Late October to mid November was a never ending succession of dark, wet, cold, dull and gloomy days here in Wigan. I was beginning to wonder if I would ever get out again! However, a gap in the weather gave me a chance and I took it. I loaded a roll of HP5 into my Pentax K1000, packed it with my Nikon D200 and headed into town.
This is where it all went pear shaped. Between seeing a gap in the weather and getting my backside into gear, the clouds had gathered once more and I missed the light. Not to worry, I thought. I have HP5 in my Pentax and my trusty Tamron 28mm f/2.5 as well as a Pentax 50mm F2, I should be ok. I got to work.
The demolition works at the site where The Galleries once stood continues apace and there's not much left now. The Galleries section has all gone with just the Morrisons supermarket site and the underground loading dock left. The demolition of this part needs care as the underground loading dock is being kept as parking for the housing that will eventually occupy the site. Once that is done and the site is cleared, construction of the new Market Hall can begin.
Despite the grim weather that had appeared, I was enjoying my photo walk. Nature was teasing me and testing my skills at photography, but I was up to the challenge. After photographing the progress of the demolition of The Galleries I took a walk up Standishgate and photographed the brave souls doing their shopping and going about their daily business in the awful weather. It didn't take me long to shoot a 24 shot roll of Ilford HP5 and it was time to head home, after a bit of shopping of course.
I developed my roll of HP5 a few days later using Zone Imaging 510 Pyro diluted at 1+100 for 8 minutes and 15 seconds, stopped the development with filtered water and fixed it with Fotospeed FX30. I hung it to dry in my bathroom. I digitised it with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Pixl-Latr and a5 led light pad. I processed the RAW files on my PC with Affinity Photo 2.
Here's a few of my favourite photos from this rather soggy photowalk in town. The horrid weather gave my photos a sullen, moody look to them and makes me glad I braved the rain. We all love a great photo taken on a sunny day, but there's a lot to be said for a moody photo shot in the rain, it was worth the effort even though it took me a day or two to dry out. As always I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
Ilford HP5 - Pentax K1000
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