Portmeirion August 2024

Welcome to... The Village.

Summer saw a trip to Portmeirion in  Wales, the first time we'd been there in over a decade.  It's a suitably eccentric sort of a place, and we were looking forward to the chance of a stroll around with the cameras.

The weather was less than impressive (story of the summer), with odd lighting.

The blue sky did at least put in an appearance.

Lots of lovely arches, giving some natural framing.

All in all a very nice place to spend a day wandering around.

 

KWVR Vintage Diesels in the Summer

I (Ben) had not managed much in the way of railway photography this summer, but the irst two runs of the Saturday weekends on the Worth Valley had vintage diesel locomotives hauling the even more vintage coaching stock, and it seemed too good a combination to miss.

Done by the river near Damems, and "Vulcan" on the first turn of the day.

We were off out later in the morning, but I stopped off at Keighley on the way to get a shot of the train leaving the terminus.

The next weekend I went up to Haworth for some shots up in the countryside, and took the opportunity to get some pics of the wild flowers on the way.

Top Field and the embankment seemed a good spot, though I was loosing the sun on this side of the line.

This time it was the Class 14, the Teddybear, doing the honours.  Shame about the chap leaning out of the open window, rendering the shot unpublishable (most mags, and the railway themselves, won't do shots of window-hanging).

I walked up the other side of the railway.  It would mean shooting into the sun, but couldn't be helped.

Yeah odd light, which was a shame.

The final shot was the one at the top of the page, back at Damems...

...and a nice surprise on the walk home, a Kingfisher in the river. I'd have tried for a better pic but a dog walker sent it flying off.

 

A Trading Estate Railway (Hornby; The Collector)

Back to blogging after a break away at the tail end of the summer, and to catch up, here's another one of my (Ben's) regular pieces for the Hornby Collectors Club magazine.

Way back in Lockdown, I did a series of layout-planning articles for "Railway Modeller" magazine, one of which was a line based on a Trading Estate Railway, of the sorts which once existed at Trafford Park in Manchester or Pensnett in Dudley. In order to try and find a real one to photograph, I had to turn again to the Middleton Railway in Leeds.

I did some illustration work for the project, and prepared an article (which they ended up choosing not to use that particular shot).  Needing some pieces for the Hornby Collectors Club, I returned to the idea.

This time it would need to be a 6-page article, and I realised I'd need to build a diorama or two so I had enough pieces to illustrate it.  The idea was a beginner-level model, so not too much modification needed for the buildings or scenery.

Oh for a proper studio... Still, always better to photograph in natural light.

I'd designed the warehouse board with a few specific articles in mind...

...same for the mainline exchange sidings, inspired by Pensnett.

This was never intended to be a permanent model; indeed, within a week of the article being published, I'd rebuilt the boards for the next-but-one layout project for Hornby.

There we go. The next build was also based on a piece I'd written for "Railway Modeller", one which they'd indeed published, based on Damems, on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. And in fact, Damems features in the next blog post too...

 

Inflate-Deflate; Bestway on the Beach, in the dark, Summer 2024...

As we wave goodbye to a summer which didn't really happen, and as we're busy editing a load of photographs from a final week at the coast, here's some shots from an inflatables shoot right at the start of the holidays.  Having tried unsuccessfully to do a night shoot with the big red and white ball back in May, I (Ben) was really wanting to try some more of the night beach shots for the "Inflate-Deflate" project, using the new camera to see how well it coped.

This time, I'd be using almost-exclusively Bestway toys (I'd been recommended them to follow on Insta... good old advertising algorithm... so thought I'd use all their products this time).  I quite like the designs they've produced over the years, there's some eye-catching toys- the props box is full of them.  In fact the majority of the toys I'd be using for this project are actually older than The Childs; so much for single use plastic, disposable toys eh.  We make this stuff last!

Attempt One was foiled by an unexpectedly high breeze when we arrived, so we decided to come back another night.  To try and save time on location, we'd partially pre-inflated as many of the toys as possible, which no doubt looked interesting to people who saw us drive past. 

Attempt Two, the next night; this time the weather was co-operative, the evening warm, there was no breeze... but surprisingly, and annoyingly, the layby next to the beach was heaving when we arrived at 9.15pm.

There were swimmers in the water, multiple fishermen... and it was still quite light when we arrived.

Elder Child and I took a walk, watching a seal bobbing about, and an RAF Atlas transporter cruising around in the twilight.  When they made another circuit later in the night, they must have wondered what the hell we were up to, if they'd looked at us with the night-vision gear...

By 9.45 the light was fading, and the public thankfully leaving, and we went back to the car and dragged the toys out.  No doubt it would have looked a bit puzzling, given the toys were all 3/4 blown up as we carried them the quarter mile to the location from the car.

I was a little disappointed with how these first ones turned out, just because of how the ball was a little mis-shapen.  But then, I reckon this one has been used on at least a dozen shoots over the years and got a bit squashed and generally battered.

The new SLR was coping very well with the shots, better than the phone (which this was snapped on).

The lights were a bit of a last-minute purchase, as my usual ones hadn't lasted as well as the inflatables had.  Turned out two had been put away with batteries in over the winter in a damp cupboard, so a quick run to B&M one morning saw me restocking, as well as buying some sealable bags to try and protect them from the salt water.

The tide had come in quite a long way, so I ended up in my beach shoes and shorts, standing up to my knees in the water for most of the pictures.  I'd planned on doing shots with the toys on the sand, but ended up having to do more with the shingle and rocks (not least to stop the toys floating off).

The whale was a little problematic, as it was a bit of a weird shape (no flat belly) and hard to disguise the lights.  On the other hand, it was so characterful I had to include it.  The sea was coming in quite a lot by this point, making the whale move quite a lot during the long exposures.

Last time I used these, I'd got some nice shots with reflections in rockpools, and was a little annoyed I couldn't get to that part of the beach with the tide up.  Luckily, by standing in the sea, I could get some reflections with the rising water levels.

I wish I had more of these, I used to have more in a couple of different colours earlier in the project... no doubt they'll turn up in a box somewhere, they've definitely not been lost, given away, or popped.

A non-Bestway toy to finish with, but this beach ball became one of the favourite toys in the "Weightless" open-call location shoots last year.  Having survived where all the other toys used in that shoot got punctured by the various spiky hazards on location, I thought I'd do some more pics with this one.

Final shot with the moon in the background.  By this time, it was near midnight, and with a massive drive home the next day, I thought it was time me and Elder Child bailed out to get some kip.  The new camera really coped well, these are the sorts of shots I wanted when I started the project, it's just taken a while for the tech (and my budget) to catch up with the ambition.

Oh, and reducing the single-use plastic issue yet again, all the toys used survived the night unscathed, to be used in yet more projects in the future.