Grand Central is the shopping centre located above New Street railway staion in the centre of Birmingham. It used to be known as The Pallisades following a redevelopment in the 1980s and, before that, simply Birmingham Shopping Centre when it first opened in the early 1970s.
The ameneties radiate out in various directions with a variety of retail and dining establishments present, but the area in the tow phots here is the main atrium where access to the railway station is present.
Olympus Trip 35 & Kodak Colorplus. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
This joke shop in Scarborough has been there for a long time, since 1996 in fact. I only discovered this today and it came as a bit of a surprise as, if I’d been pressed, I’d have said it had been there for much longer. I was certain that it was there when I used to visit the town on coach trips back in the 1970s and 80s, but apparently not. Maybe there was another joke shop there (or close by) before that, or perhaps I’d just gotten my memories in a twist soewhere along the way.
The yellow and red of the shop frontage have popped nicely on the Colorplus film, despite the day being somewhat dull and overcast. It’s certainly fared better than the Portra 800 I shot under similar conditions (of which you will see some results in the coming week or so).
Olympus Trip 35 & Kodak Colorplus. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
This is where my wife and I got some lunch when we visited Scarborough at the end of July. We’ve always used another chippy on past visits – the Lifeboat Chippy – further down this road at the bottom of the hill as they do very nice fish and chips, but as we were already halfway up the hill when lunchtime arrived, and as we were walking in the opposite direction to the other shop, we decided to give this one a go. We didn’t have any chips as we’d had breakfast sandwiches earlier at the start of the journey and were still feeling a little full, so both of us opted for fish only. The fish was pretty good and I managed to eat it without being attacked by gulls!
Olympus Trip 35 & Kodak Colorplus. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
So said James Bond at the end of The Spy Who Loved Me. I too am “keeping the British end up” at present, although in the somewhat less pleasurable sense of elevating my broken ankle (at the end of my British leg…) rather than Bond’s double-entendre allusion to a bit of hanky panky in a submarine escape pod.
Unfortunately, in order to type up these blog posts I need to sit at my computer with my foot on the floor (although I am tring to figure out if there’s any way to raise it while I work, even if for a short period). This quickly results in a dull ache starting in my ankle and it soon starts to look noticably more swollen. Luckily for me, my posts rarely stretch further than a few paragraphs, so I will suffer the twenty minutes or so it takes for my art.
I’m off work at present as there’s no effective way for me to keep the ankle raised at my office desk, but I’m hoping it might have recovered sufficiently for me to return next week, even if I need to take breaks. This is the first sick time I’ve had in years and I feel oddly guilty about it, probably because the reason is due to injury rather than actually feeling unwell.
Here’s a picture completely unrelated to what I’ve written above because, well, I suppose I have to post a picture in my so-called photography blog. 🙂
Olympus Trip 35 & Kodak Colorplus. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
A few days ago I posted another photo made at this same location. I was over to the right of the church for that one though, so it was completely out of frame with just the modern high-rise structure rising above the trees. I like this new shotfor the contrast between the two styles of architecture. That original image was shot with my Olympus 35 RC, this one with my Trip 35.
One thing that has struck me while looking at the photos from this roll of Kodak Colorplus is just how nice the lens is on the Olympus Trip 35. It’s a camera I’ve neglected – not having shot mine for a number of years – and then using it’s younger, more compact (and, for me, more recently acquired) sibling, the Olympus XA3 when I wanted a straightforward zone-focus point and shoot experience. The XA3 is a great little camera – truly pocketable – with a sharp lens, but I think the lens on the Trip 35 surpasses it. It’s amazingly sharp and doesn’t vignette either (which the XA3’s lens does to some degree). I shall have to ensure it gets more regular exercise from now on.
Olympus Trip 35 & Kodak Colorplus. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
I was going to post different photos and maybe write a longer piece today but my broken ankle is aching and I don’t want to be sat at the PC any longer than I have to.
The picture I’ve chosen instead was taken while walking to the railway station about a month ago on one of the hottest days the country has ever faced (since records began, at least). The following day was even hotter, breaking the aforementioned records in more than one location.
The day was already very hot even at the time I made this picture, sometime between 7 and 8am, but the scene caught my eye and so I stopped momentarily to take the shot.
Olympus Trip 35 & Kodak Colorplus. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
A few days ago, after I’d broken my ankle, I wondered if I might need to ration out the photos I upload given that I might not be able to go out and make more for a few weeks. As a result I uploaded some photos that I might have otherwise left on my hard drive. One of the photos was the one published here today.
For some bizarre reason, it’s managed to be selcted for Flickr’s Explore selection. I posted about my thoughts on which of my pictures are selected for Explore in this post a few weeks ago. My thoughts on this picture are much the same. I generally post a lot of photos to Flickr and yet it always seems to be the ones that are what I’d consider less sucessfull that seem to be picked to go into Explore. Perhaps it’s just mye eye? Maybe everyone else sees this as some sort of masterpiece of subject, light and composition? I suspect not though, and it’s just that the Flickr Explore algorithm is inscrutable.
