A gap in the rocks at Over Owler Tor reveals the northern edge of the Derwent Valley.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Ilford Delta 400.
Taken on 22 November 2019
Month: December 2019
Moorland tree
A lone tree stands on the moorland, it’s leaves now departed.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Shanghai GP3 (expired).
Taken on 22 November 2019
Frenzy
A couple of days ago I posted a photo of some waterfowl at the edge of Elsecar reservoir and spoke about how a lady came and fed them while I was there. Today’s picture shows them in full feeding frenzy!
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 30 November 2019
Vintage sidings
This is the railway station at Elsecar Heritage Centre. It forms the departure point for trains running on the Elsecar Heritage Railway, the only heritage line in South Yorkshire. At this time of the year the line runs “Santa Specials” where you are able to enjoy a trip on a train (consisting of vintage carriages usually pulled by steam locomotive) and the children are visited by Santa who gives them all presents during the journey (adults get a hot-chocolate or a mulled wine). While my own children are too old for such things now, I have fond memories of taking them on these trips when they were younger.
There was no sign of the steam loco on the day I took this and the station itself was closed, so this photo was taken through the gates at the level crossing just beyond the station. Fog and mist always adds a wonderful quality to photos, I think.
I took an almost identically composed picture with the Zeiss Mess-Ikonta just before this one. That’s a nice photograph too and much sharper due to the Zeiss glass, but I think the Holga shot just pips it to the post. Maybe because it’s more contrasty – the Holga’s single shutter speed and limited aperture control largely dictates the final exposure of the image, and I think this slightly darker one wins out in that respect. The Holga’s vignetting and soft edge focus also works very well to draw your eye into the frame, which is often an attractive compositional feature.
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 30 November 2019
At the edge of the reservoir
This photo was taken shortly before the picture of the flying gulls that I posted yesterday. It’s one of several I took (this one and yesterday’s with the Zeiss Mess-Ikonta, and the others with the Holga 120N).
There were a significant number of birds present. Most of them were out on the water as I approached, but they’re obviously used to being fed by people as, as soon as I appeared, the whole lot of them swam or flew straight to the shoreline and right up to my feet. They then all flew away suddenly in a cacophany of flapping wings when a lady with a dog turned up. As soon as they saw she had a big container of food for them they soon came back though, completely ignoring the dog.
I nearly had a mishap while taking these. There was a “No Swimming signpost that I thought might make a nice image, but the muddy floor was extremely slick underfoot and I almost went down on my back when my feet slipped. In the photo, the floor looks like a gravel surface, but this is misleading – it’s actually a thin layer of slippery mud with leaves dotted through it. Thankfully, my ninja-like reflexes saved the day.* 🙂
Both this and yesterdays photo both managed to find their way into Flickr Explore this morning, although the one with the flying gulls dropped from the list later on.
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 30 November 2019
* Ninja-like reflexes = lumbering middle-aged bloke who got lucky this time.
Gulls
Gulls wheel through the air in anticipation as someone throws food down for the ducks.
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 30 November 2019
Autumn bandstand
I visited the town of Barnsley on Saturday. There are three photo exhibitions currently on show at the Barnsley Civic that I wanted to see. The one that attracted me initially was Broth Tarn, a collection of gritty northern street photography by Sean O’Connell. It was featured in The Guardian newspaper recently and looked to be right up my street. O’Connell has an Instagram feed that features his work here.
The other exhibitions were Barnsley Markets 1982 – 1987 featuring photographs by Harry Brooks taken in the 1980s of, you guesed it, Barnsley Markets, and North: Fashioning Identity which explores nothern identity and fashion which features work by many photographers, including Peter Mitchel and John Bulmer. While the latter exhibition wasn’t my prime reason for the visit, I very much enjoyed the experience (and took a few photos while exploring the photos and displays).
While I’ll likely be publishing some of these photos, this is pretext to today’s pictures which were taken later in the day when I stopped off at Elsecar Heritage Centre on my journey home. By this time, despite the lovely early morning sunlight at the start of my trip, a thick fog had descended across the entire region, and fog’s not something I like to miss if I get the chance, so I set off to get some more images before I headed home.
Across from the heritage centre is a park and Elsecar Reservoir, and in the park is a bandstand. I loved the way it looked in the fog, backed by misty skeletal trees and flanked by empty benches. I’m a Stephen King fan, and the scene evoked the bandstand in the fictional town of Castle Rock where a terrible event takes place in the novel The Dead Zone.
As well as the Zeiss, I also had the Holga with me and took further pictures with that, so they might turn up in a post in the coming days too.
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 30 November 2019
Lost hat
Hanging from the low branches of a tree, a lost hat is on display should its owner return.
It was looking somewhat sorry for itself, suspended from a twig and dripping with water.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Shanghai GP3 (expired).
Taken on 22 November 2019
Evergreen (or orange)
Here’s a tree that I photographed on the Longshaw estate while on my Peak District walk last weekend. It’s a conifer of some sort, but it’s needles are a lovely orange colour, making it distinctive amongst the surrounding trees. It has a lovely sloping trunk which gives its canopy a very attractive shape.
I’ve photographed the tree previously a couple of years ago and that picture can be seen in an earlier blog post.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Shanghai GP3 (expired).
Taken on 22 November 2019
A6187
This is the A6187 road. It runs thirteen and a half miles from Fox House Inn on the outskirts of Sheffield (close to where this photo was taken), to the village of Castleton – famous for it’s caves and Blue John.
The section here veers in from the left where the trees are, crosses Burbage Brook and angles up towards Surprise View carpark – which is just beyond the birch woods in the middle -right. Shortly after that the road takes a 90-degree turn to the right and decends into Hathersage and the Derwent Valley.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Shanghai GP3 (expired).
Taken on 22 November 2019
Steel City Snapper photography 