A train journey is always a great chance to take a few vernacular shots and an interesting destination makes for an even better opportunity. I spent a few days in Yorkshire this week, with a visit to the Leeds Museum Archives in to the bargain. Yorkshire is always a good venue for photography, with a mixture of ancient history, beautiful countryside and busy metropoli.
The train journey element lent itself to quick, casual photography with the Iphone and the Hipstamatic app, using a pak that emulates old sepia tinted plates - complete with dirt and scratches. The reason for this is to capture the heavily industrialised areas near the railway, especially near Manchester, where the cities Industrial Revolution heritage is still clearly visible.
The phone and app combination served me well, after I found myself in Leeds, at the Discovery Centre, which houses the museum archive and large object store. A guided tour led us around the cramped confines of the stacks, where thousands of objects were kept, in moveable shelving racks. As a result, it was difficult to wield the compact camera in the tight spaces, as the 50mm lens I had brought only had a minimum focussing distance of about ten feet. However, the Victoriana and antique objects packed into every square inch of space were ideal subjects for the sepia finish and high contrast.
Both Leeds and Manchester Railway stations are a wonderful mix of old and modern architecture and the constantly changing panoply of travellers meant there was always something to see.
The outskirts of Manchester and Salford are in a constant state of flux, as demolition, refurbishment and repurposing gnaws tirelessly at the cities environs.
As a result, glass, steel and composite crowds the skyline, while antique iron and engineering brick shores up the foundation and everywhere the hand of nature is at work, busily claiming unwatched corners and hidden interstices.
Yet, moving out of the station, the countryside is never far away.
With open spaces, it was once more practical to use the camera once more and the gift of three more vintage lenses, made it even more exciting. A vintage Photax 200mm telephoto proved to be especially effective in the rolling landscapes, while the Asahi Pentax 50 was especially adept at capturing the colour in the countryside.
The Photax reached out with little difficulty to the hills and returned some beautifully modelled shots, even handheld.
