Heptonstall - Still Messing with Film

I think I wrote previously that I had been ill for several months this year and this has taken its toll on my productivity levels.  A quick way of telling how little work I have done is the amount of film I have lying around.  I still have the majority of my stock of Superia 400 waiting to be used on Laundry; I've got several rolls of Fujicolour 200 and a roll of FP4+ rolling around my camera bag.  There is also nearly a full box of 4x5 sheet film still sat in the fridge.  On top of this I had a part used roll of Ilford's FP4+ in my K1000.  In fact it had been in there quite a while.  It was time to use it up.

I decided I would have a little trip to the nearby village of Heptonstall.  I had been meaning to do this for ages.  So while I had a roll of film to use on nothing in particular, I thought I would take a visit.

Heptonstall is quite a large village on the Yorkshire side of the border with Lancashire.  As far as remote goes in England it is quite remote being, that it is set quite high up in the Pennines  and is quite distance from any major towns or cities.   This probably one the reasons that it has stayed the way it has for many a year.

Even being so close to where I live and work, I had never heard of it until a couple of years ago.  Heptonstall first came into my consciousness through the work of Fay Godwin.  Godwin struck up a life long friendship with poet Ted Hughes.  Hughes collaborated with Godwin on a book of poems and photographs entitled The Remains of Elmet.  The poems were a reflection of Hughes' growing up and life in Heptonstall which lies in the ancient former kingdom of Elmet.  Each poem was accompanied by one of Godwin's' photographs.  The combination of these two extrodinary talents meant that visiting Heptonstall would appear on my to do list.  It would be remiss of me to mention that Heptonstall is also the final resting place of American poet and Hughes' wife, Sylvia Plath.

As it turned out this wouldn't be the last time that Hughes would have an influence on me.  His collaboration with another photographer, Peter Keene on River would lay the foundation stones for my project The River (more on this in the very near future).

Anyway, I managed to find a bit of time to visit and I have to admit I found the place captivating.  It certainly lends itself to photography and in particular film photography.  The centre of the village could be straight out of 1940's inspired film set.

It’s definitely a place that I must visit again and spend a bit more time photographing.  The shots into this post were shot on FP4+ rated at 50 ASA and developed in D74.

Messing about with Photoshop

The other night I decided to revisit some shots that I took at Widdop the other week.  There is nothing wrong with the original shot.  In fact, I actually like it.  What I was interested in doing was trying to see if I could emulate a pinhole camera using Photoshop.

In fact, I ended up using two programs to get somewhere near the look I wanted.  I also used a Fuji Velvia 50 filter with the grain from a Superia 400 fulter in DXO Super Film Pack 3.

Will I give shooting pinhole and do it the easy way in Photoshop?  Will I hell!  It's nowhere near the same but out of interest I think I'm going to have this lightjet printed.  Just our of interest and experimentation.

A trip with a Trip

Ghyll Cemetery

Just before Christmas I bought some Kentmere 400 film.  Basically to try it out and I have to say, I am impressed.  It’s a lovely film for the price.  Yeah, I’m impressed.

A couple of weeks ago, I put the film in to my little Olympus Trip 35 and started shooting with it.  Nothing in particular but just trying the film and getting used to the camera.



A Nelson Street

I love the Trip.  It’s such a fantastic design and beautifully built.  The images from it are lovely too.

So, just taking my time shooting a little randomly slowly started to fill the roll up.  Even Eve, my daughter took it out and had a go at shooting with it!  She did pretty good as well!



Griffin Manor

First up was a stop off a Ghyll Church and Cemetery and Barnoldswick.  Some nice little shots came off from that.

Then there was pulling my camera out of the bag at the camera club.  Just for a little documentary type shot.

One grab shot in Nelson which I think has a nice social commentary without having people in it and finally, a little walk around Griffin Park, Blackburn.

To see the shots and other shots with the trip visit my flickr set here.

Lancoast

As well as working on Laundry, I am also working on a second essay entitled Lancoast.

Lancoast is an exploration of the Lancashire Coastline through the medium of photography.  At the moment it is very much in the planning phase.  But the general idea is to shoot monochromatic coastal landscapes on a pinhole camera and use alternative processes to develop film and create prints.

At the moment I'm experimenting with film and various cameras to see what I can achieve before heading to the coast to shoot some images.

Like Laundry, Lancoast has its own blog.  It can be found here.  Why not stop by and have a look.

Back in the Box

As posted a little while ago, Remnants went back in its box with a little sadness both from me and the gallery at La Dolce Vita, Colne.  Finally, I have got round to sorting everything out and I have now got a little time to reflect.

