Good morning to everyone wherever you are in the world...

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Forgive me if I have posted this before. Not sure.

Performing the distant past

From the late eighties until two thousand, I had a second job gig with our provincial theatre in Reggio Emilia and Aterballetto, which back then was an important dance company in Italy. I also did some photography for other theatres and dance/theatre companies

The theatre are acquiring my "performing arts" film negative archive for their historic archives. The negs were just rotting away in my old darkroom, so it is good they will stored properly and preserved. I should have done it sooner, but I have been busy making digital scans of the things that interest me, and that I had not already scanned. My Z7 with 50mm macro, plus the ES2 attachment, makes it quite quick and easy. I think I have about 80,000 frames to look at, but with a lot of duplication and obvious fails. I used to expect to get about ten good pictures from a dance shoot with ten rolls of film.

It has been quite enjoyable going back over this photography, and I have found things I missed the first time around.

Here are a few quick conversions. The golf ball grain is due to Tmax 400ASA film pushed to 1600 and beyond. Capture One was used for the conversions, as it has dodging and burning tools similar to those I used in the darkroom. It is nice to have no paper waste and local contrast control. Corrections are quick and easy on the computer. These shots were mostly taken with my multiple FM2 or F801 bodies, that I used back then, with mostly the lovely Nikon Ai 180 F.8 and a Tamron 300mm 2.8. All manual focus and exposure was guessed as the lighting would fool the light meter, although I did sometimes did use a Pentax spot meter.

Aterballetto.

Sade, with Massimo di Rossi. The Marchese de Sade meets a Nun.

Aterballetto, with Alessandra Ferri

Riccardo Chailly, great fun to watch from backstage.

Ellebbero Dance Company, putting together a choreography.

Monica Francia. This dance piece was illuminated with hand held mechanics lamps. F801 Tamron 300 wedged between two theatre seats in lieu of IBIS.

Teatro Due, Parma

Aterballetto

Semola Teatro.

Droom

Elisabetta Pozzi, Teatro Due

Wow, what a fabulous set. I like them all, Droom and Semola Teatro stand out. But the absolute top of the tree is this shot, it's just beautiful.

A church in Weston-Super-Mare.

Murky. Fan of murky fog, not as much of murky water...

Digital makes processing easier but there is something in old film which is not present in digital media. Maybe it's the soft roll-off of highlighted areas, which film handles so well. In digital highlight handling gets you into ugly fight with gloves off...
Interesting shots, thanks for sharing and good that they are preserved for future. They may very well last over bit rot of digital negatives.

On Parole.

After getting out of city hall for good behaviour I decided to take walk along coastline.

Open air cafe at contemporary art museum backyard

My mistake here: wasn't paying attention to fading light and when this cyclist appeared I had no time to adjust shutter speed. But hey, it's amost like Cartier-Bresson's photo :P

Attempting to drown skateboards...

New development area right on coast. Hopefully the developers and owners of this property follow the law and leave coast open for public...

This street, leading from railroad station to coast, was reconstructed this summer, now almost ready. New design provides more space for walkers and bicycles/scooters.

Street cafe. Vana-Kalamaja means literally "old fish-house", Kalamaja (fish-house) is name of this area, probably from old times when it was populated by sailors and fishers, nowadays it's the most popular areas for hipsters and yuppies.

Impressions of Iona

The island of Iona lies just a ten minute ferry ride from the Isle of Mull and is a place of spiritual importance to many people. It is said to be a 'thin' place - where our day to day world comes close to the spiritual world. Saint Columba arrived here bringing christianity to Scotland in AD 563, founding the abbey. Apart from the abbey and associated buildings and notable graveyard, the island has wonderful beaches and hills for walking. The island is about 6km long in total, but most visitors don't stray far from the village and abbey.

Inside the Abbey.The ferns are real! I was told it is Sea Spleenwort, and draws its moisture from the humid air (Ican vouch for the humidity, aka Rain!)

Replica of Saint John's cross, just outside Columba's chapel (Believed burial place)

The actual cross is in the adjoining museum. This is believed to be the first 'celtic'cross inexistence (one with a circle inside the cross) and has carvings on all faces which become visible as the light changes - originally as the sun journeys through the sky.

