Chatsworth in Summer | Ektar for high and low key

Ever since I started shooting film seriously, most things I’ve read and seen about film photography are about creating soft shadows, images filled with light; images that glow. I confess I do like that style but on a recent trip out I felt I wanted to explore a more low key look – to capture some of the different elements of light that I tend to avoid in my usual approach to photography.

I’ve said before how much of a fan I am of nearby Chatsworth House & Gardens; we visit there when we can no matter what time of year and it always looks different and there is always something to photograph. For some time now I have been shooting with diptychs in mind and I usually tend to post my photos that way; this time, though, I decided that some of the photos lost a little impact when paired up, so this time I’ve chosen to let the beauty of the 6×7 format  just be.

So I set out with Ektar first and foremost because it was sunny; I really, really love its contrast and saturation in those conditions. I came across a few scenes that were much more about the highlights than the shadows – scenes that (I think) often look better to the eye than when you try to capture it with a camera – and so I set about trying to capture the scenes in a way that really replicated how I saw it with my eye. So this is my attempt to shoot Ektar in conditions where for me it’s all about colour and contrast, but there are also a few photographs in conditions where it’s much more about the highlights than the shadows.

All images shot on Kodak Ektar with my Pentax 67ii and 105 mm f/2.4 lens. The close-up of the pine cones in the dappled light was shot with the help of an extension tube. Developed and scanned by me in UK Film Lab.