Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
This is my favourite photo I took during our visit to Lloret de Mar. I got the timing pretty much as good as I could have wished, with the three cormorants on the rocks in the foreground in front of a nice wash of blue and white surf, and then the backdrop of the tourist filled beach and row of hotels. KFC even gave it a complimentary splash of red!
Olympus Trip 35 & Kodak Pro Image 100. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 4 June 2025
Olympus Trip 35 & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008). Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 3 June 2025
When I go on a holiday, I like to take time to wander round and explore the places we visit. Sometimes, in a place like Barcelona, there is far more to be seen than can possibly be experienced in a short stay. But even in more tourist-focused locations such as Lloret de Mar, there are still things to be found. Sometimes these are relatively everyday locations that are made exotic by unfamiliarity, and sometimes they are just unexpected.
In my mind, I had the basic layout of the part of the town where we stayed mapped out as gradually sloping downhill until it reached the beach (separated from the town by a promenade, road, and a long strip of hotels and restaurants). What I didn’t realise was that there was a tall hill smack bang in the middle of this. The hill is no doubt readily apparent from a higher vantage point, but once you’re amongst the buildings then it becomes easily obscured. Until you stumble over it on a random walk through the streets.
I first noticed it when I spotted a large flight of steps between a couple of buildings. It was a very hot day and I considered taking another route, but the curious part of me decided there might be something worth seeing at the top, so up I climbed. I didn’t count them, but there were quite a lot and the first picture below if the view looking back down.
The first thing I spotted at the summit was a row of houses draped with vivid swathes of red flowers. I don’t know what this plant is, but it certainly made for an attractive subject for a picture.
Despite being near the top of the hill, I didn’t find any vantage point where I could take in a view (other than down mostly curving streets). I guess you need to enter one of the buildings to take advantage, such as the tall stacked platter of a structure in the image below.
It was odd that, even when I knew the hill was there, it was still quite easy to miss, even from the beach – where it was apparent, but kind of blended into the taller, more-distant background hillsides.
Olympus Trip 35 & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008). Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 3 June 2025
Olympus Trip 35 & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008). Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 3 June 2025
This is an ordinary shop, the type that you can find many examples of in a tourist resort, selling ice creams, drinks, snacks, toys and a whole range of things that tourists may find useful.
But it caught my eye.
I really like the way it’s framed on the street (which looks quiet because I timed my shutter press, but was actually pretty busy), the leading lines of the pedestrian crossing, the framing by the buildings at the end of the street I was on, and the splashes of red that border the shop’s entrance, the faintly-striped awning, the surrounding wall furniture in the form of windows, cabling, and the neighbouring shops.
There’s a lot of detail present in the full-size scan too and you can zoom right in and see it, demonstrating the resolution available in a 35mm frame.
Olympus Trip 35 & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008). Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 3 June 2025
I expect there will be more beach scenes to come, but here’s a bunch grouped together…
Olympus Trip 35 & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008). Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 3 June 2025
This is probably a mundane sight to Spanish residents – it’s a delivery van for the Dulcesol baked goods business. But we don’t have Dulcesol vans in the UK, so it’s vivid red and white livery, along with the backdrop of palm trees and hotels make it a novelty and an interesting subject for a picture.
I wonder if there are Spanish photographers visiting the UK taking pictures of branches of Greggs? 🙂
Olympus Trip 35 & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008). Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 3 June 2025
Photos of churches have featured on my blog many times. Not because I’m a religious man – I’m not – but because I find them interesting from architectural, historical, and cultural perspectives. Despite my secular nature, I can still appreciate the investment of effort, sometimes lasting centuries, that is poured into these structures to serve the faith of the, well… faithful.
Most of the churches I photograph are in the UK, because that’s where I live, but the occasional overseas example will find its way into the blog too, such as the one shown today, the impressive and colourful Parish Church of Saint Roma in Lloret de Mar, Spain.
The original church dates back to the 14th century, but the bulk of what is there now is far more recent, having been constructed last century.
Olympus Trip 35 & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008). Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 3 June 2025
When I first saw the scan of this picture, my first thought was that it looked like a photo from a holiday brochure. I remember, before it was possible to find and book trips online, that we used to have stacks of these brochures in the house when we were planning a trip, all filled with similar shots of beaches, hotels, swimming pools, and local attractions.
Olympus Trip 35 & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008). Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 3 June 2025
I took quite a lot of photos looking down narrow streets while in Lloret de Mar. These are undoubtedly just average streets, the type to be found in many a Spanish town, but they are different enough to the streets I’m used to in the UK to draw my eye. A combination of the narrow widths, along with the signage in a different language make these interesting to me. I also had some lovely Mediterranean light to draw upon too.
The dog in the third picture looked friendly enough but, having been nipped on more than one occasion by friendly-looking dogs, I decided keeping some distance was prudent.
Olympus Trip 35 & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008). Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 3 June 2025
Steel City Snapper photography 