Photography on Jim Madge

Visiting the U.S.A

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 16:51:30 +0100

Spreckels Organ Pavilion, before a graduation ceremony. Balboa Park, San Diego, 2025. Canon A-1, FD 50mm f/1.8, Ilford FP4+

I find the U.S.A. a strange, uncanny place. I don’t enjoy being there.

Travelling around Europe you find that, despite different languages and culture, things tend to work the same. In the U.S.A., everyone is speaking English but nothing they say makes any sense.

Shadows cast in a corner of El Prado. El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, 2025. Canon A-1, FD 50mm f/1.8, Kentmere Pan 400

For a place so large, there is a strange cultural homogeneity. Things are bland and functional, and nothing is old. Everyone will call you sir but apparently including taxes in prices is too much to bear.

Going Slow

Sun, 14 Sep 2025 10:17:56 +0100

View to the coast from Woodbury Common. Woodbury Common 2025. Canon A-1, FD 50mm f/1.8, Ilford HP5+

My year in cycling

2025 was (somehow) the first year I entered a cycling event, The Nello in Devon. It was great to do a longer road ride, and cycling in bunches. However, I spent more time, and had more fun, bikepacking.

Lessons From My First Time Bikepacking

Sat, 31 Aug 2024 16:36:02 +0100

Packed and ready. Exeter August 2024. Fujifilm X-Pro3, XF 23mm f/1.4

I had been interested in bikepacking for a while. In a chance conversation with Anne, I learned she is a cycle touring and adventuring veteran. And so, we decided to go. We settled on Purbeck Bimble. It was perhaps a little ambitious, but it was very fun. Here are some things I learned.

Distances and elevation may be misleading

Anne stuck in some mud. Ilse of Purbeck August 2024. Canon A-1, FD 50mm f/1.8, Kentmere Pan 400

I made the mistake of trying to understand the route from my experience road cycling. 98km with 1,400m of climbing sounds quite stepp but the kind of distance that I could do in about 4 hours on the road. So, surely two days is more than enough to do this comfortably.

Back to Film

Tue, 16 Jul 2024 20:14:38 +0100

Enjoying taking photographs again, I was thinking about when I shot film. I remembered why I stopped, because scanning and developing for slow, costly and frustrating.

I liked the qualities of the different films I used. It is also quite liberating to let your choice of film determine a lot of the colour, contrast, grain. Digital is very flexible, but the amount of choice can be overwhelming.

Film cameras are often simple and tactile; they feel good to use.

Days Past

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 08:03:51 +0100

Sheep grazing. Lindisfarne August 2014. Fujifilm X-Pro, XF 35mm f/1.4 R. 1/420s, f/5.6, ISO200

Stone stacks. Lindisfarne August 2014. Fujifilm X-Pro, XF 35mm f/1.4 R. 1/640s, f/4, ISO200

Lunch on North Cliffs. North Cliffs, between Portreath and Gwithian September 2013. Fujifilm X-Pro, XF 35mm f/1.4 R. 1/250s, f/8, ISO200

Looking out to Godrevy Lighthouse. Godrevy September 2013. Fujifilm X-Pro, XF 18mm f2 R. 1/220s, f/8, ISO200

Prebends Bridge and boathouse. Durham May 2010. Nikon D200, AF 50mm f/1.8D. 1/125s, f/4, ISO100

Runner on Prebends Bridge. Durham May 2010. Nikon D200, AF 50mm f/1.8D. 1/8s, f/11, ISO100

Firewood in the snow. Redruth February 2009. Nikon D200, AF 50mm f/1.8D. 1/15s, f/8, ISO100

My Life in Cameras

Tue, 21 May 2024 20:02:28 +0100

I find I develop strong associations between periods of my life with music, tastes, objects, and other things. Every time I listen to Joanna Newsom’s Emily, I can feel sitting in my room in halls, solving single maths 1A problems, eating floral gums. Here are most of the cameras I’ve owned, when I used them, and how I feel about them.

Fujifilm Finepix S 5600: ~2006–2007

The first camera I owned was a fixed lens bridge camera. I have forgotten a lot about the camera. I’m not quite sure when, where, or how I got it. A birthday present perhaps. I was Presumably studying for GCSEs at the time.