Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
People enjoy the unseasonably mild February weather by the fountain in Picadilly Gardens, Manchester.
The 35 RC’s lens had coped quite well with the conditions (shooting straight into the direction of the low sun). There’s some noticeable flaring in the shot (top left, and lower-centre right), but nothing too severe and the contrast has remained in place.
Olympus 35 RC & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 15 February 2019
Another shot from Manchester. Eagle-eyed readers will spot Allan – the chap from yesterday’s post – in the background of the image.
The JCH Street Pan produced lovely contrasty photographs in this light.
Olympus 35 RC & JCH Street Pan.
Taken on 15 February 2019
While I was wandering around the School Strike for Climate protest last friday, I happened across the chap in the photo below. He was dressed in unusual but smart attire and had an interesting look about him so I decided to do something I rarely do – ask if I could make a portrait. He generously allowed me to take the shot below and I stood and chatted to him for a while. He was pleased to see the schoolkids standing up for something they believed in, and said how it wouldn’t have been possible to do so when he was at school. He went on to tell me a little about himself – the clothes he was wearing were Vivienne Westwood designs, and he explained that, thanks to his colourful and interesting life story, a documentary was being produced about him (http://www.appyallanfilm.com/). He was a friendly bloke and it was good to speak with him.
Olympus 35 RC & JCH Street Pan.
Taken on 15 February 2019
On Friday 15 February 2019, pupils across the UK took a day of action, skipping school to protest against the impact of climate change and to demand action be taken to prevent it from becoming worse. There were some amusing placards on display and it was good to see these young people make their voices heard.
I was in Manchester on the day and noticed the demonstration as I was heading towards the library, and took the following photographs.
Olympus 35 RC & JCH Street Pan.
Taken on 15 February 2019
I spotted this chap chatting on his phone with his sunglasses perched on the back of his head and couldn’t resist getting a photo. The little 35 RC has done it proud. The JCH Street Pan produced some lovely tones in bright light, but also resulted in very underexposed thin negatives where I’d shot in dimmer conditions. The underexposed images aren’t unusable – and some of them look pretty great – but they will take some work in Lightroom, not least to remove all the additional dust spots that appear on thin negs.
Olympus 35 RC & JCH Street Pan.
Taken on 15 February 2019
The sheep roasting jack in Eyam in the Peak District. The village carnival, when the sheep roast takes place, is held each September. It’s not something I’ve ever attended, but it’s nearly lunchtime and the thought of it is making me hungry!
The second photograph is of a building just behind the roasting jack.
Yashica Mat 124 G & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 2 February 2019
A week or so back I wrote a post about colour photography and how I like to use colour film to record vignette type shots (you can read it here). I think the theme may have legs, so I’ve decided to use the same post title format each time I do one of these.
So, again, here’s a trio of colour photos with no particular theme (although I guess they could fall under “architectural abstracts” or “looking upwards” something like that). The main reason I took these was that I wanted to test out a camera I bought last year – a Canon Sure Shot AF35M II (known as the Autoboy II in the US, I believe) which I bought for the princely sum of £1 at a a flea market. When I originally took the camera home and inserted some batteries it whirred noisily into life (this isn’t a quiet camera!) but then, on the first occasion I decided to shoot with it, it seemed to have died – fresh batteries did nothing, so I thought the worst. However, a couple of weeks back I decided to take another look at it and noticed a very small spot of corrosion on one of the battery terminals. Five minutes later, after some careful and professional(!) scraping with the tip of a screwdriver, I inserted some fresh batteries and it sprang back into an active state.
The camera has a 38mm f/2.8 glass lens that is nice and sharp, autofocus, flash, and a timer lever that also doubles as an AF lock for occasions where you don’t want your subject to be centered on the single AF point. The AF lock works effectively, but is perhaps best described as a somewhat clunky method for achieving the result. As I already have a Sure Shot (a Telemax) – albeit one with a slightly slower lens – I’ll probably sell the AF35M II so that someone will get good use of it, and I can use to proceeds to pay for one of my MF cameras to get a service. However, before selling it I needed to test it properly so went for a walk around town on an uncharacteristically sunny February afternoon the other weekend.
The camera was loaded with a roll of 2008 expired Fuji Superia 100 that has been cold stored, and I shot it at 80asa. So, anyway, onto the photos…
Canon Sure Shot AF35M II and Fujifilm Superia 100 (expired 2008).
Taken on 9 February 2019
The rear of Eyam church is where the more recent graves appear to be located, and they rest in orderly rows overlooked by a number of tall trees.
Yashica Mat 124 G & Kodak Tri-X.
Taken on 2 February 2019
I really like the way this quaint village scene came out (it’s in Eyam). It has a nice contrast and crispness about it. It has a somewhat nostalgic air, or a least it does until you notice the modern cars in the background and the fact that the phone box has now been modified to house a defibrillator instead of a payphone. Hopefully no-one will attempt to make a call with it! 🙂
Yashica Mat 124 G & Kodak Tri-X.
Taken on 2 February 2019
Another photo from my outing in the Peak District the other week. I took a few shots of this area of silver birch with my DSLR, but grabbed a shot with the Yashica Mat too. Unfortunately, it seems the batch of film I was using was one that had faults and so the print from the backing paper has shown up on a number of pictures – especially in low detail areas such as the sky. I think I’ve manged to remove it reasonably well in Photoshop though.
Yashica Mat 124 G & Kodak Tri-X.
Taken on 2 February 2019
