St Helens, 17th June 2024
Another of those grim dark cloudy mornings when every fibre of my body said I shouldn’t leave the house or concern myself with shutter speeds and auto ISO settings. This summer is turning into last summer which was an almost complete wash out, but I wanted to do some photography in St Helens and I’d planned to see the sequel to ‘Inside Out’. Plus, I have this idea I’m mulling for an article I hope to write. So, I moved.
And the ride into town was hard work, into the wind all the way. Plus St Helens is awful when it comes to cycling. I know there’s a canal cycle path that goes right into the heart of the town but I’ve never figured out where that bit of the route starts. Nothing is joined up in St Helens. Unlike Warrington, the cycle infrastructure is cursory. Cars dominate.
All of which means that I can easily get to within a mile or so of the town centre, at which point it becomes a matter of navigating side roads and pelican crossings across wide four land roads.
Once I was in town, I locked up my bike next to the ubiquitous Wetherspoons. I also forgot to remove my camera from the handlebars but, thankfully, it was still there four hours later, which either speaks to the honesty of people, my good fortune, or the cheapness of the camera.
Then it was time to think about photography, which is always the hardest part of the day. I’ve never conquered the fear of taking out my camera at the start of the day. It’s why I try to do it quickly before I even start to walk because I know if I don’t then I might never do it.
Street photography is hard. Alex Webb, I think, said street photography is 99.9% about dealing with failure, which sounds about right, especially in a place like St Helens. I figure you need to get doing it. I also figure it’s good to be methodological, which is where I struggle. I should have hung around my first spot, which was the main car park. It’s a brutalist eyesore covered with graffiti, but it makes for great photos. But the weather had turned good and really I needed more people in my shots. But that’s where it gets tricky. St Helens scares me. It’s the place where I’ve had the worst experiences.
I walked up to the Town Hall, took a few snaps, but thinking I’d head into the streets behind it. A guy shouted something at me. I thought it was about taking photos but I soon realised he was shouting at everybody. Or maybe just the woman he was with. A couple of addicts, I think. Still put me on edge and I didn’t really relax again for the rest of the afternoon. It probably shows. I was rushing a little too much, falling into a few tired cliches.
At the moment, I’m only using a 40mm lens on a full-frame camera, meaning there’s no conversion necessary. It’s 40mm, which is a good street lens. I wish I owned a 28 mm or 35mm, which I think are better suited to the kind of pictures I want to be taking. The problem is that the 35mm is well outside what I can afford. Even the cheap 28mm is more than I can spend. Maybe one day, I’ll add another cheap prime to my bag. I do own a zoom lens which goes that low but it’s big and bulky, plus I don’t like giving myself the freedom. I’m trying to get my eye in with one lens and shoot more through the viewfinder.
I also shoot in manual, except I let the camera decide the ISO. I can’t compromise on the apperture since I tend to zone focus (I use back-button focussing in any context where I have the time to compose it slowly). That also means my shutter has to be fixed at around 1/500th given my subjects tend to be moving. That doesn’t give me anything to play around with except ISO and to live with the grain if the light it too low.
Anyway, I did a couple of hours and then bought myself a peppermint tea in the bookshop café, which was extremely decadent of me given it’s been an expensive month. I’ve travelled a lot to cover stories.
On the way home, I decided to double my ride and did 10 miles to the ASDA outside Warrington. Had errands to run but also took a few photos on the ride. By the time I got home, I had probably done 20 miles for the day, which wasn’t bad. Just wish the photos were as successful.
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