Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
Over the coming days I’ll share a bunch of pictures I shot in Lincoln a couple of months ago. I was very fortunate to have really good light all the time I was there, but it was particularly good during the morning when the sun was casting some nice side-light. I really like how the buildings and the chimneys are illuminated in this one.
Olympus OM-10, Zuiko Auto-S 35mm f/2.8 & Agfa APX 100 (@400). Rodinal 1+100 (+2ml) semi-stand 1 hour @ 20°
Taken on 1 March 2025
This weekend marked my third annual trip to Arcade Club in Bury. I go along with a bunch of similarly middle-aged videogame fans I know from an online community and a great time is had.
Arcade Club has three UK locations, but the one in Bury is largest, with hundreds of arcade game spread over four floors, from the late 70s Space Invaders era through to modern cabinets and rhythm action titles. There are home videogames available too, plus a good range of pinball tables, air-hockey, pool, and other more physical basketball and bowing machines.
There was a strange arm-wrestling game called Arm Champs II that was a proper physical challenge!
We enjoyed curry and beer on the Friday evening, followed by a full day at Arcade Club on Saturday – right up until the place closed at 11pm – then back home today after a group breakfast at a nice local cafe.
I’m already looking forward to next year’s event!
Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus
Taken on 17 May 2025
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 February 2025
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 February 2025
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 February 2025
Originally opened in 1920, the Abbeydale Picture House served as a cinema for fifty-five years until it closed in 1975. The building, which achieved listed status in 1989, has performed a number of functions in the intervening years, including a furniture store, a ballroom, a snooker hall, a bar, and a performing arts centre. Recently the building was acquired by a brewery and hospitality company who intend to re-open the building as a premier entertainment venue.
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 February 2025
Back in the 1990s, Rossi’s Italian restaurant, which occupied a former bank building just off London Road near the end of Sharrow Lane, felt like a regular destination for a night out with the people I worked with at the time. In reality it was probably only a handful of visits, but the memories persist and make it feel like more. I remember that Ann, one of the women I worked with, would always order the same dish: pollo a la crema. Except she always called it chicken pollo a la crema, which we would jokingly call her out about for adding the unnecessary English word. The food in the restaurant was good, the the tables were fancy marble affairs, and there was a statue of Michaelangelo’s David in the centre of the restaurant, if I remember correctly.
Rossi’s closed recently due to family circumstances (according to an article in a local newspaper) and has been up for sale. I’m not sure if a new owner has been found, or indeed what the new business will be (I would expect another restaurant though).
I’ve not visited for over twenty years, since the members of that team drifted apart and the night’s out fell away, and I don’t think I’ve seen any of those people I worked with back then for just as long (it’s quite possible that some of the older members of the team are no longer with us!), but the memories persist. And I still always think of pollo a la crema as chicken pollo a la crema.
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 February 2025
Sheffield is a hilly city. It’s said to be built on seven hills, like Rome, although I’ve never quite worked out which hills count in that number, or where the statement originates.
While other parts of the world have infrastructure and housing built on much more precipitous slopes, Sheffield has its fair share of steep streets and homes built on hillsides.
In many places streets of differing altitude are connected by footpaths such as one shown below. There might be a germ of an idea for a photo project lurking in that thought…
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 February 2025
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 February 2025
This curiously shaped building on Queen’s Road has been a bicycle repair shop for a number of years now, but it’s original purpose, until 2012, was as a public house – The Earl of Arundel and Surrey Hotel.
The building has a small date plaque on the front denoting that the building dates from1879 and also used to have a sign affixed which read:
“These premises have a unique claim to fame as the only remaining official pound house in Sheffield. It was built in the late 1880’s on land belonging to the Duke of Norfolk who was also the Earl of Arundel and Surrey and Lord of what was then still the Manor of Sheffield. These premises inherited the manorial rights of being a pound house. The Landlord was known as the Pinder and he had the right to round up and hold any stray animals-horses, cows, sheep-until their owners collected them. He could charge a fee for their return. The stables are still used to this day, to house two percherons belonging to Vaux Brewery in Sunderland, when they visit Sheffield for their processions and other person appearances. They are to be found at the rear of the building.”
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 February 2025
