Cornwall medium format

and so the harvest came

I always look forward to our summer harvests when the Combines work the fields and lift their crops. The crop this season in the fields that surround us was spring barley. I know, its summer time but the barley is planted in the spring, hence the connection. I always have the best view and on this occasion I shot what I saw on medium format with a roll of expired Velvia. It was a windy and dusty day with low cloud.
I so wished for our Cornish blue skies that day but it was not meant to be.

The Combine worked the fields in a similar pattern with the tractors and trailers not too far away ready to catch the ears of Barley. The driver radio’s the tractor drivers and they pull alongside the Combine and the grain is off loaded. The farmer told me that this was one of the driest harvests that he could remember

Within a few hours, all of the 21 acres of barley that surround us had been harvested, leaving behind fields full of straw for them to return at a later date and bale for the winter months. They make the whole process look so easy.

I shot this on a roll of well expired Velvia, one of my fav E6 stocks. Always at box speed as I dont believe in that one stop per 10 years rule. Colours and grain, excuse the pan, were good although there was an element of redish/pinkish tones to the skies. That the beauty of expired. Love it….

you'll always find colour in St Ives

15 minutes down the road from where live is the town of St Ives. Probably the single most visited town in Cornwall by our lovely tourist, whilst also drawing, excuse the pun, would be Artists here as we have some of the best natural light in the UK. Thats something we photographers love too……

Ive lost count the number of times Ive shot content here for both work and play, but I have a rule in place that I always stick to providing in the weather is on my side. Shoot before 10am and after 3pm. Nothing in between. Why you ask?, well those are the times when I find the best light to shoot with none of the whiting over haze you often see in between those hours. Im not saying that this happens all of the time but I do know how the weather works down here and if there’s any haze, Im off.

The selection of the images I shot below are all with coastal colours in mind. You’re never short of finding colour here but if I may, a tip for you all, arrive early as you can as the place gets packed and those colours might get obscured by our lovely visitors

Choice of film stock that morning. Well, bearing in mind my first statement, “you'll alway find colour in St Ives” it had to be a roll of medium format Kodak Gold. Id run out of Ektar that morning and thats always my go to colour stock but Gold certainly came up with the goods that day - Shot on my Hassy 500. The perfect match…..




OptiColour 200 review

I cant remember the last time I read or even listened to a new film review without someone bleating on and saying, “ its like……, and the colours are like…… The grains similar to……. Blah, Blah, Blah. Surely the whole idea of a new stock coming to the market is that it sits alone.
Its not anything else other than what it is. I judge a new stock on its own merits as to what it is, rather than what its like.

So, whats Opti colour 200 all about then? Well, its available in two formats, 120 and 35mm and I will be shooting both. Now, Im not going to witter on about stuff such as colour tones, saturation and shadows etc etc. That’s for the nerds and those who understand all that tech stuff.
Im just going to shoot it and see how it comes out and I certainly wont be making comparisons. It is what it is….

The first roll I chose to shoot was the 120 shot on my Pentax 6x7. I shot the enclosed images with a selection of mixed colours in mind. A cross section if you like to see how it stacks up on that front.

For me, there are some mixed results here. Firstly, the grain. I like it. Now for the colours. Please bear in mind that when I did shoot these the light was great, cloud free and blue skies that day. As for the one interior shot, lovely natural daylight lite up the sushi shot.

Colour. On three of the four outside shots the colour looks fine. A little flat I might say but on the automotive shot, there’s some really noticeable reddish tones creeping in there, as does the header image of the box/film shot above.

My conclusions in brief then. I like it, and I’ll certainly be looking forward to shooting it on 35mm with a certain subject or content in mind, rather than just shoot it for the sake of it. It certainly wont be replacing any of my key stocks such as Ektar, Velvia, Provia and Portra to name a few, but Im sure I’ll find another use for the 35mm roll.

As with all of my film shots, straight out of the box with no use of PS, LR, filters or presets. Dont have them, dont need them. RD


Other opinions are available and their findings might differ. Good for them

Cornwall - This glorious land that we all call home

With over 400 miles of Atlantic coastline, this glorious land that we all call home has it all. From picture postcard coves, to rugged granite cliffs, deep blue skies and crystal clear Atlantic waters. Our landscape is diverse and spectacular.

