Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
I was going to move onto a different set of photos from today but I’ve had a strange day where I’ve been feeling tired, listless, and unable to focus on stuff, which is not a particularly nice sensation. So I’ll hopefully find time to post something more meaningful tomorrow.
But here are the last couple of pictures I’ll post from the Bridlington trip.
Olympus OM-1N, Zuiko Auto-Zoom 75-150mm f/4 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 15mins 45secs @ 20°
Taken 17 June 2023.
I didn’t give a lot of thought to this vessel when I photographed it – I just thought it might make for an interesting picture. However, a quick search on the internet turned up some interesting information.
The ship here, the dredger Gypsey Race, was built in 2017 and is currently under the auspices of Bridlington Harbour Commission. The name most likely derives from a chalk stream of the same name which enters the sea in Bridlington harbour. It’s a winterbourne stream, meaning it remains dry during the summer months. One of the villages through which it runs, Boynton, has an annual rubber duck race where hundreds of plastic waterfowl are launched into the water to raise money for the local village hall. The word Gypsey in the name of the stream apparently denotes a watercourse that spends parts of its course beneath ground.
The current Gypsey Race is not the first of it’s name though, and an earlier vessel existed. This one was built in 1940 for Southend-on-Sea County Borough and went under the name Prittlewell and was likely used to keep the channels around the Thames forts clear during World War II. She was later renamed the Essex Queen in 1971 and then acquired by Bridlington Harbour Commision in 1977 where she was renamed as Gypsey Race and modernised. From the mid 80s she was used for dredging Bridlington Harbour and other locations along the east coast. She was broken up in 2010.
Olympus OM-1N, Zuiko Auto-Zoom 75-150mm f/4 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 15mins 45secs @ 20°
Taken 17 June 2023.
A selection of boats seen in Bridlington harbour. Most of the images were shot with with my Zuiko 75-150mm zoom and I notice a definite difference in quality when compared with the Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 lens I also used the same day. They’re not awful by any means, and it’s perhaps not fair to compare a telephoto zoom with a prime lens for visual fidelity, but there is a difference nonetheless.
Olympus OM-1N, Zuiko Auto-Zoom 75-150mm f/4 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 15mins 45secs @ 20°
Taken 17 June 2023.
A couple of pictures of boats in Staithes harbour today. They were probably taken about thirty minutes apart and the tide has risen by a small, but noticeable amount in the interim.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Fujifilm Superia Xtra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 29 July 2022
On the third day of our trip to the Yorkshire coast we visited Staithes, a picturesque and quaint fishing village up the coast from Whitby. While there are more modern areas of housing in the village, these sit at the top of the area. The older buildings down by the harbour are reached via steep roads on either side of Staithes Beck. Coming down the hill isn’t too much of a difficulty. Getting back up requires some air in your lungs!
As with much of this trip, the weather was mostly overcast (in fact it rained heavily when we first arrived). The tide was also out at the time of our visit, leaving many of the small boats in the harbour beached. I’ll have more pictures from Staithes to post here in the coming days.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Fujifilm Superia Xtra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 29 July 2022
I posted a very similar photograph to this one last week – the previous shot on Portra 800, this one on Superia 400. Both were shot on the same day and at practically the same location, but the weather had changed from dull and overcast, to sunny blue skies by the time I made this second picture. I much prefer this one.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Fujifilm Superia Xtra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 29 July 2022
Both of today’s photographs were taken while descending the 199 steps I posted about in the blog yesterday. They might be tough on the legs, but they do afford a nice view. 🙂
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Kodak Portra 800. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 29 July 2022.
I’ve been less than impressed by the results of this roll of Portra 800 primarily (I think) because it was shot under dull, overcast conditions. The resulting images are muddy and unappealing to my eye and I’ve spent some time seriously considering converting them to contrasty black-and-white versions in Lightroom and ditching the colour altogether.
While this does give more impactful images for many of the frames, the fact that this is a colour film (and a very expensive one at that!) means I’m somewhat reluctant to do so – I might have well have just used some cheaper black-and-white film in the first place (I really wish I’d taken some B&W rolls with me but I didn’t, because I am a fool).
I’ve uploaded converted versions of the colour originals at the bottom of the post. Which do you prefer?
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Kodak Portra 800. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 29 July 2022.
There are a trio of these yellow boats operating out of Whitby. One of them, Dash II (the smallest) operates upstream along the River Esk. The other two venture out into the North Sea, taking passengers on a short cruise up the coast towards Sandsend. Esk Belle III is the smaller of the seagoing boats, and Summer Queen is the largest. These latter two boats were a regular sight travelling in an out of the harbour as we wanderd around the town on this day.
I did wonder about cloning out the bird (I think it’s a pigeon) from the upper-right corner of the frame but, in the end, decided to give it its moment of fame instead.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Kodak Portra 800. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 29 July 2022.
The main visitor car parks at Whitby lie beside the boat moorings in the upper habour area and the boats seen in today’s photos were all pretty close to where we parked – I saw them as we drove in and made a point of walking past them as we headed back into the town. The weather was somewhat gloomy and overcast for most of the day and I think the roll of Portra 800 I had in the camera was somewhat wasted on the conditions.
While the extra speed it gave was beneficial, I can’t say that it produces particularly flattering results under these conditions, at least not to my tastes. Unfortunately, the weather forecast had let me down with its predictions and we ended up with mostly overcast (and rainy) weather throughout the trip, with just a few periods of nicer weather, so I somewhat foolishly only packed colour film when black-and-white might have done a better job.
It did turn nicer at the end of this day though, by which time I’d switched to some Superia Extra 400, so there will probably be some more pictures of these same boats to come in a future, sunnier post.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Kodak Portra 800. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 29 July 2022.
Steel City Snapper photography 