Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
Sunday has become the day where I write up my thoughts on the album I’ve been listening to this week on my other blog. As those tend to be much more wordy affairs than what I post each day about photography, Sunday’s posts here are likely to be somewhat short.
I can say, even though I’ve not written how I feel about this week’s album yet (Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden), that it’s a great piece of music.
Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 11 February 2024
I was going to post this yesterday, but it seemed somehow inappropriate to name a post “Bunny girl” given it was International Women’s Day, even though there’s no ill intent intended. It just seems a fitting title for the picture.
It’s a piece of artwork on one of the supports of the Mosborough Bypass. It’s right next to the River Rother and I’ve not walked this far along the viaduct before, having normally angled away across the washlands at this point on a walk, so I’ve not seen this piece before and don’t know how long it’s been in place. The way the light was hitting the concrete lit it up nicely though, and the Yashica Mat has rendered a crisp image.
I’m not sure that “Bunny girl” is the right title though – those look more like mouse ears or something.
Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 11 February 2024
This viaduct is a familiar subject for my photographs (and this blog) it being only a mile or two from where I live, but it’s interesting enough for me to have taken a number of pictures at the location. I fully expect that I will take more, and that those will feature here on the blog also at some point.
I like the subtle curve of the roadway on this picture, plus I’m very happy that I didn’t behead that street light when composing the shot.
Incidentally, the location ///bypass.viaduct.curve is in the wilds of Siberia if you use the What Three Words app to look up the location that shares the three words of today’s post.
Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 11 February 2024
Down on Woodhouse Washlands lives this fallen willow tree. It’s trunk is broken and splintered so that much of it lies almost parallel to the ground. But the tree is a survivor and its limbs rise finger like from its fallen trunk.
These were the first three shots from my replacement replacement Yashica Mat 124G – the one that replaced the one with the shutter problem. So far, everything seems to be working as expected with this one and the test roll I shot has delivered a bunch of pictures I like, including these.
Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 11 February 2024
A few weeks back I decided to go for a walk on the Trans Pennine Trail. I’ve walked the stretch close to where I live before, reaching as far as Renishaw a few miles to the south, but I’ve never followed it any further than that.
So, on the day in question, I decided that I would see what was down there, walking the stretch between Renishaw and Staveley and then following the Cuckoo Way on the return journey.
The Trans-Pennine Trail follows the path of an old railway along this stretch of it’s route and is relatively straight as a result. It’s also flat and doesn’t tend to get muddy at all. The Cuckoo Way, on the other hand, follows the route of the Chesterfield Canal and can be hiked all the way from Chesterfield to the River Trent – about forty five miles away as the route takes you.
The Cuckoo Way is easy to walk in many places, particularly sections where the canal still exists, but this stretch just winds through fields, sometimes with little sign of where the waterway once flowed. This particular stretch was quite muddy. Not wet sloppy mud, but the thick stuff like you find on a playing field after a game of football has been played when the ground isn’t dry. It quickly clogged up the soles of my hiking boots with it’s thick clay-like weight and took quite some time to wash off when I got back home.
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 27 January 2024
Perched inside a leaflet box affixed to a map and information board on the Trans Pennine Trail at Renishaw, there sat a tiny princess.
I’ll leave it to you to complete the story. 🙂
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 27 January 2024
About halfway along Derwent reservoir there is a tributary on it’s western bank where a side valley joins the main. It was across this part of the reservoir from the south that I noticed these trees and the reflections of their trunks in the dark water.
Because of the time of the year the sun was low in the sky and cast a shadow across the water and the foreground trees, while those a little further back caught its light. I liked the layers and contrast that this created.
Yashicamat 124G & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 9 January 2024
I almost forgot to write and post my blog this evening!
I faffed around doing stuff on the computer for a bit after work, then took a shower and headed downstairs to veg out for the evening (“veg out” actually means “be remorselessly harassed by my two self-centred cats for a couple of hours“…). I was about to take my cup of tea into the living room when I remembered.
I’m approaching my two-thousand-consecutive-daily-post milestone this year, so I’d like to try and make it there if I can. Not that it really means anything. But, yet, somehow it does…
Yashicamat 124G & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 9 January 2024
Three pictures of Derwent dam today. There was a little water over-topping the dam wall while I was there, but no sign of the cascading curtain of white water that appears when its in full flow, sadly.
The Yashicamat had no chance of getting the whole structure in frame from the available vantage points, so I opted for a couple of shots showing each of the dam’s towers, plus an extra picture of the century old sign warning of a £5 fine if you bathe in the water!
The dam is perhaps most famous for the part it played in WWII, serving as a practice ground for RAF 617 squadron, or the Dam Busters as they are better known. Because of the similarity to the dams in Germany’s industrialised Ruhr valley, it was used to practice the low-level flying needed to drop the Upkeep bouncing bombs that would breach the dams during the raid.
I took more shots at the location with my Olympus XA3, so I’ll share those too at a later date.
Yashicamat 124G & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 9 January 2024
Did it make a sound if no-one was there to witness it?
I managed to get out for an hour or so today to test my replacement Yashicamat 124G. I stayed local this time, going for a walk around the nearby Woodhouse Washlands. I was blessed by some decent light too, so if all is well I’m hoping I might get some nice pictures. I just need to find some time to develop the roll now!
Yashicamat 124G & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 9 January 2024
Steel City Snapper photography 