Our January trip to Conham River Park was a good excuse to test my new Ensign Ranger Special, given to me for Christmas by Hannah’s dad Arthur.
It’s a fairly typical folding camera, except that it allows you to take pictures either in square or rectangular format. On this occasion, I chose square (and then you’re stuck with your choice for the whole film). It’s a nice camera and it handles well, but my example (dating to 1953) has a little bit of rust on the film gate which appears to have come off and become stuck to the film. In some places it stayed stuck, causing white dots on the film, and in other places it scratched the surface, causing black dots.
Perhaps more alarming, a small insect apparently got inside at one point and was sat on the film when I took a picture, leaving a perfect silhouette. It’s strangely transparent, but I hope it got crushed in the rollers!
Still, you didn’t come here to see pictures of a fly stuck to some film in an old camera. Here are the pictures I took at Conham on a cold and bleak day.
At one stage we veered away from the river and passed through this gate.
Through the gate and across the field, you can see the Cadbury factory in Keynsham.
Jonathan Gazeley 