I awoke on a quiet Tuesday morning in mid January and it was a bit too quiet. It was the sort of quiet that comes to a street on a bus route when something is up. I headed for my window and peeked outside. It was Snowing! It was falling quite thickly too so I decided to load Baldy the Baldax with this years chosen medium format film and head for the park.
I enjoyed using Baldy, my superb little 90 year old Balda Baldax 6x4.5 medium format film camera in the second half of 2023. It made continuing to see how far I could go with it an easy decision. I have also chosen Ilford HP5+400 120 medium format film as it's cheap and made half an hour away at Harman Technology in Mobberley, Cheshire. As I mentioned in my previous Frugal Film Project blog I will always try to support a local business and face it, HP5 is a very versatile film.
The bus ride into town was fun, the roads had been gritted with the UK's preferred sand and rock salt mix, but were still very slushy as the snow tried its best to keep the roads white. Thankfully my bus was driven by an experienced chap who took care of his passengers and we made it to Wigan Bus Station without incident.
My journey to the park gave me a couple of opportunities to photograph various scenes as they were covered with snow. We don't get snow every year in Wigan, but when we do it's a decent amount. The now empty site where the Galleries once stood looked much nicer with a covering of snow and I grabbed a shot to continue my documentary of the once thriving retail site as it transforms into a housing and entertainment area. Wigan & Leigh College looked good in the snow too. I can't believe 30 years has passed since I was a student there.
Mesnes Park in Wigan looked beautiful in the snow and I was hopeful the grey snow clouds would move on and give us some decent light. It was great to bump into friends old and new as I got on with capturing the scenery before the snow inevitably melted and Wigan reverted to being dark, wet, cold, dull and gloomy again.
Baldy The Baldax was the centre of attention as folk took interest in it. Good to see you again, Chris. I also met Steve Derbyshire, a fellow instagrammer who recognised me. Apparently I'm the only guy who walks around Wigan with a vintage camera and I was an easy spot. Cheers Steve! My camera brought smiles to peoples faces and it was good to say hello and chat. I even said hello to a lovely little dog named Pippa. Mesnes Park was looking pretty magical in the snow and I wasn't alone in getting a camera out and enjoying some winter photography. I will leave some Instagram links at the end of this blog where you can see photos taken by people I met that day and some of Chris' marvellous paintings.
I was really enjoying myself and it seemed like I hadn't been out for long when I shot the last frame. I was very happy to be able to document a snowy morning in Mesnes Park. My health issues were good on this particular day and I was determined to take advantage of it. I'm glad I did. One lesson I learned early in my return to film photography is "Always have a plan B" and I slowly wandered back into town with my Olympus OM10, taking photos for a future blog if this roll went awry. It wasn't long before I was back home having a nice hot cuppa tea.
I developed my film a few days later and I went with Kodak HC110 1+47 dilution E for 8 minutes at 20 celcius. I was very happy with how my Kentmere 400 responded to this dilution and figured I would see if HP5 responded any differently. It wasn't long before I had finished the developing process and hung my film to dry in my bathroom.
Scanning was done in my usual fashion with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi medium format film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 led light source. It was when I began to process my RAW files with Affinity Photo 2 that I spotted an error I made. Every shot was under exposed by around 2 stops. Bugger.
My error was not allowing for the brightness of the snow when I metered my shots. We don't get a lot of snow here and it never occurred to me to allow for it. I had set my shutter speed too fast. Thank the deity of your choosing that Affinity Photo 2 is a very capable piece of software and I was able to salvage my photos and make them look reasonably presentable. Lesson learned!
Here's a few of my favourites from my walk in the snow. I learned a very valuable lesson and managed to get something for my effort despite my absent mindedness. I will probably not see snow again for a year or three, but you never know what you get here in the UK. There's been days when all four seasons have showed up in no particular order. I will have to make a note to remind me to check back here next time it snows. As always I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr for you to view using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
Frugal Film Project 2024 - 120 medium format
Steven Darbyshire Instagram
Chris Halliwell - Artist
Let Me Take The Pic with Pippa in the snow
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