Field Note # 1
- temporallightimages
- May 25
- 6 min read
The Yew tree at Nevern revisited.
Location - St Brynach's Church, Nevern, Pembrokeshire.
25 March 2026 - John Nesbitt 10 x 8 field Camera
Visit 1 - Early March 26
I had visited the church at Nevern many times before and it was the first place I wanted to go once I had got to grips with the new-to-me 10x8 camera.
My first visit in early March had been fruitful, with a couple of images that I was pleased with, both of which also feature in this post. I did though have a slight regret. One of the images was of an ancient yew tree — a tree that always stops me and yet one I had never really done justice to. It was the same on this first trip in March.
Conditions on that first visit were bright and sunny, with lots of dappled light to contend with. For a few of the photographs this was really interesting, if also a little challenging. I exposed seven sheets of 10x8 in about three hours, including “the one that got away”, and returned home tired but full of hope for the negatives. For a few of them I was not disappointed.
Under the shadow of one of the yews. Exposure just about held together with great shadow detail and just enough in the Highlights to the right.
(Ilford Delta 100 Pro developed at N-1.)
The first image I made on the first trip. The dappled light was a challenge and this one became a bit of an also-ran. Just feels a bit awkward. A new to me camera though so I had to start somewhere !
(Ilford Delta 100 Pro developed at N-1.)
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The Yew
I think I photograph this yew tree almost every time I visit, in some form or another. On this occasion it looked fabulous, but I was worried from the start about whether the sky would dominate too much. Even with N-2 development I was struggling to contain it while still giving enough exposure to the darker areas, but I decided to give it a go.
I was initially hopeful when I saw the negative — it’s 8x10 inches, which makes it very easy to be hopeful! But after scanning and working on it for a while, it became clear that the light had not really been in my favour. In addition, the background needed to be softer to help the yew stand out more clearly, and I felt the composition needed to be tighter. Most of all though, the background diminished the sense of clarity I was striving for — the texture of the tree and its obvious longevity. I think it is an "ok" image, but doesn't reveal what I wanted it to.
It was during the processing of this image that I decided to leave it unfinished — leaving it as a work in progress. I had decided how to approach it again when I went back.
At this point I only had one lens, a 240mm Nikkor W, but I was awaiting a 360mm Rodenstock Sironar N. This would prove essential, as I could not physically get any closer to the tree without “treading on people’s toes”.
The Return Visit
In late March I made my return. The day was bright but overcast and still, and I arrived at about 11am. I knew the sun was due to appear by around midday and wanted to get this photograph exposed before that happened.
While levelling the camera, assessing the viewpoint, then moving the whole tripod and camera ensemble six inches to the left before re-levelling everything again, I noticed particles falling from the trees all around me.
Yew pollen falling,
a pink drizzle enrobing,
still worn weeks later
My plan for this photograph was to use as shallow a depth of field as I could get away with, and then use front standard swing to align the focal plane from the right-hand branch to the left-hand branch. This took quite a few iterations to achieve, including one complete reset back to zero before starting again. The right-hand branch was around ten feet closer to the camera than the left-hand one and I reckon I ended up using about eight degrees of swing before both branches were acceptably sharp with the lens wide open at F6.8. I also added a small amount of rear backward tilt to help keep as much of the trunk in focus as possible.
Two stylised representations of the movements used. On the left, rear tilt to manipulate vertical orientation of the focal plane (with a slight shape effect as well), front fall to place the base of the tree where I wanted it. On the right, looking from above, front swing to manipulate the focal plane to lay across the 2 main branches.
By the time I had achieved all this — completing the first part of “the dance” — there were signs that the light was beginning to pick up and I felt I needed to get the photograph made. Spot meter readings suggested around five stops between the shadows on the trunk and the brightening sky filtering through the trees behind.
I have formed a habit, during the setting up and exposing of a photograph, of recording my thoughts on a voice recorder. Originally this was mainly for exposure records, particularly useful if I later spotted an error and could attempt to reduce its impact during development. Increasingly they have also become part of the wider record of the image itself and reflect my thinking at the time.
This is one photograph where I am particularly glad I do this.
Earlier I had decided to expose at F16. On a 10x8 camera with a 360mm lens focused at around fifteen feet, F16 gives a shallow depth of field. I made the focus adjustments, checked everything again and calculated an exposure of around nine seconds on Fomapan 100, which I rate at ISO 80.
But while checking focus one final time, and feeling unusually pleased with how the focal plane was holding together, I made a last-second decision to open up to F11. I remember thinking that the swing adjustments would still hold and I could soften the background further with this adjustment.
What I failed to do was adjust the exposure time.
The voice recordings made this painfully obvious later. The original calculation at F16 had been correct, including an allowance for reciprocity failure, but after changing to F11 I still exposed for roughly six or seven seconds. I even remember watching the stopwatch, stopping slightly early because the light had begun to brighten during the exposure (particularly in the sky). My intention had still been the original nine seconds. I knew then that the negative was likely to be overexposed.
Fortunately, shadows tend to be affected far less by reduced development than highlights and, because I had placed the darker areas of the trunk around Zone III½ (with the extra exposure more like zone IV now), I felt there was still room to recover the negative. My normal development time for Fomapan 100 in FX39ii diluted 1+14 is around ten and a half minutes at 20°C, but I reduced this to seven minutes — a little beyond N-1 development, in an attempt to restrain the highlights before they became too dense.
In the end I was relieved to see a reasonably flat negative emerge from the wash, with both shadow and highlight detail still intact.
Summary
Using a 10x8 camera has unquestionably altered my thinking and although "the dance" is similar, the nature of this particular camera makes it more awkward. Because the camera has no ‘click stops’, setting it up involves use of an oblong 3 way perspex spirit level, for every aspect of it until it can be declared ready for use. This is thinking time as well. Committing to set the camera up for a shot is no light endeavour. I went to St Brynach's church on this second trip for one image and came away with 4 in a 2 hour visit. This is, for me now, considered prolific!
I now have a set up with 6 film holders, so 12 sheets of film at any one time, settling on Ilford's PanF+, Delta 100 pro and HP5+ as my standard and ID11 and FX39ii as standard developers and results with these combinations are really pleasing so that's where I am staying for the foreseeable future.
My friend Dave is on a similar 10x8 journey, likely that you already know, but in the event you don't his latest blog post on the subject is here.
If you got this far then thank you so much for persevering and taking the time to read this. These "Field Notes" are intended as personal accounts to accompany images that have meant something to me, but if they are enjoyed by others, then I am really pleased.
Have great light!
John
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Really enjoyed following your thought process John and thanks for the shoutout! I remembered the benefits of proper note taking recently as you know … and your diary note is a graphic reminder of how useful it is and why it’s worth going the extra few yards to make notes. I typically use FX39II at 1+9 but might give your suggestion a try when I get another bottle.