Pittenweem (Part 1)

In February my Mum, Dad and I went through to Pittenweem in Fife for a day out. The weather was perfect to showcase the beautiful and colourful homes of the village, so I hope you like pictures of houses, as you'll be seeing a lot of them in this post! If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend a visit as it's easily one of the nicest wee towns I've been to.

Part 1 contains my medium format shots from the day and were taken with my Mamiya 7ii and 65mm f/4 lens. Film used was a mix of Kodak Ektar 100 and Fuji 400H, but mostly Ektar. Thanks as always to Canadian Film Lab for the amazing job they do with my film.

This is Jill. I got talking to her when she was taking a break from walking her dog. She instantly recognised my cameras as being film cameras and told me that her husband was a photographer in the Royal Air Force. She also said that he switched to digital when it came around but continued to shoot film for his personal work, which is something quite a few people still do today. I'm glad I asked to take her picture as it's nice to be able to remember such a pleasant stranger.

Seacliff

After visiting Gosford Estate earlier in the day we took a drive along to Seacliff Beach, a private beach near North Berwick. Apparently, I had been here before when I was little but I have no memory of it. It's a very nice secluded place and good for a quiet stroll. 

I loved the wispy clouds and the patterns on the sand. I seem to like taking pictures of Bass Rock but it's not my fault, it's visible from so many places! Unfortunately, it wasn't focused very well but I like it nonetheless. 

The lighthouse is way too small in the frame for this composition but it was the water on the sand mimicking the clouds that caught my eye.

After a walk on the beach we set out to find Seacliff House. From the beach it isn't immediately clear where it is, as it isn't very visible. The following pictures are some of the things that we saw during our search for the house.

After a bit searching we managed to find it. Here is a little history about the house taken from www.scotland.org.uk:

Seacliff House was built in 1750 by Robert Colt. It was later bought by George Sligo who in 1841 employed the Scottish architect David Bryce to build a new house in a typically Victorian baronial style around the core of the older house. However, in 1907 it was gutted by fire. The exterior survives almost complete with gables, turrets and bartizans. The outbuildings were later purchased by the Royal Navy who established a top-secret research base there during World War I. The station, known as HMS Scottish Seacliff, was mainly used for navigation training and U-Boat defence.

These days the house has been reclaimed by nature and the exterior is covered in ivy.

The light was fading fast and we had to leave before they closed access to the area (it's a private beach and area) so I didn't manage to take as many pictures as I would have liked. However, it was still well worth the visit. There's just something about places like this that fascinate me. Once owned by people, now owned by nothing but nature. Gives me a sort of post-apocalyptic feeling.

All images taken with my Contax G2 and Portra 400 except for the last three which were taken with my Mamiya 7ii and Fuji 400H. Developed and scanned by the amazing Canadian Film Lab.

Gosford Estate

Sometime last year I went for a walk around Gosford Estate with my Mum. It's a really lovely place to go for a walk on a nice day, so I'd recommend doing so if you ever get the chance. Unfortunately, access to the ponds was closed due to flooding when we were there, so I'd quite like to back one day to have a wander around that area.

This first image is of Wemyss Mausoleum. It was built to be the burial place for the 7th Earl of Wemyss and his family but only the Earl himself ended up being buried inside. I don't usually post multiple pictures of the same thing but I thought it was worthwhile in this instance, so here's a few different views of the Mausoleum.

My Mum loves daffodils, so when she saw this little area in Gosford Estate she asked me to take her picture and I'm glad she did as I think it turned out beautifully. It's really the first time I've taken a proper portrait since I started shooting film, sure I've taken the odd quick picture of people, but I haven't really taken my time with one nor have I went out with the sole purpose of shooting portraits. Hopefully that's something I can do soon.

One of the main attractions of Gosford Estate is its beautiful Neoclassical mansion. Gosford House was constructed for the 7th Earl of Wemyss and designed by Scottish architect Robert Adam. It was completed in the year 1800.

Thought this rundown old tractor was really cool.

I had no idea until afterwards that my two friends Kelly and Lee lived in the next two houses pictured. Quite nice to accidentally get a little glimpse into people's pasts.

The next three images would have been perfect together had I taken them all from exactly the same perspective, but I wasn't thinking about that at the time. Nonetheless, I still really like how each turned out. They were taken along a stretch of what I assume is garages/storage and I just picked out the parts I found pleasing to the eye.

All images were taken with my Mamiya 7ii and Fuji 400H.