Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
This former Great Northern Railway (GNR) signal box has been around for quite some time. It was built in 1873 and is the second oldest GNR signal box still standing and is now a Grade II listed building.
Apparently the signal box designs used by GNR were relatively unstandardised and almost every one built in the 1870s is different in some way.
Yashica Mat 124G & Lomography Color Negative 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 1 March 2025
I took this picture literally straight after leaving the car park (my car is about 50 metres beyond the Beetle). Sometimes opportunities present themselves straight away..
Yashica Mat 124G & Lomography Color Negative 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 1 March 2025
Neepsend is a district in Sheffield that lies just to the north of Kelham Island. The River Don forms the border between the two areas.
Neepsend remains a largely industrial area, with numerous small factories and workshops throughout the area, although there is a creep of gentrification occurring and the district now also provides homes to a number of different bars, restaurants and other places of entertainment. Whether the entire area will become largely residential over time, as happened to Kelham Island, remains to be seen (a lot of the industry is still very much active whereas I think most of Kelham’s had been lost (leaving a plentiful array of old factory buildings to be converted into residential spaces, or empty land for new build homes)
Yashica Mat 124G & Lomography Color Negative 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 2 February 2025
This is another one of those pictures that I like, despite its mundane and (some might say) unattractive subject matter.
I quite like it for the fact that, in years to come, it will be a reminder that some people enjoy dipping their fries in a milkshake.
My son had his interview this lunchtime and I’m very proud of him. It’s the first interview he’s had, he’s had literally one day’s notice, plus he is neurodiverse, so these situations pose an added challenge, and the fact he went in and did it by himself is brilliant. I’m not sure if he will get an offer of a job but, having heard what is required, the role is probably not a great fit for him anyway. The experience will be valuable, whatever the outcome.
Yashica Mat 124G & Lomography Color Negative 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 2 February 2025
Today has been taken up with two main things. Firstly a trip to the local supermarket this morning to pick up some cat treats for our two moggies, although also to see if there were any post-Easter chocolate egg bargains to be had. Spoiler Alert: there were. So we now have a bunch more chocolate in the house. Our twin boys will scoff most of it, but there’s still a some for my wife and I to enjoy.
The other thing has been looking for employment opportunities for our son. He is about to finish an internship where we had been given some hope that there might be a job for him, but it now looks like that won’t be the case (nothing to do with his performance, which has been exemplary). So we are now moving to the next stage of his working life, which is slightly uncertain at present as it’s the first time he’ll be outside of educational support.
We spotted a vacancy at a new store that is opening not far from where we live which might have suitable roles, and dropped his CV in this morning, which led to a phone call this afternoon with an offer of an interview. This is great news on one hand, but having looked at staff reviews of the employer, I’m a bit concerned that it might not be a good place to work. Those parental worries kicking in again…
Whatever the case, the interview will be a good thing for him to experience, even if he doesn’t get the job, or decides against taking it. We’re fortunate to be in a position where he can live with us for as long as he needs to, which is comforting.
Apropos of nothing, a photograph of some modern housing at Kelham Island.
Yashica Mat 124G & Lomography Color Negative 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 2 February 2025
Although the weather has been nice today, I’ve spent most of it sat on the sofa with our cats, browsing the internet on my phone and reading a photobook (England Observed by John Gay. You can see a selection of his wonderful and evocative photographs here).
My dad visited this morning and we agreed to visit Newark Air Museum this week while I’m on leave – we attempted a visit last autumn, but when we arrived they had had a water outage and were unable to admit visitors!
I also checked in with my son on WhatsApp to see how our daughter-in-law was getting on in the 5k run she was doing as part of the Leeds Running Festival (which she admitted she was doing largely to get the medal that all participants receive 🙂 ).
Now I’m sat here attempting to digest the large Sunday dinner I’ve consumed (featuring a very large leg of lamb). I didn’t receive any chocolate eggs, although I don’t think I could manage any chocolate after the dinner.
I slept better lat night, thankfully. I’m not sure if my mind was just in a bit better state, or if it was a result of my tried-and-tested “eat a banana before bedtime” method of combating anxiety-caused insomnia, but I’ll do the same again tonight. Getting a decent amount of sleep makes a lot of difference to your day.
Yashica Mat 124G & Lomography Color Negative 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 2 February 2025
If you look closely at this shot, you will see a partly obscured sign with the word “raw” printed upon it. It was my intent to include the full sign in the shot, and it was completely visible in the viewfinder but, because the Yashica Mat 124G is a TLR camera, with the taking lens a couple of inches below the viewing lens, the parallax was sufficient to drop half of the sign below the top of the foreground wall. I was quite surprised that the parallax effect would have been noticeable at the distance I was from the subject.
It was out daughter-in-law’s birthday this week so we’ve been round to her and my son’s house this afternoon to celebrate, and it was nice to have a get-together with them, ours, and her immediate family. I felt pretty gloomy this morning after another poor night’s sleep, but the party has cheered me up a lot. Families are very important.
Yashica Mat 124G & Lomography Color Negative 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 2 February 2025
Of the shots from this roll of film that I uploaded to Flickr, this one receive by far the fewest likes. But I like it.
I like the bold red of the car against the graph-paper wall of the building. The red fire alarm that matches the car’s colour. The parking signs. The plant behind the frosted glass window.
Photographs are a subjective topic, aren’t they?
My anxiety persists. It’s causing difficulty with my sleep (not stopping me from falling asleep, but preventing me from going back to sleep when I wake early) It’s leaving me feeling fatigued and I keep catching myself almost nodding off while watching TV in the middle of the day. I need to find some techniques to keep it at bay but, in honesty, I think the only thing that will remove it is resolution or acceptance of the thing that’s causing it.
Yashica Mat 124G & Lomography Color Negative 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 2 February 2025
I’ve finished work now for the Easter weekend and the whole of next week, which is nice. Unfortunately, I’m also feeling pretty anxious about some stuff going on in my family. I wish I was better at dealing with anxiety. My wife worries about things too, as does everyone – especially their children’s wellbeing – but is able to avoid the worry consuming her. It’s something I envy.
I tend to be ok through the daytime, but early mornings seem to be worst, where I’ll wake with panicked thoughts that prevent me from getting back to sleep.
It’s perfectly possible that I’m being over-anxious and that I will look back and wonder what I was fussing about, but my brain has a tendency to catastrophise and I really need to find some way of dealing with this.
Sorry for the slightly gloomy post!
Yashica Mat 124G & Lomography Color Negative 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 2 February 2025
After the last few days of B&W images shot with my Yashica Mat 124G, I’m moving over to a splash of colour. These we taken on the same outing as the B&W photos.
Sometimes I have to spend some time tinkering with the colours when converting C41 films in Negative Lab Pro (yes, Kodak Gold, I’m mostly talking about you), but others often look great straight off the bat, like these vibrant Lomo CN 400 images that I’m going to share in the coming days.
Yashica Mat 124G & Lomography Color Negative 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 2 February 2025
Steel City Snapper photography 