its auction time.....

I was really grateful recently to be given access to document an area that the general public don’t often see. Im referring to Truro’s main livestock market. One of only two now remaining in Cornwall. I was under the impression that such markets might be a private space for bidders and buyers but with the help from Andrew, Lodge & Thomas’s main auctioneer, that was far from the truth. Ive wanted to shoot and document the behind the scenes look at one of these markets for some time now this what I saw and documented in black and white of course and on film. Timeless look you might say.

Truro livestock market is held on a Wednesday just outside of Truro. The sales are a mixture of cattle, sheep, pigs of all types brought in from the local areas and being sold throughout the UK. Prior to the sale getting underway, farmers, buyers etc get the opportunity to preview the livestock. Bidding gets under way at 10am and the bidding ring begins to fill up just prior. Andrew stands in what I guess is called the bidding box overlooking the buyers/sellers and the cattle sale gets underway.

If you’ve ever had the chance to listen to an auctioneers voice once bidding gets underway, then you’ll know they make no sense to you whatsoever. The buyers, they understand it all as does Andrews admin assistant that sits next to him writing down all of the winning bids. Andrews decades of knowledge and experience see’s all that goes on. The nod of the head, the roll of the eyes, the slight raise of the finger, all of these signals he picks up which adds to the vocal bidding process.

In an others area of the market which is vast, some of Andrews colleagues are fronting the sale of other livestock auctions to include sheep and calves. These follow the same format but my apologies here Andrew, I understood them to some degree in terms of the price and how the bidding was progressing. I was very difficult to understand your auction banter. You knew what was going so no issues there.

It was really interesting to watch and to document and shoot the whole process of the auction from the delivery of the livestock, their care, the movement of all of the cattle/livestock on the day and their well being. It was helped along the way by the professionalism of all of the staff involved alongside side Andrew. A big thank you to all concerned… RD

New Kodak Gold 120 200 review

Since the recent launch of the new Kodak Gold 120 stock, Ive been looking for an appropriate subject matter to shoot it with, both on 6x6 and 6x7. Colour wise for me , Cadgwith fits the bill 100%. It’s one of those quintessential colourful Cornish fishing villages that has it all. Granite old school Cornish cottages, thatched roofs, pastel coloured boats, glorious views and the Atlantic ocean pushing into its sheltered cove

The colours look great for me and Cadgwith certainly delivered on the colour front. Early doors is always the best time to shoot these locations. On reflection, Im pretty happy with Kodak Gold

The new Kodak Gold 120 seems to sit somewhere between Portra 160 and Ektar I reckon. Maybe not so vivid perhaps as Ektar and not so neutral as Portra but the colours do pop for me, and Cornwall always delivers on the colour front which makes my job so much easier. By the way, Im no expert or a technical photographer in any way but these are my findings, results and my review.

Camera’s used in this shoot: Hasselblad 500 CM/ Asahi Pentax

no PS, LR. Presets, just straight out of the camera at box speed

Please note: other views and opinions are available but these are mine

Kodak Professional Portra 160NC review

Here’s a Kodak film stock that I only came across recently and being a lover of Portra in general, I simply had to try it.
I shoot a lot of Portra both on 35mm and medium format but I wanted to try NC on my 6x7 first, just to gauge it on a large negative fit. By the way, this roll of NC expired back in 1998.
I first picked a solid colour subject matter to see how it stood up. You’ll notice here that there is four blues, the double doors, the side shutter, the sea and the sky. All different shades of blue. To my eyes, there’s not colour separation at all and NC has performed really well given the fact that its over 20 years old

The next image was shot early doors just as the sun was coming up positioned slightly behind me. I picked this frame as I thought it would best represent a series of colours for a decent Portra test. Again, I think the film stood up really well the colours to me are classic Portra, perhaps more 160 than 400

I think it’s important to note here that I don’t use Photoshop, Lightroom or filters. I still struggle to understand that if you’re shooting film, you take all that time to compose the shot, get your light levels, shutter speed etc, you then take that image and change it, add and manipulate the hell out of it. If you shot it wrong in the first place, go back and do it again or learn from your mistakes.

Again, the colours here for a well expired film look really good and they are as I saw them. Clearly previous storage on his roll has been good or at least been kept away from heat etc.
On balance then, If i can get hold of some more of this stock, I certainly would. Its clearly Portra both on the quality and the colour front.

Please note: Other views and opinions are available but these are mine. Cheers….