Grange Orchard

I'm missing a key bit of kit from my photographic arsenal - a pair of wellies. The Carse of Cowrie, in which this orchard lies, is mostly at sea level, or even slightly below in places. At this time of year, the ground can often be a little sodden and the field in which these fruit trees grow is usually quite wet.

As a result, I've never actually ventured over the fence that rings it to really do it justice. I'd get back to the car with absolutely ringing wet feet if I did. I do have a pair of wellies but they're in a box somewhere in the garage and I've not really had any need for them for a few years.

I'll be digging them out shortly, though, as I really want to have a wander around this old orchard - even more so since learning that it's supposed to be haunted by the ghost of a monk. The trees look on the gnarled side and it doesn't take much of an imagination, especially on the sort of day that greeted me when I visited the place last weekend, to picture a hooded figure walking amongst them.

If you read my post about the foggy Carse of Gowrie then these are the pictures I managed before the 24mm Takumar lens got "stuck" to the old Pentax SV I was using that day. I gave up when that happened but there really aren't any good views of the orchard from outwith the fence so, in the absence of wellies, I wasn't too bothered.

Both of these pics were taken with the 85mm f1.8 Takumar, something of a cult lens amongst users of screw mount cameras, with TMax 400 rated at 400 ISO and developed in D76 at 1+1. It will be interesting printing from the negs rather than scanning them as that's the best way of judging how a lens performs in my opinion. For the time being, I'll have to make do with scans but even from those digital files I can see that the 85mm Takumar is a fine piece of glass and one I'll probably use quite a bit.