Last year as part of a mini documentary project we were working on at work for Duncan Fearnley, me and my video guy at work James drove 200 miles (each way) to visit a company called Anglian Willow in Chelmsford.
Geoff, the man mountain in the blue shirt, is the current owner of Anglian Willow after inheriting the business off his father – as I understand it, the company has been a family business for 5 generation. Geoff makes a living harvesting the wood from willow trees belonging local land owners. He then drives them on the back of his truck to his little workshop where he cuts the rounds of wood into triangular segments.
These segments are then sawed into regular shapes and carefully graded depending on the quality of the wood. The straitness of the grain, the amount of grains, the colour of the wood, lack of knots are all being factors in this grading process. The saw cut regular shapes of wood are then dipped in wax at each end and stored in large drying cabinets to dry before being sold to UK based manufacturers of cricket bats.
These photos were shot with my Leica M3, with my all time favourite lens the Zeiss 50mm ZM Sonnar. They were then scanner with my Noritsu LS1100 scanner.
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jeremy north on 5 frames with a Leica M3 & Zeiss 50mm Sonnar
Comment posted: 27/12/2017
Anyway, I feel there is a certain synergy between cricket and analogue processes. Is it something to do with the time it takes? It's years since I wielded a bat, but there's a huge satisfaction when middling a thwack, much like the feel of a beautifully built camera or the creamy sound of an LP on a decent turntable.
As I write this, I'm listening to a cello suite by Bach on LP, which feels in keeping.
Comment posted: 27/12/2017
Phil on 5 frames with a Leica M3 & Zeiss 50mm Sonnar
Comment posted: 28/12/2017
Comment posted: 28/12/2017
andreas on 5 frames with a Leica M3 & Zeiss 50mm Sonnar
Comment posted: 28/12/2017
Comment posted: 28/12/2017
John Lockwood on 5 frames with a Leica M3 & Zeiss 50mm Sonnar
Comment posted: 31/12/2017
Comment posted: 31/12/2017
Karl Valentin on 5 frames with a Leica M3 & Zeiss 50mm Sonnar
Comment posted: 09/05/2018
After the death of my gandfather I got his Contax 137 with a Carl Zeiss Sonnar 1,4/50mm
and compared it to a M50 and R50 which I owned in those days and found out for me
that it seems to be sharper with even better Bokeh !
carlos albisu on 5 frames with a Leica M3 & Zeiss 50mm Sonnar
Comment posted: 10/02/2019
Comment posted: 10/02/2019