Photography is fun(icular)

July 22, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Yesterday’s photo had the Grand Hotel in the background and here it is again, albeit much closer this time, providing the brick backdrop to the funicular station.

The funicular railway here was built almost 15 years after the hotel, opening to passengers in 1881, and it still serves residents and visitors to this day. There were originally a total of five funicular railways at the resort, but there are only two still in service today: the one here (the Central Tramway), and another on the south cliffs (aptly named the South Cliff Lift). Another between these two (the Saint Nicholas Cliff Lift, just the other side of the Grand Hotel) is still in place, but the bottom station is now an ice-cream parlour while the two carriages are fixed in place at the top of the incline and make up the Saint Nicholas Cafe.

The other two were in the North Bay area of the town. The North Bay Cliff Lift was closed in 1996 and has been dismantled and placed in storage, while the Queen’s Parade Cliff Lift appears to have had a somewhat ill-fated lifespan, being subject to runaway cars, accidents and mechanical failures until a landslide eventually caused it to close for good in 1887, just nine years after it opened.

There are various meandering pathways to and from the seafront for those who don’t wish to ride in style (or some seriously imposing sets of steps for those of a sturdy disposition!).

Pentax Espio 140M & Kodak Colorplus.

Taken on 13 July 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Scarborough harbour

July 21, 2019July 22, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Following on from yesterday’s photo of the lobster pots, here’s the same location from a different point of view – this time a little further north up the shore. This was taken on a roll of Colorplus that was in the camera before I switched over to the Superia 100 that I used for yesterday’s shot.

I don’t live particularly close to the coast (although that’s probably not saying that much in the UK where it’s never more than about 70 miles to the sea (as the crow flies at least), so enjoy grabbing photos when I get the chance to visit.

The large building at the upper left of the frame is the Grand Hotel which, when it opened in 1867 was the largest in Europe. When viewed from above, it can be seen to be in the shape of a letter V, a tribute to Queen Victoria.

Pentax Espio 140M & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008).

Taken on 13 July 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Lobster pots

July 20, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

There are heaps of lobster and crab pots on the harbour side at Scarborough (as, no doubt, there are at many fishing towns and villages around the British coast). There are probably a uncountable number of shots to take of these devices on any given day – the geometry of ropes, the rust of the metal, the tangles of seaweed, and the crusts of barnacles mean that there is no shortage of interest there for the inquisitive eye. You do, obviously, have to put up the a strong fishy smell in order to get your shot, but that just enhances the atmosphere (both literally and figuratively) and puts you in a proper frame of mind.

Pentax Espio 140M & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008).

Taken on 13 July 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Baywatch

July 19, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Ok, so you’d be unlikely to see The Hoff or Pamela Anderson here in Scarborough, even twenty-five years ago, but it’s all the same thing really, isn’t it? Well, maybe without the L.A. glamour, hot weather, and crime-fighting shenanigans.

Pentax Espio 140M & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008).

Taken on 13 July 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Activate panorama mode

July 18, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

The Pentax Espio 140M that I bought for the princely sum of £1 at the steam rally the other week seems to work ok. It’s sharp (although maybe not quite as sharp as the Canon Sure Shot’s I own), and is very compact. The lens still seems pretty decent even when zoomed, and it has a range of metering and focussing modes that neither of my Sure Shot’s have.

It also has a panorama mode. At last, I can get those Hasselblad X-Pan type shots I always dreamed of. Well, kinda. Panorama mode here, like many other 35mm compacts with the feature, is actually achieved by way of a mask that blocks part of the frame, so all you’re really getting is a standard 35mm shot but with big black bars obscuring the top and bottom of the image. The same mask is visible in the viewfinder when the setting is activated, which does make composing the shots straightforward.

While it won’t give the resolution that an X-Pan (or a medium format camera with 35mm back) will provide, the results aren’t too bad, even if they could easily be achieved with any other camera by just cropping your image.

So, without further ado, here are four panoramas taken with the camera. Can you guess which two are actually just crops of a full 35mm frame done in Lightroom because I’d badly composed the images in-camera? 🙂

Pentax Espio 140M & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008).

Taken on 13 July 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Red No. 7

July 17, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Inside the Maremagnum shopping mall at Barcelona marina were this pair of Ferrari’s. I don’t have a great deal of interest in cars, but they often make for great photographic subject matter and I liked the colour and light so took the picture. It was amusing to see just how many men took selfies or got someone else to take their photo in front of the cars. This included me too, as my wife took a shot of me on her phone. 🙂

Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Kodak Portra 400.

Taken on 18 June 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Inside the Occulus

July 16, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Going back almost two months to New York where I took this photo in The Occulus, which is a very fine place to take photographs if you get the opportunity.

Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Kodak Portra 400.

Taken on 26 May 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Raleigh Wisp

July 15, 2019 fishyfisharcade3 Comments

This small moped was amongst the other motorcycles and scooters at the steam rally the other week and I thought it would make for a nice photo. The Raleigh Wisp was introduced in 1967 and was apparently a standard bicycle adapted to fit an engine. You can find out more information here.

The composition I’ve gone for is probably not one that I’d have chosen in different circumstances as the bike has little room to move into within the frame, but the alternative was to have a clutter of other bikes in the left of the shot and that didn’t really work. I do like how the carousel has crept into this version though and it was a deliberate choice to include as much of it as I could while pushing the moped to the left at the 28mm maximum wide-angle of the lens I was using.

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 30 June 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Urban poppies

July 14, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

At this time of year it’s commonplace to see lots of photographs featuring fields full of poppies. The scarlet blossoms are in full bloom and make for an arresting sight, often contrasting beautifully with green fields of barley and wheat.

I don’t have one of those shots.

So, instead, here are some hardy poppies making a life for themselves in a somewhat less photogenic location. But who cares about the placement? The poppies have nontheless made themselves the star of the show in this incongruous patch of concrete and metal fencing.

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Fujifilm Pro 400H.

Taken on 7 July 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Hazy days of summer

July 13, 2019July 13, 2019 fishyfisharcade1 Comment

The photo in today’s post looks a little hazy. However, rather than some sort of photography mishap, this is actually because the air was full of smoke from dozens of steam engines that were building up power.

I’m still not sure about the quality of my Ektachrome scans. Some are really nice (today’s shot isn’t bad), but some are disappointing in how they’ve turned out, either as a result of my photography, or how I’ve been able to scan and process them (Plustek 8100, Silverfast, and Lightroom). The odd thing is that some look lovely and some look really odd, with somewhat garish (but not correct) colours and overly muddy shadows.

It’ll be interesting to see how the roll of Velvia 50 looks when I get around to shooting that.

Anyone else tried the new Ektachrome yet and, if so, how have you found it?

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Kodak Ektachrome.

Taken on 30 June 2019