From a photography point of view, we have some of the best and purest light here. In the summer months, that light, our Cornish blue skies and the Atlantic colourful tones make it a dream to shoot. I might add, it doesn’t always look like this but we love it when it does. We get a lot of storms and we love them too.

Littered in and around our Cornish coastline are a collection of many picturesque coves which we like to call our own. Throughout the winter months, we love these places even more as the tourists have moved on and we get our lovely land back.

We’ve all heard the following many times before, “you’re so lucky to live here”. My response to that as always is, “it’s not about luck, it’s all about choice”. Life is all about the choices we make and our choice was to live and work in this lovely land that we call home.

St Ives - through my eyes

St Ives - One would say quintessentially Cornish, picture postcard views and one of the singular most popular seaside towns in the UK. Its colourful, great out of season and very photogenic. But as photographer like most, often see what others don’t. Tourists will continue to take those typical St ives seaside shots we all see and love, but personally, I prefer to see a different side to it whilst at the same time, seeing different views.
Enclosed are just a few of what I see……

I tend to search out colours, use different film formats and a selection of film stocks to mix it all up.

A cliff top view here overlooking Porthmeor beach before the crowds arrive and the emptiness disappears. i often find that the morning light delivers the best light, thats always providing the clouds stay away

At low tide, St Ives offers free food for all. I refer to Cornish muscles if your a seafood lover. Remember though, go safe and be careful of the rocks and watch the tides etc. Im certainly not going to tell you where I harvest mine from, but wherever it is, I get the biggest muscles time after time.
There is a saying that you should never harvest muscles in the months with an “r” in them. Ive never found that an issue

They’ll always be somewhere to point your camera in St Ives and there’s always a different view, if you look for it. Colour will always stand out here, even in the off seasons. St Ives will always remain popular with tourist and locals alike. I’ll continue to look for more ways to shoot more content here - but always at first light and when the place is empty

Camera & film stocks used :
Pentax 6x7, Hassy 500 cm & Konica Hexar. Portra 400vc expired, expired ultramax 400 & Kodak Gold 120

Shooting Kodak Vision 250 3 D



For those of you who are uncertain as to what Kodak Vision 3 is, its a 35mm colour negative film originally made for motion pictures. The film's standard development process is ECN2 and Im told it can also be processed using the C-41 process. Double check that. I chose to go down the ECN2 route which is more costly one and you’ll need to search out someone in the UK who does specialist processing. I used Nik & Trick ( www.ntphotoworks.com), excellent service I might add. You’ll need to wait a little longer than the standard 2/3 days turn around time on this stock though. Factor in say 2/3 weeks to get your shots back.

So, the first set of images here are from the first roll I shot. I had no real subject matter in mind at the time other than to just roll off the film at whatever

Camera: Konica Hexar

Roll 2
On this occasion, i looked for more variety and colour to further test this stock and I found subjects that it suits, and perhaps others that it doesn’t. For me, the portrait shot below is fine in its composition but I can see yellow and slight green ish tones to it.
Given I know the subject well, the skin tones and studio walls colours, are not correct.

Further evidence of those yellow and green ish tones are highlighted here when I shot this image in low light conditions. The film was shot at stock and the light reading was fine, its just Vision3 that gives it these tones especially in low light

So, is it a stock Id shoot again? Hell yes! I like the fact that Vision3 for me seems to offer colours and tones that other stocks don’t as such. It’s never going to be one of my top 5 stocks but I will continue to shoot it

Please note: All of the images contained within this post and other posts, and on my site are free from Photoshop, Lightroom and presets. All my imaging is real

Penberth Cove - The tiny fishing hamlet

The tiny fishing hamlet of Penberth Cove lies at the foot of a wooded valley just to the east of Porthcurno. Fishing still remains part of Penberth but only to a few local families nows that still fish this cove and its Atlantic waters.

I spent a few hours one early spring morning capturing all that I saw. All images are shot on film. None of those pixels or photoshop here. Just real images

Camera’s: Asahi Pentax 6x7, Hasselblad 500 CM
Films: Kodak Ektar & Kodak Portra 160

Penberth Cove.jpg
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