Intake Quarry is one of a vast number of quarries scattered around the Middleton/Cromford/Via Gellia area and was operational between 1853 and 1968. Access to the quarry, which is owned by Tarmac, is prohibited and it’s easy to see why – there is evidence of numerous rockfalls and paths close to the walls of the quarry are scattered with boulders. It has been popular with climbers in the past but its use for climbing is now strongly discouraged. Numerous trees have taken root, more so in the western section of the quarry, and few structures remain.

The images were made with a Yashica Mat 124G, shot on Ilford FP4+ film and processed at home in Ilfotech HC 1+47 for 12 minutes.

If I had a bit more gumption I’d have sorted these images out sooner but I never quite finished them. Some were hastily scanned, some I couldn’t scan initially as the Rollei 5×4 film I used was slightly too big for the Epson film holders and others had some dust on that I was just too lazy to clone out. Then I spent a day or so printing them in the darkroom, first for the Leicester Lo-Fi exhibition at FORMAT13 and later for Handmade Festival, so I just got a bit sick of them.

These images were made on various equipment/film types during a Leicester Lo-Fi trip to John Taylor & Co in Loughborough:-

Canon EOS 5, Ilford DELTA 3200
Graflex Pacemaker Speed Graphic, Rollei IR400
Bronica ETRSi, Rollei Retro 400S

The people at Taylor’s were kind enough to give us access to the workshops and let us watch a couple of bells being cast.

Taylor’s Bell Foundry is the largest working bell foundry in the world and is one of the few Victorian purpose built manufacturing sites still being used for its original purpose.

John Taylor & Co on Wikipedia

Four of my images (three of which are above) feature in Leicester Lo-Fi’s John Taylor & Co Bellfoundry exhibition that’s being shown upstairs at The Crumblin’ Cookie in Leicester as part of Handmade Festival.

The 14 images, shot on film and hand printed in the darkroom, are on show between 20th May – 1st June.

My other images from Taylor’s can be found here – http://www.andystafford.co.uk/taylors-bell-foundry-loughborough

Links:
http://www.leicesterlofi.co.uk/
http://handmadefestival.co.uk/photography-exhibition-of-john-taylor-co-bellfoundry-by-leicester-lo-fi/
http://handmadefestival.co.uk/
http://www.thecrumblincookie.co.uk/
http://www.taylorbells.co.uk/

I really like these swings for their position – the football pitch behind them provides the perfect empty background when it snows.

Prints, posters, cards available from photo4me or ArtFlakes.

Sometimes I find looking back at old images a bit painful – it’s an odd type of after-the-fact disappointment when you realise that something you used to quite like, or used to be proud of, is actually not that good. It also causes me slight embarrassment when people react favourably to such images.

Of course looking back at your work and feeling like that is perhaps better than wondering where it all went wrong (but naturally I have my fair share of that too).

This image (above, from March 2011) is one that I’ve made similar versions of since, with different cameras and film types – it’s also currently one of the oldest ones that I can go back to and feel 100% happy with.

Ok, so it’s not really THE Iron Giant, but it will always be that to me.

This is one of my first infrared images, taken on my second trip out with the IR converted Canon 350D, but it’s still one of my favourites.

Normally with images taken with this frequency of IR filter (650nm) there are two conversion options:- black & white or false colour (which is done by flipping the red and blue channels in Photoshop). This image however really grabbed me in its raw state, with the off-world colours matching the science fiction look of the structure, which is in fact part of an abandoned bridge.

Another reason for my liking of this is that, more than any of my other images, it reminds me of the importance of continuing to look for new images in familiar places. I must have seen this dozens of times, both as a child and on my numerous photo trips to this location but I only ever saw it as an old bit of bridge, now I find it impossible not to see its robotic features.

Prints, posters, cards available from photo4me or ArtFlakes.

According the weatherman there was going to be plenty of sunshine almost all day in this part of the Peak District. It even looked like there might be a chance of some decent light first thing in the morning. We weren’t the only ones labouring under this misapprehension – we passed a number of people stood next to their tripods, cameras pointing down into the valley at Curbar and Calver and in the direction of where the sun might cast its first rays if it were to make an appearance.

It didn’t spoil my fun though – the intended destination was the scattering of trees that appear before Curbar turns into Froggat Edge. I’d photographed these trees before but the conditions this time were nowhere near as favourable as my previous visit, so instead of taking any colour shots I opted for a couple of medium format black and white shots and a few with the IR converted Canon 350D.

The 350D really is the most shocking piece of trash by modern standards – I bought it secondhand and it’s well worn, some dust is trapped under the IR filter and needs cloning out of every shot and it only really produces acceptable images when used with the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 (which itself is hardly the standard bearer of the Canon lens range). Despite all this though it’s occasionally an absolute gem for monochromatic images like this one – on cloudy days the mild IR filter cuts the contrast between the sky and the ground and provides a slightly different look from a normal desaturated/greyscale image and with the 50mm lens it produces pixel perfect images.

Prints, posters, cards available from photo4me or ArtFlakes.

I’ve always really liked how different these images (taken on the same cold and windy day in January) are, despite their obvious similarites.

We arrived in Edale before daybreak and made our way up from there, on the ridge next to Grindsbrook, with the sun coming up behind us. The sunshine didn’t last long though, being replaced by cloud and a cold, harsh wind that was enough to cause spectacular spray at Kinder Downfall.

Prints, posters, cards available from photo4me.

Early morning sun lights up the brown winter hillside in Edale.
http://www.photo4me.com/cart/details.asp?PictureID=245769

A tilted rock on Kinder, in the Peak District on an extremely cold and windy January afternoon.
http://www.photo4me.com/cart/details.asp?PictureID=247462

When I bought the lens that this image was made with (the Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 fish eye) I had intended to spend the whole winter using it for shots like this, but things didn’t exactly go according to plan. It got used a few times and, as correctly predicted by a number of people, it went back in the box (until being rediscovered for use on my infrared camera).

Prints, posters, cards available from photo4me or Redbubble. Other prints/prices available on request.

Available for licensing on Getty

I posted a number of shots from this morning a while ago but as this image is currently in the Leicester Peoples Photographic Gallery Anniversary Open Exhibition I thought I’d upload it separately.

Prints, posters, cards available from photo4me or Redbubble. Other prints/prices available on request.

Available for licensing on Getty