Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
This house was just down the road from the irrigation hose in the shot I posted yesterday. I liked how it rose from behind the hedge. I have quite a few shots of scenes like this that are slowly spiraling around the germ of a project idea.
Fujica GW690 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 5 July 2025
Another photo from my mini road-trip. This was a deliberate destination though, rather than my happening upon it by chance. I’ve driven past this water tower in the Derbyshire town of Bolsover a few times in the past and thought it might be a good subject for a photo, and on this day I finally got a picture. I like the shot but I’m a tiny bit disappointed that the figure in the centre of the image is in a slightly awkward pose rather than catching them mid-stride. still, they aren’t the subject of the picture, so I guess I can live with it.
Fujica GW690 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 5 July 2025
I shot this whole roll of Ilford HP5+ while driving randomly around the countryside. I’d love to do a proper roadtrip where I just set of and explore the country but, alas, it’s not something I have the time or resources to do at present. Maybe when I retire at some point I’ll get more of an opportunity.
But even without an extended trip, it’s still possible to just head out into the unknown, taking random roads with no particular destination in mind, and just stopping and photographing things that catch my eye. Both photos from the last couple of posts were made in this way, as was today’s picture.
The house pictured is painted a pastel pink but I had black and white film loaded, so you’ll have to take my word for it, and it was a combination of the colour, plus the house standing solitary on a bend in a country road (not a quiet country road, but not racing with traffic either at the time I was there) that caught my attention.
I drove past the house and saw a place to park a short distance further on, so stopped and walked back along the verge to take my picture. As I got closer, I noticed a solitary woman just across the road from the house and said hello when I got closer. She was stewarding some sort of fun-run event that was taking place in the area and we chatted for a few minutes as I explained why I’d suddenly appeared from nowhere to take a photograph.
I’m posting these shots out of order for some reason, and this was the penultimate picture from the roll (the final phote being the one of the pylons I posted yesterday. The day before that was the first shot of the roll.)
Another random picture to come tomorrow…
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
I decided to cluster this set of images as they were all taken on the climb up (and back down) Steep Hill.
Olympus OM-10, Zuiko Auto-S 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Pro Image. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 1 March 2025
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.
Taken on 1 March 2025
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.
Taken on 1 March 2025
Today was my first day back at work after a week’s holiday in Spain. I did have yesterday as a buffer between the travel and the resumption of working life, which I’m thankful for, but I’ve felt pretty tired all day. I thought holidays were supposed to leave you feeling refreshed?
Thankfully, my usual post holiday blues didn’t last very long, perhaps because we were only away for a week, or maybe because I’m growing out of that particular sadness as I get older. I’m glad about that too – it used to affect me pretty badly when I was younger and leave me feeling a profound sense of loss for several days after a trip. This time, however, it only took a couple of hours back at work to pretty much erase any sense I’d been on holiday at all! Still, I’ve a couple of rolls of film and some digital photos to remind me of the trip when I get them developed / processed. I’ll post some of those here, of course.
Another picture from my Lincoln trip today – there’s probably only one more shot that I’ll post from this roll of 135 Agfa APX 100 – but I do have a bunch of colour medium format pictures still to come…
Olympus OM-10, Zuiko Auto-S 35mm f/2.8 & Agfa APX 100 (@400). Rodinal 1+100 (+2ml) semi-stand 1 hour @ 20°
Taken on 1 March 2025
This picture was taken half way up Steep Hill in Lincoln. I really like the timeless feel it evokes. Maybe the cyclist’s helmet gives it away but, apart from that and the lone cable (and possibly the bike, whose evolution I’m not familiar enough with to say how it might date the image), it feels like it could have been taken any time in the last century.
Olympus OM-10, Zuiko Auto-S 35mm f/2.8 & Agfa APX 100 (@400). Rodinal 1+100 (+2ml) semi-stand 1 hour @ 20°
Taken on 1 March 2025
Steel City Snapper photography 