Tag: Nikon F80

35mm · Film photography · Photography

199 Steps

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One of the landmarks and visitor attractions in Whitby are the 199 Steps. These ascend from the charming pedestrian shopping streets of the east side of the town up to St. Marys Church and, a little further on, the ruins of Whitby Abbey.

The foot of the ascent

The earliest record of the steps is from the 14th century, but they are believed to be older than this. Originally made of wood, the current stone steps were laid in 1774. It is said that they are a test of faith as climbing them to reach the church definitely takes some effort!

The steps are somewhat deceptive to climb as they are shallower than a stair you might find inside a home. This results in you making smaller movements of your legs than you might be used to which is odd and tiring. The spacing of the steps also makes taking two at a time more difficult than you would expect. There is a steep, sloping cobbled path beside the stairs which looks even more treacherous!

There are many photographs of this landmark to be found online – most of them better than mine here – but these were the pictures I got the chance to make on this visit.

Where Robin sat?

The final shot below shows the view from the wetern side of the harbour with a sculpture of some fishwives in the foreground. You can just make out the steps in the upper right of the frame where they ascend up to the church.

Fishwives

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Kodak Portra 800. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 29 July 2022.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Neigh

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Another Whitby picture today (and another that I think might have worked better in black and white). This horse is cleearly used to being fed handfuls of grass by passers by and, while I stood beside the wall, it placed its head right next to mine and let out a big, damp snort in my ear.

Following my ankle injury a few weeks ago I’ve been itching to get out and make some fresh photographs, and yesterday I took a trip into town with my wife (I’m not attempting to drive myself just yet – the consultant at the hospital advised waiting four weeks, so that is what I’ll do). It wasn’t a long trip and I didn’t walk very far, but I still managed to shoot a roll of HP5+ through the Yashicamat. I’ve developed the photos today but not yet scanned them. It was nice to take some pictures and even the developing (which is not a task I tend to enjoy) was quite a pleasant experience.

My ankle held up well, which is reassuring. Hopefully I’ll be able to get out more in the coming weeks.

Neigh

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Kodak Portra 800. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 29 July 2022.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Whitby harbour in colour and black-and-white

fishyfisharcade5 Comments

I’ve been less than impressed by the results of this roll of Portra 800 primarily (I think) because it was shot under dull, overcast conditions. The resulting images are muddy and unappealing to my eye and I’ve spent some time seriously considering converting them to contrasty black-and-white versions in Lightroom and ditching the colour altogether.

While this does give more impactful images for many of the frames, the fact that this is a colour film (and a very expensive one at that!) means I’m somewhat reluctant to do so – I might have well have just used some cheaper black-and-white film in the first place (I really wish I’d taken some B&W rolls with me but I didn’t, because I am a fool).

I’ve uploaded converted versions of the colour originals at the bottom of the post. Which do you prefer?

Walking the plank(s)
Harbour entrance

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Kodak Portra 800. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 29 July 2022.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

The arrival of the Summer Queen

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There are a trio of these yellow boats operating out of Whitby. One of them, Dash II (the smallest) operates upstream along the River Esk. The other two venture out into the North Sea, taking passengers on a short cruise up the coast towards Sandsend. Esk Belle III is the smaller of the seagoing boats, and Summer Queen is the largest. These latter two boats were a regular sight travelling in an out of the harbour as we wanderd around the town on this day.

I did wonder about cloning out the bird (I think it’s a pigeon) from the upper-right corner of the frame but, in the end, decided to give it its moment of fame instead.

The arrival of the Summer Queen

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Kodak Portra 800. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 29 July 2022.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Whitby boats

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The main visitor car parks at Whitby lie beside the boat moorings in the upper habour area and the boats seen in today’s photos were all pretty close to where we parked – I saw them as we drove in and made a point of walking past them as we headed back into the town. The weather was somewhat gloomy and overcast for most of the day and I think the roll of Portra 800 I had in the camera was somewhat wasted on the conditions.

Small boats

While the extra speed it gave was beneficial, I can’t say that it produces particularly flattering results under these conditions, at least not to my tastes. Unfortunately, the weather forecast had let me down with its predictions and we ended up with mostly overcast (and rainy) weather throughout the trip, with just a few periods of nicer weather, so I somewhat foolishly only packed colour film when black-and-white might have done a better job.

At the prow

It did turn nicer at the end of this day though, by which time I’d switched to some Superia Extra 400, so there will probably be some more pictures of these same boats to come in a future, sunnier post.

Flotilla

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Kodak Portra 800. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 29 July 2022.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Beetle bonnet

fishyfisharcade2 Comments

I guess that photos like the one posted here today are something of a cliche these days – pictures of the fronts (and rears) of cars, especially classic cars, is something that seems to have become a widespread trend. Nevertheless, they can still be interesting pictures, I feel, so please excuse another one appearing. 🙂

Beetle bonnet

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D & Fujichrome Velvia 100 (expired 2011). Lab developed. Home scanned.

Taken on 25 June 2022

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Small cars with grand names

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This little car here is the somewhat graniosely named Vanden Plas Princess 1100. It’s a model from the BMC ADO16 range of which there were multiple variants. The Vanden Plas version was at the upmarket end though, with the model sporting leather interior furnishings and a walnut dashboard. It also had a posh-looking radiator grille by way of distinction from its lower spec stablemates.

Vintage runabouts

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D & Fujichrome Velvia 100 (expired 2011). Lab developed. Home scanned.

Taken on 25 June 2022

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Hot days and gridlock

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It’s a bit of a hot day here in the UK today – with temperatures where I live nudging past 30 degrees. That’s not very high compared with other parts of the planet, but it’s high for me and the only consolation is that the humidity isn’t too bad. The forecast is for cooler weather through the rest of the working week, but then it’s predicted that it could soar to potentially record-breaking highs again next weekend.

I hope I’m not stuck in traffic…

Rush hour

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D & Fujichrome Velvia 100 (expired 2011). Lab developed. Home scanned.

Taken on 25 June 2022

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Lincoln Continental

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This big barge of a car was at the Sheffield Steam Rally when I visited. I’m not sure what year this dates from – I would guess late 70s, but I could also be out by some margin thanks to my relative ignorance of such things. It looks nice in a photograph though!

Continental
Continental 2

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D & Fujichrome Velvia 100 (expired 2011). Lab developed. Home scanned.

Taken on 25 June 2022