Lost and deserted airfields in Lincolnshire...

[Shaun Haselden]

OK so highly self indulgent but isn't all art..? I have lived close by for all of my years but seven and because of my families past I have a slightly spiritual connection with the old deserted airfields of 'Bomber County'. I feel an immense empathy with these places and the trauma they encountered all those years ago. These days that feeling is known as 'saudade' and it is almost like an overwhelming sense of grief that quite a few of us experience for places and people even if you've never known them, never been there or wasn't even born at that time. I shot these images today, Saturday 9th June 2018 on my Nikon D600 with my Samyang 14mm f2.8 and gave them an old 'film' look using Silver Efex Pro. I just find that full frame digits are way too clinical and have no grunge factor. So I added some Hope you like..?

Oh, just noticed, one of them was shot using my Nikon 50mm 1.8

 

[Brian Moore]

I like! That film look is just the treatment I imagine these old airfields need to look their best.

 

[Shaun Haselden]

Thank you Brian. Here is another shot with much better weather but still with the 'film' type work done and a black overlay.

 

[Brian Moore]

Thank you Brian. Here is another shot with much better weather but still with the 'film' type work done and a black overlay.

That's the nicest of them for me, Shaun. The drama in the sky adds so much.

 

[Shaun Haselden]

Yes I've really got to agree with the situation regarding the weather. There are times when grey and overcast is OK but this wasn't one of them. No matter how I tried I just couldn't get the first set of images to look any better.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Great images, Shaun, and those do look like film shots. The latest addition is superb, one to print perhaps.

 

[Dave Farnes]

You have captured the sense of desolation very well, I can almost feel the ghosts of busy people and the shadows of buildings all long gone now. The sky in the latest one really makes it.

 

[Shaun Haselden]

Yet another shot of the old deserted runways at Kelstern in Lincolnshire. This place is just so quiet I often wonder of the stress and suffering it must have experienced. It strikes me that this kind of place always ends up so sad and lonely.

 

[Pete Askew]

Not only superb studies (and I like the treatment you have used very much) but I appreciate very much the sentiments you express. For me, that is very much about what photography is about - evocation.