Christchurch Priory on Delta

Last week I attended a lovely wedding in Christchurch Priory. Once upon a time I did wedding photography, as I watched the “pro” whizzing about I thought how nice it was to just sit and be involved with the service for a change! These days it seems the thing for wedding photographers to wear black jeans, a t-shirt and run about with a Canon something or other with a 70-210 f2.8. The camera and lens is fair enough but when did it become acceptable to wear jeans and a t-shirt to a wedding as a professional? I took along my Canon 5D, and in the end didn’t make a single photo much to my surprise – I just wanted to enjoy the day. That said, I decided to re-visit another day, for a wander. I took with me my Olympus OM1n with the standard 50mm f1.8 and loaded inside a roll of Ilford Delta 100.

Inside a choir were having a practice run through for an up-coming recital, so I got to hear the organ again. The priory website tells visitors: “In 1094 Ranulf Flambard, a chief minister of King William II (Rufus), began the building of a Norman church on the site of the old Saxon Priory” – a long history! For a period of about 400 year following this, as in much large churches and priories, there was almost constant building, expansion, bit’s falling off and being “rebuilt better” to use a popular phrase of today. The priory was dissolved in 1539, and has remained much the same since then. Certainly inside there are many tombstones dating back to the early-mid 1550’s.

Camera, lens and film all performed well. I haven’t used the OM1n in ages, perhaps 3 years! It has been serviced whilst in my care – so all was still working well. I developed the roll in FX55 for 12 mins and 20°c. I got a good set of negs that scanned well. I especially liked the tones in the organ image (above left). FP4 is without doubt my “go to” black and white film, but Delta 100 is lovely stuff!

Chatter: Olympus OM1n with 50mm f1.8 lens. Ilford Delta 100 developed in FX55.