I flipping love a good ruin, don't you? I also love hiking and film photography - if you like those things too then today's blog will be right up your street, or path or moorland, whatever - you're in the right place!

Raistrick Greave is an ancient derelict farmhouse atop Heptonstall Moor in West Yorkshire - these photos were taken on a walk in 2017 but the roll of film has been languishing in the fridge since then (i keep film in the fridge - it's a thing, honest) but no longer, the images have been awoken from their icy slumber to tell the tale of the haunted ruins of... RAISTRICK GREAVE!!! (que thunder sound effects and scary music)!

Not only do I love a good ruin but I flipping love an open moorland too, the seemingly endless expanse of sky and undulating sea of grass - I can't resist the urge to stick my walking boots on and head for the horizon, which sounds like a really polite way of telling someone to bugger off doesn't it?! These photos were taken on one of my all to infrequent jaunts out into the wilds, on this occasion accompanied by my mate Dom who had discovered the ruined farm house on a previous walk and suggested we take a look.

On the approach to the site the first traces of human occupation appear - the remains of rough stone walls sunken into the ground tracing the boundary of what must have once been grazing or even farm land but is now very definitely open moor - this just adds to the sense of dereliction and dissaray.

It is difficult to obtain much detail about the history of the place except for it's name Rasitrick Greave and that it was (obviously) a farm house - when I say difficult to obtain I don't mean that the information is hidden away behind myriad booby traps in an Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom kind of way, just that having spent, ooh... litreally minutes on google I couldn't find anything - anyway myself and my esteemed Colleague Mr. Dominic Ranson Esq reckoned it to be 17th Century ish and that's good enough for me - alternative suggestions are welcomed!

Looking back at the photos now It's difficult not to get into a reflective mood - this was once a home, build to withstand the elements and provide shelter and warmth, a place to live! People lived here, the buildings were... alive....host to all the mundanities of daily life, the hustle and bustle, the highs and lows, the births and the deaths....but now fallen silent, deprived of the one thing that brought them meaning - life! Home now only to the wind whistling through the cracks in the wall

I wonder how many people sat around that hearth warming themselves by the fire after a hard days work in the fields,how many times did they sit at the window and take in the views, what were there hopes, dreams and aspirations? All that's left are these tumbledown stones, monuments to forlorn hope. I wonder if in a few hundred years enough will remain of my own home for some itinerant soul to ponder....

I'm feeling far too reflective to bang on about the film gear used to create these images suffice it to say that they were shot on Rollei Retro 80S on my trusty Olympus OM2n and developed in Adonal which has once again prove itself to be a great means of creating images with contrast, depth and sharpness.

When I'm not shooting digital commercial images for clients I shoot old film cameras and develop the films at home - or at least i did when i had some time! In recent months my old film cameras have been gathering dust on the shelf and I've fallen into the bad habit of leaving half shot rolls of film in them for ages and ages..... but no longer!! I've decided to start a project to regularly shoot film with these cameras (imaginatively entitled project:film). To make it (even) more interesting I'm going to use a different camera and film each time and share my experiences with the world through this blog (lucky world eh)?!

I'm an inveterate collector of old film cameras and have amassed a small (but growing) collection, so as well as making sure i shoot some film regularly it will give me a perfect excuse to keep these old timers in full working order (they're working cameras not display items - although they do look pretty cool) I'll therefore give a review of each Camera, the film I've used and just share my experiences of using them in practice as well as a couple of shots taken with it (this may also provide me with a thinly veiled excuse to buy more 'obsolete' cameras... ....you know, so i can review em) ;)

I took the OM2n out for a stroll along the canal near my house to an abandoned Mill yesterday to finish off the film I'd left in it - a roll of Kodak 'Double X' which had been sat in the camera since last summer(rubbish I know)!!! As a result I have totally fallen back in love with the small but perfectly formed OM2n - it's almost as old as I am and in much better shape!!!

So what about the camera itself? The OM2n is such a finely balanced machine and feels very solidly built, it is tiny for an SLR camera and was small against it's competition back in the day which means it is teeny tiny compared to more modern cameras (and especially my full frame DSLR) that being said it doesn't skimp on features and it was the top of the line Olympus Camera when it was released. It has Full Manual and Aperture Priority mode - the controls are very ergonomic with an aperture ring on the lens and shutter speeds being controlled by a ring located on the lens mount which means you can control aperture and shutter speeds with one hand and operate the winding mechanism and shutter release with the other - it's a very well laid out design and something which i think is unique to the OM series of cameras.

Exposure compensation and ISO is set with a dial on the top plate it also has a very easy to use and (in my example) accurate analogue 'off the film' light meter which takes a reading from the film to guage the correct lighting - the output for this is a tiny mechanical needle which you need to balance in the centre of the exposure range - the lack of diodes and flashing displays is another reminder of the this cameras vintage - the fact that is still works perfectly is testament to the original build quality.

I shot the following images with the 28mm f2.8 Zuiko lens which is a lovely compact wide angle prime lens and super sharp - in fact this lives on this camera most of the time and makes a good walk about lens with a relatively wide angle of view.

I also have the 50mm 1.8mm Zuiko lens for this camera and again it is beautifully sharp and well put together and is equally light and compact - the Zuiko range of lenses were Olympus' premium/pro brand of glass and are among the finest classic lenses you can get - super sharp shooters.

The plus side of keeping a half shot roll of film in your camera for nearly a year is you completely forget whats on it and end up with a random collection of shots all lumped together on one film - in this case one frame is a trip to London last summer and the next frame is an abandoned Mill in Yorkshire in mid winter :)

As far as the film goes Kodak Double X - a classic motion picture 35mm film - this was my first experience with it and i like it a lot, nice grain to it and resolves shadows and detail nicely, it's an ISO 400 film and the above images were all shot at box speed and developed at home in Kodak HC-110 developer. I've got another roll of Double X safely tucked up in the freezer and I'll definitely get some more if have the opportunity.

You can pick an OM2n with a standard 50mm Zuiko lens for about £70 (the 28mm is about £35) so it makes a very good (if not mega cheap) 35mm film camera - in fact I'd even go so far as to say it is my favourite film camera.......for now at least....... for the price (you would easily pay double for the nearest rival Nikon or Canon) the size and build quality and excellent Zuiko lenses it's hard to beat the OM2n.

My next review will be of the awesome Canon EOS 600 which fulfills the mega cheap criteria admirably - but more about that next time! :)

Here's a few more images I've shot with the Olympus OM2n over the last year.....