Recently, on a walk at Wembury point, I came across an interesting photo of Great Mewstone. I was on a hike with my partner and dog, and we were eager to get back to the car. I said I’d take the photo, promising to be quick, and snapped this (Photo 1).

I liked the composition in theory, but the sky was boring, there was too much contrast and the foreground was busy. I then decided to shoot it again with an IR filter. The first attempt was far too under-exposed, and as I promised I was wasn’t going to take long, I stopped down to F3.5, and managed to shoot this (Photo 2).

Photo 2 isn’t edited, but I really like it. I’m not sure what caused the glowing affect over the island, but it really adds to an otherwise boring sky. It also significantly darkened the sea, except where it breaks on the mid-ground giving some visual interest. I’m also really liking the uplift of the highlights on the island itself, thanks to the chlorophyll affect. It is definitely one of the best photos I’ve taken in a long time, and even after a quick edit (I fixed the wonky horizon, played with the crop a bit and a light dodge and burn. See number 3), there wasn’t much else I wanted to do.

There are things I’d change. The island itself is soft, thanks to being shot wide open, and I didn’t turn off Fuji’s grain setting, which doesn’t add anything to the photo. That wouldn’t have mattered if I was shooting RAW, but I wasn’t. Oops.

The next day, we had planned to do a hike in Cornwall. Excited by my success the day before, I packed my Intrepid Mk3 and some Rollei IR film. Once I came across a composition I liked, I stopped, and was told it was too warm so please hurry up. The shot wasn’t worth scanning. Compositionally, it was fine, but it was 6-8 stops underexposed.

I’m not too upset about it, it was a spur of the moment thing, and I’d not shot IR in 5 or so years (and even then, only two or three shots), plus the nature of IR is itself, unpredictable, with most people recommending bracketing shots, which I didn’t have time to do.

I have always gravitated towards film, and like to think that I’m quite good at it. But the nature of when I can take photos has changed. Almost exclusively, I’m on a hike with my partner and my dog, which means I don’t always have the luxury of time. Especially when it comes to experimentation. It really makes me reconsider the first camera I choose when I go on hikes. Although I love shooting on film, and feel that slowing down my process is very important, the convenience of being able to take the shot, review and adjust is more critical.

At the end of the day, I used two systems to take two photos when I didn’t really have the luxury of time on my hand. One gave me the opportunity for a real-time adjustment and a photo that, although isn’t perfect, is certainly good enough, and the other didn’t.

I don’t think I’ll be swearing off analogue forever. I’m still hoping that in our new house, the garage is going to be a banging darkroom, but perhaps that fancy new digital camera I’ve been pining over for the last few years may take a few steps up the shopping list.