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
Market and cathedral
Tag: Market
Behold, the market
Another of my pictures, for reasons I can’t ascertain, that found its way into Flickr Explore.
Why do my better pictures never end up in there? I don’t dislike this one, but it’s very much a quick snap.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 20 January 2024
Newark market
Two different apsect of Newark market here today. A couple of pictures from outside in the market square where the red and white striped awnings on the stalls glowed vibrantly in the bright sunshine. The third shot taken inside the market hall in a shady, but nicely lit arcade. I’m quite pleased with the interior shot given the somewhat basic (and un-changeable) settings of the camera used – fixed f/11 aperture and 1/100sec shutter speed. The shadows are a little muddy but, on the whole, it’s an appealing photograph, I think.
As is seemingly the RETO UWS’s remit, one of the shots has been photobombed by my fingertip.
Reto Ultrawide & Slim & Kodak Gold. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 18 March 2022
One thousand days
Today marks the one-thousandth consecutive daily post on my blog, having posted every day since the 1st January 2019. It feels like a milestone although, as I’ve said before back when the blog hit it’s first 1k mark (albeit non-continuous), perhaps a somewhat arbitrary one. I think the daily posting – originally intended to improve my frequency of posting by writing shorter, snappier posts, rather than infrequent but lengthier ones – has become something of a compulsion, especially as the one-thousand mark got closer.
I never started the blog to gain likes, followers, or for any sort of commercial gain – which is good as, despite having a few gundred followers (although how many of them regularly read my posts is open to question), it’s rare that I get more than a handful of like for each post, and the number of comments is similarly low – although I always try to respond when they arise. Indeed, glancing at the blog stats today, September 2021 marks one of the lowest visitor and views counts in the last three years – possibly even the lowest depending on the next few days.
Instead this blog was just for me to make some sort of small scratch on the surface of the world. It’s not particularly focused, more a case of me blurting out whatever is on my mind on any given day and showing a recent photo. This probably doesn’t help build an audience, but I doubt it will change. It will probably continue as it has – in a semi-autobiographical spew of whatever I want to talk about. Mostly regarding the pictures I made, maybe the circumstances in which they were made, and occasionally as longer-form pieces.
In some attempt to link to the set of pictures included in today’s post, I guess this place is like a marketplace for my work. But a marketplace where nothing is actually up for sale, and where there are few buyers for my own brand of whatever-it-is I do.
Let’s see if I make it to two-thousand…
One-thousand blog posts
Farting out my thoughts each day
To all who listen
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Lab developed in Xtol.
Taken on 19 August 2021
Chesterfield market
As an adjunct to yesterday’s post about the old Chesterfield Magistrate’s Court building, today I’m posting some photos of Chesterfield market, which is a mere stone’s throw away from the court (with a good arm, at least).
Chesterfield’s markets cover two outdoor areas with covered stalls, and a market hall with indoor stalls that sits between the two (the hall, with its clocktower, can be seen in the first picture in today’s set). Thursday morning features a flea market, from which I’ve had a camera bargain or two in the past. I’m not sure which days the markets are busiest, but there were a noticable number of unoccupied stalls on the day I took these pictures.
Again, these are shot on the Lloyds Paharmacy 200 expired film, so the colours are a little off and the contrast is pretty high, but it hasn’t turned out too badly all things considered.
The first and final images are my favourites.
Nikon F70, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 D & Lloyds Pharmacy 200 (expired).
Taken on 30 September 2019
The look
This photo captures a girl giving a somewhat scathing look at her colleague. Or at least that’s what you would assume looking at the photograph in isolation.
It’s something that we see regularly in the media – particularly the press and news sites that make use of still images – where an image will be chosen to suit the tone of the article in which it is used: a sneaky look on the face of a politician the paper is opposed to; the beaming faces of parents with their healthy new baby; the triumph or despair on the faces of athletes; the shadowedy, unkempt look of someone charged with criminal offences. Each representing just a fraction of a second in that person’s existence, and each picked as being the right image to match the tone of the story being told. How often would another photograph, taken just an instant before or after the one selected change the whole feel of the image?
In my photo below, it looks very much like a dissaproving glance is being given, but the reality of the situation is that these girls were smiling, laughing and apparently getting on like the best of friends. My single captured instant is just out of context. It’s a fairly innocuous example, but it goes to show that, while a picture may paint a thousand words, the slightest movement in time can result in a whole new story being told.
Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Kodak Portra 400.
Taken on 17 June 2019
Three wise men
Taken on a morning wandering around the flea market. I used my Olympus Trip 35, which hasn’t had an outing in quite some time, but it’s a lovely little camera. Unfortunately the weather was windy with frequent showers so the market was underpopulated both with visitors, and also with stalls themselves. I still managed to get a few nice shots on the day though.
That said, the Fomapan 400 negatives are quite thin – this is the third time I’ve had this (with three different cameras), so I’m not sure what’s amiss. I’ve not had any issues with the film under-exposing before that I can recall. Oh, well, back to HP5+ for my next 400 speed shoots anyway.
Olympus Trip 35 & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 14 March 2019
Interesting things
I timed this shot just right to get the chaps face in the gap between the items, but I like the stuff on the table too, from the frog golf caddy in the frock coat (with red cap), the Leica slide projector, the skull-topped canes and all the rest.
Yashica Mat 124 G & Lomography Color Negative 400.
Taken on 29 March 2018
Alfresco refreshments
I shot a roll of Lomography Color Negative 400 for the first time this week. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the results are very nice, with pleasing colour, and I’m very happy with it (especially as it only cost £10 for three rolls). I used a full roll wandering around the flea market taking photos of life around the place. The light was nice and I got several pictures I’ve very happy with, but here’s a shot of people enjoying a tea break amongst the market stalls.
Yashica Mat 124 G & Lomography Color Negative 400.
Taken on 29 March 2018
Browsing
I took a number of photos around the flea-market this week using the Yashica Mat 124G. I was hoping for a bit of a Vivian Maier-type result and, while I don’t think I’ve necessarily achieved this, I’m still pretty happy with a lot of the shots I got.
I’m using white borders at the moment which, while looking nice on Flickr, have little impact on this blog given it has a white background anyway. 🙂
Yashica Mat 124 G & Kodak Tri-X.
Taken on 29 March 2018
Steel City Snapper photography 