Another set of photo’s of All Saint’s Chapel at Steetley. These were all taken on the same visit when I shot some pictures with my Olympus 35 RC. If I had to choose, despite liking black and white photos , I think that in this case the colour images are the better set. That’s not to say I don’t like these, but I don’t think they hang together as cohesively. Some of the individual frames are also identical compositions to the 35 RC shots but, again, don’t really work as well I don’t think.
The Holga is a great camera and one which I usually really enjoy my results from, but I don’t think this set is amongst the better ones. I’m sure I will do better next time.
Walking through Birmingham a couple of months ago, I passed through this open space on the way to my destination. The modern tower rearing up above the treeline was quite striking, I thought, so I made the picture. It’s got several layers to it: the foreground grass, the people, the trees, and then the rising architecture beyond, which I though looked interesting.
As I mentioned in my last, somewhay concise, post, I suffered an injury yesterday. A broken ankle to be precise.
It was the first of five days leave I have from work (or seven including the weekend) and I’d taken a trip to Manchester with my wife and her sister. They were off to see a show while I planned to just wander around the city taking pictures. And all was going to plan for several hours. I visited Real Camera to have a browse (and ended up buying a couple of rolls of expired slide film, because, of course, I really need more film to add to the already packed drawer that I’ve commandeered in the freezer), had some passport photos made in the old-style analogue photo booth in the Fred Aldous store (not for my actual passport, but just because I could. The photos are now stuck on the side of the fridge along with loads on Instap pictures). I treat myself to a nice burger and fries for my lunch and, of course, I took pictures. I had a couple of cameras on me – my Olympus 35 RC loaded with one of my two remaining rolls of Portra 800, and my Canon Z135 compact containing some Ilford HP5+.
After wandering around for a few hours I decided to visit the art gallery an it was when I left the gallery that disaster struck. Just outside the main entrance, down a short flight of steps, there were some benches in the shade of the building. Thinking it would be nice to take the weight off for a few minutes I headed down and, as I stepped down the bottom step my right foot twisted awkwardly beneath me with a distinctive snappining sound.
I had an immediate sickening sense of dread and planted myself straight on the bench to take the weight off my legs. There was no actual pain as such, just an odd, numb tingling sensation, the sort you get if you bang your elbow, so I decided to stand up and see how bad it was. Luckily I was able to bear weight and, after messaging my wife to tell her what had happened and that I was taking an ealier train home, I set off limping back to the railway station. Walking was awkward but not especially painful and I managed to get to the station without issue. Unfortunately the next train was cancelled so I had to wait around for over half-an-hour for the next train, which I rather not have had to do, but I guess that’s life (and my luck).
When I got back to Sheffield I took a taxi from the station to the Accident & Emergency department where I spent around four hours waithing for x-rays and to speak with the nurse about the prognosis. I managed to buy myself an actual analog newspaper from the station before getting the taxi as I suspected I might be in the hospital for a while and my phone battery wouldn’t last out. It was a good decision and I read the paper front-to-back while I waited to be seen by various people.
The x-rays showed I had broken a fragment of bone from the bottom of my fibula. While this is painful, I was told that it would have been worse had the break occurred further up the bone close to where the tibula meets the bones of my foot as it would likley have restricted my mobility more severerly and would take longer to heal. The injury I have should be healed within four-to-six weeks, and I was given a large plastic “walking boot” to wear if I need to go out. Thankfully, there is little to no pain while I’m at rest, and I was able to sleep perfectly well last night. The ankle feels sore while I walk about, but again not too bad, and I can move it around quite freely, so I guess I should count my lucky stars that it wasn’t worse than it is.
I think my main upset is that it’s kinda ruined my days off – I had things planned that I’m now unable to do because, while I need to use the ankle to encourage it to heal, this probably doesn’t stretch to full days out on my feet. I also can’t drive for a while, so I’m at the mercy of the goodwill of others if I want to go somewhere. My planned trips out into the Peak district this week, and to Lincoln Steam Rally the following weekend (the first time it has been on in three years) have fallen by the wayside, so I’m frustrated that the opportunity to photograph heather while it’s in bloom, or see the vintage vehicles at the rally will now have to wait another year. There are worse things in life though, so maybe I’ll just count my blessings and enjoy the next fews days away from work by watching TV, reading books, and playing videogames with the spare time I’ve got. At least I have a good excuse for avoiding chores!
I’ve got four full rolls of 35mm film that I’ve yet to upload (or, in some cases, scan), including the roll of Porta 800 from yesterday that I almost finished in Manchester (but ended up using the last two frames photographing some hospital buildings while waiting for my wife to pick me up). So I should be able to feed the blog until I’m back on my feet at least.
Finally, today’s picture of a chair in a shady spot under a tree looks like just the place for a chap with the busted ankle. Maybe with a cold beverage. If only this were my back garden and not in a churchyard several miles away, eh? 🙂
