Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
I might not get the chance to post anything tomorrow, so here’s a quickie post to make up for it in advance.
This was taken in Gainsborough Old Hall (although I’m relatively sure it’s not a relic of the Tudor times in which the building was constructed 🙂 ).
Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Rollei Superpan 200.
Taken on 31 July 2017.
This was taken at the Classics on The Moor classic car rally in Sheffield a few weeks ago. It’s another of the underexposed Rollei Superpan 200 shots, but another that I think works despite the dark tones.
Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Rollei Superpan 200
Taken on 6 August 2017
After seeing some lovely low-key film shots on a forum I’m a member of, I decided to go ahead and produce one myself. I’ve done low-key before, but mostly digital, and I tend to chicken out from crushing the blacks too much and end up bringing the detail back up. In the shot below, I went all-in, and a large chunk of the image is pure black.
It was an underexposed shot to begin with – the entire roll, despite being shot at box speed on a camera with a correctly working meter, came out thin, and with lots of speckles of dust-like marks. In fact, this is the second roll of Rollei film that I’ve had this issue with (the first being Rollei Retro 400s), although a roll of Superpan 200 in 120 roll format came out just fine). I don’t have any more at present, but think I will shoot it at half-box speed in future.
Anyway, back to the picture. Despite the flecks of white scattered across the image (I cleaned most of them up, honestly!) I think it works quite well.
Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Rollei Superpan 200.
Taken on 8 August 2017.
On a visit to Gainsborough Old Hall recently, I came across a small art exhibition running through some of the rooms. One of the objects was a vintage pocket watch with a small plastic doll squashed up inside it and entitled “Watch Case Infant”. Sadly, I can’t remember the meaning of the piece (and I’ve thoughtfully missed of the bit of the white card containing the text), but it makes for a pretty nice picture, I think.
Olympus OM-1, F. Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Rollei Superpan 200.
Taken on 8 August 2017.
Two shots today, both of the same subject, taken on the same day, but with different cameras and film. I’d gone for a day out to visit Gainsborough Old Hall, but stopped off at Retford for a ‘comfort break’ at a Morrison’s supermarket. The store sits beside the River Idle and the riverside foot path is accessible from the car-park (which is also adjacent to the road that is carried by the bridge in the photographs).
Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8, Rollei Superpan 200
Olympus Trip 35, Kodak Portra 160
(I’ve taken to adding ‘arty-farty’ white borders around my colour shots lately).
Both shots taken on Monday 31 July 2017.
Well, this morning’s issue with linked Flickr images seems to have magically resolved itself, so here’s a bonus post to make up for the disruption!
The front end of some vintage car or other (I neglected to take note of what it was and don’t have enough here to ID it). Taken at the Classics on The Moor car rally in Sheffield.
This outing was my first time shooting Ilford Delta 100 and I’m very happy with the results. Very clean and contrasty.
Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8, Ilford Delta 100
Date taken: 6 August 2017
Between Solly Street and Scotland Street, Sheffield.
This small UFO was sighted on a lamppost in an alley joining the two roads. I’m a bit of a sucker for shallow depth of field shots.
Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8, Ilford HP5+
Taken: 23 July 2017
As my slovenly updating of the blog continues, I thought I’d just drop in a bunch of photos to keep it alive!
These were taken back in June at the Sheffield Steam Rally ay North Anston. I’ve already posted the shots of the traction engines, but there were also some classic cars that I photographed, plus a few random shots. These were shot with my OM-1 with the F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 on Fomapan 100. I like the Fomapan, it’s a little grimy in my experience, sometimes having little back soot-like flecks on the negatives, but the results are pretty nice.
On Sunday 25 June I attended Sheffield Steam Rally, which is held just outside Sheffield at North Anston. I visited last year too, but have only attended one other time before that, probably sometime in the late 1990s. Like trains, classic cars, or aircraft, steam engines are not something that I have any deep interest in, in and of themselves, but as a photographer, they make for excellent interesting subjects, both of themselves, and also in the vast array of detail that they hold. There’s also a wonderful nostalgia that surrounds them and, while I don’t think I’d like to have lived in an environment thick with it, the pungent whiff of coal smoke is lovely in these situations.
I managed to take over fifty photographs on the day, but this post contains just a selection of them. These shots were all taken with my Olympus OM-1. Some shots are on Ilford HP5+, and others are on Fomapan 100. I’ll mark each shot accordingly, but the HP5+ shots will be first.
