The first roll of winter

12 September 2026 · 4 min read

By September the light starts to lean. Shadows get longer, the sea turns the colour of pewter, and a meter that was happy at f/11 all summer suddenly wants f/4.

Photo: breakwater at low tide, 35 mm, ISO 400

One camera, one lens

I took a compact rangefinder and a 40 mm lens and left everything else at home. Carrying less makes you walk further and stop more often.

Metering in flat light

Overcast skies look easy, but they hide a lot of contrast. I meter for the shadows, let the highlights fall where they fall, and develop a little shorter than the datasheet says.

What I would do differently

Bring a second roll. Twelve frames in, the fog lifted and the harbour turned gold for ten minutes, and I was out of film.

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