Bronica on tour: Dorset
For the late August bank holiday I ventured to the south coast with the aim of capturing a few shots of the Jurassic coast with my Bronica. Its not a part of the country I had ever visited before and Durdle Door had been on my to-see list for some time. So I took the train out of Waterloo station to Poole on the Saturday, rented a car there and took off to Old Harry Rocks. My Bronica accompanied me with some Kodak Ektar and TMax 400 loaded. I had two rolls of Ektar loaded, one in 35mm and one 120mm. Previously I have written about using a DIY adapter to shoot panoramic 35mm film in the Bronica but recently I saw a normal 35mm back for sale in my local camera shop and decided to pick it up. I'm only halfway through finishing the roll and I'll do a writeup of that experience when its done.
It's a longer than expected but easy stroll to the cliffs from the National Trust car park. Upon arrival its quite striking to see the cliffs. They're common sights on Instagram and from the air the cliffs look like a big block of white cheese someone has been busy taking bites out of around the edges. Still cool sights to see from the top but not quite as impressive as seen from the sky. Reviewing these images I do wish I'd made use of my 10 stop ND filter - the texture of the rock would benefit from the sea being smoothed out.
Next I proceeded on to Lulworth and the quintessential sight of Durdle Door. The village of Lulworth was the most picturesque traffic jam I've been in for a while. The old tiny streets straining to keep up with the numbers of tourists and busses passing through on a busy bank holiday weekend. Despite it being cold and very windy it was a surprise to see a large number of people of the beach down below by the arch. The sun was crawling lower in the late afternoon sky and I decided to stay up on the clifftop path to get my shots. The one at the top of this article is my clear favourite and makes use of the 10 stop B+W filter in my arsenal. I'm not really sure why I didn't use it for the two photos above also.
I finished up my photography on the trip with a visit to the Isle of Portland and Pulpit rock. The weather here was that of ferocious wind, so much so that even with my tripod a long exposure would suffer from significant shake. The tide was in and the waves were large and so didn't enable me to get any of the shots I'd envisioned. Despite not being anywhere near what I wanted the shot above still took a great deal of patience as people would stand by the rock for 10-15 minutes at a time taking selfies and so I had to time my shot whilst people were walking away. This was made even more challenging by the constant spray covering the lens.
Overall a really great trip and a part of the world I'd definitely like to visit again with my camera!