Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
Sitting right beside the River Witham means there are some nice reflections to be had when photographing the University of Lincoln’s Student’s Union building.
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
I came across this slightly morose looking sculpture while walking a side street in Lincoln. Wandering off the beaten path can quite often turn up surprises such as this.
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
The spiky looking bridge in the first picture below provides an alternate route across the railway tracks in Lincoln when the level crossing barriers are closed. It crosses the same road where yesterday’s blog photograph was taken. The bridge was nicely backlit and I noticed some lovely silhouettes of pedestrians crossing. Unfortunately, when I got in a position to take the picture they’d all left or were walking at the far side of the bridge where they couldn’t really be seen. After waiting 15 minutes to see if the scene would replicate itself, I eventually left to find other pictures to take. I did take the shot of the signal box before I left the scene though (another picture of the signal box may make an appearance in a future post…).
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
The main railway line through Lincoln crosses a number of busy roads, necessitating the use of level crossings. While level crossings are quite common in the countryside, and probably in some other towns and cities, there are relatively few of them in Sheffield (five according to this website), where I live – although, that being said, there is one only a mile from where I live.
Which makes the situation in Lincoln quite novel for me. Level crossings are the only real place where you have an opportunity to take photographs of railway lines while actually on the tracks (without trespassing) as long as the barriers are raised, and in Lincoln this makes for interesting compositions like the one in today’s picture.
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
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
The River Witham flows very sedately through the centre of Lincoln, feeling more like a canal than a river. It is joined at Brayford Pool (seen in the first picture below) by the Foss Dyke, a man made canal the joins the Witham with the River Trent at Torksey to the west.
After Lincoln, the Witham flows through the flat Lincolnshire countryside, passing Bardney and Woodhall Spa, before eventually entering the North Sea at Boston on the east coast.
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
I liked the synergy between the vertical trunks of these trees and the vertical windows of the background building’s stairwell here.
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
Over the coming days I’ll share a bunch of pictures I shot in Lincoln a couple of months ago. I was very fortunate to have really good light all the time I was there, but it was particularly good during the morning when the sun was casting some nice side-light. I really like how the buildings and the chimneys are illuminated in this one.
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
I’ve posted pictures of this location on plenty of previous occasions. Today seemed apt for another as the local branch of Papa’s, which closed almost a year ago, seemingly for good (another branch in Sheffield closed not long afterwards) has announced that it’s re-opening this week.
The local branch is next to a shopping mall, rather than on a pier beside the North Sea, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Tomorrow they have a special offer of takeaway fish and chips for £1 all day. I’m going to be enjoying the fruits of an Indian restaurant tomorrow evening, so no fish and chips for me, but my wife and sons might be able to take advantage of the offer.
Ricoh GRIII
Taken on 10 May 2025
I took a trip to Newark Air Museum today. This wasn’t my first visit (I think it’s my third), and I’ve posted pictures from the previous visits here on my blog, but today was the first time I’ve visited with my dad.
Actually, having said the above, it’s actually my fourth visit, because today was a second trip with my dad following an aborted attempt last autumn when we drove all the way there only to find out upon arrival that there had been a problem with the museum’s water supply and that it was closed as a result.
Thankfully, there were no such issues today (although I did phone them in advance, just to be sure!) and we got to wander around the place at our leisure for a few hours. My dad, now in his mid-80s, served his National Service with the RAF in the late 1950s, and I think he enjoyed looking around the place. During a brief chat with another gentleman of similar age, where he revealed that he’d been in the RAF, the other fella asked if he’s been a pilot! He was not, although he did ride a service-issued bicycle (which he crashed while racing one of his fellow servicemen one day, which resulted in him hiding the damaged bike until he left the service 😀 ).
It was a nice day out and I should try to arrange other such visits to similar places for us both, I think.
I shot a roll-and-a-half of Tri-X with my Yashica Mat 124G while there, but the pictures below are all digital pictures from my Ricoh GR III compact.
Ricoh GR III
Taken on 24 April 2025
Steel City Snapper photography 