Here is a first go at a potential plan B, the local scrap yard. Normally I see this place on a Saturday morning when there is no-one about but as this was taken on a weekday the old fellow who evidently runs the place, rummaging there on the left was there. As a precaution, and matter of courtesy I asked if he minded if I took some pictures. Clearly from the somewhat bemused look on his face – I did not explain my intention as he did not show any inclination to engage in conversation – he must have wondered why on earth I wanted to do so, but nevertheless acquiesced.
I tried a couple of different angles but this was the only one that really worked and kept me close enough to the scene without having to stand in the middle of the road – there is enough traffic to present a hazard.
I suspect that further shots will be taken at weekends so the gate will be closed and no-one there. That might make the process a bit more comfortable. Anyway I will try it over the next few weeks and see how it starts to shape up.
I still have to settle on a possible “microcosm” site so will return to that later.
Continuing:
An overcast day after a couple of days of fairly heavy rain so the light was quite poor. To maintain a reasonable shutter speed of 1/60s and an aperture of f/11 to try to keep some depth of field, I found I needed to raise the ISO to 800. I am also finding hard to shoot from exactly the same vantage point each time because there are some cars that park on this little patch of ground opposite the gates and I keep having to shift position from week to week to work round them.
Last one for now. For the future I think what I will do is simply collect each weekly photo in a separate file and then sort and edit them once the time to finalise the assignment arrives, unless something noteworthy happens in the meantime. I feel it is a bit much at the moment to be updating this post every week. Rather I think I will do a sweep up post later, bringing the project up to date, even if only to confirm that this is not the subject that is going into the final submission.
Since my last post on this I have at last decided that this is not a project that I am going to pursue further. Over the last few weeks I have continued to photograph the same scene and it is barely changing at all. Variations in the weather (not that it has changed much recently having been fairly monolithically overcast and wet) are I feel not enough to sustain interest.
I think part of the problem is that I can really only shoot here on a Saturday but that is when no-one is working in the yard and nothing is happening. As a result all that there is to be seen from one week to the next is a puddle and a parked car! I cannot realistically expect that there is going to be sufficient seasonal variation to make much difference. I will therefore from now on be concentrating just on Plan A.
Mark Robinson's OCA Landscape, Place & Environment Blog 