Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
The last of the Magpie Mine pictures, and one I took as I headed towards the nearby village of Sheldon, a way marker showing the path on which I’d just traveled, and the one I was about to take.
Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD on Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 27 December 2025
Most of the Magpie Mine site in view (shot from near the horse gin). It looks almost like a miniature here.
Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD on Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 27 December 2025
This was my third visit to Magpie Mine, a former lead mine in the Peak District national park. You can see some other posts from previous visits (where I shot 30-year-expired film, and large format) here, here, and here.
This time I was shooting my Nikon F80 with my Tamron 28-300mm zoom lens. As I mentioned the other day, I haven’t been impressed by the sharpness of the lens, and while it’s not too evident in these images, there are others from the roll that I wish had been sharper.
Magpie mine is described here as:
[Magpie Mine] was the last working lead mine in the Derbyshire orefield and is one of the best surviving examples in the UK of a 19th century lead mine. The mine has a fascinating history spanning more than 200 years of bonanzas and failures, of bitter disputes and fights resulting in the “murder” of three miners, and a Widows’ Curse that is said to remain to this day.
Thankfully there were no murders while I was there, and no sign of the widow’s curse. I did however witness another visitor’s dog race off across the fields next to the mine when a hare appeared. The hare made it’s escape hopefully none the worse for wear.
Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD on Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 27 December 2025
Today’s pictures show a replica horse gin that stands at Magpie Mine in the Derbyshire Peak District. It is located at the same spot as the original which was used to raise lead ore from the mine workings.
More pictures from Magpie Mine incoming…
Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD on Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 27 December 2025
Last week, when I had a few days off work, I decided to go and shoot some more sheets of film with my large format camera. It’s been over six months now since I first got a 4×5 camera, and in that time I’ve bought two of them. This wasn’t my original intent but, due to problems with the first camera that I was unable to resolve I was left with two options. The first, give up on large format, wasn’t really an option as I’d invested in all the associated kit that goes with the format (plus I didn’t want to give up on it). The second option was to bite the bullet and buy a replacement camera and, thanks to finding a used Chamonix model at a good price, this was the route I took. There was actually a third option too – to borrow a camera from someone, and this is what I’d set out to do before I found the Chamonix. In fact I’ve still been loaned another camera and a couple of lenses, meaning that I’ll soon have shot three large format cameras in this relatively short period of time!
However, shooting large format is not something that can be done on a whim. While 35mm and even medium format cameras can generally be picked up and taken out to make some pictures quickly and easily, large format demands much more of my time, both in terms of setting the equipment up to make a picture, and also in preparing for an outing in the form of loading film into holders using a changing bag. No grabbing a roll of film and quickly dropping it into the back of the camera with this format!
What this has meant is that I haven’t really been out with a large format camera all that many times and so I’m not well practiced in using the gear. I know what I’m doing, but I’m not very good at it yet, which means I tend to make mistakes every time I do have a session. Not major mistakes usually, but enough to reduce the quality of my work to some extent. Still, practice makes perfect, so I try to get out and use the large format when a suitable opportunity presents itself.
I had hoped that last week would be such an opportunity as the weather had looked promising, but it turned out to be less optimal than I’d hoped in the end. I decided to visit Magpie Mine in the Peak District, a place I’ve photographed before, and which I thought might be promising for some 4×5 photographs. The day had a cloudy sky, albeit one with plenty of texture and relatively frequent gaps where the sunshine would break through. With smaller formats it’s relatively easy to take advantage of the good light when it fleetingly appears. Not so much with large format as, by the time you’ve set everything up, the light has changed again. This was made even more difficult by a brisk wind that was present. While the camera wasn’t being blown about too much (although I did lose one shot due to camera shake), the darkcloth that I use to be able to see the ground glass on the rear of the camera was whipping around like a dervish and making it very difficult to check composition and focus.
While there was the occasion splash of nice light, I didn’t have the skill (or patience to wait!) to make use of it, so the shots I took at the location are a little flat. I’d planned on shooting more images while there, but the conditions (well, the wind) meant I decided to head off to somewhere in a more sheltered position.
