Woodhall spa 1940’s weekend
Photographing people is something which I really struggle with, its something which I desperately want to do more of, but going up to strangers and asking to take their photograph is a pretty terrifying concept for me and I always talk myself out of it!
fortunately this time I had a good enough reason (for myself), and that’s the 1940’s weekend held at the village of Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire.
Woodhall and its surrounding area has a fair bit of history from around the Second World War, Lincolnshire itself being dotted with former RAF bases, and Woodhall having one of its own by the same name.
The area in and around the village was also used as a staging, and training area for the 1ST Air Landing Brigade before leaving for Arnhem during Operation Market Garden, and every year the village will close access to traffic and the streets become filled with reenactors, and exhibitors showcasing life on the home front in 1940!
For me, in my mind this makes asking people to photograph them a-lot easier, their already expecting it, and have had it done a thousand times already that day! It also gives me the challenge of trying to compose a frame with nothing modern within the lines, its very satisfying taking a period photo!
When it came to deciding on a camera to use, the winner was always going to be my 500c/m, I absolutely love taking photos of people with the Hasselblad, I think the square format really works for portraits and I love the quality of the images it produces!
In the village there is a wooded area, and there were a number of living history displays inside, which made really interesting scenes and the length the reenactors went to was very impressive, but the low light made photographing some of it with 100 speed film, a challenge! (Ilford Delta 100).
I also took my trusty Nikon FE with a half shot roll I intended to finish, carrying a roll of Ilford HP5, so a little easier to shoot with in the woods! There’s quite a noticeable difference between these two films when looking at them side by side, the Delta having a lot deeper blacks, something that reminds me of Kodak Tri-x400 - my absolute favourite black & white film, which much like the rest of their films, has become stupidly expensive.
Thankyfully Ilford are somewhat considerate to the film photography community and have kept their prices somewhat lower that the cooler creators, I guess il be shooting a lot more Delta now!
One thing I did not photograph was the Lancaster, it flew over from Conningsby, another local Airfield where it lives as part of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, and it flew low, right overhead and circled around a few times. Im not exaggerating when I say that the entire village stopped what they were doing and looked up to watch it - thousands of people…
I can’t quite put it into words, but there is something about that aeroplane that stirs emotions inside you, and it made for a very powerful moment, and I just wanted to watch it without the distraction of a camera in front of my face - it was beautiful, and the sound is something else.
anyway, I hope you enjoy the photos…
