shot at EI200) in Rodinal 1+100 for an hour. I’m quite pleased with the results and like this ‘lazy’ way of developing.

Finding out how many angels can dance on the head of a pin is a time-wasting metaphor. It is much more fun counting how many angels I can find in Nunhead Cemetery. And probably takes a similar amount of time too.

It is that time of year. The days are getting shorter and the ”Indian Summer” has well and truly finished. I haven’t been getting out and about with a camera as much as I would like recently. I have a laisser-faire, can’t-be-arsed kind of feeling at the moment but yesterday the sun was shining and it was a beautiful autumn day. Gizmo needed a long walk and the cemetery seemed as good a place to be as anywhere else.

I had the Rolleiflex 2.8F and thought I’d use it with the Rolleinar 1 which allows me to get as close as 45cms.

I’ve photographed some of these before, but not as close. I hadn’t realised some of these angels have eyeballs…

Because the Rolleinar focusses close, there is a very narrow depth-of-field unless the lens is stopped right down. These photos were between f/5.6 and f/8 and I like the background effect.

This last photo was taken without the Rolleinar. It is a bit soft but I like the framing and the solitude.

The film was Fuji Neopan 400 at EI200 developed in Rodinal 1+50 for 8.5 minutes. The Neopan is harder to scan than HP5+, but I’m still fiddling with the settings to get them optimal. The negatives are superb and I suspect they will print beautifully.

Some of the leaves are an intense green

The park is full of trees getting ready winter and shedding their leaves. There seems to be a high degree of automation in Greenwich Park to cope with this. We saw a lorry-sized vacuum sucking up the leaves. I couldn’t help wonder how many people’s jobs it had replaced. Presumably it is more efficient (spit).

Some trees have fewer leaves to shed than others…

And joy! We found some seating in moderately bizarre surroundings to add to the collection.

Actually, I’ve been walking past this for over a year meaning to photograph it, but recently the armchair has been added. Makes it more cozy. I could have done with a longer lens though, this is a crop.

I used Fuji Neopan 400 rated at 200. This is the first time I have used this film and I find it very different to HP5+. More of a ”modern” look. I developed them in Rodinal 1+50 for 8 minutes. Quite pleased with the results though, particularly finding a 400 ISO film that behaves well in Rodinal.

Statement of the bleeding obvious or what…

Lets debunk a couple of things quickly:

<curmudgeon In one day 15 cms of snow achieved what Hitler and the nazis failed to do in the second world war – bring London to a halt. Outrage! />

<analyst We need to know what what the failures were that prevented people from getting to work. />

Just one word. Bollox. Londoners woke up on Monday morning to a fairy-tale winter-wonderland and from personal observation most were embracing not being able to go to work. Those sitting at home grinding their teeth because they couldn’t get in need their heads examined and perhaps ask themselves why they could not participate in one exceptional day.

I understand about loss of pay etc but even people who had lost pay were phoning Radio London in the evening saying that it was worth it. This is Central London. Last time this happened was about 20 years ago. One day lost productivity in 20 years because of snow…?

Get over it.

Stuart Jeffries in The Guardian puts it eloquently:

“For a day at least, Londoners returned to a forgotten innocence. Yesterday the headlines howled about how £2bn would be lost yesterday thanks to public transport disruption. Two words: So. What. We’re in the middle of a credit crunch and £2bn is the sort of money a hedge-fund trader might find in the lining of his Armani suit. Yesterday we stopped measuring our lives in coffee spoons, overdrafts and balance of payments deficits. It felt good.”

Also, much as I loathe Boris Johnson he was amusing in a very British way: “This is not the wrong kind of snow, just the wrong amount of snow”. You have to suffer our shite London transport system to see the nuances of that one.

Phoning sick?

Wonderland:

Greenwich Park is lovely at the worst of times. Today, cloaked in newly fallen snow it was truly beautiful. Not in some crappy Victorian throwback to a false Dickensian winter ideal but in a very modern vibrant way. People were having such fun and not being backward about it. It was noisy and busy, and most of the noise was shrieking laughter and squealing, children and adults.

Antipodean madness:

We were out of the house by about 08:30 and by the time we got to Greenwich Park it looked like most of the borough’s population had the same idea. Blackheath Common, which even on a normal day has an extraordinary sense of space and remoteness despite being bordered by busy roads seemed to stretch forever.

By this time both of us had been reduced to a childlike state when faced with the snowfall. Some of us were even behaving like we’d never seen snows before

More from the park:

Around and about:

Quaggy centre

Blackheath Common

Early morning (approx 07:00:

These were views from the window

Colour! WTF? Just to prove some trains were running…

My one regret for the day is that I did not photograph the dogs in Greenwich Park. Two particularly. First, an Airedale with a floor length jacket. All you could see was that long Airedale snout poking out at the front and tail at the back.  Second was a Highland Terrier with a mackintosh and hood. Really bizarre. All of the dogs were having immense fun. White dogs on snow are the best!

The majority of these photos were shot on the Bessa-R with the CV 28/1.9 Ultron using FP4+ rated at ISO 100. Because of the snow, I deliberately overexposed +2 or +3 stops to compensate. Don’t rely on meters in the snow. Developed the film in APH09 (Rodinal) 1+40 for 11 minutes, 10 seconds initial agitation, 2 gentle inversions every 30 seconds subsequently. I’m getting gentler & gentler with the rodinal and I think the results are showing in improved grain and sharpness.

The B&W images from the flat were taken on the Nikon F4S with the Nikkor 35-70/2.8 plus mid yellow filter, using up a roll of Neopan 1600 developed in DD-X 1+4 for 5 mins.

Colour photos are from the Nikon D300, Nikkor 24-70/2.8, ISO 200

Full gallery (note, several pages!)

I was expecting fairly crappy results (from the development , not the photos, natch) but Ilford DD-X and Neopan 1600 seems a really good combination considering the potential for grain. I’ll be using these two again.

The unexpected:

Banners:

Crowd:

Well thats OK then, I’m not using flash… bit of a coincidence though. Hang on…

“Will the gentleman with the camera next to the escalators stop taking photographs. A permit is needed to use a camera”

Everybody’s head turns to look at me. I’m left feeling like sticking two fingers up at the CCTV. Its OK for them to film me though… huh? No permit needed there.

Danger Will Robinson…

Yep, the bastards want �30.00 for a permit (non-professional) to take photos in the underground. They did wait until Westminster to announce that over the loudspeakers. Why not Canary Wharf station? I was taking photos fairly blatantly there and not a dicky-bird was said. There aren’t any obvious signs saying photography isn’t allowed either, just signs forbidding the use of flash. It isn’t worth arguing the toss though but I knew I probably would if I got confronted.

The photos look grimy, gritty, grainy and underexposed and I slightly bolloxed the development. Ho hum, I was expecting a hand on the shoulder at any moment, my excuse.

Despite the stations appearing very bright, really there seems relatively little available light down there. I was using Neopan 1600 at box speed in anticipation. Next time (hehe, oh yes…) I’ll push it to 3200. Perhaps I won’t choose Rodinal either, although I quite like the effect. It certainly reflects my feelings at the time.

Threatening:

Is that a rib-cage above the woman?

Ascension: