Ranmore

Ranmore, originally uploaded by John the Monkey.

I thought I'd start today's page of context with this shot, of "Ranmore" on Church Street (Heol-Y-Eglwys?) in New Quay (Cei Newydd).

In my minds eye, this is owned by an avuncular retired couple, who perhaps moved here from further inland in Wales to be near the sea. They keep a tidy house, sweep the yard, and perhaps frown slightly at the noise of the tourists on their way back to holiday homes and B&Bs in the town from the harbour and beach.

I found the frontage redolent of seaside towns all over Britain, under an (for the week we were in Ceredigion at least) uncharacteristically overcast sky.

It turns out that it's actually holiday accomodation, by the way, and you can find out more about it here.



My second holiday snap today is this, "Naughty Flowers" - perhaps more characteristic of modern Britain than the first, I suppose. I liked the flowers against the predominantly white background, and the lines of the lower wall and wire leading to the camera.

From memory, I've a feeling that the wall is at the side of the Hotel Penwig, again in New Quay/Cei Newydd, a splendid place to sit with a pint of Rev. James and watch the world go by.



The last of today's holiday snaps is the first on Velvia 50, and, I think, the first Velvia shot I've ever taken. This is at Llangrannog beach, and the solitary flip flop against the stones stood out as an obvious subject for a colour photograph. My scanner seems to have trouble getting colour balance right with slide film, and the picture seems to me to have a pink tinge when viewed on this monitor, which I may try and correct at some point.

Unlike my last roll of E6, I got these processed and mounted, and the magic of a box of mounted slides captivates as much as it did on the first roll I saw. That little box of clear, saturated images is a wondrous thing, and I recommend to any film shooter that they do at least one roll of E6 to process and mount at some time, nothing beats it.



These last two shots are chronologically prior to the ones above, taken in Manchester on my first roll of bulk rolled HP5+ to go through a camera (the Nikon FE, in this case). The shot above is a detail of a lock gate on (I think) the Bridgewater Canal in Manchester, just near the bridge that leads to Barbolli Square.



This shot is another instance of the "Buy Less, Live More" stencil, rather clearer this time, and taken between the Canal towpath and Whitowrth Street West. The bricks aren't the grimy Manchester brick we're used to, but new glossy bricks on the walls of the new buildings on Whitworth Street West.