I knew a photographer who apparently liked the flat dull light of a grey day, I can’t say I do. It makes things so much more difficult. When I was young I used to devour articles about the wonder and beauty of using Kodachrome 25, the deep saturated colours just made everything look wonderful – Paul Simon even wrote a song about the film stock! The reality was somewhat different here in the cold and grey of wintery Britain a world away from the sun and warmth of Kodachrome’s natural habitat. Here working with such limitation really made everything so much harder.
Of course today such limits are a thing of the past. I found myself inside a very gloomy church – no problem I’ll just switch to 2000 ISO and go on shooting. (Actually to my great surprise the quality wasn’t that bad- see above) As the church interior shows even with all the technological advances you are still facing the same problem – how to make an interesting image in none too inviting conditions? I’ll leave you to decide whether I came close to succeeding but it was very hard work trying to get anything in the dull cold of a winter’s day in north east Leicestershire. I am not sure there were any Kodachrome moments.
So this will be the last of the Ironstone Benefice images for a while as the creative behind this project, David Manley, is still trying to finish off the paintings inspired by the previous project Playground of the Midlands. It does give me time to reflect and hopefully when we venture forth into north east Leicestershire the light might be a bit more rewarding and it won’t be so bloody cold!