Merry Christmas everyone! Whether you celebrate the occasion or not, I hope you all have a wonderful day.
Ricoh GR III.
Taken 24 December 2023
Merry Christmas!
Sweetcorn and ice cream
A quick post for Christmas Eve (and not a very festive one).
There are a lot of these sweetcorn vendors in Leeds. I’m not a particularly well-travelled person, but I’ve been to quite a few places in the UK and overseas, and Leeds is the only place I’ve seen these sweetcorn stands.
Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 14 October 2023.
Ultramax red
The roll of Kodak Ultramax from which these photos (and those of recent and coming days) have been taken was the first I’ve ever shot of this particular film stock. I’ve been quite surprised at the strong, vivid colour in the pictures. I’m not sure if this is just how the film looks, or if my Negative Lab Pro settings have enhanced the saturation in some way (I’ve not purposely boosted the saturation).
The reds, in particular, really jump out at me, especially in these two pictures of the street-food vendor, Falafel Guys, and the traditional red British phone boxes. There’s even a hint, daresay it, of Kodachrome in those reds and blues.
Some of the effect comes, I think, from the vignetting that the Z135 has a tendency to add to pictures, but that’s not all of it. Whatever the case, I have another three rolls of Ultramax waiting to be shot. I’ll not hesitate to use it again.
Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 14 October 2023.
Blue
Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 14 October 2023.
Campervan coffee and Secret Santa
I received my gift from this year’s Emulsive Secret Santa exchange today.
Normally this would remain a surprise for Christmas day, but this year when I opened the package, instead of a wrapped pressie being contained inside, the gifts were there in plain sight (along with a note apologising for the packaging 🙂 ), so I know exactly what my Santa has gifted to me.
This year I received a couple of rolls of film, one a short roll of unknown 400asa colour film in 135 format, the other a roll of Fomapan 400 in 120 format. Also tucked away in the box though was a camera, an Ilford Sporti. At first glance I thought that this was going to be a 35mm camera, but I was pleased to discover that it’s actually a zone-focus, fixed shutter medium format camera. It’s quite a basic camera in terms of features – more Holga than Hasselblad, but it feels solid (it was made in Germany) and, if it’s akin to a Holga in terms of it’s use then that’s no bad thing as I really enjoy the sort of simplicity which that brings sometimes.
I’ll provide more thoughts (and, who knows, maybe even a review) when I get chance to put it to good use.
Another picture for the Leeds set today. Who can resist a VW camper, eh?
Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 14 October 2023.
A couple of colourful buildings
Another couple of pictures from Leeds, linked by the theme of brightly coloured buildings. Or, in the case of both, brightly coloured reflections or coverings.
The orangey red tones in the windows of the first building are actually reflections of the bright orange netting covering the second, so they’re linked by proximity too (and, I think, they are consecutive frames on the roll of film).
It was my first day of Christmas leave today, and I spent it doing some Christmas shopping (I think I’m all done now), and then a trip to the cinema to watch Godzilla Minus One, which was really good. Considering it was made on a relative shoestring budget of, IIRC, $12 million, it looks outstandingly good. I found out when I got home that there’s a special black-and-white version being released in Japan which has been carefully put together (rather than just being de-saturated) which also looks awesome. You can see the trailer for that here.
Tomorrow, depending on the weather, I’ll either be wrapping presents and maybe developing a roll of film, or possibly heading out to make more photos somewhere. I also need to visit my dad, so maybe that as well.
Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 14 October 2023.
Two views of the River Aire (and losing people online)
Both of the images in today’s post were taken from the David Oluwale Bridge in the centre of Leeds. The first looks eastwards and downstream, the second westwards with Bridgewater Place dominating the skyline (I wrote more about that here).
Today was my last day of work before Christmas, and I now have a week-and-a-half of (I hope) leisure time, which is nice. I just need to put work stuff out of my mind – there’s a lot of stuff waiting my attention in the New Year – but I can hopefully manage to do that just fine.
Despite my breaking up for Christmas today, the morning started off with some sad news when I discovered that one of the people on an online forum I frequent has passed away. He died a couple of weeks ago, but the folks on the forum have only just found out. I met him in person earlier this year when we had a big forum get-together and he was a nice guy, outgoing and fun, so while I didn’t really know him well, or even share a lot of comments on the forum, it’s a bit of a shock to think of him being gone.
It made me wonder about how many people will just disappear from their online lives without notice when they die. Online connections are not always replicated offline and so there’s probably not a route to communicate someone’s passing to all the places they might frequent. Maybe we should think, before it’s too late, about leaving word for our loved ones to inform our digital connections when we depart this mortal coil.
Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 14 October 2023.
What I saw on departure
The pictures coming over the next week or so are a continuation of the pictures I made on a day trip to Leeds back in October. I’ve already posted a bunch of images from this trip, starting with this post from 27 November, but those were black and white photographs shot with my Olympus OM-1N on Ilford FP4+. The set that I’m going to post are all taken with my Canon Sure Shot Z135 compact and, in a first for me, shot on Kodak Ultramax. I’ll let you know my thoughts on the film and my results as I post more images.
The view from my seat as I waited for my train to depart for Leeds.
Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 14 October 2023.
Autumn trees
I was going to say that this post features the last of this year’s crop of autumnal pictures, but I have a few more on a roll of 35mm Kodak Gold still to be uploaded, so there will still be a few more to share (although I expect it will be after Christmas before that happens, unless I move them up the schedule).
The two pictures here were taken near the village of Barlow in Derbyshire, not too far from Chesterfield. I’ve driven past the lone tree pm a few occasions and noticed that it has a handy public footpath running through the field beside it. Whit it was the main reason I got out of the car with my camera, I think I prefer the first shot of the woodland, which has a nice selection of autumnal tones against the slightly hazy blue sky. The lone tree is ok, but I think there is a better photograph to be had.
I’ve managed to shoot (almost) a couple of rolls of 120 Ilford HP5+ this weekend during an overnight trip to York with my wife to visit the Christmas market. I’m not sure how they will turn out – I rarely make my best pictures when I’m out with someone else, and always feel like I’m rushing or missing things. I’ll hopefully get a chance to develop them soon though, so we shall see…
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 MC / Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Kodak Portra 160. Lab developed, home scanned & converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 25 November 2023.
Atop a church and beside it
Following the churchy (is that a word?) theme from yesterday, here’re a couple of pictures I took of St. Swithin’s church at Holmesfield.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 MC & Kodak Portra 160. Lab developed, home scanned & converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 25 November 2023.
Steel City Snapper photography 