The pictures I’m sharing at present are the result of one of my occasional rambles around town. These trips are usually pretty aimless beyond a rough route plan, and even that is subject to change at short notice, with me just going whichever way looks like it may be interesting.
The city centre undoubtedly has a whole range of things to photograph, a great many of which I will not have noticed or considered photographing before, but at the same time it can feel over-familiar, so it’s a matter of just walking an looking for things to catch my eye.
The shots today are gathered purely because they all feature a splash of red (maybe fuchsia in the second picture), whether it be a post box, or a Chinese restaurant.
There will be a similar mix of stuff in the coming days’ posts.
Olympus OM-10, Zuiko Auto-S 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Gold. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
I had hearing aids fitted today. A year or so back I decided to get a hearing test, not because I’d noticed any distinct hearing loss as such, but because I’ve suffered from tinnitus for several years. Thankfully, although the tinnitus is always present, my brain mostly filters it out and I don’t really notice it unless I stop and “listen” for it. Nevertheless, I felt that getting my hearing checked might be a good idea.
The result of the test was that I found I had some partial high-frequency hearing loss. Not really enough to notice a problem (although I have found that it can be more difficult to follow conversations in certain noisy environments, such as restaurants), but still something worth treating – especially as, apparently, if you don’t treat such loss then, over time, your brain can “forget” the frequencies it no longer receives at which point no corrective action is possible.
As my initial diagnosis was through a high street provider, the only options they had for hearing aids from them would have to be paid for (and believe me, hearing aids are not cheap, with some costing several thousand Pounds for a pair!). Thankfully, it’s also possible to get free hearing aids in the UK via the NHS, although the range may be more limited than that which is available privately. But, given the cost otherwise, I felt trying the free option first would be a good plan.
The downside of going via the NHS is the lengthy waiting lists that can be involved, and after visiting my GP to get the ball rolling, they advised me to contact the three closest NHS trusts to see which had the shortest waiting list so they could refer me to the relevant audiology department. It was a six week wait for the consultation, but it has then taken another nine months until today when I actually got the hearing aids fitted.
I’m now sat typing with them feeding me a newly amplified range of sounds (I ‘d forgotten the range of clickety noises that the keyboard makes when you can hear it properly!), which is nice. The devices are pretty small and unobtrusive, and not causing much in the way of discomfort – they itch a little, but I think I’ll get used to the sensation of them being in my ears fairly quickly.
I’d have preferred not to have needed hearing aids if I’m honest, but a combination of getting older (although I’m not that old yet) and, I suspect, damaging my hearing through the over use of headphones and loud music (and probably videogames too – particularly Battlefield, which effectively placed me in an aural warzone…) has led me to this point. I’m thankful to have access to the means to correct the condition, especially given I’ve gotten the treatment at no cost.
I appreciate that this has the sum total of zero connection with the photography stuff I normally post about, but it feels like a significant enough event to memorialise here on the blog.
But here’s a picture of an old car. It’s not as old as me though, so it’s ears are probably still fine. 🙂
Olympus OM-10, Zuiko Auto-S 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Gold. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
I often put my car in a car-park beside Victoria Quays when I go for a walk around town. It’s slightly inconvenient for the town centre, being further away from the shops etc., but has the considerable benefit of being much cheaper than the car-parks that are more central.
One of the exits from the car-park takes you right to the canal-basin and remaining wharf buildings (now all home to modern offices and other businesses) and there is always a fleet of canal boats moored there, many of which make for nice pictures. Likewise, the straddle wharf and other warehouses are also nicely photogenic. As a result I’ve taken many pictures at this location, often of the same subjects (especially the aforementioned straddle wharf).
It’s not the only location that receives this regular photographic attention. The Kelham Island area of Sheffield has featured on the blog on numerous occasions, and constant readers will know that I take a trip to my favourite seaside town, Mablethorpe, every autumn.
While I enjoy visiting and photographing these places, I do tend to notice that I photograph the same things over and over again, even though there are undoubtedly countless other subjects and compositions to be had. I wonder if people see these pictures and think, “Oh, it’s that thing again…”?
But conditions can change and shine a whole new light (both figuratively and literally) on these subjects. Different times of day, different weather, different seasons, all can make for new ways of seeing things, I feel, and so I’ll no doubt be here with yet more pictures of the Straddle Wharf, the Mablethorpe Rock shop, and the chimney-stack at Kelham Island heritage museum.
Olympus OM-10, Zuiko Auto-S 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Gold. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Another batch of Kodak Pro Image photos from Lincoln today. Again, I’m really enjoying the colours from this roll.
Today has been a nice day. I started off with a bit of a lie in (nothing to extravagant – the days of laying in bed all morning are a thing of the past, my free time is too precious these days – but staying in bed till 8:30 is still a joy).
Later in the morning my wife and I went to view a bungalow (as we are planning on moving house). The property had a lot of potential, but would no be somewhere we could move straight into as it has too many things that would need to be done to make it liveable. It would cost quite a lot of money to carry out the necessary work too. The house was vacant and we were told that the lady who originally owned it had moved into care and the council was now selling the house to pay for this. While all the furniture had been removed, there were still a few small signs of the person who had lived there before, including a certificate of her husband’s retirement from his job on one of the walls, beside which was stuck a sheet of paper listing names and birthdays of people the owner had once known. It was quite sad to see these small reminders of lives now moved on.
Then, this afternoon, we went strawberry picking. The weather had forecast rain showers, but this changed and it was a lovely warm day with blue skies scattered with fluffy lumps of cumulus. We got three large punnets of strawberries, most for us, but also for my day, my sister-in-law, and our niece. I snuck a few berries while picking them and they were delicious. I’ll enjoy more of them this evening with a bit of cream.
It’s very nice to have a day like this.
Olympus OM-10, Zuiko Auto-S 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Pro Image. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
One thing I noticed with this first roll of Kodak Pro Image is that a few shots seemed to lose a lot of shadow detail, including the one below. I actually cropped this one as the lower bottom left of the image fell to mush, although you can still see some of the effect in the hedge. I had another shot from the roll that looked similar too.
I’m not sure if my camera just metered badly in these cases as all other images on the roll are well exposed. It’ll be interesting to see if I spot any similar issues when I scan the next roll.
Olympus OM-10, Zuiko Auto-S 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Pro Image. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
While Kodak Pro Image isn’t grain free, it’s still pretty fine and it renders a lot of detail in scenes. Its colour rendering works nicely with these two houses gentle paint schemes.
Olympus OM-10, Zuiko Auto-S 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Pro Image. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
I mentioned the other day about posting some colour medium format pictures from my trip to Lincoln. Those are still to come, but I almost forgot about the partial roll of colour 135 shots I took as well!
These are shot on Kodak Pro Image film – the first time I’ve ever shot this stock. I bought a pro-pack of five rolls a few years ago – long enough back that they’re now expired. Luckily, they’ve been cold-stored since I bought them and so show no signs of age.
I was very pleasantly surprised at the results I got. They converted very nicely in Negative Lab Pro, producing good results from the off with little tweaking required. I like the colours too, nothing brash, just nice, slightly pastel tonality. Some of the later shots from the roll were shot on an overcast day and those look nice too.
I took another roll of the film on my recent holiday in Spain, so it will be interesting to see how those turn out when I get them back from the lab, but overall I’m happy with the film and will probably buy more when my existing colour stash runs a bit drier.
Olympus OM-10, Zuiko Auto-S 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Pro Image. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
Steel City Snapper photography 