Cragside House in Northumberland the first house to be lit by hydroelectricity. When we came here in January, the house itself was closed for the winter. You could walk the lake, and through the trees past the screw, along to the iron bridge. But you couldn’t go into the house itself. Now I’m starting to develop a bit of a style for shooting the instax film, I wanted to go back to Cragside, with the house open, looking to take some dramatic contrast window light shots.

The house itself lies at roughly ///superbly.underway.tent on what3words.

Worst things first

The first two images here are taken on the Instax Monochrome film. I think this film has less range than the colour film. Here I metered for the house and still managed to blow it out. The bridge looks fine, as does the reflection in the second image, but that’s no good if the actual subject isn’t exposed well…

The next two images were too dark, the jam jars exposed too dark, and the stairs had too slow a shutter speed to compensate for the darkness. I knew this was risking a blurry image at 1/8 before I even took it…

The last one in this section, of the billiards, was sheer user error. I recomposed after focusing and didn’t refocus. Luckily I realised before walking off and was able to retake it.

OK Images

The Screw

The hydroelectric screw is fed by the lake above. This turns the screw, which used to generate power to the house. Central to the image is the cascade of overflow water from the lake. In summer there is often no flow over it, but on this day there was. If I was to take this image again I would compose it looking further to the right. With the overflow centered, and the screw and step to the right it makes the image feel a little off balance and right heavy.

A Monochrome Pairing

One of the things I learned with the Monochrome Instax is that, in my opinion, it very much lends itself more to portraits than to landscapes. I think all of my favourite portraits of my little ones on the day were on Monochrome, but all of my favourite non-portraits were on the colour stock.

The house in the below image is an improvement on the above. It is at least exposed somewhat correctly. But with both of these images I can’t help but wish I’d had a colour cartridge in the camera.

Interior Details

The first of these two images I was wanting the subject to be a set of whisky glasses in a case behind the tray. Unfortunately you can’t really see them as the frame is a bit dark. I like the dark effect overall, but missing its subject it seems a bit lacking. On digital I would have done a local adjustment to simply brighten up that area, however I doubt that would have worked on the Instax…

The other image feels a bit snapshot-esque. It’s exposed for the subject, which was intended to be the documentation on the table, however I couldn’t frame up how I would have wanted due to the ropes, so in a way wish I’d saved the shot. It’s ok, but just a bit ‘meh’.

My Favourites

Ghost on a Bridge

The ghostly figure on the bridge is one of my little ones. At that f-stop in auto mode, there mustn’t have been enough light to freeze them. I like the ghostly remnants of the blurred little gremlin running over the river.

Billiards

Having already observed the failed version of this shot, readers with a keen memory will have noted that another version would be making an appearance at some point. I like the vibrance of the table cloth under the lamps. Even more so in this version that’s actually in focus…

Bathroom Details

Maybe a touch underexposed, but I like how that darkness emphasises details coming from the window light, such as the scales and the stand with the sink on the left. In reality this room feels much brighter. I am liking where I get the window light fading to black in an image, but where it wrapping around an object of interest, rather than just purely being about the light fall off itself.

Night on the Tiles

This image may seem like an odd one to include in my favourites. It’s not exactly a portfolio piece. I have a couple of images that focus on texture however, and I think they may look interesting together on my grid.

The Owl Suite

Last in this blog, but the first one I posted onto my Instagram. A clear sign that this was my favourite image of the day. I liked the shapes of the lines that fell over the blue sill, cast in shadow. One of my favourite things about this image however was the look of sheer confusion a hobbyist, with a massive DSLR and several very large lenses, had on his face as he tried to work out what I had actually taken a photo of. But it was simply just the light and shadow…

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