Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
Although, I think those building might not be a farm and actually house holiday rentals… But it looks like a farm, what with all the fields and animals and whatnot.
Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD on Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 27 December 2025
Fujica GW690 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 5 July 2025
Following directly on from yesterday’s post where I had a short wander around Oldcotes, today’s pictures are from the walk I took around Tickhill on the same day.
Tickhill is a small town in Nottinghamshire a few miles north of Oldcotes. It’s quite a pretty little place with what appears to be a busy high street (certainly without the usual array of charity shops, tattoo parlours, vape shops and the like that tend to appear where a place is struggling). I’ve driven through the place on a number of occasions, but have only stopped when we’ve been strawberry picking at a farm just to the northern edge of the town. This was the first time I’ve had a walk around the place.
Tickhill has the remains of a castle, although it’s in private ownership so you can’t see much of the place other than a few sections of the wall and it was close to there that I parked my car. Walking towards the castle led me to a millpond where an ice cream van was parked and it was in this area that I took the first of the three pictures below.
After this I set off to the east following a public footpath, taking the next three images along the route. I was getting close to the end of the roll of film and had planned on finishing the remaining frames, but then a sudden heavy rain shower made its presence felt and I had to seek shelter, at first beneath a tree, and then in a cafe on the high street.
I shot the remaining few frames in the church, along with a bunch of medium format pictures too. Those will appear here soon.
Olympus OM-10, Zuiko Auto-S 35mm f/2.8 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 June 2025
Back in June my wife and I went strawberry picking at a farm near Tickhill. It was a hot day so, on the way home, laden with three large tubs of delicious berries, we decided to see if we could find a cafe. Looking on Google Maps, I found a place called Manor Farm (which is the building in the last photo below) in the village of Oldcotes which has a cafe and makes its own ice cream. The ice cream was very nice, as was the cafe which had seating in a lovely courtyard as well as indoors.
In getting to the place, I noticed a few other things in the area that might make for interesting photos. I didn’t have my camera with me at the time so, a few days later, I returned, parked the can and went and took some pictures (I also returned to Tickhill on the same trip, and took a bunch more there, but those are for another day).
As tends to be my thing quite often these days, most of the pictures are of buildings I found interesting (although I snuck a kissing gate in too…).
Olympus OM-10, Zuiko Auto-S 35mm f/2.8 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 June 2025
This is the type of scene that I would miss without a telephoto lens. It was a bright, sunny day, but as well as whisps of high-altitude cloud, there was a haze in the air which meant the landscape became layered as it fell to the distance. This is a relatively mundane scene, but the layering provided by the mist makes it into something much more interesting, and the farm is placed so it doesn’t become too obscured, I think.
I did wonder about cropping out a lot of the sky and going for a more panoramic frame, but in the end decided against it – I quite like the way the distant wind turbine protrudes into the emptiness.
Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD & Agfa APX 100. Rodinal 1+100 (+2ml) semi-stand 1 hour @ 20°
Taken on 8 March 2025
Today’s photo is from a hike I took back in March. There will be a post or two about the full hike coming soon, but before then I’ll share some medium format pictures I made with my Yashica Mat 124G alongside the bulk that I shot with my Olympus XA3.
This farm sits in the hilly Peak District countryside between Elton to the south and Youlgreave to the north.
Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 26 March 2024
I have a batch of photos I made during a visit to the countryside surrounding the West Burton power stations, and will be posting some over the next few days.
These two seemed to work well as a mini set though, with a view of the distant cooling towers serving as the backdrop to a farm near Sturton le Steeple.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 18 February 2024
Another of the four sheets of film I shot with the Chamonix at the weekend. It’s a location that I’ve featured on the blog a number of times, and seemed a reasonable place to fire off a sheet while testing out the camera.
I’d love to get closer to the old building, but it sits in the middle of crops and the footpath just skirts the edge of the field. I could risk it, I suppose, but I’d not feel comfortable trying to explain that in any way that wouldn’t look self-serving in the event I got found out. I’m h ppy the footpath is there though.
Chamonix 045N-1. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 15 mins 45 secs@ 20°
Taken 3 June 2023.
Yesterday I mentioned my “magical lawnmower adventure” – which I also stated as not being magical or adventurous. Whatever the case, I thought I’d explain…
Last week my dad asked if I could get him a new lawnmower as his old one had broken. He’d seen one in a local DIY store that he liked. I looked online, found the model, and bought it via click and collect. The next day I went to the store, collected it, and took it round my dad’s house. All sorted, I thought.
On Sunday, we met my eldest son and his fiancé for a meal and, as they’ve only recently got their first home with a garden, and as they’re recently engaged, told them we’d buy them a lawnmower as a gift to keep their garden tidy. We decided to buy the same model that my dad had bought, and ordered it from the same store (again, using click and collect).
