Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
This chap was performing some maintenance or repairs on the tyre of this engine. I’m not sure what the tyre is actually made of – I know that they can have solid rubber tyres, but this one looked to be laminated in some way and some of it peeled off in a layer as I observed. Perhaps that’s just the way rubber tyres of this sort are constructed, or perhaps it was made of some other material?
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Kodak Ektachrome.
Taken on 30 June 2019
After a hiatus (on my part) last year, I visited the Sheffield Steam Rally again this weekend. The weather was warm and sunny – in fact very warm on the Saturday, hence my choice of visiting on Sunday instead. I like nice weather, but not too much ot it all at once. 🙂
I decided to shoot the roll of Ektachrome that I bought myself just after Christmas and which I’ve been saving for a suitable occasion. The steam rally, I decided, would be suitable enough, otherwise I’d risk the film never being matched with a good enough subject and sitting in the fridge forever.
I was quite excited to shoot with it, and it was only the third roll of positive film that I’ve bought, so I loaded it into my Nikon F80 (figuring that that would have the most reliable metering of my film cameras) and set off – with a roll of HP5+ as trusty back-up.
As soon as I entered the showgrounds, I started taking pictures, but it was only when I got to about frame ten that a sudden horrible thought dawned on me… I wasn’t focusing the camera!
You see, most of my photography over the past couple of months or so has been with compact cameras (where a half-press of the shutter triggers the auto-focus), or manual focus SLRs, where it’s very obvious when something is out of focus. However, I’d made a rookie mistake of forgetting that I’d set my F80 for back-button focusing, and was instead just half-pressing the shutter to focus and then taking the shot. The reason I didn’t notice my error more quickly is that I was shooting at f/8 and the viewfinder looked to be pretty much in focus anyway – I just wasn’t checking for it snapping to sharpness when pressing the button.
As soon as I realised my mistake, I resorted to doing things properly, but I had sour thoughts about the almost-third-of-a-roll of expensive Ektachrome that I’d probably wasted. I did think about re-taking some of my initial shots, but then decided I’d take the risk that they might be ok and photograph other things instead.
I got my slides back today and, thankfully, all bar a couple of those first shots have come out focused sharply enough to be used, so I was relieved about that. I haven’t scanned the full roll (or even started on my HP5+ shots) yet, but here is one of the pictures that I have. The Ektachrome has produced beautifully saturated colours in the sunshine ( the colours on some of the more shady frames need tweaking though – especially the reds) and, in fact, I’ve actually reduced the saturation a little on this photo.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Kodak Ektachrome.
Taken on 30 June 2019
As I type this Flickr is still undergoing its site maintenance involving the moving of everyone’s accounts, pictures etc. (billions of photos and videos, and over 100 million accounts!) across to a new hosting platform. I think it was scheduled to take 12 hours, but like many IT projects, is taking a little while longer than originally planned. As such I can’t get at my photos to add them in the normal way so, instead, here’s one I’ve uploaded directly.
Note: This isn’t meant to be a metaphor for Flickr’s account migration project. 🙂
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f.3.5-5.6 AF & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 20 February 2019
“Bracing”, that’s the word we use to describe those seaside walks in bitterly cold wind.
This day however was far from bracing – it was taken back in February during an unseasonably warm period. Good old climate change, eh? At least we’ll get some nice warm days at the seaside in the middle of the winter before the sea swamps the place altogether so we can never visit it again.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f.3.5-5.6 AF & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 20 February 2019
My slide re-scanning has continued again today. Here’s a double-helping of churches from the roll (there’re a couple more on the roll too, but they’ve either not been post-processed yet, or I’ve already posted them here when I did the original flatbed scans).
The first is St. Michael’s and All Angels church at Brodsworth (this was taken from the grounds of Brodsworth Hall – there’s a gate into the churchyard, but I don’t think it’s accessible for visitors to the hall).
The second is St. Mary’s church at Boston Spa and is another phot I took after visiting the camera fair.
Nikon F70, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5 – 5.6 AF-D & Agfa CT Precisa.
Taken on 15 October 2017
Another re-scan of an Agfa CT-Precisa slide. This one taken in the grounds of Brodsworth Hall.
Nikon F70, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5 – 5.6 AF-D & Agfa CT Precisa.
Taken on 15 October 2017
A photo that’s around 18-months old now at the time of posting. It was taken at Boston Spa in North Yorkshire. They have a camera fair there several times a year, and I’d decided to visit. The morning was lovely and crispy, as the best autumn mornings are, and the light was lovely. This was my first (and so far only) roll of slide film, although that will change when I get around to shooting the roll of Ektachrome that is waiting patiently in the fridge.
Nikon F70, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5 – 5.6 AF-D & Agfa CT Precisa.
Taken on 15 October 2017
A photograph I took last December before meeting with colleagues in London.
Nikon F70, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Kodak Tmax P3200.
Taken on 18 December 2018
I noticed this building when in Wakefield recently. The symbol in the decorative pediment identifies it as a freemason’s lodge and it has attractive features as a building. A tilt-shift lens would be very useful for shots such as these but, alas, I don’t have one (nor can I justify the expense either), so the picture is stuck with the converging verticals.
I’m presuming that a staircase runs from the left to the right of the upper floor to account for the different sized windows,
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 & Arista Edu 200.
Taken on 30 March 2019
Today’s photo was taken on the same walk last week where I photographed the cows in yesterday’s blog post. This shot of the farm was taken before I got to the cows though.
I’ve passed this farm a number of times, but never stopped to see if it offered any photo opportunities. Turns out it does – I took about five photographs during this session, and there are doubtless a few more to be had – even just standing on the road that passes it.
I’m not sure if the farm is still occupied. It’s surrounded by fields that are clearly still being worked, but the farm building themselves had a decidedly quiet air about them. Maybe I just passed at a quiet time though.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 & Arista Edu 200.
Taken on 31 March 2019
Steel City Snapper photography 