35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
A further image from Capri (I think I’m posting these while I figure out how to post a batch of much more recent pictures).
I don’t know if this boy-and-elephant sculpture is a permanent fixture outside the Prada store in Capri, or if it was just a temporary exhibit, but it deserved a photo.
Olympus OM-1 and G-Zuiko Auto-W 28mm f/3.5 on Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 21 August 2018
Another picture from our Sorrento trip that I’ve recently re-scanned, but which I don’t believe has ever featured on the blog before (from my quick search, at least).
Again, this was taken on the island of Capri and this interesting sculpture of a woman formed from bike chains was an eye-catching sight.
Olympus OM-1 and G-Zuiko Auto-W 28mm f/3.5 on Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 21 August 2018
I’ve recently re-scanned some older negatives from when my wife and I visited Sorrento in Italy in 2018. While I was happy with my scans at the time, I can produce much better results now and I also realised that a lot of the pictures I’d taken were never uploaded, including the one posted here today.
This isn’t Sorrento, but the south-western point of the island of Capri, named Punta Carena, upon which stands this lighthouse. The photo was taken from the boat we were on which circled around the island before heading to port.
There’s a nice sense of scale to the picture, I think, with the foreground coast, the lighthouse, and then the dramatic cliffs beyond.
Olympus OM-1 and G-Zuiko Auto-W 28mm f/3.5 on Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 21 August 2018
My wife and I visited the Wakefield Rhubarb Festival today. It’s the first time we’ve been and it was an enjoyable few hours out.
Wakefield is one of the towns that delineate the area known as the Rhubarb Triangle*, famed for producing forced rhubarb, a method of growing the vegetable in dark sheds which encourages the plants to convert carbohydrates into glucose, forming stalks with a sweetly sour taste. Rhubarb has many uses, but is often served in sweet pies and crumbles,sometimes accompanied by other fruits. Wakefield Council holds the annual festival each February.
The event itself was somewhat akin to a Christmas market and I was surprised at how many stalls were present, along with various activities taking place, and local bars, cafe’s, and restaurants also laying on rhubarb themed food and drinks. We bought a number of items, including some orange and rhubarb marmalade (I’m on a bit of a marmalade voyage of discovery at present, having it with toast for breakfast several times a week), some rhubarb candles (which my wife will gift to a friend), a sausage and rhubarb focaccia (to be eaten tomorrow!), and some fresh stalks of rhubarb (some of which we ate with custard this evening).
As well as the stalls, there were a number of other events taking place during the event (which ran from Friday until today), including live music, arts and crafts, cooking demonstrations, various performers in rhubarb costumes, and no less than three different morris dancing groups (or sides, as I believe they are known) .
*the legal definition of the Rhubarb Triangle is apparently as follows…
“from Ackworth Moor Top north along the A628 to Featherstone and Pontefract. Then on to the A656 through Castleford. It then goes west along the A63 past Garforth and West Garforth. Head north passing Whitkirk, Manston and on towards the A6120 by Scholes. Follow the A6120 west, round to pass Farsley which then leads south west via the A647 onto the A6177. Pass Dudley Hill to pick up the M606 south. At junction 26 take the M62 south to junction 25 head east along A644 toward Dewsbury, passing Mirfield, to pick up the A638 towards Wakefield. At Wakefield take the A638 south to Ackworth Moor top.”[
Ricoh GRIII
Taken on 22 February 2026
I had one of those situation where I had just a few shots remaining on a roll to be used. I generally prefer to finish an entire roll on the occasions where I’m taking lots of pictures, but sometimes it doesn’t happen, and I’m not the sort of person who likes to waste frames on subjects I don’t find interesting just for the convenience of using up the film.
So on this frosty morning I went out to shoot the four remaining frames (three of which can be seen below). The first two are at Ulley Reservoir, where the cold weather had formed a thin skein of ice on the water’s surface, and the third is at Penny Hill Wind Farm, which lies a mile or so up the hill.
Officially, these were my first shots of 2026, albeit not on a new roll of film.
Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD on Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 4 January 2026
Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD on Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 27 December 2025
The village of Sheldon stands a short distance from Magpie Mine. It’s a pretty and picturesque place, although these days slightly blighted by the number of cars parked on the streets, I think. But that’s progress, and the inhabitants have a need for transport.
Pictured below are the village pub, The Cock and Pullet, the village hall, a nativity scene including two tyre snowmen (it was just after Christmas when these pictures were taken), some cottages, and a wreath on the church gate.
Sheldon also has an interesting local story:
Sheldon has a curious tale in its history. In 1601 a duck was seen by a local resident to fly into a hollow tree and not to come out again. It gained the name from then on as the Duck Tree. Some three hundred years later when the tree was felled and sawn into planks, each plank contained the life-sized outline of a duck. The wood was reputedly used to make a mantelpiece for Greatbach Hall in Ashford.
Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD on Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 27 December 2025
The last of the Magpie Mine pictures, and one I took as I headed towards the nearby village of Sheldon, a way marker showing the path on which I’d just traveled, and the one I was about to take.
Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD on Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 27 December 2025
Most of the Magpie Mine site in view (shot from near the horse gin). It looks almost like a miniature here.
Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD on Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 27 December 2025
This was my third visit to Magpie Mine, a former lead mine in the Peak District national park. You can see some other posts from previous visits (where I shot 30-year-expired film, and large format) here, here, and here.
This time I was shooting my Nikon F80 with my Tamron 28-300mm zoom lens. As I mentioned the other day, I haven’t been impressed by the sharpness of the lens, and while it’s not too evident in these images, there are others from the roll that I wish had been sharper.
Magpie mine is described here as:
[Magpie Mine] was the last working lead mine in the Derbyshire orefield and is one of the best surviving examples in the UK of a 19th century lead mine. The mine has a fascinating history spanning more than 200 years of bonanzas and failures, of bitter disputes and fights resulting in the “murder” of three miners, and a Widows’ Curse that is said to remain to this day.
Thankfully there were no murders while I was there, and no sign of the widow’s curse. I did however witness another visitor’s dog race off across the fields next to the mine when a hare appeared. The hare made it’s escape hopefully none the worse for wear.
Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD on Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 27 December 2025
Steel City Snapper photography 