Low Mill Keighley

The only “surviving” part of this mill, it’s in a poor state of repair. Access is straightforward, even inside; however there is evidence of people living inside so I didn’t venture too far in

I was very interested in the remains of the sluice gate and could have easily wasted a roll or more just on that

From various sources

First cotton-spinning mill built in Keighley and Yorkshire, begun as speculation by Thomas Ramsden of Halifax and completed in 1780 by Claytons and Walshman.

Four-storeyed sixteen-bay water-powered mill, Water power from Keighley beck giving  seventeen horse power,  by 1788 with adjoining warehouse and steam engine to pump water back into dam. Extensive sheds and warehouses added after site taken for worsted manufacture c1840 by John Craven.

Listing NGR: SE0655241165

It hasn’t changed much over the last few years Google Maps 2009 except maybe a bit more decayed?

It’s a very sad site, as the first cotton mill in Yorkshire surely it should have some significance? The council seem more interested in granting planning permission for supermarkets and other needless buildings than preserving the rich heritage we have; however this is a photography blog and not a political one, so lets leave it at that.

Speaking of photography, all were shot on a Canon EOS 3, 28-135 lens and an orange Soviet Tair filter. Some used flash as well

Kodak Tri-X Pushed to iso 800 and developed in HC-110 dilution B

I pushed the film to 800 as the lens is relatively slow @ f3.5-5.6 and the filter has a factor of 2 stops but it really brings out the stonework. Only minimal post processing such as cropping and resizing, this was an exercise in getting it right in camera

I plan to return here, and to some other sites, once Autumn is on its way and some of the greenery has died back.

Sources

http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-338250-mill-buildings-at-low-mills-keighley-#.Vdn8yvZVhBe

http://www.valendale.myby.co.uk/mills.html

http://yorkshire.u08.eu/?b=62356

Prospect Mill, Thornton, Bradford

Another mill I pass often in Bradford is Prospect Mill

Damaged by fire and closed in 2011, it was already in a pretty poor state by then, as Google Maps from 2009 shows.

Access was straightforward, past a row of terraced houses and into an open yard, with access all the way round

HISTORY
The site was first used around 1831 by Joshua Craven as the centre of a putting-out system, and developed as a mill from around 1848. The first mill building, the large mill, was in existence by 1849 and the first warehouse, dated 1849, followed soon after. Craven continued to buy up plots of land to accommodate his growing business, and by 1851 the firm was described as a worsted manufactury employing 240 people. The business continued to expand, with the small mill built in around 1850-60, and the second warehouse fronting the road in 1855. The firm of Joshua Craven & Son continued until 1875, when the buildings were bought by Adolphus Getz of Bradford, and subsequently by others until at least 1929. The mill is now used in part for textiles and otherwise as light industrial units.

Listing NGR: SE1017632608

From British Listed Buildings, when it was listed in 1983, by the time it closed the textiles part was long gone

All the shots were taken on a Praktica BC3, mostly with a 35-70mm f2.8/4 lens, some used a 135mm f2.8 lens

Mostly shot on HP5+, a few on Rollei Retro 400s and all developed in Rodinol for the grainy feeling

CineVision Film

Movie film in still cameras seems to be a bit of a “thing” these days, and like a lot of these “things” I wanted to try it.

The first problem is the reel size, they are usually 400ft or 1000ft, quite a lot to squash into 35mm cans

The second problem is the Remjet anti halation backing, various articles and techniques are out there regarding removal, all with varying degrees of success noted.

A few companies sell it respooled with the remjet still on, and a couple with it removed, all neatly rolled into a 35mm canisters, Cinestill in the US and CineVision in the UK, its CineVision I have here.

I ordered the film and it arrived quickly enough, with no remjet visible on the (uncut) leader

The first film I shot ended up in the bin, it had been respooled into a 24 exposure can, and the DX code wasn’t covered up, so the camera I was using (EOS 3) rewound at 24, however I messed the development up so that kind of didn’t matter

The second roll was a bit more successful, I used a Canon EF so no DX reading, setting the suggested ISO of 640 was a bit of a guess as the camera has 400 … 800 but  figured I was close enough

After I cut the leader and loaded it I took it on a day out, rather than some overly obvious test shoot

Initial thoughts?

Well I’m not exactly blown away with it (and I don’t mean the snapshot style pics) its a lot of faff for very normal looking film, I was hoping using the 640T Tungsten balanced stuff would give some interesting colour shifts, but I corrected them in Lightroom as they just looked flat, the few indoor shots (lizards in tanks) haven’t been corrected

Developing was straight forward in newly mixed C41 chemistry, it did leave drying marks on the film but not on another film I did at the same time so I’m guessing its an interaction between the stabiliser and the film. It can easily be corrected by rinsing after the stabiliser.

It also dried very flat, but I would have been more surprised if it hadn’t

I will use the rest of the film I have, as its still interesting, I have about 300ft of Kodak Vision it in the freezer if I want to try remjet removal myself, however to buy it again i’d like either proper cans, or it available with the remjet gone in 100ft reels so I can load it into proper reusable cans

I’m hoping the 320D daylight stuff is better, time will tell on that one

Sliding into Polaroid addiction

It all started innocently enough, I called in at a local second hand shop that sometimes has half decent photography bits, while buying a genuine Canon Speedlite for my EOS3 I spotted a very 80’s Polaroid

It was in fact a Polaroid Supercolor 635CL, complete with 80’s rainbow stripe, unable to resist I paid the £5 as my partner groaned at yet another camera purchase

Once home I did a little research, turns out its not as basic as I initially assumed, CL means Closeup and has a nifty slider to change focusing distance from 1.2m-infinity to 0.6-1.2m, and it is actually very clean. Then the problems started; film is available, however its £16 for 8 shots

£16 for 8 SHOTS!!!!!!!!!!!

