St Albans - Ah! Hovis! Photo

Photographer’s Note

I call this my "Hovis" picture, and people from the UK may recall the hugely nostalgic advertising campaign for this brown bread (invented in Macclesfield for Trivia buffs), which ran for many years with scenes such as this.

In real life this was shot in late afternoon in St Albans (I think in Abby Mill Lane, near St Albans Abby, but I can't be sure). Although I used a medium-strength filter, most of the colour was caused by shooting almost directly into the sun - and somehow just about everything in the shot was a beautiful rusty-brown colour anyway.

The children in the shot are running home, downhill, after school.

Not colorised or anything in Photoshop. The original slide (I think on Kodachrome 64) really does look like this!

AdrianW has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

madska (0) 2004-07-26 4:09

very nice and kind of optimistic picture. the tones are wonderful, and reminds me of the sixties, even if I was born in 79 ;-)
the people running really give sense to this nice picture.

petertee (305) 2004-07-26 4:39

I know what you mean about the reference to the Hovis ads. Your picture certainly generates a strong nostalgia feeling and it's not only the colourcast that has been created here. The children have haloed heads and seem to be running back to a golden age before they were born. If it reminds me of sixties it would have to be the 1860's! I'll post a Hovis Mill pic you may like. Cheers, Peter

MiguelP (14336) 2004-07-26 16:51