Scary tomb!

From the north end of Iona you can look across to Staffa (of Fingal's Cave fame. Our planned visit there was called off because of bad weather 😌)

Crossing the hills to the south end of the island.

Iona Marble was used for many prestigious religious artifacts. The marble has all been worked out now, but the atmospheric quarry remains are a great subject.

Crossing back over the moors, the heather was in full bloom.

Todmorden 4.0 - Stoodley Pike

After my previous disaster heading up to Dufton a few weeks back, I decided to play the Bank Holiday safe and instead turn once more towards the quiet hills surrounding Todmorden in the fictional county of Yorkshire.

The quiet hill in this specific instance was Stoodley Pike, home to the imaginatively named Stoodley Pike Monument, completed in 1856 to replace an earlier structure that had been built to celebrate the end of the Napoleonic war, which had collapsed two years earlier. The monument is 121ft tall and stands at the summit of Stoodley Pike, 1,300ft above sea level.

I wasn't sure where best to park on this walk, so I ended up leaving the car outside a friends house in Todmorden. This turned out to be a tactical error on my part as it meant a steep climb at the end of what turned out to be a challenging (for me these days) 7 mile walk to the monument and back.

All images taken hand held with the Nikon Z7 and either the 24-70 f/2.8S or the 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 VR S. Processed from individual raw files in Capture One Pro 23.

1. First Sight

My first proper look at the tower as I made my way out of Todmorden and into the surrounding countryside. It doesn't look that far away.

2. Lumbutts Old Mill Water Tower

My walk took me through the village of Lumbutts, home to this rather splendid water tower, once used to power the Lumbutts Mill. Apparently it was once home to three 30ft water wheels stacked one above the other.

3. A Sky That Bodes

It bodes incoming bad weather by the look of it. As it turned out, I got away with nothing but a few really light bits of drizzle.

4. The Only Way Is Up

The path continues up the side of Stoodley Pike. Still it's getting nearer. Isn't it?

5. Distant Todmorden

Looking back towards Todmorden with the 100-400.

6. Lumbutts

Focusing my attention on Lumbutts. You can see the water tower and the large Methodist Church.

7. Closer

I'm getting there. At least, I think I am. This part of the walk took ages. Partly because that tower is a lot further away than it appears in a proper "these are small, those are far away" sort of scenario, but also because I kept stopping to catch my breath admire the view behind me and look for photographic opportunities.

8. Levelling Up

I finally arrive at roughly the same altitude as the tower. It's still a lot further away than it looks, but at least it's on roughly the same level plane. The boulder field was an unexpected treat.

9. You Can See Our House From Here

A detailed shot of the tower. All 121ft of it.

10. Moody Stoodley Pike

Around this point the wind picked up and another brief shower kicked off, causing everyone to head down the hill and leave me as the only idiot up there.

11. Bottom Of The Tower

Finally I arrived at the foot of the tower. It's an ominous structure up close and with no one else around, it's a little bit creepy, particularly if you want to reach that balcony just below the CND sign, which involves climbing a spiral stone staircase that is completely unlit and pitch black. Fortunately I had my head torch in my pack, so I ventured up to check it out, wary of ghouls and demons hiding around every corner, well, at least in my head they were. It's worth the risk of a serious H&S incident on the slippery steps for the view up there at it is rather nice, although nothing leapt out at me photographically (or demonically either I'm relieved to say), so I took no pictures from the balcony and returned to ground top of the hill level via the deadly staircase.

12. One Last Look Back

Having followed what could optimistically be called a path back down the steep side of Stoodley Pike, I briefly stopped and turned back for one last shot of the pike before navigating my way back into and across Todmorden to my waiting car.

Lovely pictures, Steve, and worth the walk. Having lived seven years of my childhood in Bury, I always thought Todmorden was in Lancashire. Thanks for putting me straight.

David

Angry sky

Great shot and pp.

You have assembled some remarkable captures.
My fave..

Some incredible shots in this series.

My fave...

Some amazing and historical images in this series. Thank you for thr tour.

You have managed to give us some very insightful local cityscape images . Excellent.

Like your contrasting green church tower.