David Simper got out in the thin winter light for some communal photography. Loading his film camera he bused down to the Blackpool centre to grab some frames with the squad.
The Blackpool Community Darkroom posse gathered at the Aunty Social building, 28 Topping Street, on 4th January 2025, paid £7 and were presented with a black and white film for the exercise in hand. Recording the Blackpool urban landscape in whatever light is presented. I always really enjoy these walks – photography can be a lonely business and it’s good to work in a group of people, a team.
Leaving Aunty Social, we turned left down Topping Street and then left again onto Church Street and up to Stanley Buildings, currently being transformed into The Edge, a modern business centre.
The shuttered shop fronts and scaffolding offered a wealth of opportunities. Jim’s Vinyls is not lost, it’s moved down onto Topping Street. Good news indeed, I must buy a turntable to play my remaining vinyl.
This form of photography generally means that the set of pictures taken is the thing, rather than an individual shot – unless you get lucky. A personal view, but I do think monochrome materials bring more out of apparently banal scenes and everday objects. Decent composition does help of course.
The light was thin but even, casting few shadows. I was able to use my favoured f5.6 aperture setting with a reasonably fast shutter speed. This gave enough depth of field, although maybe a touch more would have been nice. Using an 400 ISO film gives flexibility. I shot through my usual yellow filter to sort out the contrast, but even so, the skies are pale. Despite it not being classic, I liked shooting in this light.
We all seemed to get our fill of Church and Cookson Street and spontaneously turned back towards the town centre. I grabbed some flat record shots of Stanley Buildings, which I won’t inflict on you. There seemed to be more people coming on to the street.
Christmas decorations were still up in St John’s Square, adding to the public art.
Down on the sea front, Winter by the Sea was still in operation and people were having a good time sampling and enjoying the rides and food stalls. I miss my twin lens relex camera with its waist level finder for this kind of photography – although it’s not as fast to use as a rangefinder camera, it’s far less obvious that you’re taking a picture, handy for street photography when capturing ordinary people in the moment. Photography in a group lends moral support.
We were out for a fair while and probably all getting a bit cold. I was out of film. It was time to repair to the Abingdon Street Market food hall for a light repast, coffee and a choccy cookie, with chats and general cameraderie. What a pleasant interlude it had been.
Think about shooting some black and white film, available from the Strand Collective in Abingdon Street Market. When you’ve done this, you can develop and print your pics at the Community Dark Room. For this excursion, I used my Leica CL body mounting my Soviet Jupiter 50mm lens, fitted with a yellow filter. I hope you like this little sample of pics, it was great fun taking them.
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