Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
B B B B Barbican Centre.
A quick post today, but I hope you’ll note how I attempted to align the sides of the forground structures with those of the tower in the rear. Not perfectly, but close enough. 🙂
Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 9 October 2019
A few months ago I was given a couple of rolls of film by one of the ladies at the local photographic society. Both were Lloyds Pharmacy 200, with an expiry date of 2008. You can’t get much more “drugstore film” than this, I guess. Some research suggests that it is actually Solaris Color FG Plus 200 that has been rebranded.
Both rolls have been sat in my freezer since then, so I decided last week to shoot one of them. Given the age of the film and the fact that I didn’t really know it’s provenance, I decided to rate it at 80ASA and loaded it into my Nikon F70. It turned out to be in a pretty good state, and rating it at 80ASA was probably too much – most of the images are a little overexposed, although I’ve recovered them pretty well in Lightroom. Otherwise, while there are some minor colour shifts, and the shadows are not the best, it’s not too bad. I’ll have much more confidence when I shoot the remaining roll.
I’m always a little wary of putting too much effort into making photographs with expired film, at least unless I’ve already had satisfactory results from a roll from the same batch, and this was very much the case with this roll. Most of the frames were shot on a walk around Chesterfield town centre, and the ones shown in this post are of the old Magistrate’s Court building.
The building was constructed in the early 1960s and was in use until the 2000s when a new building was constructed about half a mile from the old site. Since then the building has fallen into disrepair. As it is Grade II listed, it cannot be demolished, but there are apparently plans afoot to convert it into residential use.
It’s an interesting structure and one I’ve photographed on more than one occasion, so here are a few of the most recent pictures. I think the fourth photo, with the roosting pigeons, is my favourite.
Nikon F70, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 D & Lloyds Pharmacy 200 (expired).
Taken on 30 September 2019
This is one of the buildings that make up the World Financial Center area, adjacent to the World Trade Center. I think that this particular building is designated as WFC 1.
I really liked the way the morning light was striking the building, throwing the structure into strong relief.
It’s another shot that shows the Z135’s tendency to vignette noticably at wider angles.
Canon Sure Shot Z135Â & Kodak Portra 400.
Taken on 25 May 2019
A photograph I took last December before meeting with colleagues in London.
Nikon F70, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Kodak Tmax P3200.
Taken on 18 December 2018
I noticed this building when in Wakefield recently. The symbol in the decorative pediment identifies it as a freemason’s lodge and it has attractive features as a building. A tilt-shift lens would be very useful for shots such as these but, alas, I don’t have one (nor can I justify the expense either), so the picture is stuck with the converging verticals.
I’m presuming that a staircase runs from the left to the right of the upper floor to account for the different sized windows,
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 & Arista Edu 200.
Taken on 30 March 2019
As well as being a nice place to visit, the Hepworth Gallery is a nicely photogenic subject in and of itself too.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 & Arista Edu 200.
Taken on 30 March 2019
These blocks of flats in Wakefield are visible from far-and-wide and, up-close on a sunny day, made for an interesting composition. I passed them while heading to the Hepworth Gallery to visit the Modern Nature photography exhibition.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 & Arista Edu 200.
Taken on 30 March 2019
Taken on the way back to Manchester Piccadilly railway station the other week.
Olympus 35 RC & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 15 February 2019
A lone airliner makes its way to destinations unknown.
Olympus 35 RC & JCH Streetpan.
Taken on 15 February 2019
Two photos today, both shot with the Canon AF35M II on expired Superia 100.
The first is a section of Park Hill Flats in Sheffield. The section depicted here has undergone re-development into modern apartments and business facilities and is a far-cry from the state of the place thirty years ago, when the development and area was in a state of decline. The flats were originally built back in the 1960s to replace the tenement buildings that were demolished due to being unfit for habitation and high levels of crime (the area being dubbed “Little Chicago” in the 1930s), and was designed so that every floor except the top would have at least one entrance at ground level – something facilitated by the hilly nature of Sheffield and the location of the buildings. The flats were all accessed by wide walkways that were dubbed “streets in the sky” and were wide enough to accommodate milk-floats. The flats are in the brutalism style that was fashionable at the time but which is often despised these days. Being a strong example of this type of architecture, the development was granted grade II listed building status in the 1990s.
The second shot is of the Co-Operative Funeral Care building, also in Sheffield and not a million miles from Park Hill Flats (hence the reason both shots are only a handful of frames apart on the negatives 🙂 ). I’m not sure when this building was constructed, but I would again expect the 1960s. I used to pass it on the bus when visiting my nan’s house and was always drawn to the colourful glass panes beneath the apex of the roof. They catch the sun in the daytime and would be illuminated from within after dark fell.
Canon Sure Shot AF35M II and Fujifilm Superia 100 (expired 2008).
Taken on 9 February 2019
Steel City Snapper photography 