Of the three shots posted here today, the first is probably the best executed. The focus is good across the piece and, while the lighting could be better, the subject isn’t harmed by it too much. The second picture is my facourite in terms of composition, but I wish I’d closed the aperture another stop as the distant buildings aver a teeny bit soft (although the wall in the forground and the building at middle distance are both fine). The final picture of the lone chimney, was a bit of an experiment. I wondered how it might look shot wide open at f/5.6. However all this has done really is soften the foreground grass, add a noticeable vignette and, because there was probably a bit of tilt on the front standard that I neglected to check properly due to my frustration with the wind, has thrown the top of the chimney out of focus too. Still, as I’ve already said, practice makes perfect, and every time I use the camera it’s a learning experience!
Chamonix 045N-1. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken 1 August 2023.
Back in mid-March I posted about my entry into this year’s Expired Film Day competition. I’d entered three images shot on a roll of Kodacolor Gold dated 1989. All three photographs had been made during my visit to Magpie Mine.
A couple of days ago I was alerted to the fact that one of my photos had won in one of the categories – the Lab Rat’s Choice award! I’m not sure that I’ll be able to use my prize as it’s a free dev & scan of a roll of film. In itself this is a nice prize, but as Old School Photo Lab (who kindly provided the prize) are based in New Hampshire, USA, and I’m in Yorkshire, UK, the cost of mailing a roll of film for development will likely outweigh the benefit of taking them up on their kind offer.
Whether I manage to claim a prize or not, I’m nevertheless flattered to have had my photo win in one of the categories.
By way of connecting todays photo to the words in the post, here’s a picture taken of the same location, on the same day as my winning entry. This one shot on a different camera and film though.
Yashica Mat 124G & Fomapan 100.
Taken on 16 March 2020
This week I heard that my aunt’s father died from Covid-19 infection. He was resident in a care home where ten more people including a member of staff have died after contracting the virus. There are apparently over a dozen others in the same facility showing signs of infection. Because of lockdown restrictions, his family were unable to visit other than to look in from a window, and so he had no direct contact with his loved ones when he passed away. The funeral will have restriction on attendance, and there can be no church service. They are obviously heartbroken. What would already have been a very difficult experience is made all the more terrible by the conditions in which it has taken place.
He was a WWII veteran, having fought through Western Europe from D-Day until he was injured by enemy fire in Holland, wherupon he returned home to recover. Now he has died during the current pandemic.
As the lockdown in the UK has been in place for over six weeks, and as the incubation period of the infection is up to fourteen days, this means that he has become infected since the lockdown began. At some point, most likely unknowingly, someone has come into contact with a contaminated surface or an infected person and had brought the virus into the care home where it has spread amongst the residents and staff. This fact illustrates why social distancing and proper hygiene is so important if we are to get the situation under control. The high number of deaths due to Covid-19 in UK care-homes is a tragedy.
Earlier this week, government sources gave hints that there would likely be a lifting of some of the lockdown measures announced this weekend, and some hints were given as to what these might be. The mainstream press had a field day. Headlines were written in a way that all but implied that the lockdown would be coming to an end. This, along with the VE Day holiday seems to have resulted in a considerable number of people suddenly relaxing their commitment to the lockdown rules to hold street parties. While many of these street parties were clearly described as being held in such a way as to maintain social distancing rules, it has become quickly apparent that this fell through in many cases with people mingling together like the virus has gone away. I’ve seen footage online of people having group singalongs and even a whole street of residents performing the conga. While they did appear to be two metres apart, I’m not sure this constitutes a necessary activity, even if it was 75-years since the war ended.
My fear is that we will now see a spike in infections in the coming weeks, just as things were starting to get a little better. I can only hope that more WWII veterans (and indeed anyone else) does not become infected or killed by this virus as a consequence of people’s desire to get out and celebrate. It will be a terribly irony if further survivors of WWII lose their lives as a result of people celebrating the end of it.
