Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
This giraffe was stood outside Dunkin’ Donuts at a shopping park we visited recently. The background was too busy to shoot it full length, so I chose to place it against the cludy sky instead, lending it a somewhat comically menacing air. I have an odd sense of humour…
Pentax Espio 140M & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 8 February 2020
Another grabbed shot, taken while walking back from the local shopping mall.
Pentax Espio 140M & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 11 February 2020
I walk past this house sometimes if I walk to the post office, and on this occasion the light was very nice – low sunlight casting lovely, contrasty shadows. As I usually carry a compact camera in my coat pocket throughout the colder months, the little Pentax Espio was on hand to do the job.
Pentax Espio 140M & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 11 February 2020
A pair of pigeons (or are they doves?) perch atop telephone wires. It reminds me of one of those old cartoons where the birds would place their heads to the wire and evesdrop on the converations being transmitted.
Pentax Espio 140M & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 11 February 2020
Sometimes an accident works out for the best. Had I not inadvertently switched the camera to the No Flash / Bulb setting (instead of just No Flash), this would have been a standard street shot of a chap with a walking stick on a rainy pavement. As it is I’ve got a wonderfully impressionist version instead. While I don’t have my intended shot to compare, I suspect that this would be the one I’d prefer given a choice.
Pentax Espio 140M & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 15 February 2020
The Riverside pub sits right next to the River Don at Neepsend in Sheffield, and on the river wall is a wonderful piece of work by local artist Phlegm.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 15 February 2020
On my wander around town on a very wet Saturday morning last weekend I took a number of photos of people sat on buses. The damp weather meant the windows were fogged with condensation making the passengers within dimly rendered – dependant to a greater or lesser effect on whether they’d wiped the glass clear with their hands or not.
These photos are hardly original – I own a copy of Nick Turpin’s lovely book “On the Night Bus” for instance, which does this sort of thing with far greater aplomb and dedication than my half-hour or so spent. And well before Turpin’s work was made, there were other photographers doing much the same – Saul Leiter being a great example.
Nevertheless, most photographic endeavours these days is likely to involve walking in the footsteps of others to some degree, so I don’t feel any shame in my lack of originality – rather that I took their work as inspiration and made some photographs that I like on an otherwise inclement day for taking pictures.
I was using autofocus for all these shots, and it was clearly something of a challenge for the camera. The first shot is a complete miss on all levels (although I was moving at the time I took that one) and the others seem to focus on the window, or perhaps just beyond. Whatever the case, the effect is very nice, rendering the subjects as indistinct apparitions with features hidden by a fog of moisture.
I’ve said it before on here, but once again – bad weather is very often a good time to make photographs. Next time I get similar conditions and a change to get out with a camera, I think I’ll try to make more of these.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 15 February 2020
A passageway in a pre-re-devlopment building in Sheffield’s Keham Island area.
Shot through a barred gate – a good thing as the shutter speed was quite low and they gave me something to steady myself upon. 🙂
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 15 February 2020
Although I have a lot of photos in my archive that have never been featured in the blog, and which I can easily delve into if I need to, I always feel slightly unsettled if I don’t have a supply of fresh images to use. There have been time where I’ve had several rolls all lined up to be scanned and chosen from, but at present I feel I’m running a little hand-to-mouth where new images are concerned.
Partly as a result of these feelings, despite the fact it was wet, windy, stormy weather at the weekend, I took a trip up town on Saturday morning to finish off the roll of HP5+ I’d started the day before when I made my competition entries.
I don’t mind wet weather – it’s far preferable to dry but flat overcast days as a rainy day throws up all manner of interesting possibilities (albeit with the side-effect of you having to try and keep your camera dry) – but as it was also windy it meant that, even getting the camera out of the bag for short periods would invariably involve a constant battle to keep (and wipe) water droplets from both the camera and lens. As a result of this several of the shots from the roll are not my best – there are a number of misses where I rushed things, and a couple of almost completely blank frames which I think might be from putting the camera in the bag without turning it off and then accidentally firing the shutter.
Nevertheless, I still have enough shots that I like to keep the blog going until I get the next processed roll back.
Today’s pair of images are taken a stone’s throw from one another (the same building can be seen in each) in Sheffield’s Kelham Island area, a former run-down industrial quarter that is now under the process of upmarket gentrification, and which I’ve photographed on several occasions.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 15 February 2020
I’ve mentioned the monthly film photography competition I take part in before, if only briefly, and today’s post contains some shots I’ve taken for this months theme: “Mostly black“.
I think I’m going for the first one as my entry. Although it could maybe have used a touch of exposure compenstion, and it’s more white than black, I like it best and it still fits the theme perfectly.
I could also maybe have done with ducking down when taking the shots as each marble in the second and third shot features a vague selfie.
Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM Macro & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 14 February 2020
