Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
This is not the first time this church has featured on the blog – I have an earlier post taken using my large format camera. The picture below was taken first though (and was the reason I went back later with the Chamonix, as I though it would be a good location for a 4×5 photograph).
Fujica GW690 & Fujifilm Pro 160NS. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 28 July 2024
This is the Primitive Methodist chapel in Westwoodside in Lincolnshire. I had a few frames left on a roll of film in my GW690, and so drove around looking for subject matter, of which this was a chosen candidate.
It triggered a thought as to why such chapels (and the Methodism they provide places of worship for) are called “primitive”, so I looked it up, because I think curiosity should be satisfied when you have the means to do so. Anyway, the new thing I learnt as a result of this is that the term relates to Methodists who wished to return to an earlier, purer form of Methodism that was based on the early church.
Primitive Methodism was a working class movement that began early in the 19th century in The Potteries, in the English Midlands region. By the close of the century it had an estimate 200,000 members.
It wasn’t clear from the outside whether the chapel in the picture still operates, although I suspect not. I looked somewhat overgrown and had little sign of being somewhere in regular use. I would not be surprised to see the building re-purposed into a posh house.
Fujica GW690 & Fujifilm Pro 160NS. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 28 July 2024
Fujica GW690 & Fujifilm Pro 160NS. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 28 July 2024
I quite like this little scene. I would probably have photographed it anyway, but the guy relaxing in the van just made it, I think.
Fujica GW690 & Fujifilm Pro 160NS. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 28 July 2024
I was quite surprised by the vividly saturated colours that I got with this roll of Fuji Pro 160NS. It’s not a film that I’ve shot a lot of, so my lack of familiarity might mean that my scanning process has resulted in a richer than usual output. But I like it, so who cares?
Sadly, given the film was discontinued in 2021, I’m unlikely to get to know it much better (although I do still have three rolls of it in the freezer).
Fujica GW690 & Fujifilm Pro 160NS. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 28 July 2024
One of the loudest things I heard when visiting the Haxey Feast, was the sound of the engine in this Hawker Hurricane restoration project (the other was the gunshots from the military re-enactors). The engine made a tremendous, almost painfully loud amount of noise, which you can experience to a degree in this YouTube video (I’m also in the background of at least one part of the video too – where the helicopter lands 🙂 ).
The guy who owns the aircraft is hoping to restore it to a complete – although not airworthy – condition so that people can experience what it was like to sit in the cockpit when the engine was powered up.
Fujica GW690 & Fujifilm Pro 160NS. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 28 July 2024
This old mobile library made for a colourful photograph. It’s only upon looking at it later that I realise that it’s probably not a mobile vehicle any longer. Not unless it has a very unique driving position…
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 28 July 2024
There were a number of military re-enactment groups at Haxey Feast covering a variety of conflicts. I spoke to people from a number of the groups and it was interesting to find out more about the provenance of the uniforms and equipment they wore and used. Something I learnt was that the UK city of Leeds (famous for its textile industry) was a major supplier of cloth for the confederate army to produce their uniforms. Also, that the final surrender of the American Civil War took place in Liverpool, England, when the CSS Shenandoah, a confederate warship, surrendered to the British government.
I was also treat to some grisly details of how battlefield medicine and surgery was conducted during the Anglo-Zulu war on 1879.
Portraits I made of two of these re-enactment groups can be seen below.
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 28 July 2024
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 28 July 2024
The undoubted surprise highlight of my visit to the Haxey Feast, was when a helicopter landed.
I’d overheard murmurings from some of the people with displays that it was due to take place, including one guy who was battening down the hatches for fear that the downdraft would blow away the items he had on display.
Sure enough, a number of the event stewards asked people to vacate an open grassy area and formed a loose circle to keep people back from the landing area. I checked the direction of the light and positioned myself where I though I might have the best chance of getting a shot or two – as simple as it is to use, the rangefinder on the GW690 isn’t the easiest to achieve focus with, especially on moving subjects.
Happily, both the pictures I shot came out well. The first was the helicopter’s descent. The second as it was flying away again (it only stayed on the ground for a few minutes).
For anyone interested, it is apparently an Airbus H120.
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 28 July 2024
