Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
Springflower is the name of this decaying boat, pulled high up the bank above North Landing beach. Decaying boats are not something I see often, living in a land-locked city as I do, so I like to make pictures of them when I get the chance.
I think that this marks the end of the photos from my day-trip to Flamborough. On to something else tomorrow…
Olympus XA3 & Ilford Pan HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins 20°.
Taken on 14 March 2022
I’ve been re-scanning some older negatives over the past couple of days – some Portra 400 shots made during a trip to Barcelona with my wife back in 2019. The main reason for the re-scanning (actually not re-scans really, as the originals were lab scans) is to see what they look like when converted with Negative Lab Pro. The answer is… much better than any previous attempts I’ve made.
The original lab scans were fine but I know I can get much more resolution and detail out of my Plustek than the scan sizes the lab provides can offer – even their large scans – with the bonus of it not costing me anything to do so. And I’m finding that Negative Lab Pro is giving me colours that I’m actually happy with!
So today, here are several photos I took inside one of the markets in Barcelona – the Mercat de Sant Antoni, I believe. I guess that British market stalls are just as interesting to look at really, but there’s a definite draw in seeing the different wares on offer in other countries. Some markets in the UK might provide delicatessens akin to the ones here, but they are not commonplace, so it’s always interesting to see the mundane through the eyes of a visitor.
Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Kodak Portra 400.
Taken on 17 June 2019
I took a few photographs from this location – including this one shot on the Brontica ETRSi – but this is the only shot where I included the sea arch that can be seen at the lower left of the frame. I think I had the 75mm attached to the Bronica at the time and probably couldn’t include both the arch and the signal station in a single composition with the field of view that lens provides (although I did have the 50mm with me as well, which would have done so easily had I been inclined to switch them over).
Olympus XA3 & Ilford Pan HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins 20°.
Taken on 14 March 2022
The view from North Landing near Flamborough. Although on the east coast of England, because it is on a promontory, this view is actually looking to the north. Setting off on a straight line from here would take you right over the top of the world without hitting land until you reached Wrangel Island, off the northern coast of the Russian mainland to the west of Alaska. It would be a long and arduous voyage for one of the small boats seen in this scene.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford Pan HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins 20°.
Taken on 14 March 2022
I suspect, like many people, I was pleasantly surprised when Kodak recently revealed the re-introduction of it’s Kodak Gold emulsion in 120 format. I’d long wished that Kodak or Fuji might relaese one of their consumer emulsions in this format, so was glad to hear of its imminent release. I was also pleased to see that it would retail for less than it’s other colour films although, given the skyrocketing cost of C41 at present, it still sells for more than Ektar did not so long ago. Nevertheless, I decided to treat myself to a pack of five rolls.
My pack of film arrived in the mail at the start of the month and, last weekend, on a sunny spring morning, I decided to go out and see what I might photograph on a roll of it. I didn’t want to go on a big day out, so decided to head to the botanical gardens in Sheffield with the intent of maybe getting some pictures of the plants in the glasshouse.
After arriving I took a picture of one of the university buildings on the street where I parked my car. It’s not the best picture, but the colours caught my eye.
The next image was of a house with a cuppola near the entrance to the botanical gardens. This shot I’m really happy with. I like how the cuppola is framed nicely with the tree branches, and also the conifer is similarly framed on the right of the image. Plus the light was great.
It was at this point that I discovered that the gardens don’t open until 10am, so I had some time to kill (it was only around 9:20am when I got there). So I decided to walk up the street beside the park and then head over towards Endcliffe Park instead. On this street I noticed a vintage motorcycle and got another photo. I’d have liked to open up the aperture to get more separation of the bike from the background but, even with relatively slow 200asa film, the light was too bright and as the Yashicamat has a maximum shutter speed of 1/500sec, I had to stop it down further to avoid overexposure. It’s a pity about the bins, but what can you do?
Just up the road from the bike was this house with a brightly painted door that I liked the look of.
Close to Hunter’s Bar roundabout, just below Endcliffe Park, is a row of attractive old houses largely hidden from view by large shrubs, but I was able to get a nice angle on them. Again, the light was lovely, and I like the church tower that peeks up behind them in the background.
Just inside the park is this lovely house. It’s the arts-and-crafts style park pavilion and lodge building, dating to 1891. The building has Grade II listing status.
I took a walk up Rustlings Road which runs beside the park – making several photos along the way with my XA3 that I had tucked away in my jacket pocket – before then wandering back through the park itself along the footpath. There are a couple of millponds here – evidence of the area’s industrial past – where I remember catching small fish in a net on a day out with my nan back when I was little. The ponds are filled with water from Porter Brook which runs down the valley before joining the River Sheaf in the city centre close to the railway station. Near the bottom of the park, where the large playing field is, sits a cafe. It was very busy on this sunny morning with many people sitting outside in the seating area across the path.
And finally, after leaving the park and walking up Brocco Bank, I finally arrived at my original intended destination – the botanical gardens. By this time I only had a single frame of the Kodak Gold remaining to be shot, and I made this picture of the gatehouse.
