Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Injured!

Yesterday evening I began to feel some pain in the back of my left hand near the wrist. I didn’t think much of it, it wasn’t too bad, and I fell asleep without noticing it at all. However, the pain increased overnight and became sufficiently severe that it kept waking me when I moved my hand, and then woke me completely at 5am. I took some pain relief, but it didn’t do much and I didn’t get any more sleep.

The pain wasn’t constant, only being apparent when I moved my hand in certain ways (or got it snagged on the quilt!), but I decided I needed to find out what the problem was so, this morning before work, I visited the minor injuries unit in the local hospital (my wife being kind enough to ferry me there and back again). Thankfully the wait wasn’t long (I was in and out in about an hour) and an x-ray showed that nothing was broken and I was diagnosed as having a sprain. They gave me a wrist splint, advised me that it would take up to six weeks to fully recover, and sent me on my way again.

Being the hypochondriac that I am, I’d had some concern that I might have somehow broken a bone (despite the pain being much less pronounced than the times I have actually broken a finger or wrist), so getting away lightly with a wrist support rather than a cast is a relief. I don’t have to wear the support all the time – and have been advised to use my hand normally as much as possible – and I should still be able to do most of the things I normally do, including driving and using cameras.

One thing I won’t be doing for a while is push-ups. I suspect that it was this that caused the sprain in the first place. Excercise isn’t always good for you, I guess.

Apropos of nothing, here are a couple of pretty-looking houses in Lincoln.

Dachshund walkies
A house with red door

Yashica Mat 124G & Lomography Color Negative 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 1 March 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

More Lincoln scenes

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.

Terrace
Castle Hill Club
Eastgate Post Office
Man on the roof
Background cathedral

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

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Shadow drop off

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.

Looming castle

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

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Billboards on Ball Street

This is another one of those pictures that I like, despite its mundane and (some might say) unattractive subject matter.

I quite like it for the fact that, in years to come, it will be a reminder that some people enjoy dipping their fries in a milkshake.

My son had his interview this lunchtime and I’m very proud of him. It’s the first interview he’s had, he’s had literally one day’s notice, plus he is neurodiverse, so these situations pose an added challenge, and the fact he went in and did it by himself is brilliant. I’m not sure if he will get an offer of a job but, having heard what is required, the role is probably not a great fit for him anyway. The experience will be valuable, whatever the outcome.

Signage

Yashica Mat 124G & Lomography Color Negative 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 2 February 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Easter Monday musings

Today has been taken up with two main things. Firstly a trip to the local supermarket this morning to pick up some cat treats for our two moggies, although also to see if there were any post-Easter chocolate egg bargains to be had. Spoiler Alert: there were. So we now have a bunch more chocolate in the house. Our twin boys will scoff most of it, but there’s still a some for my wife and I to enjoy.

The other thing has been looking for employment opportunities for our son. He is about to finish an internship where we had been given some hope that there might be a job for him, but it now looks like that won’t be the case (nothing to do with his performance, which has been exemplary). So we are now moving to the next stage of his working life, which is slightly uncertain at present as it’s the first time he’ll be outside of educational support.

We spotted a vacancy at a new store that is opening not far from where we live which might have suitable roles, and dropped his CV in this morning, which led to a phone call this afternoon with an offer of an interview. This is great news on one hand, but having looked at staff reviews of the employer, I’m a bit concerned that it might not be a good place to work. Those parental worries kicking in again…

Whatever the case, the interview will be a good thing for him to experience, even if he doesn’t get the job, or decides against taking it. We’re fortunate to be in a position where he can live with us for as long as he needs to, which is comforting.

Apropos of nothing, a photograph of some modern housing at Kelham Island.

Living in modern times

Yashica Mat 124G & Lomography Color Negative 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 2 February 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Baslow houses

Nice oblique sunlight and some interesting houses made for a nice shot at the beginning of a walk to Chatsworth House I undertook back in January.

I was umming-and-ahhing about going out with my camera today. The weather has been nice (it’s been nice for the last couple of weeks, in fact), but I wasn’t sure where to go, and I had some other stuff to do around the house but, in the end, I gave myself a kick up the backside and took a trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I shot an old roll of Tmax 100 with the Yashica Mat 124G and (hopefully!) should have some nice pictures to share. I do have a backlog again though, so they might be a little while appearing here.

In Baslow

Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 for 8 minutes @ 20°

Taken on 25 January 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Across Whitwell to the dolomite works

One of the landmarks near Whitwell is Steetley Dolomite, a large quarry and refining plant to the south of the village. The large chimney can be seen from some distance and, even when the rest of the works is obscured by the low hills in the area, the top of the chimney is often still visible.

The two shots below were taken from the same spot, with my stabilised Tamron 28-300mm zoom lens earning its keep.

Over
Dolomite works

Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD & Agfa APX 100. Rodinal 1+100 (+2ml) semi-stand 1 hour @ 20°

Taken on 8 March 2025