Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
Two subjects (which conveniently stand next door to one another) that have featured on the blog a number of times before (here, here and here, for instance). Sometimes subjects just demand further photographs, I find.
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 16 February 2025
Today, I decided to roll up my sleeves and develop three rolls of black-and-white 120 film which I’ve recently shot. I had two rolls of Kodak Tri-X, and a single roll of expired Kodak Tmax 100 to process.
I have two developing tanks, a small one which will take two rolls of 135 film, or a single roll of 120, and a larger tank that will double the amount of film I can develop, so the Tmax went in the small tank, and the Tri-X in the larger one. My plan was to develop all three rolls using Ilfotec DD-X, but I realised when making up the solution for the two rolls of Tri-X that there would not be enough left for the other roll.
Not to worry, I thought, I’ll develop it in Rodinal instead. I’ve not developed Tmax 100 in Rodinal before, but expected it might look nice given it’s a fine grained 100asa film. So, after completing the Tri-X, I started to get myself prepared to develop the Tmax – the usual stuff: getting the water to the right temperature, making sure I had all the necessary bits and bobs required (including drying stuff I’d just used with the Tri-X). Then I encountered a problem…
I couldn’t get the top off my bottle of Rodinal. It has a safety cap which requires downward pressure while turning in order to remove it but, today, no matter how hard I tried, it wouldn’t come loose. It just rotated and clicked annoyingly. At one point I was using so much downward force that the bottle started to collapse in on itself! After five minutes of fruitless effort, I gave up on the enterprise, and decided that I would have to force open the bottle and store it in a different bottle. As I don’t have another suitable bottle (I’d assumed the bottle it came in would be fine) I ordered a brown glass medicine bottle from eBay, and I’ll re-home the developer when it arrives.
Later in the afternoon I searched online to see if anyone else had encountered similar problems and I found a recent Reddit thread describing the exact same issue. A few people had managed to remove the stuck cap with pliers or a wrench, so I’ll give that a try. The consensus seems to be that the developer crystalises in the safety mechanism of the cap, causing it to get stuck and no longer function properly.
Anyway, both rolls of Tri-X came out fine (although I did manage to drop one of them on the bathroom floor when taking it off the reel, coating it with bits of dust and a strand of hair, and necessitating me re-washing it).
No Rodinal was used in the development of the two pictures below. Perhaps that was for the best.
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 16 February 2025
I’ve noticed this cluster of road-signs and various poles (for power lines and lighting) before, but this is the first picture I’ve taken of it, aided by the reach provided by the 28-200mm lens I used.
There’s a lone pedestrian in among the street furniture too.
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 16 February 2025
Somehow, another year has concluded. I feel that I’m spinning closer and closer to whatever is at the centre of everything, each orbit feeling shorter than the last. At this rate, I expect a year to feel like five minutes before too long!
So as the year comes to a close I’ll pick my annual selection of favourite pictures, one from each month. very subjective as usual, and as always I could have picked one of several from some months. The pickings have become much slimmer over the past couple of months though, mostly due to other matters being on my mind and not shooting as much. December’s entry (given I’m keeping this selection film-based) is one I’ve only shot since Christmas, and only developed and scanned today. I expect this one may be usurped as I have a couple more rolls yet to scan (and one roll of colour from Barcelona to send off for processing) which may contain a preferred picture. We shall see.
One thing I’ve noticed is that I seem to have gone for a bit of a bridge theme for this selection. 🙂
I’ll end this bit by wishing you all a very happy New Year and wish good things for us all in 2025. Have a good one!
January
Yashicamat 124G
Kodak Tri-X (@800asa)
Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
February
Olympus XA3
Ilford HP5+ (@800asa)
Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
March
Olympus XA3
Ilford HP5+ (@800asa)
Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
April
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16
Kodak Tri-X
Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
May
Olympus Trip 35
Fomapan 100
Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
June
Yashica Mat 124G
Fujifilm Pro 400H
Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
July
Fujica GW690
Kodak Ektar
Lab developed.
Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
August
Olympus OM-10
G-Zuiko AUTO-S 35mm f/2.8
Ilford FP4+
Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 @ 20° 10mins
September
Fujica GW690
Kodak Plus-X (expired January 2008 and shot at 100asa)
Adox Rodinal 1+50 13mins @ 20°
October
Yashica Mat 124G
Kodak Portra 400
Lab developed
Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro
November
Nikon F80
Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD
Kodak Ultramax
Lab Developed
Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro
December
Yashica Mat 124G
Kodak Tri-X
Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
So that’s another year’s round-up. And now I begin anew with a bunch of fresh pictures in 2025!
I’ve photographed St Peter’s church at Elmton on a number of occasions before, and posted the results on the blog here, here, and here.
I decided to drive past again to finish off this roll of film, with a plan to shoot the church building with its low, squat tower, from a different angle. Ala, it wasn’t to be – the light wasn’t great and the fixed prime lens on the GW690 introduced limitations on how I could frame a shot, essentially meaning I’d have had excessive converging verticals, or the tips of gravestones poking into the bottom of the frame. In the end, I decided to take a picture of this small outhouse affixed to the rear of the building. The weathered door, and caretaker’s paraphernalia served to add a little interest.
Fujica GW690 on Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 @ 20° 9mins.
Taken on 17 August 2024
I thought I’d treat myself to one of those clickbait titles similar to the ones I see on YouTube from time to time. You know the ones, where the person titles their video “My final post” or “That’s it. I’m finished.” or something else that gives the impression that their video making days are at an end but, upon viewing, it turns out that it’s “My final post… of November!” or “That’s it. I’m finished… Putting together this year’s calendar which you can buy from my SquareSpace site.“.
So in the spirit of that annoying tradition, today’s post is just about what I found at the end of the road I drove down in Whitwell, Nottinghamshire one day. In this case it was Whitwell railway station. The station today is a pretty simple affair – a couple of platforms, a footbridge, and some shelters for passengers. There used to be a selection of buildings at the station, but these were removed when the line was closed to passenger traffic sixty years ago (although passenger services would resume in the 1990s). The buildings were not lost however and were rebuilt at Butterley on the Midland Railway – Butterley heritage line as they were almost identical to the buildings that had originally stood there.
As to why I drove to the end of the road, it was mostly to see if there was a good composition of the chimney at the nearby Steetley Dolomite works (you can see it just above the Whitwell railway sign to the right of the first picture). I think a longer lens might have led to a more dramatic photograph but, alas, a long lens the GW690 does not have. Instead it’s a shot of loads of things poking up into the sky. A bit mundane, but I kinda like it anyway.
The second picture was another reason I drove down here. The lamps on this footbridge are just about visible peeping over the bridge crossing the railway tracks that I’ve driven across on a number of occasions, and I’d wondered if there was a picture to be had of them. This was the picture I got, although I think there may be better ones to be found if I revisit the place, possibly (again) with a different focal length at my disposal.
Fujica GW690 on Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 @ 20° 9mins.
Taken on 17 August 2024
The chimney of this dolomite works is visible from a long way away. I’ve driven past on a couple of occasions and taken photographs of the buildings, which are impressive and crusted with white dolomite deposits, although I’ve not attempted to see if the actual quarry workings are visible from the roadside.
The road and verge is also covered in a faint white sugaring of dust from the works’ activity.
Fujica GW690 on Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 @ 20° 9mins.
Taken on 17 August 2024
This made for quite a quaint scene, I thought. I like how the house has a post box embedded in its wall (there’s a phone box right across the street too – although I’m not sure if it’s still operational, or been converted into a library or defibrillator or something).
Fujica GW690 on Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 @ 20° 9mins.
Taken on 17 August 2024
I came across the field of corn in the village of Holbeck when I went to photograph the church with my large format camera. I made note of its location and a short while later returned with my GW690.
Corn fields aren’t a rarity in the UK, but it’s far from a common crop, so finding a field where I had a good view of the stalks was a happy find.
Fujica GW690 on Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 @ 20° 9mins.
Taken on 17 August 2024
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
Steel City Snapper photography 