Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
Three more photographs taken at Magpie Mine from the same thirty-one years expired roll of Kodacolor Gold 200.
A friend commented that they looked like faded 1970s postcards.
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Kodacolor Gold 200 (expired in Feb 1989).
Taken on 16 March 2020
This is a photograph the lake at Rother Valley Country Park, not too far from where I live. It’s not generally a place I find condusive for taking photos because, while it’s good for walking, running, cycling etc., and there are a variety of watersports (as well as waterfowl) to enjoy, it’s location means that any sort of wide shot features the surrounding hills, most of which have either houses or industrial units upon them. While I’m sure there are plenty of great photos to be had, I’ve probably been spoilt by familiarity and don’t tend to find it very inspiring.
On misty days however, all that (literally!) fades away and the place takes on a wonderful serenity. The background distractions melt away into the haze leaving much more subtle sights.
Today’s photo is one of a pair I took at this spot. The first one shows just a ripple as the coot decided to dive beneath the surface just as I pressed the shutter. This one was taken shortry after it re-emerged.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 22 January 2020
One of the ways I like to find potential locations for photography is by browsing Ordnance Survey maps. Usually I look for public footpaths and rights of way and plan a walk in the hope that there might be something interesting to photograph along the route – usually there is. I’ve loved to look at Ordnance Survey maps ever since I first came across them as a child – specifically the 1:25,000 scale Landranger maps. They’re a treasure trove of detail with their beautiful design and iconography, and just skimming across them will turn up evocative little identifiers for things like trig points, towers, tumuli, wells and all manner of other intriguing things. And so it was on this occasion, where my browsing alighted upon the intriguingly named Hell Bank Plantation which also had a little marking stating “Waterfalls“.
So last Saturday, after my walk along the River Derwent at Calver, I decided to head home via a route that would take me to Hell Bank Plantation so I could see what it was like as a location.
After a wrong turn that would have gotten me where I needed to go – if I was on foot(!) – I finally took the right route and managed to get a parking space at the top of the plantation (where a decent number of other vehicles were already parked). The entrance into the plantation was via a stile a few yards from where I’d parked and the trail led down into the pine woodland. After a short distance the main footpath had a fork with the narrower branch heading down towards where I assumed the stream and waterfalls would be.
The path led me across the stream and then took a left turn so that it descended into the valley with the stream on my left, now at the bottom of a steep-sided gorge. I could see a number of cascades of water down there – nothing spectacular (although I guess it will be much more exciting after some heavy rain) but attractive nontheless. After walking down the valley a couple of hundred yards, it became apparent that there was no easy way to get to the stream from this path down here so I back-tracked. Back near the top I found a place where, with care, I might get down to the water. So, using my tripod as a walking pole, I eased myself down the steep bank to the bottom.
Near the bottom was the remains of a stone bridge about ten feet wide, broken in the middle and covered in moss. Thankfully, it also looked like there might be an easier way back up the opposite bank when I finished with my photography. I made my way upstream a little to get in position for some photos – while the stream wasn’t a torrent, there were still some pools that were plenty deep enough to submerge my walking boots fully, so careful progress was required. When I found a good spot I took an incident meter reading and also a couple of spot readings of shadows and highlights to see what they would show (the average wasn’t too far off the incident reading, so I went with that). As I wanted to try and get everything in focus, I metered for f/22 which gave an exposure of around 2 seconds.
After taking a number of shots I retreated to the broken bridge and, as I’d hoped, was able to climb the eastern bank with relative ease and from there walked back uphill to the car and the journey home.
The processed negatives were a little on the thin side, although not unduly so, and I’ve ended up with contrasty images that I like – at least where the stream and cascades of water are concerned. Some of the other shots (including the bridge) are somewhat busy and I think, if I return to the location, it deserves colour to properly seperate the vegetation, rocks, water and wood textures in the pictures.
There is also another waterfall further down the valley according to Ordnance Survey. 🙂
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Kodak Tmax 400.
Taken on 25 January 2020
Continuing the theme from the past couple of days, here’s a shot of the scene just downstream from the previous locations. As is so often the case when I pre-arrange a day out with the camera, the weather was dull with featureless grey stratus clouds, making for somewhat less than interesting skies. Still, we make do with what we get and, while the conditions might have been better, it was still a very nice walk along the river.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Ilford Pan F Plus.
Taken on 25 January 2020
This was taken on the footpath beside the River Derwent a little further upstream from the bridge I posted a photo of yesterday. I’ve taken a picture at this location before, last year, using my Yashica Mat 124G. Unfortunately something went wrong with that version – I think the camera strap, or possibly the cable release, had gotten in the way of the taking lens without me noticing and the resulting image had a blurry streak across part of the frame. This one worked much better (although prior to this I managed to waste three frames by somehow shooting them with the dark slide in the camera – something I didn’t even think was possible with the ETRSi).
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Ilford Pan F Plus.
Taken on 25 January 2020
Taken shortly before the photo of the cow that I posted a few days ago, this is farmland near Whiston, South Yorkshire, UK.
I liked the muddy field entrance leading into the shot and the brow of the hill giving the impression that the land goes on for miles (Spoiler alert! It doesn’t – there’s a motorway not far beyond the ridge – sorry to spoil the illusion :)).