Then, yesterday, my dad called asking if I had the receipt for the mower. When I asked what the problem was, he told me that he couldn’t get the blade off the machine in order to alter the cutting height. As my dad is in his eighties, I told him I’d call round and give it a try after work. I decided to pick up my son’s mower on the way there.
When I got to my dad’s, what I’d assumed would be an easy job turned out to be anything but. The bolt holding the blade in place was super tight and I couldn’t budge it. If I’s had a suitable gauge spanner, I might have been ok, but all we had was a plastic spanner / wrench thing that had come with the mower. This was next to useless on the tightened bolt, just coming loose with not way to secure it in order to generate any real force. After a few attempts I decided I’d have to take it back to the store to see if they could sort it out. So I dismantled it, put it back in the box, and headed back.
At the store I explained the situation to the woman at the customer service desk and she called for assistance. A guy soon appeared to help and, upon hearing the issue, told me I wasn’t the first person to come to the store with the same problem. He had a go at loosening the bolt, but had just as little success as my dad and I. So he went and fetched another mower from the warehouse. We opened it in the store and attempted to take the blade off the replacement. It was stiff, but after a few goes it came loose. So we put it back in the box, and I drove back to my dad’s with it.
When I arrived I decided that I’d put it all together there and then to ensure there were no further issues. Inside the box were no instructions or other documentation, but two of the plastic spanner / wrenches! As it wasn’t tricky to put together, I did so without guidance and was able to test-mow a small section of his grass. However, as the documents are important for when my dad wants to maintaing the mower, or register the warranty, I told him I’d go back to the store again to see if I could grab the documents that were in the original machine’s box. So off I went.
At the store, the same woman was on the customer services desk and seemed a little surpised to see me back. I explained the situation and she called the same guy, who had already moved the faulty mower back to the warehouse. A few minutes later he appeared with the manual and other documentation and I was able to leave for, hopefully, the final time (for lawnmower-related activity at least).
I’ll let my dad have the documents when I next see him, and my wife is dropping our son’s mower off at his house at the weekend. I only hope he can remove the blade when he needs to…
So, there you have it. The full story. Maybe someone will find magic and adventure in there, but I think they’ll need to look hard.
I thought I’d post both these pictures today – they’re the same subjectj just from different points of view. They feature no lawnmowers.
Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins 30 secs @ 20°
Taken 11 March 2023.
There’s a bit of a background story to today’s picture.
I took a number of photographs of this farm, some of which I’ll post here in the coming days. A public right of way provides access past the buildings and then on to the Moss Valley or to Plumbley, depending on the direction you choose. After taking a few photos of snow covered siloes, I decided to follow the farm road towards the valley – I’ve walked it before and know that there is an old wooden building, a shed-like structure, which might make for a nice picture.
As I headed there I noticed that, to my right, I could see into the farmyard, complete with a stable containing cows and a bunch of rustic farm buildings with snow-capped roofs. This seemed the perfect place to make a photograph, so I unpacked the Bronica from my bag, set up the tripod, and framed my shot. As I was doing this, I noticed a sheepdog – a border collie – peering out from a gate a little further down the path. It sat and looked at me but didn’t seem threatening so I continued what I was doing. Gradually though, the dog started to walk slowly towards me. It wasn’t barking, or looking in any way troublesome, so I finished what I was doing and started to pack stuff away.
Then, as the dog got within about ten feet of me it began to growl, a low rumble of noise from deep in it’s throat. And I became concerned. The dog, which until now had looked like a friendly sheepdog, the type you see in children’s books, now made apparent the fact that it had teeth, and that maybe it didn’t really appreciate what I was doing. I’ve been bitten by dogs a couple of times in my life and, while both occasions were a long time ago, I didn’t fancy a reminder of the experience, so I started to carefully move away, muttering friendly words to the animal while wondering if I would be able to defend myself with my tripod should it decide I was fair game.
After a very long couple of minutes of careful sidling away while the dog kept pace with me (it letting out the occasional sharp-sounding yap) I reached the track that leads to Plumbley and, to my great relief, the dog didn’t pursue any further. After putting a good fifty yards between us, I finally felt able to relax and make my way to safety.
Whether the dog would have made good on it’s threatening activity, I don’t know. While it was a bit of a scary experience, the dog was undoubtedly doing it’s job – protecting the farm and livestock from people with tripods and cameras in this case! I think I’ll avoid taking any pictures of this farm in future though. 🙂
Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins 30 secs @ 20°
Taken 11 March 2023.
Steel City Snapper photography 