Something I learned from the Trent Polytechnic photo course is that you have to go back. Doing one shoot somewhere and thinking your done is not enough. Ego, laziness, maybe a bit of neurotic anxiety, all excuses. Admittedly it is a pain. So, despite feeling very fed up at the prospect. I went back to site D this afternoon, more than half hoping I'd accidentally drop the mirror en route, which was precariously tied with a bit of string slung over my shoulder while riding my bicycle.
My original intention had been to wait for blue skies but cloudy white ones have worked out better, filling out the frame as an area of white paper. So it was a good day for more white surrounds, and the rain held off today, just spots. Yesterday it had been chucking it down on and off and at times had been torrential. I'd spent 45 mins pressed into a loading bay concertina doorway in a futile attempt to find shelter for the camera, mirror and me, (in that order). The kit had stayed relatively dry but I was drenched, especially my feet, with shoes squelching with ever step from all the water in them when it eventually eased and I could carry on, at least for a while, before it resumed raining again.
Today security showed up but he was OK and we chatted for a while. When asked he said he thinks the adjacent huge industrial building was last used for casting railway tracks, but originally was for building tanks. (It's main door is big enough to roll Saturn Five rockets out through it.) he mentioned that Hoval were the last manufacturers there, (closed in 2014), and I've subsequently found they made commercial boilers and pressure vessels at this site. Before that Ruston & Hornsby ran a foundry. The security guy said the bottoms of the metal ladders leading to the roof here had been cut away to stop kids climbing on to them.
I thought he would ask about the mirror I had been resting on my feet, he didn't, and he didn't ask me to leave the site either, just to stay away from the buildings.
My original intention had been to wait for blue skies but cloudy white ones have worked out better, filling out the frame as an area of white paper. So it was a good day for more white surrounds, and the rain held off today, just spots. Yesterday it had been chucking it down on and off and at times had been torrential. I'd spent 45 mins pressed into a loading bay concertina doorway in a futile attempt to find shelter for the camera, mirror and me, (in that order). The kit had stayed relatively dry but I was drenched, especially my feet, with shoes squelching with ever step from all the water in them when it eventually eased and I could carry on, at least for a while, before it resumed raining again.
Today security showed up but he was OK and we chatted for a while. When asked he said he thinks the adjacent huge industrial building was last used for casting railway tracks, but originally was for building tanks. (It's main door is big enough to roll Saturn Five rockets out through it.) he mentioned that Hoval were the last manufacturers there, (closed in 2014), and I've subsequently found they made commercial boilers and pressure vessels at this site. Before that Ruston & Hornsby ran a foundry. The security guy said the bottoms of the metal ladders leading to the roof here had been cut away to stop kids climbing on to them.
I thought he would ask about the mirror I had been resting on my feet, he didn't, and he didn't ask me to leave the site either, just to stay away from the buildings.