Month: September 2023

35mm · Film photography · Photography

A random Mablethorpe lightbulb

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I thought I’d drop an old picture into the blog today. While it really could have been shot anywhere, it was Mablethorpe where the picture was taken – it was a display in a shop window. I’ve posted it here because today was my annual pilgrimage to the town

Normally I would have a bunch of photos from the day but, this time – in a break from tradition – I didn’t make the trip alone, I took my dad along too, and as a result I didn’t have the same opportunities for picture making. Also, while the weather on the drive out there was lovely, such that I loaded some old Portra 400 NC into my camera, five minutes after leaving the car-park a hazy sheet of cloud formed, blocking a lot of the light, meaning colour film really wasn’t the right choice. In the end I only took a couple of pictures (with my GW690). To add insult, I think the camera shutter accidentally got fired while it was in my bag, meaning I’m going to get just seven shots from the roll at most…).

While photographically it was a bust, it was really nice to make the trip with my dad – he hasn’t been to Mablethorpe for about forty years – so I’m not disappointed to have made so few pictures. To be honest, because I try to go every year, I’ve got pictures of pretty much everything already anyway. Sometimes several of the same scene! My dad also paid for our fish and chip dinner bought, as is tradition, from Monty’s, a nice treat for the designated driver. 🙂

Anyway, depending on how the two shots I made turn out, they’ll probably make an appearance here at some later date.

FILM - Ideas turned upside-down

Nikon F70, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Fujifilm Acros (cropped to square). Lab developed.

Taken on 13 September 2017

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Sheffield scene(s)

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I took this picture not fat from the Cholera Monument, which I posted about recently. It’s a view towards Sheffield city centre. I found it interesting to see in the picture a whole host of other locations that I’ve photographed on other occasions.

I’ve photographed the new structure in the centre of the image (with the two red cranes) at least twice (here & here). Just to the left of that you can see The Hubs, which I’ve also taken many pictures of, such as this one, and this one. The “Cheesegrater” car park can be seen behind and to the right of the new construction. At the right edge of the fram can be seen Sheffield Hallam University with th red lettering at the top. On the side of the building you can just make out the “What if?” poem, which you can see here too. Behind the university building in the distance is the university arts tower, which I’ve poasted loads of pictures of, such as this.

There are several other buildings I can see where I have pictures too, some of which I’ve posted on the blog, others which I haven’t. The building in the foreground begind the grass is Sheffield Midland Station, another location where I have lots of pictures from.

Acoss Sheffield

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 MC, and Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Taken 6 August 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Granelli’s

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Granneli’s is a traditional ice cream and sweet shop that resides on Broad Street in Sheffield. The shop has been in business since 1874, opened by Italian brothers Luigi and Charles Granelli (although they had begun the business in different premises three years earlier). It began as an ice cream shop before expending to selling sweets. The ice cream business continues and there are Granneli’s ice cream vans serving a number of areas.

Granelli's

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 MC, and Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Taken 6 August 2023.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

The Great British Food Festival

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Back at the end of July my wife and I visited The Great British Food Festival at Hardwicke Hall in Derbyshire. Although the event took place in the grounds at the rear of the hall, there was no entry to the building itself, so maybe I’ll make another visit to see that sometime.

The Great British Food Festival #1
The Great British Food Festival #2

But it was the food festival that we were attending, to which my wife had bought tickets months earlier. It’s not something we’ve done before, so I didn’t know quite what to expect, but it was essentially a whole range of stalls selling all manner of produce, including meats, pastries, ice cream, biscuits, alcoholic beverages, crisps – loads of stuff. In addition to this there were a bunch of food vendors selling pizzas, burgers, gyros, jerk chicken, hot dogs and a variety of other walkaround foods. There were also live cooking demonstrations on a number of topics throughout the day, and also live music and children’s entertainments.

The Great British Food Festival #3
The Great British Food Festival #4

The weather on the day was forecast to be a mixture of sunshine and cloud, but around lunchtime we were also paid a visit by a short-lived but sqally rain shower, necessitating me eating my lunch beneath an umbrella kindly held over my head by my better half (she’d already eaten her pizza while I was waiting for my jerk chicken to be served).

The Great British Food Festival #5

The rain came down pretty heavily during the shower, forcing people to seek shelter wherever they could find it, including, amusingly, beneath some oversized deckchairs, which I managed to photograph. The wind became quite gusty too, at one point blowing a free-standing flag out of the ground and depositing it atop a tressle table where some people were determinedly trying to eat their food in the rain!

The Great British Food Festival #6

After the rain passed, the sun soon reappeared and the rest of the day was bright, warm, and pleasant, although you can still see the slowly retreating rain clouds in some of the pictures.

The Great British Food Festival #7
The Great British Food Festival #8

After lunch, we spent some time watching a barbeque cook-off in one of the marquee tents in the centre of the field, the format based on the TV show Ready, Steady, Cook – each chef given a selection of ingredients and then making something from them. One of the chefs made skewers of chorizo and vegetables which was very nice (we all got so sample a small piece), the other a marinated pork dish which, while also nice, didn’t pack the same flavour punch as the Spanish sausage.

