Golden hour-ish industrial estate wander
Last Sunday evening Laura mentioned she’d seen an interesting bus on the way home from work that might be good for the parked cars account. It was a bit late to head out but the light was nice and I reckoned I could get there before the sun went down completely. By the time I arrived the sun had dipped just a bit too much, only just catching the tops of the warehouses but there was still enough light to warrant staying for a while. The bus was parked outside a bodyshop and despite the time and being a Sunday, there was a guy inside it stripping out the interior. Fortunately he didn’t seem phased by my request to snap a photo, nor ask any further questions..perhaps a rival parked cars account had already paid a visit..
After getting a photo of the ‘interesting bus’ I decided to stay a bit longer and explore the area. I’d not been to that particular estate since I was taking photos for my ‘Industrial Landscapes’ zine, allllll the way back in 2019 and the place felt both familiar and entirely different at the same time. When I originally decided to produce a zine on these estates I was drawn to the subtle beauty of an industrial estate and how things change everyday. These changes can be minor, major and sometimes a bit bizarre. A scene that existed one day might change or disappear entirely the next and these fleeting moments are my favourite things to photograph. Whilst not every photo is particularly great even by my low standards, I still enjoy the challenge of seeking out visually appealing subjects in a place that was built to be functional and certainly not interesting.
I was definitely about an hour too late to the estate which is a shame as photos like the one above would have really benefited from some soft light, illuminating the subtle curves of this Rover 75…haha. I also had to weigh up the low light capabilities of the X100F which sucks wide open at f2 but also doesn’t really do particularly well at the higher ISOs. In the end I think I settled for ISO 1000 and dropped to f2.8 which is a far cry from my usual f8 and be there. It’s times like this I really miss my old 23mm f1.4 which was a real gem of a lens and was sharp right down to wide open but that’s the price you pay for having the smaller form factor I guess.
I’m tempted to go back this Sunday a bit earlier and see if I can retake some of the photos, should make for an interesting comparison. In the meantime I’m yet again doing battle with trying to spend less time on instagram and being more productive. Bryan Birks did a great video recently featuring a bit about phone addiction and it definitely resonated with me. He’s also one of the few photographers that posts videos about producing images rather than focusing on gear which is refreshing in the sea of ‘buying X camera in X year’ videos. Here’s the link if you fancy a watch.
Thanks for reading.