Wisbech Urbex, Despair

Urban exploring is something i don't do often anymore.

I've been focusing on weddings, photoshoots and street photography.

A little frustrated with myself too, I've not enjoyed exploring like i have have in the past. Perhaps i expect too much, or I'm lacking the creativity too make something out of nothing.

I'll continue to explore when the opportunity arises, perhaps enjoying more what i see with my eyes rather than what i see through a camera. 

As a total opposite from what i written in the above sentences, what i did enjoy about this explore was that it wasn't alone....ive made a new friend.

The internet, it's made the world grow inwards towards the self, for once though its been used to meet new people. 

Through an instagram follow I met up with Jack Smyth, a photographer from March, Cambridgeshire. Sunday morning, 8am, Wisbech, the site; an empty factory/warehouse that has been stripped and left abandoned.

Access was easy enough.

The site comprises of a large warehouse building which is segregated into 4/5 separate rooms that resemble coldstores or chillers, an office section and a number of smaller chiller units.

Inside, wiring has been dismantled and sold for scrap, all thats left is a pile of copper-less wire and a few desks, with a couple of extras thrown in for good measure. 

Guard cat

Work free office

From what?

Desperate place for a desperate measure

The waters been left on and so theres pools of water throughout.
Trusty waterproof boots.

Danger.

Bazaar things happen

Darkness

This was the most interesting thing found for me until moments later.

Dizzying heights

The main building is vast; a black hole.

I had to shoot something to make use of having a companion.
What can you do when theres harsh light and deep shadows, use both and create a silhouette.

A sobering thought to end with:

Imagine being homeless.

Alone.

Cold.

Where would you go?

This is a stark reality, that may never cross your mind, for some though they live this despair everyday.

I felt awkward and ashamed for invading this persons space.

Everyone's got their own demons.
Some physical, some mental.

Its easy to judge but whats their story?

Taking Doug home

It was one of the hardest things I've ever done.

How do you tell someone something so life changing?

I sat him down, made sure he was comfortable and came out with it;

"Doug, im not your real dad. And Laura, she's not your real mum"

"your parents were too young and had 6 other children to look after"
"they sold you to us"

"no" "no" "its not like that'

"Doug"

"your a dog"

"it happens all the time"

He barked a bit, chased his tail, wee'd in the garden and then he was happy agin.

Not so bad after all, i thought it was going to scar him for life.

We took Doug to meet his real parents; Willow and Bubba. Both of Jug breed.

I wonder if a dog knows after 6 months of being part that the dog thats just walked through the door is their son or the 2 dog's in front are their parents?

It was a great half hour spent, watching the 3 dog's run around the garden, chasing each other. it made for some great comical images.

and the chase was on

He'd only been there a few minutes and already they were giving him a grilling

Willow loves to cool off in the water

Lol, what does this look like?

Extreme close up

Face off

Another grilling from his dad

I grew up with dogs around me; German Shepherds, i'd previously never been a small dog person but having a small dog is great, you can take them anywhere and everywhere because they take up no room.

However don't go thinking that a small dog has no personality, Doug is a legend! He's randy, stubborn, intelligent, loyal, smelly; he's always passing wind, energetic, he's a real ladies man.
This actually sounds like someone i know!?

To the greatest dog ever..........Big Doug!

Now I've got to go hoover the car because he's malting and there's hair everywhere.

Going manual

Having scoured shops and boot sales for the past few years I've built up a small collection of different lenses. With the beauty of the internet and the popularity of photography its possible to mount lenses from different camera systems to your system of choice, very cheaply.

I think in the grand scheme, the adapters to mount these lenses to my Fujifilm X-Pro1, cost more than the lenses themselves and the adapters were perhaps only £5-£10.

Compact system cameras, like the Fuji X system, make these old lenses very usable via the aides; focus peaking & magnification, used in tandem you can focus with an old manual lens quite easily.
My X-Pro 1 is now an old model, so a newer model, oh X-Pro 2 you will be mine!!!!, the focus peaking capability will be even better and so the process even easier.

Because i like to challenge myself to keep things interesting ive mounted different lenses and have carried them around during dog walks, car journeys etc to see what can be done with them.

The 1st lens, not an old lens at all but a manual one, something very different; the Lensbaby Composer. Ive had it for a number of years now, it usually gathers dust in my drawer as i just don't get on with it. But i need to challenge myself, so why not start with my least favourite lens.

I should also mention that its not one of the £5 - £10 lenses either. The prices of these are very high considering what you get.

Being very picky, i like photos to be sharp in focus, i don't like the subject to be soft; the edit or the feel of the image can be soft but the focus needs to sharp; the Lensbaby however is not sharp; in focus at all is usually a small success.

Manual lenses slow you down; fine adjustments of focus, check & check again, then take the shot. With the lensbaby, its a case of focus, tilt the lens, focus again, check, check again, focus, tilt, focus and cross your fingers and hope for something thats remotely decent. Can you tell I'm not a fan?

This is where i hope you all like dogs as the majority of photos coming up are all of my puppy; Doug.

He's a Jug, a cross between a Pug and a Jack Russell, he has the looks and colouring of a pug but he has a longer snout, which i think makes him a far better looking dog. He's my best friend and i take him everywhere, luckily we've trained him well and so he sits and poses for photos regularly.

He makes me laugh.

So this ones surprisingly sharp on the eye closest to the camera.
Easily done if your dog is happy too sit there.

Not a great photo.
What it does show though is the odd qualities of the Lensbaby; the out of focus warping around the edges.

If you go down to the woods today.

I had a quick go on this.

Heavenly

This image is more than a little frustrating for me.
I love the red 'light leak'  on the left side that was present at capture, its not part of the edit.
However, when zooming in on the image there is a pattern that i could only put down to the image sensor that is visible in the image, very odd and very annoying. I'm wondering if this is something to do with using the camera and lens combo whilst shooting into the light?

The 2nd lens used in this blog is the Jupiter 11, an M42 mount 135mm f/4 lens produced since the 1940's. On my X-Pro 1 it has the focal length of 202.5mm (est), very telephoto.

I think I paid a couple of quid for the lens, I'm sure I got an SLR with it too.

Shooting with a 202.5mm (est) focal length with no stabilisation on a rangefinder style body is no mean feat. The slightest bit of wind combined with the focal length can lead to a very wobbly viewfinder. Having no stabilisation means that the shutter speed becomes very important to freeze any possible movement.

To summarise my thoughts on this lens; I like it!

It's sharp!

The low contrast quality of the lens makes for nice 'vintage' portraits.

Teaching Doug to wait. (nice bum bag Laura)

Living in near the coast has many opportunities, especially for exploring Pillboxes from WWII.

Im itching to use the Jupiter 11 again, its a great lens.

Keep shooting.