There are a lot of farms with haystacks and haybales still in the fields this year, slowly rotting away through the autumn and winter. I can only assume that they were caught in rain before the farmers had chance to wrap them or get them into dry barns. I’ve seen some that have actually grown a fresh green grassy hairstyle!
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 23 December 2019
This is the view from the edge of Lady Canning’s Plantation looking back towards Sheffield city centre, which lies around 4.5 miles away. It’s a nice illustration of how close you are to rolling countryside just a hop and a skip from town. The large block of a building that sits to the left of the image is the Royal Hallamshire Hospital.
I think I botched the exposure somewhat as the shadowy area of the wall is showing significant grain. I love my OM-1, but it’s relatively simple metering can sometimes fool me into picking the wrong shutter speed / aperture combo.
Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 & Ilford Delta 400.
Taken on 30 December 2019
A few months ago, a friend on the photography forum I’m a member of offered some rolls of bulk-loaded Polypan F to other members. Apart from generosity, he was interested to see what sort of results a variety of other people would be able to achieve with the film. Several people volunteered to take part and a box full of film was circulated (each person taking a roll and then posting the remainder to the next person, and so on).
I received the box back at the start of November, but didn’t shoot my roll untill the end of December. The main reason for the delay is the nature of the film. Polypan F is a motion picture copy film. It has very little anti-halation and so can make bright light sources bloom and glow in the right conditions. As November in the UK is not known for it’s bright conditions, I decided to wait for a sunny day. The 30th of December wasn’t the first sunny day to come around, but as I work full time, it was the first one where I was off work and could get out and shoot the film.
There was a loose theme attached to the film – the subject matter should be related to the letter “P”. Based on this, I decided to shoot my roll in a plantation of pine trees in the Peak District national park.
Polypan F has a native speed of 50asa so, even given the bright conditions, I would probably need to shoot accordingly. As a result I took along my tripod and a shutter-release cable. Alas though, even these measures were not to be sufficient.
Shooting in relatively well lit areas of the woodland didn’t pose much of a problem, especially with the 50mm lens, but the 75-150mm was another matter. I was using mid-range apertures to try and maximise my depth of field while shooting at focal lengths over 100mm. When in shaded conditions, this was dropping my shutter speed right down to little over 1sec in many instances. While the camera was firmly held on the tripod, and I was using the cable-release, I still ended up with a lot of shots displaying noticeable camera shake. I believe that the long lens, coupled with the slow shutter speed, was subject to vibrations from the cameras mirror when I took the shots. This was a shame as I lost a number of photos that I think were otherwise pretty nice, Still, I’ll take it on the chin and chalk it up to experience. I’ve never used the OM-1’s mirror lock-up before, but am now fully conversant with how it operates!
Here are some of the better shots from the day.
1 – This is the southerly path I took when entering the plantation (Lady Canning’s Plantation, to the south-west of Sheffield at Ringinglow). The plantation is commercially operated but has public access, including a number of mountain bike trails that were in heavy use on the day of my visit. The light blooming is quite apparent in this shot, particularly where the sun is peeking through the trees.
2 – I ventured off the main footpath to take the next two photos. This was perhaps a mistake as the ground was very uneven (from the wheels of heavy plantation machinery that must have worked there some time in the past) and with a notable quantity of prickly, clothes-snagging, skin-scratching brambles to fight through. Even though I was only 20 or 30 metres from the path, I did wonder if anyone would ever notice me where I to collapse or something. Me and my cheerful thoughts, eh?
3 – This wide avenue bisects the plantation and is the route of an underground pipeline, hence the lack of tree cover.
4 – The southern boundary of the plantation opens onto Burbage Moor.
5 – A couple of hundred metres or so from the southern edge of the plantation stand the Ox Stones, a gritstone tor. Also nearby is a triangulation (trig) point.
6 – And finally, here’s a detail shot of one of the Ox Stones.
It was interesting to use the Polypan F. I’m not sure it’s a film I’ll rush to use again, but I wouldn’t say no if some more came my way. I wish I’d not had the issues with camera shake though as I might have had more images to share.
All photographs taken with my Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 / Zuiko 75-150mm f/4 lenses & Polypan F.
Taken on 30 December 2019
The Moss, which winds its way down the Moss Valley in south-eastern Sheffield until it joins the River Rother at Eckington. This is a spot about half way between Ford and Eckington close to the footbridge I used to cross the stream.
Holga 120N & Kodak Tri-X (expired 2012).
Taken on 27 December 2019
This photograph was taken from almost the same spot as yersterday’s image – atop a railway bridge – that one depicts the view to the right from here.
I stood atop this bridge waiting for a train to enter the scene for almost 15 minutes, but none made its presence felt. As I’d walked to this location, three trains had passed in quite close proximity, so I’d hoped for another, but nada. After a while, my legs began to feel the chill so I decided to move on, sure that as soon as I got beyond range I’d hear the sound of another locomotive and curse my decision to move, but (surprisingly, given my usual luck) I didn’t.
Before I left though, I took this photo. Part of me thinks it’s better without a train anyway.
Holga 120N & Kodak Tmax 400.
Taken on 18 December 2019
Steel City Snapper photography 