Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
A couple of edited (and cropped) candid shots that I took while waiting to board our flight home from Barcelona just before Christmas last year.
Sometimes it’s good to sit on pictures for a decent length of time. You see them differently and sometimes find things you like which were previously overlooked.
Ricoh GRIII
Taken on 23 December 2024
The early morning light, and the deep burgundy and pastel pink shades of the ladies’ coats caught my eye as we passed this scene so I grabbed a quick picture to capture the moment.
Ricoh GR III
Taken 23 December 2024
This is probably the last of the Barcelona pictures that I’ll share on the blog (unless I decide to publish some more of the digital shots I took, many of which are sat on my computer largely untouched).
Something different coming tomorrow… (that makes it sound a lot more exciting than it will actually be, lol).
Olympus OM-10, E-Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 22 December 2024
A bit on a picture dump today. These are a bunch of photos I too while wandering around Barcelona with my wife. As I mentioned yesterday, I rarely get my best pictures when out with my another person, so I tend to grab photos when I get the chance but without necessarily spending the time and effort needed to get anything particularly accomplished. This makes it sound like I’m some sort of perfectionist figure the rest of the time, and I’m really not – I shoot a lot of pictures, often quite quickly – but I am able to focus on what I’m doing exclusively, which tends to produce better results.
Something good that happened today…
Speaking of shooting a lot of pictures, I rattled through a full 36 exposure roll of Agfa APX 100 during a walk this morning. I drove out to the village of Whitwell, which is about a 20 minute drive away with the singular reason to get through the full roll so I could test semi-stand development. The last roll of this film, which I shot in Lincoln last weekend, was accidentally underexposed by two stops and there are few available recipes for standard development in this situation with this particular film (at least with the developers I have to hand), so a number of people suggested stand or semi-stand development as the beast option.
As I’ve never attempted this process before, and as I think I might have some nice photographs from the Lincoln trip, I decided to underexpose another roll in the same way and make my first attempt on a slightly less valuable set of pictures (although I think there will probably be some nice shots on this Whitwell roll too – I didn’t just shoot random rubbish).
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I attempted semi-stand development in Rodinal today and the negatives look good. The proof will be when I get to scan them, but they look decent to my eye at this stage at least. I’ll write a proper post about this when I have some of the pictures ready to share.
Olympus OM-10, E-Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 22 December 2024
This location had a lot of potential for interesting pictures, the mirrored tiles on the curved overhang casting all sorts of interesting reflections. It’s a location which, had I been there alone, I would have spent some time working to try and find the best shots.
This sort of activity isn’t really possible when I’m with someone else though, as I quickly become conscious that I’m keeping that person (my wife in this case, with little interest in photography) hanging around and I begin to feel selfish. It’s why I almost always prefer solo photography.
While my wife is not a photographer, she did spot this scene at the same time as me and commented that it would make a good picture. Perhaps I’m rubbing off on her. 🙂
Olympus OM-10, E-Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 22 December 2024
Sagrada Família, or to give its full name: Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família is the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world. Designed by fames Spanish architect, Antoni Gaudi, work began on consrtuction one-hundred-and-forty-three years ago, on 19 March 1882. Gaudi himself died in 1926 and was buried in the church’s crypt when just twenty-five percent of the building was complete. Work is currently expected to complete in 2026, marking the anniversary of Gaudi’s death.
I’ve visited the church on two occasions now, and on both was unable to go inside. On the first occasion I didn’t want to wait for an entrance slot – visitors must book tickets to enter – and on the second visit there were no tickets available whatsoever on the day. Had I planned in advance, I’m sure I’d have been ok but, if I’m honest, I don’t think I was really that concerned. While I’m sure the church interiors are breathtaking, the thought of being in there with hundreds of other tourists isn’t something that appeals, and ideally it’s the sort of place the deserves time to experience all it has to offer – something I wouldn’t have had as my wife had little interest in going inside, and I would have felt guilty leaving her sat outside while I took my time to explore.
Maybe one day I’ll visit properly, but I’m not going to hold my breath.
Olympus OM-10, E-Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 22 December 2024
A quick post today as I’m off to the movies with my eldest son in a bit.
Keeping a slight movie theme, here’s a picture of Tom Hanks, who I found sitting patiently beside the wax museum ticket booth in Barcelona.
Olympus OM-10, E-Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 20 December 2024
This is possibly my favourite film photo I made while in Barcelona in December. I like the way I managed to compose it, the timing, the colours (those splashes of red), and the shallow depth of field.
Olympus OM-10, E-Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 20 December 2024
So says Diego Maradona, apparently.
Something good that happened today…
It’s that time of year when I take a day off work and watch the Oscars. Because they are broadcast live in the early hours of the morning here in the UK (and as I pretty much always have a need to get up early the next day, even if I have the day off it seems), I resort to recording the show and then watching it the morning after. This requires a careful media blackout when I wake up to avoid spoilers, but I usually manage this successfully, and this year was no exception.
I didn’t start watching it until 9:30am and, because it’s such a long show, it didn’t finish until 1:30pm (taking into consideration my fast-forwarding through some of the breaks, but also pausing it to get drinks, snacks, and lunch).
Of all the main nominated films this year, I’ve only gotten around to seeing two of them – Dune Part 2, and The Substance – so will have to try and catch up on the others when they appear on one of the streaming services. Sadly I don’t get to the movies as much as I once did – before we had kids we’d regularly see two or three films in a week at the cinema – and don’t really get enough time to watch that many at home either (not without sacrificing other activities, at least). Maybe one day, when I’m retired, I’ll have enough time to do all the things I’d like to…
Olympus OM-10, E-Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 20 December 2024
Today has been split (so far) into four main sections.
Firstly, my dad paid his usual Sunday morning visit. He arrived a little earlier than I expected because he’d walked it (he still walks miles most days – not bad for a guy in his mid-eighties. I hope I might be as fit when I get to that age!) and I was still sorting the cats out when he got here. I didn’t hear him come in, but I’m not sure if this was because I was outside, or if my hearing is getting worse.
The second chunk of the day was spent developing a roll of Ilford HP5+ that I shot recently. This one was deliberately pushed a stop (unlike yesterday’s accidental push) and the negatives look nice. I’ll maybe get to scan them later this week.
After the developing was done and all the gear tidied away I grabbed something to eat and then watched The French Connection on TV. Hearing the sad news of Gene Hackman’s death (along with his wife and dog) made me remember I’d never watched the movie (I’ve seen the car chase scene on clip shows many times though), so I decided to put that right. I enjoyed the movie a lot. It’s interesting to see how film making styles have changed over time.
The fourth part has been scanning some negatives – a roll of Kodak Gold shot with the Kodak H35N half-frame camera I got for Christmas from my Secret Santa. I’ll say more about this camera and the results in a future post, but the 70-something frames seem to be taking forever to scan. As I type this I still have two full strips to go, and I’ve been scanning a strip a day since the middle of the week!
The rest of the evening will be spent watching TV.
I mentioned the circus – Circo Raluy Legacy – that made up part of Barcelona’s Christmas attractions beside the marina in my post a couple of days ago, and here’s a picture of it.
Olympus OM-10, E-Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 22 December 2024
Steel City Snapper photography 