As part of this process I took photocopies from the comments book and they are fantastic.  I thought I would share what has been said about Remnants.

‘Really impressive and very moving’

D. Claude.  Leeds

‘Emotive, calming’

G. Hensley.  Trawden

‘Very atmospheric and engaging’

I. Cleasby.  Oxford

‘Very beautiful images, dark and sombre but uplifting’

                                    M. Fielding.  Colne

‘Captivating, mesmerising images.  Beautiful.’

                                    Miriam & Andy.  Colne

‘What an unexpected surprise!  Very impressive indeed!’

                                    G. Read.  Colne

‘Simply brilliant and nice to see a local artist’

A. Ul-haq.  Colne

Thank you so much to everyone who visited the exhibition and took time to comment.

Feeling at Home

Jubilee (Darwen) Tower - Taken from 

Remnants.

For nearly as long as I can remember I have had a love for high places.  In essence it's not just a love of hills and mountains but more in particular Lancashire hills.

It began when I was a teenager.  I would get home from school, blow off homework grab my trusty spotted companion (a dalmatian named Billy) and head for the moors.  I loved the walk through the wooded valley and up past the reservoir before striding out on to the open moorland which is home to Darwen Tower.  Billy loved it too.  We spent hours and hours up there just wondering, sitting by moorland streams, listening to Skylarks and generally watching the world go by.

Even as I grew up that love didn't die.  In fact it grew deeper as I joined Lancashire Countryside Service as a Volunteer Ranger and eventually working full time.  Funnily enough, it was the same hills that I wondered as a boy that I now worked as a man.  Sometimes, Billy would be with me too.

The Ranger Service broadened my knowledge of the hills and sent me to other areas to explore, firstly in the West Pennine Moors and Rossendale, then the South Bowland Fells along with Clougha to the far North finally settling in Central Lancashire and becoming intimate with Pendle, Boulsworth and the hills surrounding the Wycoller Valley.

I do love the Lake District, I love North Wales even more but there is nowhere like my home turf.

What has this got to do with photography?  Everything.  I produce my best work when I'm working in Lancashire.  Why?  I think its because I love it or that I know it as well as anyone else.  Maybe it's just because I'm fascinated and amazed by it.  Perhaps its a life long love affair.

Some places I am really drawn to.  One of these is known as Walton Spire.  The Spire sits on Knave Hill high above the towns of Nelson and Colne in Lancashire, is directly between both Pendle and Boulsworth Hills and is in close proximity to the site Castercliffe Hill Fort.

Knave Hill is a bit strange.  It is my opinion (and also that of others) that the hill is man made.  Looking at aerial photographs it is possible to identify concentric rings of terracing that appear to be the construction of the hill.  However, the site has another feature in the Spire it self.  The bottom part of the cross is an ancient stone monolith that would have probably acted as a marker for travelers on the trade route from the Irish Sea to the North Sea or vice versa.  It is possible that the monolith could be somewhere in the region of 4,500 years old although some legends say that it was erected in rememberance of the Battle of Brunanburh in 937.  The top of the spire was added in the 1830's by Richard Thomas Wroe-Walton a local gentleman with strong religious values who live in Marsden Old Hall that still stands in nearby Marsden Park.

What ever the reason or how ever old the Spire is.  I can't help being drawn to the place.  Earlier this week I went up there in the snow and got some lovely pictures of it while enjoying a bit of pleasant if not cold weather!  Even the sheep seemed happy to be there.

Remnants Update

Remnants now has its own page complete with Flickr slideshow illustrating all the images from the project and a preview of the book from our Blurb bookstore.

Lancaster with the Camera Club

Monday night saw a group of us from Blackburn & District Camera Club head north up the M6 to Lancaster.

For a change we had some decent weather and some decent light.  I haven't processed many of the images yet but here is two that I have done so far.

While not massively stunning images the re-occurring themes of stone, monochrome and nature taking the built environment back feature quite heavily.

Today I have been doing some work around Pendle, but more on that tomorrow!

Remnants Book Released

Today sees the release of Remnants book.  The 86 page book is available in paperback and two hardback editions from our blurb shop.  See preview below.

Remnants by Lee Johnson | Make Your Own Book

Exciting times and being busy!

It's been exactly a month since I sat down and wrote a post.  I can't believe that I have been this busy!  So what's been happening in my world?  Sit back and I'll tell you!

