Misty mornings like today have been like hen’s teeth this winter.

My mind was half-cocked this morning waiting for the alarm to go at 05:00 and the forecast was spot on. Bitterly cold and fog on the way.

How time flies at this time of year. Getting up at this time last week was adequate but today despite the obfuscation of the growing fog, I was a tad late on site at 06:00.

Does a camera lie? That question was often asked whilst I was studying at UCS. The answer is ‘No’ in my opinion but what we see and what a sensor or light sensitive emulsion sees are very different things. The scene did not look like this. This is the effect of a long exposure concentrating those traces of rising sun painting the condensate belching from vents all over the site. Absolutely no wind is visible compared to last week.

The view behind me but taken on a camera phone. Yes, the sky did look like this. One big softbox.

Whilst waiting for the light, I was aware of the fact that I was enveloped in a bio-dome of sorts. The moisture emanating from the plant was hitting a dew point very quickly and also disseminating just as quickly as it formed. It was almost like watching a time-lapse sequence it was changing so fast.

I could hear the Intercity trains much earlier today. Frost was forming on the overhead wires and the pantograph creating a very noisy light show as the engines sped past. As soon as they cleared the factory site the light show stopped. No small icicles to smash and arc off.

I doubt I will have recorded this view though as I was waiting for patches of colour to appear on the vapour clouds.

This is what I was looking for.

Now I have a shipping order of film ready to send off for processing. Sadly, Redwood who have processed most of my Edgelands negatives from early 2014 went into liquidation last week.

I doubt I’ll experience the same frisson sending the film off in the post. Now, I’ll have to hang around waiting for the postman’s knock.  I’ll just have to teach myself to enjoy the experience these new moments.

I’d like to thank everyone at Redwood for the quick friendly service they always gave me. I do hope they manage to find new employment opportunities elsewhere.