Muriel is the title of the piece of street art seen painted on the gable-end of the building in today’s photo. It’s by local artist, Pete McKee and had been there since 2018. Sadly though, someone has seen fit to stain Muriel’s coat.
Something good that happened today…
I’ve been backing files up onto an external hard drive for a while now, but was conscious of the fact that I probably wasn’t doing it very efficiently. Today I’ve rectified that and now have a much improved, simpler, and mostly hands-off method, so I’m happy about that.
While browsing Reddit earlier I came across a post about an old British children’s programme called Spider. Spider wasn’t something I watched as a child – I predate it by quite some time – but my oldest son had an episode of it on a VHS tape back in the 90s which contained a compilation of single episodes from various children’s animated shows, and we watched this one together on numerous occasions. Seeing a single image of Spider on Reddit instantly brought back the song, lyrics and all, that featured in this episode, titled Spider in the Bath which I’d stored somewhere in my memory banks awaiting something to trigger it one day. Today was that day…
A quartet of pictures I shot one morning on my way into the office.
Park Hill Flats are a notable (and some might say, notorious) landmark in Sheffield, being one of the major landmarks visible when entering the city by rail or by road down the main arterial route from the motorway.
When originally constructed in the late 1950s, / early 1960s they replaced older back-to-back tenement housing and gave the residents the luxury of their own private bathrooms and heating. Due to the construction on a hillside it was possible to reach every floor apart from the highest from somewhere at ground level and the wide frontages to the flats were wide enough for electric milk-floats to be driven, and the name “streets in the sky” was coined.
Over time, a mixture of poor maintenance, and rising antisocial behaviour and crime blighted the development. Over time it became more difficult to house tenants on the site. In recent decades, a part-privatisation of the development has taken place, with the blocks being gradually refurbished and improved into a mixture of upmarket housing, social housing, and business units, and there are now much improved facilities on the site.
Whatever your thoughts on the brutalist architectural design, the place is certainly striking, and for a photographer provides ample opportunities for interesting pictures to be made.
Something good that happened today…
I heard today that one of the people in our team impacted by the recent redundancies has secured himself a new role, so I’m very happy for him. He’s a great young man with a lot of promise and deserves every opportunity.
A very short walk from the Impressions Gallery in Bradford is a cafe called The Cake’ole (“cake’ole” being slang for “mouth” – the hole where you insert cake 🙂 ). I ordered a sandwich and a coke, and was very happy with both the food and the service. Next time I visit the gallery I’ll almost certainly pay a visit to The Cake’ole again too. Maybe I’ll try one of the nice looking cakes next time. I took the picture below while awaiting my sandwich.
Something good that happened today…
Back at work after the weekend on a gray and rainy Monday (it’s February in the UK, so this is perhaps to be expected). But I had another day that felt productive and that always gives me a satisfied feeling when the working day is over.
The photos shared today were taken when I visited the Impressions Gallery in Bradfordfor the photobook fair and the Cafe Royal exhibition.
I’ve only been to Bradford on a handful of occasions, and every visit has been for a specific purpose with little time to explore, but I think I will make some proper time to do so one day as there is a lot of interesting stuff to be seen.
Something good that happened today…
I went out for Sunday Dinner with my wife and had a very nice steak and ale pie served with chunky chips and proper mushy peas. All washed down with a pint of cider.
Outside Leeds Art Gallery there are a number of brightly coloured “loungers” for people to sit and, well, lounge upon. I took a couple of pictures, but the first is the best because the couple on the red lounger make a nice counterpoint to the Henry Moore “Reclining Woman” sculpture on the plinth above.
Something good that happened today…
It’s Friday, which is almost always good, so I’ll go with that today.
Olympus OM-10 & G.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 on Kodak Elite Chrome 200 (expired 2004) . Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
These four photos were all taken around Leeds Combined Courts Centre. I found the brickwork and the architecture made for interesting photographs, and the nice weather didn’t hurt where the expired slide film was concerned, either.
Something good that happened today…
I’ve had a busy day at work, mostly taken up with meetings. Sometimes days like this can be frustrating because there’s insufficient time between calls to get on with the work I need to do. While that was still the case to an extent, all the calls I was on felt productive, and I came away from them feeling like something had been achieved, which is good.
Olympus OM-10 & G.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 on Kodak Elite Chrome 200 (expired 2004) . Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
This sculpture was stood in a corner of the main entrance gallery in Leeds Art Gallery. It would be incredibly impressive in scale if those were full size bricks, but in reality the figure is not much larger than a normal person. It was a photogenic looking character though, regardless of size.
Something good that happened today…
The robin was on the garden this morning again while I sorted out the cat litter tray (always a delightful task…). Today it flew over an alighted on the wall a couple of feet from where I stood, before quickly shooting off to hide in the laurel bush. At this time I hadn’t yet put out any bird food (the current breakfast for them is a selection of sunflower hearts and toast crusts) and in my mind I imagined that this small display of bravery was a polite nudge for me to hurry up and put some food on the grass.
Olympus OM-10 & G.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 on Kodak Elite Chrome 200 (expired 2004) . Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Given the brilliantly lit white facade of this building, I’m happy that the slide film caught the detail without blowing it out. I guess the dynamic range across the whole scene is not too large, but I still wondered whether this would be a success or not.
It would have been nice to have a tilt-shift lens to capture the scene. While I don’t hate converging verticals in photographs, sometimes, when they’re only slight as is the case here, they bother me more for some reason.
Something good that happened today…
I managed to find some time this lunchtime to develop a couple of rolls of Tri-X that I’ve shot recently, so I have another 24 images waiting to scan. I’m always glad when I’ve gotten film development done because I find it a chore. It’s easy enough to do, and I’m relatively successful at it, but I don’t get the enjoyment from it that some other photographers do. On the other hand, I do quite like scanning, which some other photographers hate!
Olympus OM-10 & G.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 on Kodak Elite Chrome 200 (expired 2004) . Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Another of the expired Elite Chrome photos. The Light is a retail and leisure centre in Leeds and contains shops, bars, restaurants, and a cinema among other things. The name seemed fitting for this picture as “the light” really was quite nice.
Something good that happened today…
I missed my “Something good…” bit yesterday because I published an Expiryment post, but I’m back today.
My son started his new job today, and while we haven’t had a “debrief” with him about it yet, he seems happy enough, which is good.
Olympus OM-10 & G.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 on Kodak Elite Chrome 200 (expired 2004) . Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
