Research, Assignment 2, Major project, Salford stadium and 5x4 shots at the Airport

Spent the early afternoon exploring some more 'Edgelands' near Barton Bridge, the new(ish) Salford Rugby stadium and Trafford Park.

A large area which used to be open, unused land is being re-developed. Heavy machinery is shaping the landscape, and what looks like a lagoon is being created. The old 'desire paths' which can be seen on the Google satellite images of the area no longer exist. I was a little disappointed be the extent to which this area had been 'improved', but much of it still fits within the brief for my periphery project.

Took a number of experimental shots to think about composition and subject. Need to return at a time when the light is more in keeping with what I have in mind for the project. It seems strange to be dismissing sunny, clear autumn days as not quite what I am after for the project, but there is a neutrality of mood which I want to get across, and sunny days seem to be beautifying the images somewhat.

Spent the latter part of the afternoon near Manchester Airport. Took the Sinar 5x4 camera along for a specific shot of a river tunnel under the runway which I thought would benefit from camera movements.

Just getting over yet another setback - my laptop got a virus /malware infection yesterday and had to be restored back to the factory settings. As I result I lost the shots I was going to submit for Assignment 2 from the Eliminating Depth Clues project. Although I am able to re-shoot these, it will add extra time on until the submission of this assignment, which has already taken much longer than I intended it to, and with the nights drawing in now, opportunities to get out to take shots are getting scarce - weekend only now as I can't really get out from work before sunset.

Lessons learned:

Back up useable shots on the computer immediately: I'm now having to reshoot some I lost due to computer virus infection -5 minutes of backing up would have saved a day or so of re-shooting. These were recent shots also, so "I'll do it all in a batch later" isn't the way to go.

Get there early if the intention is to shoot after sunset with large format (and medium format) cameras. It is extremely difficult to frame and focus the shot in very low light - best to set up early and wait for the light. Ended up taking an 'educated guess' at the focus for the last shot as I could hardy see anything on the ground glass at all.