Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
I’ll be posting pictures without commentary while my mental batteries take a break and hopefully recharge. Please feel free to use your imagination to fill in the blanks. 🙂
Normal nonsense will resume shortly…
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 11 May 2024
This pair of residential towers are a Sheffield landmark. Not particularly because of the way they look, but their location at the top of the Herdings district means they are widely visible from across the city and can be seen from many miles away, particularly from the east.
They were built in 1959 and there were originally three towers named Leighton, Morland and Raeburn and were referred to as The Three Sisters, but Raeburn was demolished in 1996 when it was deemed unsafe following the discovery of a fault in the ground where it stood. The remaining two towers were renamed as Queen Anne Court and Queen Elizabeth Court and are now sometimes known as the Herdings Twin Towers.
I’ve driven past them at sunrise before and always thought they would make for a nice picture, so a few weeks back I decided to go and make one. The light was nice on the day, but I’d have preferred a bit of cloud to break up the blue sky. The image is also vey slightly soft despite me using a tripod. An excuse to re-visit the location at some point, I think.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 MC & Kodak Portra 160. Lab developed, home scanned & converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 25 November 2023.
This photograph shows Sheffield University Arts Tower on the left with three of the blocks of flats next to Netherthorpe Road (there’s another block not visible in this image). Between the two blocks on the right the tower of St. Vincent’s church can just be seen through the gap.
Olympus OM-1N, Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.8 & Agfa APX 100. Adox Adonal 1+25 6mins @ 20°.
Taken on 15 April 2022
Another couple of photographs from the Sure Shot Ace – the top and bottom of a block of flats close to the city centre.
I started scanning this roll yesterday and, after a couple of strips, I was a little disappointed – a lot of the images looked distinctly soft. While the camera is otherwise basic, the remote trigger and – especially – the waist-level finder are useful and unusual features for a camera of this type, so for it to have a poor lens would be a disappointment.
However, to my pleasure, after scanning another couple of strips the results from those frames are much sharper. I’m thinking that the earlier results were down to user error or my overloading the AF system by shooting into the light (the camera flares badly if this is done, at least from the few shots I took in this way).
I don’t think it’s quite as sharp as the other Sure Shot models I’ve used, but it’s not bad and I will certainly be using it again.
Canon Sure Shot Ace & Ilford Delta 400.
Taken on 8 February 2020
These blocks of flats in Wakefield are visible from far-and-wide and, up-close on a sunny day, made for an interesting composition. I passed them while heading to the Hepworth Gallery to visit the Modern Nature photography exhibition.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 & Arista Edu 200.
Taken on 30 March 2019
Steel City Snapper photography 