Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
I quite like this little scene. I would probably have photographed it anyway, but the guy relaxing in the van just made it, I think.
Fujica GW690 & Fujifilm Pro 160NS. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 28 July 2024
I was quite surprised by the vividly saturated colours that I got with this roll of Fuji Pro 160NS. It’s not a film that I’ve shot a lot of, so my lack of familiarity might mean that my scanning process has resulted in a richer than usual output. But I like it, so who cares?
Sadly, given the film was discontinued in 2021, I’m unlikely to get to know it much better (although I do still have three rolls of it in the freezer).
Fujica GW690 & Fujifilm Pro 160NS. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 28 July 2024
One of the loudest things I heard when visiting the Haxey Feast, was the sound of the engine in this Hawker Hurricane restoration project (the other was the gunshots from the military re-enactors). The engine made a tremendous, almost painfully loud amount of noise, which you can experience to a degree in this YouTube video (I’m also in the background of at least one part of the video too – where the helicopter lands 🙂 ).
The guy who owns the aircraft is hoping to restore it to a complete – although not airworthy – condition so that people can experience what it was like to sit in the cockpit when the engine was powered up.
Fujica GW690 & Fujifilm Pro 160NS. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 28 July 2024
This old mobile library made for a colourful photograph. It’s only upon looking at it later that I realise that it’s probably not a mobile vehicle any longer. Not unless it has a very unique driving position…
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 28 July 2024
There were a number of military re-enactment groups at Haxey Feast covering a variety of conflicts. I spoke to people from a number of the groups and it was interesting to find out more about the provenance of the uniforms and equipment they wore and used. Something I learnt was that the UK city of Leeds (famous for its textile industry) was a major supplier of cloth for the confederate army to produce their uniforms. Also, that the final surrender of the American Civil War took place in Liverpool, England, when the CSS Shenandoah, a confederate warship, surrendered to the British government.
I was also treat to some grisly details of how battlefield medicine and surgery was conducted during the Anglo-Zulu war on 1879.
Portraits I made of two of these re-enactment groups can be seen below.
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 28 July 2024
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 28 July 2024
The undoubted surprise highlight of my visit to the Haxey Feast, was when a helicopter landed.
I’d overheard murmurings from some of the people with displays that it was due to take place, including one guy who was battening down the hatches for fear that the downdraft would blow away the items he had on display.
Sure enough, a number of the event stewards asked people to vacate an open grassy area and formed a loose circle to keep people back from the landing area. I checked the direction of the light and positioned myself where I though I might have the best chance of getting a shot or two – as simple as it is to use, the rangefinder on the GW690 isn’t the easiest to achieve focus with, especially on moving subjects.
Happily, both the pictures I shot came out well. The first was the helicopter’s descent. The second as it was flying away again (it only stayed on the ground for a few minutes).
For anyone interested, it is apparently an Airbus H120.
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 28 July 2024
When I visited the Sheffield Steam Rally back in June, I noticed that some people had been given leaflets for “The Haxey Feast”, another vintage rally taking place at the village of Haxey in North Lincolnshire. Having never visited this before and as it’s not too far away, I marked it in my diary.
It was a much smaller event than the Sheffield Steam Rally but it’s quite a new thing, being in just its second year (according to someone that I talked to who had a display), so it will hopefully grow in coming years, especially now that the Lincoln Steam Rally is no more.
I shot three rolls of medium format film with my Fujica GW690 while there: one Kodak Ektar, one Fuji Pro 160NS, and one Fuji Velvia 50. The pictures shared today are from the latter.
I don’t shoot a lot of medium format reversal film, although I have quite a few rolls, and it can be tricky to get the metering right. I don’t think I’ve done too bad a job here, although maybe the shadows are a little dark, but I guess Velvia 50 is pretty tricky in that regard. I’ll try to shoot more reversal film if I get a chance when the autumn colour comes through more.
There are a few other shots from this roll that look nice too, but I got some scanning artifacts and haven’t had chance to re-scan them yet.
I believe the cars are, in order of appearance: a Chevrolet Stylemaster, a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, a group of Beach Buggies (is there a collective noun for these? 🙂 ), and a Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL.
Fujica GW690 & Fujichrome Velvia 50. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 28 July 2024
Back at the end of June I spent the day in Blackpool for The Big Film Photowalk, a series of events around the country that had been organised by Analog Wonderland, the UK based film stockist. I posted about the events of the day here.
While the photowalk in Blackpool took place in Stanley Park, about a mile or so from the seafront, I parked near the town centre as my wife and her sister had accompanied me for the day and were planning on wandering round the shops while I went to take photos. As I was early for the photowalk, I took the chance to go and shoot some photos on a second camera I’d brought with me – my OM-10 – loaded with a roll of expired Fuji C200.
As I said in my other post, the weather on the day was not what I would have chosen. And while the photowalk had its share of drizzle and gloom, the beginning of the day along Blackpool’s seafront was worse, with bouts of full rain and a stiff breeze to contend with. I wasn’t confident of success, especially as I would usually prefer black and white for these conditions, not expired C41 film. Thankfully though, I was wrong, and I really like these colour pictures. They certainly capture the mood, and where there is colour in the scene, it really jumps out of the frame.
I managed to get pictures of the central and north piers, some (unused!) deckchairs, the sea defences, and obligatory shot of Blackpool tower, a shelter, a slightly pitiful looking crazy golf course, and some hardy metal detectorists on the beach.
Olympus OM-10 & G.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 on Fujifilm C200 (expired 2012 and shot at 100asa) . Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 29 June 2024
I still have a sizeable backlog of photos that I haven’t yet published on the blog (or, in some cases, even uploaded to Flickr yet). I’ve already posted quite a few pictures that I took at this year’s Sheffield Steam Rally back at the end of June, but those were all medium format shots. I also finished off a roll of expired Fuji C200 on the day as well, and the photos below are the best from that batch.
Hopefully, in the coming days, I’ll share the rest of the photos from this roll, which were taken elsewhere and turned out better than I had expected…
Olympus OM-10 & G.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 on Fujifilm C200 (expired 2012 and shot at 100asa) . Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 30 June 2024
Steel City Snapper photography 