The Great British Food Festival #9

On the whole, apart from the spell of rain, it was a nice day out. We spent quite a lot on produce from the stalls, including some delicious Portugese custard tarts. I suppose you might as well spoil yourself if you’re going to attend these things, hadn’t you? 🙂

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f.3.5-5.6 AF-D & Kodak Gold. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Taken 29 July2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Sheffield cholera monument

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Despite having lived in the city for five decades, I’d never visited the cholera monument in Sheffield until the day I made these pictures. I’ve seen the monument on many occasions, it sits on an elevated piece of land next to a small wooded area named Clay Woods just a few minutes walk from Midland Station, and is visble from many parts of the city, and on this day I decided I’d finally take a closer look.

The monument was erected in 1835 to memorialize those who lost their lives in the cholera epidemic that struck the city three years previously. Over four hundred people lost their lives and the majority of them were buried in nearby grounds.

The memorial was partly destroyed by a hurricane(!) in 1839, and has been struck by lightning on a number of occasions, including having it’s top section removed completely following a strike in 1990, and was only completely restored in 2006.

Cholera monument
Cholera monument (closer)

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 MC, and Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Taken 6 August 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Canal boat with a new lens

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I bought myself a new (used) lens for my Bronica ETRSi in July – the Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 MC. While I had 75mm and 50mm lenses for the camera, I was missing something that gives a bit more reach. The 150mm is around a 90mm full-frame equivalent I think, so a short telephoto and probably decent for portraits (should I ever make any!).

I was slightly wary about the MC designation, which places it as an earlier model, the same as my 50mm f/2.8. The 50mm is decent, but doesn’t feel as sharp as my 75mm, and I wondered if the 150mm would be similar. However, online reviews suggested this was no the case, and the few pictures I’ve made with it certainly look sharp enough. I got quite a good deal on the lens which, although the aperture ring is a little stiff, is otherwise in really nice condition.

The picture today was one of the first I shot with the lens (I had hoped it would have arrived in time for my trip to Ingoldmells and Skegness, but it came on the same day while I was out).

Red and blue on the canal

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 MC, and Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Taken 6 August 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

A bit more Skeggy

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A couple of extra Skegness photos, seperated from the rest mostly because they’re from another roll of film that I started that day. They’re amongst my favourites from the day though. And there’s a dinosaur in one of them. 🙂

Skegness lifeguards
Boating lake

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE, and Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Taken 28 July 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Skeggy

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Following on directly from yesterdays Ingoldmells post, todays piece features photos from Skegness (or Skeggy for short. Or, amusingly, SkegVegas).

It took about 20 minutes to drive to Skegness from Ingoldmells, a trip I punctuated with a visit to a fish & chip shop for some dinner (dinner is what we call lunch in my part of the world. The evening meal isn’t “dinner”, it’s “tea”, but not the drink. Sorry to cause confusion!). After that a short drive into the centre of the town to get parked.

For donkey's years

As a child it felt like Skegness beach was huge. It seemed you had to walk through a veritable desert of sand before you would reach the se. These days however, it laps around the end of the pier, and the pier isn’t even as long as it once was! I expect this is a result of the work that has been carried out to combat coastal errosion in this part of the Lincolnshire coast. Mablethorpe, for isnstance, used to have groynes all along its beach, but these are now buried beneath feet of sand that has been dredged from offshore. I guess it makes for a nicer beach, but it also seems to have lost some interest in the process.

Behind th Rocknroller

When staying at my grandparent’s caravan in Mablethorpe, we would occasionally have a day trip to Skegness. Skeggy is much bigger than Mablethorpe and has a lot more entertainments, including the pier, and a good sized funfair in Bottons Pleasure Beach. I think, for my grandma, the much greater selection of shops was also undoubtably a lure.

From the beach

On the day of my visit I walked along the promenade area above the beach before venturing onto the sand to take a few pictures of the back of the Pleasure Beach. From there I wandered to the pier, back through the Pleasure Beach itself, and then onto the main road that runs between the beachside entertainments and the town itself.

Mr. Whippy
On Skegness pier
Big wheel edge-on

While the weather had improved a bit by the time I arrived in Skegness, it was still largely overcast, and I was disappointed that I didn’t get the sunshine and blue skies that I think would have made the colour film work better. As always here in the UK, you get the weather you’re given though, and it’s a case of making the best of it.

Big wheel

One of the things I like about the seaside, is the architecture – the arcades, the food stalls, the touristy stuff. It’s kitschy and sometimes a little worse for wear, but it has a special charm to it and I sometimes wonder if there’s a school of architecture dedicated to designing such structures?

Delicious donuts
Atlantis

Nobody was enjoying this Altitude attraction when I was there. Maybe the wind was too high or something? Someone was “enjoying” the log-flume though. 🙂

Altitude 44
Splash!

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE and 50mm f/2.8 MC lenses, and Fujicolor Pro 400H. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Taken 28 July 2023.