Ashton Moss

6.30 p.m. - sunny clear sky.

The landscape has completely altered since I last visited the Moss. Parts of it are barely recognisable - overgrown, verdant. For months during winter the area hardly changed. Now it's been transformed in a couple of weeks. I almost missed the path off Rayner Lane to Hulme's it was so overgrown. Along it were remains of "clay pigeons", these petered out the closer I got to the sheds.

7 - 10 This is the first time I've visited the Moss in the evening. The sun was not where I expected it to be (or rather where I was used to it being). This threw up some surprises, the lighting on this building being one of them. A beautifully simple building, its features revealed in the early evening light. 3 slightly different exposures - it's not easy photographing light coloured buildings in bright sunlight, it's very easy to under-expose the photographs. Hence these 3 attempts. The first 2 are O.K. The light coloured speck to the right of the telegraph pole is the moon. I initially thought it was a blemish on the negative.

11 - 13 Onto Lomas's - approached from a side track off Rayner Lane, looking towards Curzon Ashton's football ground. Took a few shots of the distant shed, attracted by the strong line of the ploughed fields in the distance. It was only after I'd processed the film that I realised how uneven the lighting was on the furrowed field.

14 This photograph is too dark to be particularly effective, but it was trying to highlight the writing on the shed. Unfortunately, this has been achieved at the expense of shaded areas. There is too much contrast.

16 - 17 Returned to Rayner Lane and walked towards the cricket club. To the right I noticed this greenhouse at the end of a grassy track. I'd seen the greenhouse plenty of times before, but again not in this light. I set up my camera and began to take it end on.

Rolleiflex 3.5F.

Agfapan 100 (80 ASA) Rodinal 1:60. 10 mins @ 68°F.

<span class="wrapper"><p>Work Prints</p> <p>Negative c7/1/22/10</p> <p>Work Print c7/3/22/10</p> <p>CH : 515mm</p> <p>Exposure : F22 @ 20s</p> <p>Paper : Gr 2 (G)</p> <p>Comments : Again I tried to isolate this shed from the rest of the buildings, but at the same time I didn't want it to look as though the building had been squeezed into the frame. As it was my viewpoint was determined by a large dung heap which prevented me from moving any further back, lest I become part of it.</p> <p>You can see the moon more clearly on this (straight) print.</p> <p>Work Print</p> <p>Negative c7/1/22/13</p> <p>Work Print c7/3/22/13</p> <p>CH : 510mm</p> <p>Exposure : F22 @ 8s</p> <p>Paper : Gr 1 (Brovira)</p> <p>Comments : This photograph was taken in May 1989, a year later a friend persuaded me to print it. He liked the look of it on the contact sheet. I think he liked the way the light caught the field, resulting in a gradation of the tones.</p> <p>I like the moon in the sky.</p> <p>Straight print.</p></span>