Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
There’s a somewhat melancholy air to this picture, I think. The background trees standing like onlookers at a funeral.
Nikon F80 and Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D on Tri-X Pan Kodak Tri-X Pan (likely expired sometime in the 1990s) @125asa
Ilfotec DD-X. 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 21 March 2026
Kodak H35N & Kodak Gold. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 25 January 2025
On the day I went out and made this batch of pictures, I started in a poor frame of mind. I was feeling grumpy and a bit depressed about stuff, so most of the first part of the day just involved me driving aimlessly about, too annoyed to spot potential compositional opportunities, much less take any photos.
This was the first shot I took during the outing (it was shot just before, and just down the road from, the picture I posted yesterday), and while it didn’t completely clear my low mood, it did get me started with some photography. The first shot is often the one that unclogs the gears, and I was able to then finish off the rest of the roll (albeit only eight frames with the GW690) and even make a start on another.
I’d started out thinking I was just wasting my time, but by the time I got home I felt much better about things.
Fujica GW690 & Kentmere 100 (@400) Rodinal 1 hour semi-stand development. 1+100 in 500ml of water, with a couple of extra ml of developer added.
Taken on 2 August 2025
On my wander through the woods at Clumber Park the other week I came across this log frame besde the path. I’m not quite sure what it is, but suspect it’s likely some form of nature conservation set up. The inside of the frame was filled with logs, many of which were showing signs of decay and growths of fungus and the like, so I think it could be to provide a habitat for small mammals and invertebrates. I could be wildly off the mark with this though – my knowledge of conservation and woodland management is not at an expert level I’m afraid.
It’s another frame from the roll of Ortho Plus I spoke about a couple of days ago, but in this case the sun was managing to peek through the cloud cover and provide a bit more light and, as a result, it’s not got the dour, dark look of some of the other pictures.
Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford Ortho Plus 80 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10.5 mins @ 20°.
Taken on 6 November 2021
A couple of photos taken in woodland beside the Chesterfield Canal, the smell of wild garlic heady in the morning air. Although I’d started my walk quite early, because of the time of year the sun had already risen quite high by the time I made these photos.
This sort of scene, with sunlight dappling the woodland floor is beautiful to look at but often makes for disappointing photographs due to the difference in dynamic range between the sunlit highlights and the much darker shadows. While the eye deals with such things without issue, film and digital sensors tend to fare poorly. Still, I took a couple of shots because I thought I might get away with it in this instance as there was more shade than sunlight. I think they turned out quite well for a consumer grade film.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Kodak Gold 200.
Taken on 31 May 2020
Steel City Snapper photography 