#1 (HP5+) – This was a favourite of the day. I really like the out-of-focus engine to the rear of the shot, and it feels like it could have been taken a long time ago.
#2 (HP5+) – Another favourite. I like the composition and the trio of figures.
#3 (HP5+) – A lot of the traction engines appeared to be family endeavours, with fathers, sons, wives, daughters all mucking in. I like this shot because of the foreground interest granted by the man and his dog (although I nearly cut off its feet!).
#4 (HP5+)
#5 (HP5+) – I think the human element adds to a lot of the shots. Some of the interest would be lost if were just the machines.
#6 (HP5+)
#7 (HP5+)
#8 (HP5+)- This must be a show regular, as I photographed it last year too. To be fair, many, if not all of the engines might’ve been there last year too, it’s just that I recognised this one.
#9 (Fomapan) – Another favourite. If the van weren’t in shot, this would perhaps have the look of a much older photograph.
#10-19 (Fomapan) – The steam engines take part in a drive-past event in the central “show-ring” area and I took a number of photos of this. The next two are my favourites – the size of the machines, but also the poses of the drivers, gives them something od an epic feel I think.
#20 (Fomapan) – The smoke adds so much atmosphere (both literally as well as figuratively!).
#21 (Fomapan)
#21 (Fomapan)
#22 (Fomapan)
#23 (Fomapan) – There were other things present, apart from steam rollers and traction engines, including this organ. There were also some nice food stalls and I had a delicious pork and pulled-pork burger from one of them.
There were also a large number of classic cars, bikes and trucks present, but I’ll save those photos for another day.
Oh well, the sky hasn’t fallen down as yet, so I guess my self-imposed “at least one post a week” wasn’t the be all and end all (after all!).
Anyway, I’ve still got quite a mountain of pictures to post – even though, until the weekend, I’d had a break of a couple of weeks without taking a single photograph – so here’re a few more. These were all taken during the day-trip to York that I’ve already posted about, but were on a second roll of film that I didn’t finish on the day. There’s no particular theme, just a selection of things I though might make a decent picture.
These were all shot with my Olympus OM-1 on Ilford HP5+. I used the F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 for some, and a Hoya 25-42mm wide-angle zoom for the others. I got both lenses with the camera but, despite its wide-angle versatility, I’m not keen on the Hoya – it’s very bulky and heavy and the image quality isn’t a patch on the F.Zuiko. I’ve flagged the Hoya shots with a (H).
#1 – This was taken on my way back to the town centre after the morning’s visit to the National Railway Museum. I hung around at the edge of the street to get someone reflected in the puddle. I took two shots, but this is the best.
#2 – Despite their poorer image quality, I still like a few of the Hoya shots, including this one (H).
#3 – York Minster at a jaunty angle (H).
#4 – Another one of the Hoya shots I really like (H).
#5 -The Minster again (H).
#6 – And again. I like the juxtaposition of the old Roman column against the more modern cathedral here. I couldn’t have taken this without the wide-angle (H).
#7 – A couple of bicycles (H).
#8 -Another street scene (H).
#9 -And another (H).
#10 – York’s famous medieval shopping street. the Shambles, some of the buildings here date back to the 14th century. It gets its name because it used to be the home of a large number of butchers’ shops (shambles being an old term for open-air butchers and slaughterhouses.
#11 -And York’s famous tea-room, Betty’s (there’s another branch in Harrogate, which I think is the original). There was a sizeable queue outside each time I passed by.
#12 -Finger-puppets for sale on The Shambles.
#13 -And more modern digital “bobble head” clocks.
#14 -And gin (though this wasn’t on The Shambles).
#15 -There was a sizeable international food fair taking place on the day, with loads of stalls, but the only one I photographed was this sausage stand (which might be there all the time anyway for all I know).
#16 -The old BT piper logo was still in evidence on these payphones.
#17 – This is my favourite shot of the bunch. I spotted this trout’s expression on a fish monger’s stall.
#18 – Another bicycle. The city being relatively flat, bicycles appear to be a popular form of transport in York.
#19 – Not sure if these stones mark actual graves any more.
#20 – And the final shot of this batch, a small alleyway just off Stonegate. And another of the shots I quite like.
It’s a shame the weather wasn’t better on the day – there are untold numbers of things to photograph in York, and the place is well worth the visit.
Steel City Snapper photography 