Being a Yorkshireman I needed a lie down after reading that, but something strange happened, I found myself BUYING a film, possibly because it came with free postage, possibly not.

When it arrived I tore it open, slid it in the camera and was very happy when the dark slide slid out, slightly nervous I began to look for things to shoot, now when testing new films and cameras my son features a lot, mostly because he’s my boy, but he also loves having his picture taken, and is now captivated by the Polaroid, especially the picture popping out of the front…….

I have to say I have since learned the first pack was actually quite old and possibly badly stored, but it was in the camera so I used it.

I have decided to post every shot here, even the ones that were out of focus or failed for some other reason, if I cant bear to bin them I might as well share them

Pack 1: Impossible 600 series colour

Pack 2: Impossible B&W 2.0

I really need to learn how to use the exposure slider too

Whats next?

Firstly I have 2 shots left in the current pack, then I was tempted with a special offer from Impossible of 3 packs of expired film for £22, I also added quite a few more packs to that order so will be updating this page soon.

I’m also deliberately looking in charity shops and such for more camera’s, but that’s nothing new

Italian towers, abandoned building and more…….In Leeds

With Tower works in the news recently I decided to take a look, with a camera of course

(From Wikipedia)

Tower Works is a former factory notable for its three listed towers. It is located on Globe Road in Holbeck, Leeds, West Yorkshire, next to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The Italianate towers of the factory are a distinctive landmark on the Leeds skyline.

The factory was founded by T.R. Harding to make steel pins for carding and combing in the textile industry, and the original buildings, by Thomas Shaw, were erected in 1864–66. Harding’s son, Colonel Thomas Harding, employed William Bakewell to extend the works in 1899. The design of the extension was heavily influenced by Harding’s love of Italian architecture and art.

The most notable features of Tower Works are the three towers that give it its name and served for dust extraction from the factory. The largest and most ornate tower (1899, by Bakewell) is based on Giotto’s Campanile in Florence. The smaller ornate tower (1866, by Shaw) is styled after the Torre dei Lamberti in Verona. A third plain tower, built as part of Harding’s final phase of expansion in 1919, is thought to represent a Tuscan tower house such as can be seen in San Gimignano. All three towers are listed structures, the two ornate towers being Grade II* and the plain tower Grade II.

The design for the Giotto Tower included ventilation systems that were way ahead of their time in terms of minimising pollution from the steel works. The chimney incorporated a filter to remove the excess steel dust.

In 1895 T. W. Harding & Son amalgamated with two other companies to become Harding, Rhodes & Co.

The factory sustained damage in World War II when neighbouring buildings were bombed during the air raids on the nearby Leeds City railway station. It closed in 1981 after 117 years of operating on the site.

The first set are all shot on a Canon 550d 28-135

There is pedestrian access to the site as it is now a business park, so it may be worth visiting during the week

The second set were taken whilst driving home, old and abandoned buildings have a certain character and I can rarely resist, these were all taken on a canon EOS3 with either Fuji Superia or Agfa Vista

I will be revisting both locations soon

Film Acceleration

This is a process I stumbled on by accident, apparently often used on old film that someone wants to recover, ive been feeling experimental lately, with the monobath (coming soon) and this idea

I’ve also seen it claimed to be an “extreme” cross processing technique when use on E6 slide film, whereby the film is underexposed first, but most of the results ive seen just look like normal cross processed E6, it can also produce random colour shifts on C41 but these are very random and unpredictable, just like a good colour shift should be

However I still wanted to try it, as its used on “old” film I decided to try it with some Kodak Kodacolor 200 that expired 10 years ago, I have a few rolls of it to play with.

A 24 exposure roll was loaded into my Canon EF and taken on a trip to a park, I did have a slight developing tank loading error that lost me a few frames but that’s life

The process is essentially:

Develop in B&W chemicals (I know colour likes a bit of temp for this)

Fix (no stop bath)

Expose to light (have a look at the neg)

Bleach (I used C41, it goes a weird pink colour)

Wash

Develop as normal in C41

So I didn’t get any wacky and weird colour shifts, the colour shifts on the first shot happens on this film randomly, but the colours are far far nicer than any of the other rolls of this expired film ive shot

As a method of rescuing old film its (so far) a hit, but for weird colour shifts its a no

Russian Invasion part 1. Kiev 60

My parcel of Russian cameras finally arrived, after being kicked and battered around customs in various countries for several weeks, I will be using each one and posting a bit about it here. Not a review as such, just a few of my thoughts. First up is the Kiev 60, medium format SLR in a 35mm (ish) style Initial thoughts are its big, like comedy size big and heavy, all this I expected. I didn’t expect it be faulty, battered and the lightmeter in the TTL prism to not work. A few hours with a screwdriver and some brushes has it a lot cleaner, and should get me 11 shots from a 120 roll, not quite the 12 I would like but better than the 8 I was getting initially, some more fiddling could get me 12 but im not that fussed. Having used a TLR previously I thought I would give the waist level finder a go, using my iPhone as a lightmeter I headed to a local church, not trusting the iPhone I bracketed all the shots Overall im happy with it, now im used to the size, so will be taking some colour film out next time