For my March roll of Ilford HP5+ 400 120 medium format film, I took a stroll in the park on the Ides of March. I had a Doctors appointment that morning and, as the park isn't far from there, I used up my daily exercise for a leisurely stroll around Mesnes Park on a grey day that tried desperately to be better. My Gossen Trisix told me that it was a 1/125th of a second at f/8 kind of day and I set about hunting compositions.
I have photographed the park to death over the last few years and I tried to find some alternative compositions to my normal offerings. My first find was a line of bright red industrial sized rubbish bins stored next to the Bandstand. My normal shot is of the bandstand looking towards the old derelict Mill, so a change of direction was welcome. Just as I took my shot, a train passed along the embankment to the north of the park and I was hoping I captured it.
I also tried a shot of The Pavilion from the bandstand with two of the bandstand pillars framing it. I hadn't tried this composition before as there are usually some youths enjoying some time at the bandstand during their lunch break from College. This time it was empty so I took my chance, lined up my composition and got the shot.
The Park Keepers have been busy planting the flower beds with fresh spring flowers and I tried to capture the lengthened "Z" shape of one of the flower beds. I also captured a few of the trees that are ready to wake up from their winter slumber. Also, instead of capturing yet another photo of Sir Francis and his shiny foot, I photographed one of the ornate corner posts around the statue.
My remaining shots were of the clock tower at the Linacre Centre, a medical facility in town that was originally Wigan Grammar School, then became Mesnes High School and finally one of the college buildings before being repurposed for medical use. It has had quite a varied life and it's good to see an old building put to good use. Also put to good use is the old Rushton's warehouse that is now the Centre for Advanced Technical Studies at Wigan and Leigh College.
Not all old buildings are being put to good use. Wigan & Leigh College is now affiliated to Edge Hill University in Ormskirk. This has been accompanied with significant investment and new buildings are going up to replace ones built in the 1960's. Asbestos around the heating systems and old concrete that had started to crumble meant they had to be replaced. My final shots were in the town centre itself and more as a means to finish my roll of film before getting the bus home, thoroughly happy with my walk and in need of a nice refreshing cup of tea.
I developed my roll of Ilford HP5 later that day in HC110 1+47 dilution E for 8 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom where I left it overnight. I scanned it the next day using my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 sized led light source. The RAW files were processed with Affinity Photo 2.
It was during that processing where I discovered I was having a problem with my framing. I'm not sure how or why it happened, I can only assume it was user error and not a problem with Baldy the Baldax which has been behaving rather well for me. There are times when I don't concentrate for long enough and take my eye off the task in hand, it's a constant battle I have with myself and after 57 years I have got used to it.
As a precaution I took a good look at Baldy the Baldax to check and It would appear that Baldy has a screw loose! Somewhere along the line a screw has come loose and is nowhere to be found. At first I thought it might be on the floor where I was sitting and I searched for it carefully, but to no avail.
Although the Balda Baldax 4.5 x 6 medium format cameras were sold as other brands, they do have variations in viewfinders and brackets for the folding mechanism etc. Ones like mine are quite rare and hard to find on the bay and I really want to keep using Baldy the Baldax for as long as I can. This is the peril of using a vintage camera, parts are hard to come by and I'm gutted!
I searched and searched for another Balda Baldax 4.5x6 with the exact same folding mechanism as the one on Baldy The Baldax. It took me a while, but I managed to find one in France for £20. When it arrived I started to feel pangs of guilt about having to take it apart to mend Baldy, so Baldy has been bodged for now. I am going to give parts cam a clean and put a roll of Fomapan through it and see if it works as well as it appears to on first inspection. I will eventually get Baldy sorted properly and continue using it for as long as possible. If my bodge fails, "Super Sub" is waiting.
Here's a few favourites from my walk in the park with Baldy the Baldax. You can see the framing issues I was having and perhaps understand why it puzzled me. I wasn't doing anything different, Baldy was ever so slightly out of kilter. As always I have placed them and more in my Frugal Fim Project 2024 - 120 medium format album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
Frugal Film Project 2024 - 120 Medium Format
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