Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
This big barge of a car was at the Sheffield Steam Rally when I visited. I’m not sure what year this dates from – I would guess late 70s, but I could also be out by some margin thanks to my relative ignorance of such things. It looks nice in a photograph though!
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D & Fujichrome Velvia 100 (expired 2011). Lab developed. Home scanned.
Taken on 25 June 2022
I wrote a few days ago about how I’ve been having difficulties scanning a roll of Velvia 100 that I shot at the steam rally last weekend. I’ve scanned Velvia 50 before and was similarly granted with the same red-cast that I got this time, although on this occasion I’ve also had problems with the actual exposure of the scans – some images looking under-exposed in comparison with the physical transparencies. The under-exposure issue is something that I’ll have to atempt to rectify in Lightroom, but at least I seem to have found a working solution to the red-cast problem.
After carrying out all my post processing in Lightroom, I always open the final image in Photoshop to add a white border. This time, as well as adding the border, I also used the Auto-colour option in the Image menu. I don’t usually find that this does a great job – it tends to be hit and miss on the occasions I’ve used it in the past – but for these Velvia 100 scans it works a treat. Hopefully this will mean I’ll get much more satisfactory images from the roll than I’d feared.
This picture of a slightly rusted Ford Popular has come out very nicely. I used a polariser for most shots on the roll, and it’s really deepened the sky for this photo.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D & Fujichrome Velvia 100 (expired 2011). Lab developed. Home scanned.
Taken on 25 June 2022
A couple more photographs from Low Bradfield.
Fujica GW690 & Fujichrome Provia 400 (expired 2013). Lab developed.
Taken on 30 April 2022
I have a tendency to photograph the same things on multiple occasions, it seems. I suspect I’m not alone in this.
As photographers we can appreciate how a subject can change though time, whether that be over decades of weathering, decay, or environmental change, through the seasons of the year, the time of day, and even minute-by-minute, second-by-second as the light changes.
I’ve never purposely set out (so far, at least) to document such changes to a scene as part of a project, but I do find that things that catch my eye the first time I encounter them will often catch it again on further visits. Today’s post shares two shots of the same house, the photographs made about five and a half years apart on different cameras, different formats, different films, and in different conditions. The viewpoints are different in both, but the central subject remains the same. Maybe I’ll photograph it again on some future visit to this location.
(first picture) Fujica GW690 & Fujichrome Provia 400 (expired 2013). Lab developed.
Taken on 30 April 2022
So, it seems I managed to mess up the exposure on this shot by some margin. Had it been B&W or C41 negative film then I might have rescued some of the highlights, but slide film takes no prisoners unfortunately, so over-exposure is what I got. While this B&W conversion is no less overexposed than the colour original, I think the monochrome hides the failings better and, despite the flaws, there’s still something about the photograph that I like. So, here it is.
UPDATE: Two days after posting this, the photo managed to get into Flickr’s Explore selection. While I like the picture, I don’t think it’s that good. But then Explore is an enigma at the best of times. The photos I make that I like best never tend to get into Explore, it’s always the ones I think are more average.
Fujica GW690 & Fujichrome Provia 400 (expired 2013). Lab developed.
Taken on 30 April 2022
A very quick post today as I’m feeling a little under-the-weather. I’m feeling fatigued and just not myself. I’ve got it into my head that I must have had Covid at some point and am now suffering from Long Covid, but that’s probably just hyperchondrial foolishness on my part.
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Ektachrome 100 EPP (expired 2003). Lab developed.
Taken on 30 April 2022
A short post today I’m afraid as I’m short on time. Sorry!
Here’s a bit of the Ship Inn pub with a lovely blue sky.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Fujichrome Provia 100. Lab developed.
Taken on 23 January 2022
After yesterday’s post about how I really don’t enjoy the process of developing film, and how I’d put off developing a roll for a somewhat weak reason, today I pulled my finger out and got the job done. It wasn’t urgent, so I could have left it another week – after a period where I was running out of new photos to use in the blog, I now have three full rolls of stuff, two of which were waiting to be scanned even without developing this new roll – but if I’d left it, then the job would have been hanging over me like a cloud, and I might even have ended up with a backlog if I shoot more stuff in the interim.
Anyway, it’s done now. All developed. All cut and sleeved. All the equipment washed and tidied away for next time.
I got rid on my stop-bath and fixer today too. They’ve had 15 or 16 films through them and the stop-bath was starting to change colour slightly. I might have eked a few more rolls out of both batches but I’d rather not risk a ruined roll, so I’ll need to make some fresh solutions next time.
I also managed to drop the freshly washed roll onto the shower cubicle floor while squeegeeing the moisture off it, necessitating my re-dousing it with the remaining wetting agent. Thankfully the shower floor was pretty dry and not covered with soap bubbles or anything like that, and the negatives look ok on first glance now they’re dried. I said some profane words when it happened though. 🙂
Today’s picture is of Globe Works in Sheffield. Should you be interested, there’s another photo of the building along with a bit of information about it in this post.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Fujichrome Provia 100. Lab developed.
Taken on 23 January 2022
I have a roll of film to develop and had half a mind to get that done today. But then I spent the time watching TV and playing videogames instead. I normally develop my film in the utility room at the back of the house which is the same room where the washing machine and tumble-dryer live and, as there were several loads of clothes to be washed and dried, it would have been quite cluttered and noisy in there today, so I decided to put the job off for another day.
It wasn’t a hard decision to make though. I really don’t enjoy the process of developing film. I find it a chore. I’ll keep doing it because a) I invested in all the equipment to do so, b) It saves me a noticeable amount of money and, c) amazingly my home developed negatives hung to dry in the shower cubicle have notably less dust on them than the ones I get back from the lab, which is a bonus.
Despite these benefits, I don’t enjoy the process, and the thought of having to get all the stuff out, get everything measured and at the right temperatures, carry out the process of developing the film and then, the most tedious part, washing everything out. It’s basically housework.
Maybe I’ll do it tomorrow…
With zero connection to the rest of the post, here’s a photo of a door, window, road-sign, and a decorated telephony cabinet which I photographed because I liked the way they were lit.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Fujichrome Provia 100. Lab developed.
Taken on 23 January 2022
In the Neepsend area of Sheffield there is a skate park – The House Skate Park. I’ve never been inside the place – I couldn’t balance on a skateboard when I was a kid, much less now, although I did used to go to the local ice-rink as a teenager where I managed to get around on a pair of blades at high speed, so maybe I’m not completely useless at such activities (that was a long time ago though. I’d probably just bust my hip or something now…).
Despite never having ventured inside the place, I’ve walked past on more than one occasion. It has some nice street art adorning the outside of the building, and there used to be a tree outside upon which were hung numerous pairs of sneakers, presumably those that had reached the end of their natural life. It was certainly odd-looking fruit.
The tree is no longer there, but at least some of the sneakers have found a new home in the shape of the railings that run in front of the car-park. And theye they dangle, gradually forming their own miniature ecosystems as the weeks, months, and years roll past.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Fujichrome Provia 100. Lab developed.
Taken on 23 January 2022
Steel City Snapper photography 