All the pictures were scanned on my Epson V550 flatbed using Vuescan to create RAW DNG files. These were then converted to positives with Negative Lab Pro. I’m still getting the hang of NLP, but I’ve got a group of settings that seem to be producing quite nice results for Kodak Gold (although I do still tweak them further in Lightroom afterwards).
I’m happy with the results I got from this first roll of Gold in 120 format and look forward to shooting more of it.
Yashicamat 124G & Kodak Gold 200. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 10 April 2022
Yesterday I had a backlog of six rolls* of film from which I’ve not yet uploaded any shots to my Flickr account or to this blog. Today it’s eight rolls – nearly 200 frames of images.
I seem to be being quite prolific in how much I’m shooting recently. Some of this I put down to having taken a few day trips to places I’ve not visited before. This always tends to bring inspiration from seeing the unusual, unexpected, or just something different and, as a result, I tend to want to photograph as much of it as possible. Another reason is that I have quite a stash of film at present – much more than I actually thought I had – and I’ve decided to make an effort to shoot some of it rather than just sit on it waiting for some perfect occasion.
Today I shot two rolls. One, my final roll of Lomography Color Negative 100, from which I got twelve frames with my Yashicamat 124G. The other was a roll of Agfaphoto APX 100 which I had loaded in my recently acquired Olympus OM-1N. I replaced the light seals in the camera yesterday and wanted to give it a trial run to see if all is working as expected. I used to use Agfa Vista Plus for these tests, but that was when it was available for £1 a roll in Poundland (oh how I now wish I’d bought boxes of the stuff when I had the chance…), but I haven’t any of that left now and, given the current prices of colour film, I doubt I’d chance it on a test. So, the next best thing in terms of economy was the Agfa APX 100 which I have a few rolls of from a purchase a couple of years ago. As far as I know it’s exactly the same film stock as Kentmere 100 and Rollei RPX 100, just re-branded. I shot a full 36 exposures of that this morning and am scanning the negatives as I type this. The good news is that the camera seems to be operating just fine and there are no signs of light leaks.
I think one of the outcomes of this backlog might be some posts more laden with photographs than my normal output (which generally just publish a single image). I shot a roll of the new Kodak Gold 120 last week, so that might make for a single post, as will an expired roll of Truprint 200 shot a couple of weeks ago. I guess I’ll figure it out at some point before I end up with some sort of Vivian Meier-like hoard of never-seen pictures that is dicovered upon my death.
Today’s post has three pictures all themed around boats, and all shot at North Landing at Flamborough. It’s the last of my Bronica Flamborough shots from this outing, but I still have a bunch of 35mm pictures from the same trip that will see the light of day soon – although I might bump the Kodak Gold stuff up the schedules first.
* actually five-and-a-half as I have already uploaded a few frames from a roll of HP5+.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 50mm f/2.8 MC & Ilford Pan F Plus. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 7mins 20°.
Taken on 14 March 2022
I think this was the shot where I had to change lens to get the best composition. I’d been using the 75mm Zenzanon up until this point and, had I been stood further away, that lens would have coped perfectly. But that meant that other unwanted elements would have started to creep into the frame due to my distance, so the 50mm came out of the bag to take this picture. I think the 50mm might be a bit softer than the 75mm, but it’s not really noticeable in the main subject here.
I like this angle on the lighthouse. It gives it an imposing character.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 50mm f/2.8 MC & Ilford Pan F Plus. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 7mins 20°.
Taken on 14 March 2022
Several photographs of the fog signal station at Flamborough Head.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Ilford Pan F Plus. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 7mins 20°.
Taken on 14 March 2022
I was struck by the way that the lighthouse looked like it stood beyond a rolling sea of grass in this photo. I did wonder about cloning out the lone figure on the left but then decided against it.
In other news, I’m currently scanning a roll of 135 Tri-X that I finished shooting at the weekend. As I often get drying marks on my 135 negatives (although, oddly, never on 120 negs…), even though I use distilled water and wetting agent for the final wash, I’ve taken to using a squeegee lately. This has worked fine all the other times I’ve used it, but this roll of Tri-X looks beset by scratches along most of its length, which is disappointing.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Ilford Pan F Plus. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 7mins 20°.
Taken on 14 March 2022
A couple more pictures from Flamborough North Landing today, both showing the same building that sits above the lifeboat house about halfway down to the beach.
A few months back I remember being at the limit of my supply of new photos for the blog and thinking I’d need to dig into the archive. I’m now in the opposite position of having a glut of pictures that I’ve not even uploaded (or, in the case of about a roll-and-a-half, not even scanned yet) – approximately seven rolls of film’s worth of images. I’ll likely be shooting more stuff this weekend too, so the future stash of picture will grow further. At least it’s nice to know I have plenty of new photos to fuel the blog.
And maybe I can start to reduce the stash of film I have yet to shoot – I’ve decided to just dig in and get some of the film I have shot, rather than saving the nicer / rarer stuff for some unspecified special occasion that might never arrive.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Lomography Color Negative 100 .
Taken on 14 March 2022
Steel City Snapper photography 