In the last post I wrote about a talk that I was due to give at the Blackburn Camera Club.  This was done with Bob Singleton, club secretary and very much partner in crime.  We did a ten minute talk (each) on our influences.  We hadn't conferred or discussed our selections previously but it turned out that the evening was going to be monochromatic!  Bob talked about Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado who is an extremely talented individual.  His catholic upbringing obviously comes through in some of his photographs which can only be described as epically biblical.

My talk carried on the monochromatic theme but with very different results.  Those being of Jerry N. Uelsmann.  Uelsmann is an American born photographic surrealist who creates all his images in the dark room.  Obviously, I don't have the time (or the space) to do that so I do my surrealist images in Photoshop.

In addition to this I have been busy putting together my submissions for Blackburn & District Camera Club's Annual Exhibition.  I've come to a decision that this will be my last year of doing this as I want to concentrate on my own work and not competing.  In fact, I've decided that it will be the end of me competing altogether.  The side of the camera club that I seem to be enjoying the most is that of delivering talks, seeing what other people are doing and helping people learn more about the subject of photography.  With this in mind I've decided that it would be better if I didn't compete at all and concentrate on the areas of the club that I am interested in and my own body of work.

Remnants has grown a few more images and has now been finally put to bed.  It seems that every time I add something to it it grows that little bit more.  So it is time to call it a day with that project and finish it.  The final shots added were of Jubilee Tower, Darwen taken during the warm spell towards the end of March.  All the images have now been processed and completed.  A Powerpoint presentation has been put together ready for the delivery of the project as a talk.  This slideshow has in excess of seventy slides and around 80 photographs spanning the entire project.  It includes images that will not make it to print or the book.

The book is still in the writing stage but should be available from my Blurb bookstore in the very near future.  Keep an eye on this blog for an audio-visual preview of the whole project and dedicated page.

I'm also working on an update to the Images of Marsden Park project.  This year is the parks centinery and so I'm developing an AV production to commerate.  Keep an eye on the images of Marsden Park page of this blog!

A couple of other things are keeping me busy at the moment.  Pixel, the camera clubs magazine continues to do well and I'm enjoying the privilege of editing it.  As well as this there are a couple of little projects that are on the go that I am involved in but you may read about these in the near future!  Well, I have to have something to keep you hooked!

Nice surprises

One thing I love about being a photographer is the nice little surprises.  These surprises come in different forms.  Sometimes its when you process an image that you thought wasn't very good suddenly becomes stunning or sometimes its just those little moments of beauty that are generally missed.  One I had last week.

I was out walking and looked in to a field because something didn't look quite right.  Led there was a fox.  The little fella hung around for ages.  In fact, I got my tripod out and sat the camera on it and he quite happily let me take photographs of him for about 30 minutes or so!

The image (left) was taken at one of my favourite places, Castercliffe Hill Fort.  The three hawthorns reminded me of three witches and so that has become the title of the image!  Quite apt really!  This year is the 400th anniversary of the Pendle Witch Trail.

Out of the editing room - More Remnants Images

 Last night I finally finished editing some images that had been sat on my SD card for what seemed like an eternity.  Out of those images are some shots that I took in order to fit in with the Remnants project.
As I seem to get to the end of Remnants, I seem to find something else to add to it.  At the moment I've been adding follies to the collection and dry stone walls.  The walls may seem a little dull compaired to other aspects of the project but have you ever stopped to think how they were built and by who?

Now as Remnants draws to an end I am beginning to think about my next project and sitting down to play some more surrealist stuff.  Nothing is coming to light yet but I'm sure it will!

Remnants continues to grow

The Remnants project continues to grow with a new series of images being added.

Despite the dull skies and flat light I have managed to capture some moody images that fit right in with the others in the series.

In a recent trip to Whalley I captured 50 images.  Of course not all of them will make it to the final edit but it doesn't half boost the amount of images to play with!

Remnants project well underway

Sitting on Herders Cross

Over the last year I have been working on a project entitled Remnants.

Remnants is a photo-study that explores mans relationship with stone and its effect on the landscape of Lancashire.

The project began with a short series of images based around the vaccary walls of Wycoller and has since expanded to incorporate stone features of varying ages from all over the old county of Lancashire.

Remnants is mainly a monochromatic work with a few treated colour images added to break up the continual moody monos. 

The photo-study is not just about stone.  Although there are very few images that include people in them (namely a couple of self-portraits) the people are there in a different way.  Their legacy is there, you just have to look from a different view point.

Another point that has shown up that I did not realise is the project follows a socio-religious path from Pagan worship sites to the rise of Christianity to it's death and the religion of captalism.

Remnants will be completed at the end of this year or early next year with the release of a self-published book by the same name.

More of the Remnants images can be seen on our fotothing and flickr pages.