Tag: Medium Format

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Vintage sidings

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This is the railway station at Elsecar Heritage Centre. It forms the departure point for trains running on the Elsecar Heritage Railway, the only heritage line in South Yorkshire. At this time of the year the line runs “Santa Specials” where you are able to enjoy a trip on a train (consisting of vintage carriages usually pulled by steam locomotive) and the children are visited by Santa who gives them all presents during the journey (adults get a hot-chocolate or a mulled wine). While my own children are too old for such things now, I have fond memories of taking them on these trips when they were younger.

There was no sign of the steam loco on the day I took this and the station itself was closed, so this photo was taken through the gates at the level crossing just beyond the station. Fog and mist always adds a wonderful quality to photos, I think.

I took an almost identically composed picture with the Zeiss Mess-Ikonta just before this one. That’s a nice photograph too and much sharper due to the Zeiss glass, but I think the Holga shot just pips it to the post. Maybe because it’s more contrasty – the Holga’s single shutter speed and limited aperture control largely dictates the final exposure of the image, and I think this slightly darker one wins out in that respect. The Holga’s vignetting and soft edge focus also works very well to draw your eye into the frame, which is often an attractive compositional feature.

FILM - Vintage sidings

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 30 November 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

At the edge of the reservoir

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This photo was taken shortly before the picture of the flying gulls that I posted yesterday. It’s one of several I took (this one and yesterday’s with the Zeiss Mess-Ikonta, and the others with the Holga 120N).

There were a significant number of birds present. Most of them were out on the water as I approached, but they’re obviously used to being fed by people as, as soon as I appeared, the whole lot of them swam or flew straight to the shoreline and right up to my feet. They then all flew away suddenly in a cacophany of flapping wings when a lady with a dog turned up. As soon as they saw she had a big container of food for them they soon came back though, completely ignoring the dog.

I nearly had a mishap while taking these. There was a “No Swimming signpost that I thought might make a nice image, but the muddy floor was extremely slick underfoot and I almost went down on my back when my feet slipped. In the photo, the floor looks like a gravel surface, but this is misleading – it’s actually a thin layer of slippery mud with leaves dotted through it. Thankfully, my ninja-like reflexes saved the day.* 🙂

Both this and yesterdays photo both managed to find their way into Flickr Explore this morning, although the one with the flying gulls dropped from the list later on.

FILM - Reservoir's edge

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 30 November 2019

* Ninja-like reflexes = lumbering middle-aged bloke who got lucky this time.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Autumn bandstand

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I visited the town of Barnsley on Saturday. There are three photo exhibitions currently on show at the Barnsley Civic that I wanted to see. The one that attracted me initially was Broth Tarn, a collection of gritty northern street photography by Sean O’Connell. It was featured in The Guardian newspaper recently and looked to be right up my street. O’Connell has an Instagram feed that features his work here.

The other exhibitions were Barnsley Markets 1982 – 1987 featuring photographs by Harry Brooks taken in the 1980s of, you guesed it, Barnsley Markets, and North: Fashioning Identity  which explores nothern identity and fashion which features work by many photographers, including Peter Mitchel and John Bulmer. While the latter exhibition wasn’t my prime reason for the visit, I very much enjoyed the experience (and took a few photos while exploring the photos and displays).

While I’ll likely be publishing some of these photos, this is pretext to today’s pictures which were taken later in the day when I stopped off at Elsecar Heritage Centre on my journey home. By this time, despite the lovely early morning sunlight at the start of my trip, a thick fog had descended across the entire region, and fog’s not something I like to miss if I get the chance, so I set off to get some more images before I headed home.

Across from the heritage centre is a park and Elsecar Reservoir, and in the park is a bandstand. I loved the way it looked in the fog, backed by misty skeletal trees and flanked by empty benches. I’m a Stephen King fan, and the scene evoked the bandstand in the fictional town of Castle Rock where a terrible event takes place in the novel The Dead Zone.

As well as the Zeiss, I also had the Holga with me and took further pictures with that, so they might turn up in a post in the coming days too.

FILM - Castle Rock evoked

FILM - Late autumn atmosphere

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 30 November 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Evergreen (or orange)

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Here’s a tree that I photographed on the Longshaw estate while on my Peak District walk last weekend. It’s a conifer of some sort, but it’s needles are a lovely orange colour, making it distinctive amongst the surrounding trees. It has a lovely sloping trunk which gives its canopy a very attractive shape.

FILM - Evergreen

I’ve photographed the tree previously a couple of years ago and that picture can be seen in an earlier blog post.

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Shanghai GP3 (expired).

Taken on 22 November 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

A6187

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This is the A6187 road. It runs thirteen and a half miles from Fox House Inn on the outskirts of Sheffield (close to where this photo was taken), to the village of Castleton – famous for it’s caves and Blue John.

The section here veers in from the left where the trees are, crosses Burbage Brook and angles up towards Surprise View carpark – which is just beyond the birch woods in the middle -right. Shortly after that the road takes a 90-degree turn to the right and decends into Hathersage and the Derwent Valley.

FILM - A6187

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Shanghai GP3 (expired).

Taken on 22 November 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Packhorse bridge

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This packhorse bridge spans Burbage Brook below the ancient hill fort of Carl Wark in the north-eastern Peak District National Park. The bridge is grade II listed and dates to around 1750. The bridge still gets regular use by hikers as the only span across the brook between the A6187 to the south and Ringinglow Road to the north.

FILM - Packhorse bridge

FILM - Next to the pines

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Shanghai GP3 (expired).

Taken on 22 November 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Outdoor manufacturing

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Today’s post shows an abandoned millstone on the moors near Mother Cap.

These stones were all carved by individual masons who were capable of producing around 16 pairs of stones per year.

The market for these stones collapsed when white bread became popular in the mid 18th century. The gritstone that these are carved from would turn the flour grey, so french millstones that didn’t have this effect began to be used instead.

When their business disappeared, the masons fought back by destroying the French stones until eventually the military were brought in to put a stop to it.

The millstone lives on however as it is now the official symbol of the Peak District National Park.

FILM - Up above the birches

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Ilford Delta 400.

Taken on 22 November 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Murky moorland days

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This photo was taken on the edge of a small abandoned quarry, up on the moors near Over Owler Tor. It’s likely that gritstone was quarried here for the manufacture of grinding wheels and the like. You can’t see the quarry in the shot – the large boulder is atop the opposite side – but there was a significant drop just in front of my tripod.

The weather was gloomy, misty and damp on the day. Not what you’d usually get excited about, but I’d booked a day off for the trip out a few weeks in advance and had little foreknowledge of the conditions (although, it being November in the UK, I should have had a good idea). I did consider just staying at home, watching TV and reading books, but pushed myself to go out – I’d only have regretted it otherwise – and was glad I did. The conditions were still far from ideal, but the murk and low cloud are atmospheric in themselves and much better than the blanket of featureless flat grey that I’d seen when I got up that morning.

FILM - Atop an abandoned quarry

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Ilford Delta 400.

Taken on 22 November 2019