Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
Before the day warmed up, it was quite cold and grim looking at the north end of Cleethorpes promenade. This is looking north towards Grimsby (the harbour tower is just visible at the right of the horizon besides the large building. It wasn’t just me taking photographs though. Look!
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f.3.5-5.6 AF & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 20 February 2019
There’s a pedestrianised area beside this building that leads through the courtyard, under this footbridge, and down to where the buses stop, and that’s where I was when I spotted the lone figure up above. The flag atop the building was fluttering in the breeze, but I missed capturing it fully unfurled unfortunately.
Olympus 35 RC & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 19 February 2019
Following on from yesterday’s photo, here’s a shot I took just a few minutes later and in the same location. I liked the way the reflected sun was casting these rays across the paving, so waited for someone to walk into the frame and add a bit of interest.
Olympus 35 RC & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 19 February 2019
It was a lovely sunny winters day when I took this (and a number of other ) photos, and the low light was casting great looking shadows all oer the place. I thought the circular arrangement of paving-stones outside the cathedral would make for an interesting shot, so I staked it out and waited for people to walk through the frame and add interest. I took three shots and think this is the best one.
Olympus 35 RC & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 19 February 2019
Four chaps outside the ballroom entrance at Sheffield City Hall. It always surprises me when I look at a scanned negative and see that I’ve been “caught” taking the photograph. I think I was so engrossed in trying to catch the moment when the two guys embraced, that I didn’t notice the other two fellas watching me take the photograph.
The photo has been cropped – the original has a dark doorway off to the right of the frame, but the image looks better with the crop.
Olympus 35 RC & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 19 February 2019
A lone airliner makes its way to destinations unknown.
Olympus 35 RC & JCH Streetpan.
Taken on 15 February 2019
Two photos today, both shot with the Canon AF35M II on expired Superia 100.
The first is a section of Park Hill Flats in Sheffield. The section depicted here has undergone re-development into modern apartments and business facilities and is a far-cry from the state of the place thirty years ago, when the development and area was in a state of decline. The flats were originally built back in the 1960s to replace the tenement buildings that were demolished due to being unfit for habitation and high levels of crime (the area being dubbed “Little Chicago” in the 1930s), and was designed so that every floor except the top would have at least one entrance at ground level – something facilitated by the hilly nature of Sheffield and the location of the buildings. The flats were all accessed by wide walkways that were dubbed “streets in the sky” and were wide enough to accommodate milk-floats. The flats are in the brutalism style that was fashionable at the time but which is often despised these days. Being a strong example of this type of architecture, the development was granted grade II listed building status in the 1990s.
The second shot is of the Co-Operative Funeral Care building, also in Sheffield and not a million miles from Park Hill Flats (hence the reason both shots are only a handful of frames apart on the negatives 🙂 ). I’m not sure when this building was constructed, but I would again expect the 1960s. I used to pass it on the bus when visiting my nan’s house and was always drawn to the colourful glass panes beneath the apex of the roof. They catch the sun in the daytime and would be illuminated from within after dark fell.
Canon Sure Shot AF35M II and Fujifilm Superia 100 (expired 2008).
Taken on 9 February 2019
Some more colour photos, although in a different vein to my other recent colour shots. Instead of the splashes of colour, texture and contrast that I tend to favour in 35mm, these are shots of relatively mundane, ordinary subjects. You would be fully within your rights to say that they’re boring, and I’m not sure I could argue against that. Nonetheless, shots such as this have an appeal to my particular tastes. In the same way that Stephen Shore’s photographs of traffic intersections and motel room interiors have a compelling interest to them so, I think, do photographs of other outwardly dull subjects – the sort of things that most people will pass by without a second glance and yet are still objects that would be missed were they no longer there. Oftentimes, these things are showing signs of neglect and there’s an appeal to the thought of that fading beauty.
Yashica Mat 124 G & Fujifilm Pro 400H.
Taken on 20 February 2019
My last shot of the day when visiting Manchester the other week. I like how the sun was catching on the rails and the figure and train set each other off nicely in the frame.
Olympus 35 RC & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 15 February 2019
This is one of the main atrium / escalator areas in the Arndale shopping centre in Manchester, UK. The design of the overhead lighting was very striking and so I took the shot. Upon scanning the negative it reminded me of the climactic scene in Steven Spielberg’s classic movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where the alien mothership descends at Devil’s Tower (although that had fewer retail outlets and escalators if I recall correctly… 🙂 ).
Olympus 35 RC & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 15 February 2019
