Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
Almost all the businesses in Dubrovnik old town had lanterns such as these hung outside. This one, for a doctor’s surgery caught my eye because of the row of flowerpots on the wall above.
Olympus Trip 35 & Colorplus. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 25 May 2024.
This was a very quick, spur-of-the-moment picture, but one that I think turned out quite nicely.
It’s a scene looking west down one of the side streets in Dubrovnik old town towards the city wall in the background. Pretty much all of these narrow streets were bustling with restaurants and bars like in this scene.
Olympus Trip 35 & Colorplus. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 25 May 2024.
There were a number of shops in Dubrovnik old town that sold nothing but rubber ducks. While regular rubber ducks were available, so were ducks resembling a whole range of other characters, from pug dogs to Darth Vader.
I didn’t buy one though – we don’t have a bath, just a shower, so they don’t tend to float very well. 🙂
Olympus Trip 35 & Colorplus. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 25 May 2024.
When I was on holiday this year, I decided to “live post” each day, transferring pictures from my digital camera to my phone, and from there to the blog.
One of the pictures I shared was the view from the room in our (very nice) hotel. You can see the picture here.
Today’s photos are of the same view, the only difference being the fact that these were shot on Kodak Colorplus on my Olympus Trip 35.
While the digital shot has much more resolution, I think I prefer the rendering of the film versions.
The hotel in the picture isn’t part of the complex we stayed in, it’s the one next door. 🙂
Olympus Trip 35 & Colorplus. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 25 May 2024.
From one pub to another…
After yesterday’s post about the sad story of The Marples, here’s another Sheffield pub with a point of interest.
The name probably gives away the fact that there is a connection with the mail service, but the interesting fact is (and I’ve not verified this) is that it is the only pub in the country that is built into a Royal Mail building, in this case the Sheffield City Delivery Office. I once went into the delivery office as a child (my nan was a postwoman) and was fascinated by the sight of hundreds of bags of mail moving around the plave on a suspended rail system. How much fun it would have been to ride around the place in a mail bag, I thought.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 April 2024
The building in today’s photograph houses a pawn broker and a self-storage facility, but it was once a pub called The London Mart, although known as Marples by regulars (after it’s owner, John Marples). It is possibly the most famous bar in the city due to the tragedy which befell it during the Second World War.
On the night of Thursday December 12, 1940, the pub received a direct hit from a high-explosive bomb dropped by the German Luftwaffe. The building was destroyed, collapsing into a pile of rubble, killing 70 people from the estimated 77 who were inside at the time. It was initially thought that no-one could have survived the attack, but when rescue activities began the next day seven people were pulled from the wreckage of the building, including two who walked away unaided, never to be heard from again!
Following the destruction, the site lay derelict for 19 years until, in 1959, a new pub was built on the site, this time officially named The Marples. The pub remained open for the next 44 years until it closed for good in 2003, the building taking on a number of different uses in the following two decades. While the space previously occupied by the pub is now the Cash Shop pawn brokers, the upper floors have revived The Marple’s naming and are to become a housing co-operative.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 April 2024
Waingate, Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 April 2024
This is a somewhat unassuming picture of the building that currently houses Heron Foods, a frozen foods store, on Haymarket in Sheffield. The structure managed to survive the ravages of The Blitz that destroyed much of Sheffield’s old city centre architecture during World War Two.
What I find more interesting is the faded sign that can be seen in the middle first floor window. This advertises The House of Curls, a hairdressing salon that was in business during the 1970s and 1980s, but which has been closed now for the best part of forty years I believe. Apparently, the salon housed a number of booths on the upper floors which were rented out by the operator to individual hairdressers.
It pleases me that the signage remains after this time. There’s something strangely comforting about ghost signs such as this. Things change, but the memories remain.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 April 2024
Do you know that old Randy Crawford song, Street Life? Yes? Well, no matter how many times I hear it, I always sing it as “Street Light“. A bit like Neil Diamond singing about “The Reverend Bluejeans“.
Street light, you can run away from time
Street light, for a nickel, for a dime
Street light, but you better not get old
Street light, Or you’re gonna feel the cold
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 April 2024
I like the way that the city centre buildings that stand beyond the bus station loom almost wavelike over the foreground in this scene.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 April 2024
Steel City Snapper photography 