Theres trouble at' Mill Again

[coopernatural]

All,

After a recent day out trip,a small and short AV of an old disused Linen Mill in Benburb Northern Ireland.

Weighing in at just over 15mb and lasting 2 min 17 seconds.

http://www.mediafire.com/?u7rkpecrl1fh9rz

The weaving shed was built in 1873,it once had over a 100 looms at its peak and now 74 remain.

Looms faced each other and the weavers had to work in the narrow space between; rarely more than 18 inches across.

The vast majority of accidents happened in the weaving shed,caused by shuttles coming off the looms at great speed.

Plans to restore the site have been abandoned,leaving the machinery to slowly rust away.

Photos were taken with a 50mm f1.4 lens.Treatment and music added to give things an old world feel.

Davy

[Ken Cox]

DAVY

great job

boy would the present day safety inspectors have a ball in there

it is easy to see the bean counters had control of the equipment clearances -- they would never step inside a working mill

ken

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Davy I have a little knowledge of the subject of your show, my mother was a weaver in the late 20's & early thirties in a Lancashire cottom mill. In fact she ruined her front teeth in the process of drawing the thread into the shuttle by sucking it through. I have also worked in a number of mills in the Oldham area where the original machinery was still present, the most impressive of which were the steam powered mill engines with their massive flywheels. One of my relatives was a rope belt repairer for Kenyon's Ropes in Dukinfield Cheshire some 40 years ago.

Anyway, after all that trivia, your show. The pictures I liked, particularly in mono which gives the effect of great age. I wasn't so happy with the music, IMHO it didn't match the content. Finally I would have liked to see a few long shots interspersed with the close ups to give the viewer a sense of the enormity of these "dark satanic mills".

Incidentally, there was a small working traditional weaving shed hidden away on the outskirts of Delph in Saddleworth around 20 years ago.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1

[coopernatural]

Ken,

The health and safety guys with clipboards would throw a fit with all the code violations here.

Eric,

This was at the end of the day and I could well have spent an entire day there alone.

I missed so much by way of Pics,but if I can,I will get back there again.

Will take a wide angle lens to capture the monster mill engine.

The music is set 'against' what is and was an oppressive place.It was intended to be flippant.

I resisted the temptation to put in something more downbeat,with maybe the background clatter of weaving machinery.

My father who did maintenance at a mill had an annual job. Painting the glass roof with whitewash.

This stopped the inmates from passing out from the heat.

Thanks for feedback and appreciate the trivia.

Davy

[colin hill]

Hi Davy,

Very nice presentation. I do agree, showing in black and white was a must.

I did like the music that went with the presentation, good choice!

Well done and thanks for sharing.

Colin

[coopernatural]

Hi Colin,

Thanks.

Have been practicing some real photography instead of playing with computer images.

(Who would ever have thought that tripods could be fun)

So I'm sworn off Google images for the time being!

Things have been fairly quiet here it seems and I havn't downloaded much by

way of AVs.

All these members and so few posting is a shame.

Davy

[colin hill]

Hi Davy,

The same goes for me. I have promised myself to get back into it and have another in the pipeline, though I do not think

it will be everybody's cup of tea as it will be of the fantastic airshow I attended on Saturday.

I have found the forum to be fairly quiet as I do pop in everyday to see what is on offer and what is going on.

Colin

[paulziets]

Davy,

I really enjoyed your presentation. Good moody shots and I liked the consistency of tone of the photographs. How did you achieve that effect?

Looking forward to your next show!

Paul

[coopernatural]

Hi Paul,

I keep some actions for oldie style photo effects,but this time used Nik Software Silver Effects Pro plugin with CS5.

It's a pretty cool bit of software. Some pics can come to life with a bit of tweaking.

Glad you liked and thanks for your feedback.

Davy

[trailertrash]

Well that's no where near long enough Davy. You have to go back. That place is a photographers paradise. Overall I loved the show [ superb photography ] but not overly keen on the music, but that's only my preference.

When one considers the conditions these people worked in....God love them.I note with interest that some of the machinery was made in Dundee and Paisley. Yes, a longer version is a must.

Andrew

[coopernatural]

Hi Andrew,

I know it's a bit short,as at the time I wasn't thinking of AV.

It was a day out for my local camera club and so with around 25 other peeps in confined

spaces,it was a bit tight/rushed.

Lighting was very good in places where there was a glass roof.

Other places bordering on pitch black.

Still,I did miss lots of photo opportunities and that would make for a great day out

(and a full length AV presentation).

Thanks for watching.

Davy

[SheilaG]

Hi Davy,

This is the sort of AV I can watch and watch again. I liked everything about it. I thought the music was a good choice and had the right sort of nostalgic 'feel' which was complemented by the warm mono treatment. I found nothing discordant in this sequence at all.

The 'scene' was set by 2 or 3 well chosen longer shots, which gave us a reference point for the rest of the pictures.

I particularly liked the way you used the tight crops and close-ups to such good effect .......... we were aware of their context but each was so well composed that we could appreciate every one in its own right as an interesting picture.

Rightly or wrongly, I didn't see this primarily as a documentary type of AV but rather as a celebration of the art to be found in the most unlikely places. Because of this I think more 'long' shots would spoil the overall impact of the sequence.

The one question I would ask .......... the ending is quite abrupt and unexpected and I wondered if this was deliberate and, if so, what was your thinking? Strangely, it didn't worry me but I felt as if it should! If that makes sense!

Sheila G

[coopernatural]

Hi Shelia,

I think you said at one time you were from Lancashire and that has no small history with Mills.

I did a Linen AV some time ago after having rescued some old photos from a shredding pile.

http://www.mediafire.com/?lzezmzkgw2z

Mood and music very different to this AV. You might like.

Without the scale of a wide angle shot a reference is lost,but there is greater scope for

an interesting shot with light,form,texture and even the abstract.(I think)

Well I could pretend to be really arty and that some meaning lies within the abrupt ending with a non zeroed voltmeter.

Truth is I just that I ran out of Photos.

Thanks for your comments and watching.

[SheilaG]

Hi Davy,

Yes, you're right ............ I did like. Very much!!

I'm assuming thee photos were taken in Ireland. do you know whereabouts?

It worked for me on all levels ........... my mother's family came from Ireland (the south) and social history is one of my great interests.

Thanks for sending me this link.

Sheila G

[coopernatural]

Hi Sheila,

Photos as far as I know,are from the North of Ireland.

Some details from AV images below.

Photo 1/ Sowing the Flax, Toome Co.Antrim

“ 3/ Taking Flax out of the dam. Co.Down

“ 4/ Spreading out the Flax. Co. Down

“ 5/ Flax “Gated”, to dry in wet weather. Co.Down

“ 6/ Scutching Flax by hand on the Scutching Stock. Toome, Co.Antrim

“ 7/ An Irish Handloom Weaver at work, Moira.

“ 10/ “Roughing” York Street Mill. Belfast

“ 23/ An Ulster Handloom Weaving Factory.

“ 24/ Spreading Linen to bleach at Glenmore

Glad you liked it.

Davy

[SheilaG]

Hi Davy,

Thanks for the information.

It's always interesting to be able to 'place' old photographs and I've really enjoyed seeing these.

Sheila