Tag: Christmas

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Back before Christmas

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Early November in Sheffield, and the Christmas stalls were already present but not yet quite ready for the public, so they were still locked away by fences (in a festive shade of red, at least).

I like how the girl in the first picture is, at first glance, dressed in what looks like a Santa coat.

Something good that happened today…

I watched the second episode of the new period drama, A Thousand Blows, which started airing on Disney+ this afternoon. I watched the first episode last night and it quickly caught my attention and drew me in. It’s a fictional period drama that is based on actual characters in the underworld of Victorian London, following two new migrants, Hezekiah and Alec from Jamaica and how they become embroiled up in the escapades of The Forty Elephants, a real-life female criminal gang, and also bare-fist boxing (with a muscular Stephen Graham portraying boxer “Sugar” Goodson. It’s from Steven Knight, the man behind Peaky Blinders, and is similarly violent, but the characters are interesting, they are portrayed well by the cast, and the story has its hooks in me. Hopefully it will keep it up through the full six episodes.

Before Christmas arrived
Before Christmas arrived-2

Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 10 November 2024

Digital · Photography

A trip to Barcelona

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My wife and I spent the weekend just gone in Barcelona to visit the Christmas markets and just wander round the city. It’s the first time I’ve traveled overseas so close to Christmas and I was a little concerned that we might get caught up in a mass of travelers going home for Christmas, but everything went very smoothly and, while Barcelona was pretty busy, the travel was not.

We had a very nice time just wandering about the place, not doing anything in particular other than visiting shops and markets and eating nice food. We visited the Sagrada Familia as there was another Christmas market there, and I did consider going inside the cathedral, but I would have needed needed to book tickets in advance and there were none available to buy on the day as it was fully booked. My wife isn’t particularly interested in visiting cathedrals anyway, and I would have felt a little guilty if I was dragging her around the place while I took photos and admired the architecture, so I wasn’t too concerned about missing the opportunity. Maybe I’ll get another chance one day.

I shot a roll of colour 35mm film while there, but it will be after Christmas before that gets developed, but took some more photos with my Ricoh GRIII, including the one posted here today, so will share some of those once I’ve gone through them all.

This large star can be found in Plaça Sant Jaume in Barcelona, Spain. It is titled Origen and was created by Xevi Bayona and Àlex Posada. It projects light from the points of the star onto the facades of the buildings in the plaza.

ORIGEN

Ricoh GRIII

Taken on 20 December 2024

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Another Shambles

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Another look at The Shambles, that is.

Three more shots of York’s most famous street, this time taken with the convenience of the compact little Olympus XA3. The Yashica Mat 124G can produce great pictures, but there’s something freeing about using a small point-and-shoot camera, and the XA3 has been my constant companion for the past few months, just sat in my coat pocket waiting for a picture to present itself while I’m out..

The Shambles #1
The Shambles #2
The Shambles #3

Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 20 December 2023

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Nailing night-time

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I took this photograph, of the Christmas-themed play area behind Sheffield’s Meadowhall shopping mall, without much confidence that it would turn out. The light was dark, I only had 400asa film in the camera, and the XA3 only really gives me control of the zone-focus . Everything else is handled by the camera’s small electronic brain.

So colour me impressed by how well this turned out. I have no idea what aperture was selected, but it was good enough to get the important elements in acceptable focus. Likewise the shutter speed – there’s a little motion blur on the figure at left of frame, but it was fast enough to prevent camera shake. The exposure has given me plenty of detail in the shadows, but avoided blowing the highlights. and the sky (which was a muddy, light polluted scud of clouds) also has great definition.

It’s always great when a little camera like this delivers the goods.

Around Christmas time

Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 20 December 2023

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Mulled wine and music reviews

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It feels a little odd to be posting Christmas photos when we’re fast approaching the end of January (already! How did that happen?!), but such is the delay with my working my way through my pictures. There might be a couple more to come yet too.

So far I’m keeping up with my plan to listen to unheard (by me) albums. My list of selections has swollen to a laughably unmanageable collection of over eight hundred titles meaning, if I stick to one per week, it’ll take me over fifteen years to get through them all (not accounting for me adding more!). We’ll see how it goes, eh? However I get on, I’ve started blogging my thoughts on each selection. Should you be interested, you can find those here on a new and imaginatively titled blog I started ;).

Mulled wine

Yashicamat 124G & Ilford HP5+ @800asa. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°

Taken on 16 December 2023