We both entered a lot of Open Calls over the summer, advertised through the excellent CuratorSpace website (which lists arts opportunities), and one of them that I (Ben) went for was the "Nostalgia" Online Exhibition open call at the D31 Gallery, Doncaster. This is a new one to us, and we've not had chance to do a physical visit yet, but it sounded tempting.
The theme was black and white shots with a nostalgia angle, so being as we were getting some railway shots in whilst in North Wales, it seemed logical to use these as subject matter. Most of the shots were done either at our usual haunts of Porthmadog and Tanybwlch, but we got in some nice shots at...
...Devils Bridge, on the Vale of Rheidol. We'd had a day at Aberystwyth, and nipped up to Devils Bridge for few pics whilst we on our way home; the famous waterfall was a little uninspiring, given the summer droughts, but the station was good (and did a decent brew). Best of all, you could get right alongside the headshunt, so there were unobstructed angles on the locomotives, such as their new Garratt loco, above.
I shot a mix of portrait and landscape pics, focussing on the mechanical gubbins.
The generally summer weather of the holiday meant there were lots of nice shadows, and tended to show-up the lubricated, oily surfaces.
I ended up prefering the landscape shots, and entered half a dozen for the open call. Happily, this gave them one they were happy to accept for the first, online stage of the competition. It now goes to public vote, and a selection will be chosen for physical print.
There's a nice, and very interesting, variety of subject matter and styles in the competition- please check it out if you get chance;
Hopefully we'll get a free weekend at some point before Christmas to pop over to Doncaster and check the gallery out in person.
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