Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
An angelic candle-bearer silhouetted against a window in St. Mary and All Saints church in Chesterfield – the one famous for it’s crooked spire.
Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Ilford HP5+ (@1600asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 13mins @ 20°
Taken on 5 September 2020
Continuing with an irregular theme of churches that I photograph without ever using them for anything else…
This is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon church not too far from Chesterfield town centre and I usually pass it if when visit the town. It’s a modern building, but looks great when it catches some nice light.
Across the road from the Mormon church is Christ Church, a building I didn’t even realise was of religious use until I stopped to photograph it when I saw how it looked in the morning sun. According to Google the main building is a parish centre rather than a church, although the entrance at the south side of the building is clearly labelled as Christ Church, so perhaps it’s multi-purpose?.
Minolta SRT 101b, Rokkor 50mm f/1.7 & Kodak Tri-X (expired circa 2000-ish). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 31 August 2020
After mentioning yesterday that I seem to photograph a lot of churches, here’s another one. I didn’t realise that this was a church until just now, when I looked up the location on Google maps. On the day the photo was made, I just noticed an impressive looking building. I didn’t actually go around the front of the structure, where the purpose of the building would have been revealed, instead turning right and heading towards the town centre after taking the shot.
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Shanghai GP3. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 10 mins @ 24°.
Taken on 25 July 2020
This is the entrance to the former Christ Church Central building in Sheffield city centre. The building is no longer used by the church – it appears they’ve moved just across the road to what looks like a bigger location.
I’ve never been in either building but used to work nearby when I was younger and also found it interesting how the church resided in a low-rise building mostly indistinguishable from the other small industrial units that surrounded it.
Now it looks like a group of weeds are awaiting the doors to be opened.
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Agfa APX100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10.5 mins @ 20°.
Taken on 23 July 2020
A quick post today because it’s approaching midnight and I’ve just realised I’ve not written anything for the blog!
So, just a picture of a church I passed that was nicely lit by sunlight. It’s perhaps a shame about the bin bags, but the scene is otherwise attractive, and maybe the bags add a sense of real-life to the shot or something.
This roll of Kodak Colorplus has been giving me some particularly saturated colours, reminding me of the look I get (and like) from the Lomography Color Negative films.
Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Kodak Colorplus.
Taken on 5 July 2020
The entrance to the City Life Christian Church with some lovely light falling upon it. Once again, the aged but lovely Superia 100 does the business.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008).
Taken on 28 June 2020
A photograph of the church at Thorpe Salvin which I made early one morning when out for a walk. This is a version scanned on my Plustek with Silverfast which I prefer to the lab scan done on a Noritsu on this occasion. My scan is a little noisier, but the colours and contrast are much punchier and not as warm as the lab scan.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D & Kodak Gold 200.
Taken on 31 May 2020
A few photos today of All Saint’s Chapel in Steetley. I posted about this place once before, about a year ago, when I came upon it by chance while out for a walk – I’d parked my car in the nearby village of Shireoaks and took a long, looping ramble along public footpaths in the area and the chapel happened to be along the way.
I had an email today that my Yashica Mat is serviced and should be back with me shortly. I’m hoping that the viewfinder will be cleaner and that the slight haze in the taking lens will be gone (or at least reduced). It’s a nice camera to use and it produces lovely photographs, and I’m looking forward to using it again.
I also went out for a walk this morning with a new (to me) Zeiss Mess-Ikonta folding camera that I’ve bought. This one is another uncoupled rangefinder model, but 6×9 rather than 6×6. I have some slight concern that the lens isn’t completely parallel with the film plane when the camera is opened and that it might cause some distortion or soft focus in the photographs. It’s pretty slight though, so it might be me fretting over nothing and I guess I’ll find out when I develop the photos. Nothing exciting on the roll, I don’t think, just a few snapshot (in as much as you can take snapshots with an uncoupled rangefinder) of stuff I saw during my walk, but they should highlight any problems with the camera if they exist.
Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Plus-X (expired 2008).
Taken on 22 March 2020
This is St Peter and St Paul’s church in Eckington, NE Derbyshire. I spotted the glorious light falling on it while I walked around getting images of suburbia (see the last two days’ posts for those).
I’m really happy with the way this is lit – the brightly illuminated tower and spire sitting atop the shaded entry, the light and shadow on the left-hand tree, and the lovely greens of the Yew tree – and all topped off by the blue sky and orange/brown fallen leaves.
Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Fujifilm Superia 100 (expired 2008).
Taken on 5 December 2019
A couple of photos for today’s blog post. One looking south(ish), the other north(ish) from opposite sides of the same street.
The first – the southerly-facing picture – is of Hull Minster. It’s a slightly odd image aspect ratio as, for some reason, the negative for this frame was missing a slice. I like the way there are several couples going about their business in the scene – in fact it almost looks like they might be following each other, walking in an anti-clockwise circle from one side of the street to the other. You can see the tables and chairs at the bottom of this frame in the second picture too, which indicates roughly where I stood to take this first photograph.
I didn’t go inside the minster on this occasion (although I have in the past). I find churches to be impressive buildings, always full of interest – both architecturally, and also because of their history and the artifacts within, especially those with original fittings, and Hull Minster doesn’t disappoint in that regard. Alas, I didn’t have time to pay a visit this time.
The second image is of the northerly view and was taken from a position to the right of the post in the picture above – there’s an open plaza in front of the minster, which is where I stood.
I took a couple of variants of this shot. The one I didn’t use had a number of things I liked – a woman in dark clothes framed between the two windows on the left of the image, and the people at centre right were crossing the road and no longer partially obscured by the bin. The one I’ve posted below has the guy in the middle doubled over though, and I didn’t want to lose that. I think he was looking at something in his lap (or maybe even praying with clasped hands), but in the next shot he’s upright again and it lost a little interest as a result.
There’s another, slightly different, viewpoint on this location in this post from a couple of years back.
Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 800asa).
Taken on 19 October 2019
Steel City Snapper photography 