I don’t really have a picture to illustrate the words in my post, so here’s another from my pre-pandemic outing to Magpie Mine.
Stay safe everyone.
Yashica Mat 124G & Fomapan 100.
Taken on 16 March 2020
Standing a short distance from the rest of the structures at Magpie Mine is this replica horse gin. Horses were harnessed to the structure and their motion would turn the large wheel in order to winch material up from the mine-workings below.
Yashica Mat 124G & Fomapan 100.
Taken on 16 March 2020
I went for a walk before work again this morning and shot a few more frames with the Bronica.
One of the things I always find a little tricky with medium format cameras is focusing – specifically those with focusing screens as opposed to rangefinders. I find it easy to get the focus looking good on the screen at initial glance, and for medium / long / infinity distances, especially at smaller apertures, that’s usually fine. But when it comes to close subjects, particularly if I’m shooting wide open, then it’s a different matter.
I find that I’m second guessing myself, twisting the focus ring back-and-forth by marginal amounts, never quite sute if a fraction of a degree one way or the other is the setting that will nail perfect focus on my subject. Flicking up the magnifier, squinting at split prisms and sparkling polygons of ground glass until my eyes ache. I think it stems from a number of images where I was feeling confident of my focusing only to discover later that the negs were soft in the places it mattered.
It’s not too bad with a tripod, where I usually have the gift of time to get things spot on, but on situations like today where I was shooting handheld and at wide apertures, it’s trickier (my fault for loading 100asa film I guess). Even a slight momentary sway of my body is easily enough to spoil a shot.
Will today’s shots suffer from bad focusing? I guess I’ll have to wait until I finish the roll and develop them, but I’m certainly looking forward to the days where I’ll be able to leave the house purely for photography, carry a tripod if required, and not have to bolt the attempt to make photographs onto an exercise outing.
Today’s photographs come from Magpie Mine again. If you’ve followed my blog over the fast few months, you may find the first of the three familiar – some of the compositions are very close to those I shot on the same day with my Zeiss Mess-Ikonta and a roll of 30-year expired Kodacolor Gold.
Yashica Mat 124G & Fomapan 100.
Taken on 16 March 2020
I got up early this morning for a pre-work walk. The weather has turned nice again, although at the time I went out it was quite chilly and at points on my route there was frost on the ground in shaded areas. I decided to take the Bronica ETRSi with me in case there was something worth photographing as the camera has a part-used roll of Fomapan 100 loaded and I though I might grab a few more frames as I walked.
I took a few shots – one of the local signal box, one of some wildflowers beside a tree, and then some dew-coated cobwebs in the vegetation next to the river. After taking this last shot I checked the frame counter to see how many shots remained and was surprised to see that it still said 5, the same number that had been displayed when I set out on my walk.
Puzzlement, and concern that there was some problem or fault causing this quickly turned to realisation as to the true cause of the issue.
A couple of days ago I’d used the camera to make a still-life of some ornamental fruit that we have in a display bowl in the kitchen. As the light was dim in the kitchen, and as the film is quite slow at 100asa, I’d mounted the camera on a tripod, inserted a shutter-release cable, and then locked up the mirror before taking the shot. Or so I thought. What I’d actually done is switched off the camera’s multiple-exposure protection. The switches for this and mirror lock-up look practically identical and sit next to each other on the side of the camera body, and I’d obviously forgotten which was which.
So, as a result of my mistake, I now have a frame that has (I think) four shots exposed upon it. Maybe it will reveal some sort of wonderful happy accident, but I’m not going to get my hopes up.
After rectifying the situation I managed to grab a couple of extra shots on the remainder of my walk, although I suspect the better ones are on the ruined frame.
Today’s photo is from my trip to Magpie Mine in March. It has little to do with the content of today’s post, but was shot on a roll of the same film.
Yashica Mat 124G & Fomapan 100.
Taken on 16 March 2020
Steel City Snapper photography 