Botanical gardens entrance

January 10, 2026 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

The last of this batch of pictures of the Botanical Gardens and, indeed, the last of the shots from the test of the Minolta X-300.

I’ve used it again since when testing a short roll of film (another test) that I loaded in the bulk loader that I was very kindly given by fellow blogger, Andy (see his site here). I’ll maybe post some of those soon, although one of them was used for my December picture in my 12 favourite photos of 2025 post.

I’ve since loaded another, full, roll (although I’m not quite sure how many usable frames it will have – I’m hoping for 36 though!)

Minolta X-300 & Minolta 50mm f/1.7 MD on Ilford Type-517. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 14.5mins @ 20°.

Taken on 25 October 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Inside the pavillions

January 9, 2026 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Following up from yesterday’s pictures of the pavillions in Sheffield’s botanical gardens, here are a few pictures I took within. Warm and humid greenhouses are not the most condusive places to use metal and glass cameras that have been brought inside from the cold, but after a bit of acclimatisation all was good to make some photographs.

Minolta X-300 & Minolta 50mm f/1.7 MD on Ilford Type-517. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 14.5mins @ 20°.

Taken on 25 October 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Sheffield botanical gardens

January 8, 2026 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Sheffield’s botanical gardens was opened in 1836, attracting over twelve-thousand visitors. One of the main features of the nineteen acre site are the three glass pavilions (or conservatories) which house a range of international flora not otherwise found in the local area. The three domed pavilions are connected by ridge-and-furrow sections which also contain a variety of plants, shrubs, and trees.

They make for an attractive location and are very photogenic, I think.

Minolta X-300 & Minolta 50mm f/1.7 MD on Ilford Type-517. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 14.5mins @ 20°.

Taken on 25 October 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Botanical gardens lodge

January 7, 2026 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Minolta X-300 & Minolta 50mm f/1.7 MD on Ilford Type-517. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 14.5mins @ 20°.

Taken on 25 October 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

The fountain in the botanical gardens

January 6, 2026 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

There were a few groups of people milling around the area when I went to take this picture. While it was impossible to avoid getting anyone in the shot at all (at least during the time I was willing to wait), I quite like the couple walking away from the shot in this case. They’re unobtrusive and nicely framed between the layers of the fountain.

Minolta X-300 & Minolta 50mm f/1.7 MD on Ilford Type-517. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 14.5mins @ 20°.

Taken on 25 October 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

A tree, a bench, and a leaf

January 5, 2026 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

The bench to the right of the tree in the first photograph is where I found the leaf in the second picture.

There’s also a second bench in the scene, but it’s hiding behind the tree-trunk and had an old lady sat upon it.

Minolta X-300 & Minolta 50mm f/1.7 MD on Ilford Type-517. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 14.5mins @ 20°.

Taken on 25 October 2025

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Botanical rescue

March 5, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

One of the two photographs I took of the Botanical Gardens was a bit of a bust. The shot was alright but I got a big light leak on it. I suspect the leaks I sometimes get when shooting large format are caused by my taking insufficient care when removing the dark slide, perhaps pulling the film holder away from the camera slightly and letting light in.

Given the time and effort it takes to shoot large format (and the cost per sheet!) I decided to attempt to rescue the picture in Lightroom. I had to crop it by a not insignificant amount and then had to apply quite a lot of dehaze and spot editing to try and remove the worst effects of the light-leak. In the end though, I managed to salvage a reasonably useable image from the original. It’s not perfect – the contrast is a bit crunchy, resulting in some crushed blacks, and quite a lot of noise has been introduced, but better than no image at all.

It can’t be too bad – it managed to get into Flickr’s Explore pages somehow!

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Fomadon R09 1+50 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 2 March 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Botanical bicycle

March 4, 2023 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Continuing a theme from yesterday’s post, here’s another shot where my composition is out. In this shot I needed more of the foreground to avoid cropping the bench, and also more of the left hand side to avoid the edge of this part of the greenhouse being cropped. I should have moved further back, which would have solved both isssues.

Someone did point out that the loss of the left hand side of the frame could have been caused when inserting the film-holder, which could have accidentally caused the tripod head to rotate slightly if it wasn’t locked tight. It could easily have been my fault for not checking my edges carefully though.

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Fomadon R09 1+50 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 2 March 2023.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Bear pit

May 8, 2022 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Tucked away from the glasshouse in Sheffield Botanical Gardens sits the Grade II listed bear pit. The pit was constructed in 1836 to house a black bear and, later, two brown bears. Local legend has it the a child fell into the pit and was killed in 1870. It is said to be one of the finest surviving bear pits in the country thanks to it being preserved by it’s later use as a gigantic compost pit!

There is still a bear in the pit, although this one is made of rusty steel, its colour perhaps not dissimilar to a real bear’s fur.

Olympus XA-3 & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins 20°.

Taken on 09 April 2022

35mm · Film photography · Photography

A trip to Manchester (and pictures of Sheffield Botanical Gardens)

May 7, 2022 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I took a trip to Manchester today to visit the Photo North exhibition. It’s been quite a tiring day.

The exhibition was good, but my planning was not, and it would have been much better had I booked earlier / later trains for the outbound and return journeys as, as it stood, I felt somewhat rushed, especially when the train in the morning was delayed by a half hour! Oh well, I still visited and I managed to attend the screening of a documentary on Picture Post magazine, which was interesting and enjoyable.

I shot about half a roll of film while out – using my Olympus 35RC, a great little camera, but one I’ve not used for a while – but when I came out of the exhibition the weather had changed from bright contrasty sunshine to flat grey conditions, so I held off shooting more. I have another trip to Manchester planned in a month or two’s time, so hope to make more photos then.

In the meantime, and completely unrelated to the rest of the post, here are four photos of Sheffield Botanical Gardens that I scanned this week.