Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
The bottom corner of this field at Elmton floods in wet weather and makes for some interesting picture opportunities, including reflections of St. Peter’s Church.
I guess the shots also continue this week’s molehill theme. 🙂
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 16 February 2025
Following the barn and schoolhouse pictures that I posted a few days back, here’s another subject that’s featured on the blog on multiple occasions (possibly because it stands right next to said schoolhouse and barn…). In fact, one of the pictures I’ve posted before is very similar to the lat one in today’s set. But, again, what the heck. It’s a nice subject, so who wouldn’t photograph it again? 🙂
My son had another job interview today, this one a little less impromptu and with support from his job coach. I don’t know what the outcome will be (apparently one of the other people being interviewed – for a job in a clothes store – was a marine biologist!), but he looked very smart and even if it doesn’t work out, every interview is more experience for him to draw upon.
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 16 February 2025
I was reading an online post today from someone who suffers from anxiety, and how they used journalling as a means to help deal with it. One of the things they found useful was to list a number of good things that had happened during the day, and to also set some goals for the following day.
I suffer from anxiety sometimes. Mostly it’s focused on a particular issue and goes away when that thing has been resolved, but I do tend to worry about things in general too. This doesn’t tend to give me the same physical and mental symptoms as actual anxiety, but is more of a constant low-level awareness of things that might be (but not necessarily, will be) a problem. Sometimes this can lead to catastrophizing and imagining extreme outcomes from often innocuous things, such as someone’s tone of voice, or something I overhear. I’ve gotten better at recognizing these situations, and I can usually talk myself out of this behaviour, knowing that the thoughts are unrealistic and ungrounded.
Knowing this, I’m going to make an effort to look out for the good things each day, and make a note of them when they happen. I think that setting my weird mind looking out for good things will be a much better use of energy than imagining what might be bad. I’ll try to list some of them here each day.
Something good that happened today…
I took down the Christmas decorations. This is something I don’t enjoy very much and which always makes me feel a little bit sad that Christmas is over for another year, so it might seem weird that I’m using it as “something good”. But the fact is that, despite my sadness that I’ve had to take them down (not that I would leave them up indefinitely or anything), I don’t actually feel too bad about it. I think I was more worried about being sad, than actually sad, and I feel fine now.
I also had our two cats helping me which was kind of annoying, but also nice. A balance between the frustration that they were constantly getting in the way, and the delight at seeing them sitting in every single box they could find (usually just as I was about to put something inside it!), which made me smile and laugh.
Today’s pictures are the last of the batch I took when I visited King’s Lynn back at the start of autumn (I know I say this a lot, but time really is flying by quickly as I get older!). This cottage forms part of the border of the grounds of St. Nicholas’ Chapel, a church dating back to the 11th century.
Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD & Ilford Delta 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10 mins 30 secs @ 20°
Taken on 19 September 2024
I took this picture a few weeks back on a quick trip out to shoot some sheets of film with my 4×5 camera. It was a bright day with plenty of light and, with a dark-cloth attached, I was able to see the image on the camera’s ground glass quite clearly. I still messed up the composition though.
Ideally I should have either taken a few steps back to get more of the scene into frame, or moved a little to the left (either physically or using some shift on the camera). This would have allowed me to get the whole grave marker on the left in frame, which I think would have improved the picture.
I still like the shot, and it’s impressive to see the amount of detail that the format can provide, but I do need to get better with my composition when using the ground glass.
Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Fomadon R09 1+50 9 mins @ 20°
Taken February 2023. (I can’t remember the specific date. I normally look at my Google Timeline to check such things but remeber that I forgot to take my phone out with me on this occasion so it didn’t record the trip).
Another couple of shots taken this week and then developed today. The good news is that I’m now fully confident that the light leak issues I had before are now resolved. The bad news is that I think I somehow managed to load these two sheets incorrectly. Not in a significant way, but negatives from both sides of the film holder indicate the the sheet wasn’t aligned properly and the photos are wonky as a result. You can see what I mean in this photo of the negs on my lightbox – if you look at the film border you can see how it’s out of whack:
I’m not sure how I managed to do this and, to be honest, I didn’t even realise it was possible! None of the other sheets I’ve loaded have suffered from this problem so I will have to keep an eye on things in the future. Sadly it means that the side-on picture of the church is spoiled as the wonky frame has chopped the top off the church – this is made worse when scanned as the border isn’t included in the scan.
The other image was retrievable though as I’d not framed the subject so tightly. The good news is that these were really just a couple of final test shots to make sure everything was working ok. I think I’ll make sure not to tightly frame my subjects for the time being though, just to be safe.
Here’s the shot that worked ok. If you click through to Flickr you can see that there’s a lot of detail.
Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°
Taken 15 February 2023.
After yesterdays post showing the church at Elmton, here’s a picture of it from the other side.
Round back of the church
People have been laid to rest
Passing the ages
Olympus Superzoom 160 & Agfa APX 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 12.5mins @ 20°.
Taken on 7 August 2021
A few more photographs of St. Peter’s Church in the village of Elmton. I’ve posted other photos of this church here and here.
Apologies for the rather concise posts lately – I’ve been caught up with a few other things that have been taking my time.
Look at the tower
There’s a crucifix up there
Fixed on the window
Olympus Superzoom 160 & Agfa APX 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 12.5mins @ 20°.
Taken on 7 August 2021
Having just spent the best part of an hour getting rid of thousands of annoying dust specs on some Fomapan 100 negatives, I’m about done for the evening. Therefore this will be a succinct post where I just add this photo of a gravestone with crucifixion design. It was one of several in the churchyard, making it look like some sort of miniature recreation of Golgotha or something.
Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford Pan-F Plus. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8 mins @ 20°.
Taken on 25 May 2020
Following on from yesterday’s photograph of the barred church entrance, here are a couple of photos of the churchyard itself.
The light was very nice on the day these were taken and the blossom on the trees glowed in the sunshine. It was an occasion where I really wished I had a roll of nice colour film in the camera. I had Ilford Delta 400 though, so the colours will have to remain in your minds eye.
Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Ilford Delta 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8 mins @ 20°.
Taken on 14 April 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
Steel City Snapper photography 