Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
I made this picture on the day I went into town to have my laptop rebuilt. Unfortunately the re-build was a complete failure and a waste of my time but I did grab a few pictures on the way. This was a vey quickly grabbed shot as I liked the way the people positioned between or against the pillars.
Back to black and white
After a set of colour
Makes for a nice change
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 4 October 2021
As the weekend draws closer, so does the dread job of emptying my office ready for it being decorated. While much of the prep work has been done (including carefully packing cameras into boxes), the actual main task remains. I’ve even gone out and bought a sack barrow in oprder to make the job of moving bookcases a bit easier. I would have hired a barrow, but the cost for a week’s hire was only a little less than buying one brand new so I figured I might as well do that instead. That way I can use it as long as needed and I can also sell it on afterwards and hopefully get a chunk of the money back.
Anyway, another diary-type post, and little in the way of photography talk. My apologies if this isn’t anyone who happens to be reading’s sort of thing – I’m hoping I might find some small break one day next week to actually go out and make some new photos and perhaps talk about that. Otherwise, I think my blog might need to run on archive pictures for a while.
When will come the day
When all I have to do is
Simply please myself?
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 4 September 2021
Who might this be stood beside a Sunbeam with an unusual “protrusion”?
Why it’s none other than “Jamesh” Bond in his Sean Connery guise…
What is protruding?
Why it’sh nothing but his gun
What elshe could it be?
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 4 September 2021
I thought I’d post something that reflects the times. Yes, that’s right, that IS an Only Fools and Horses themed truck you see!..
Apologies for the naff post. I’m in the throes of prepping my office to be redecorated next week which is involving lots of effort – basically every piece of furniture needs to be taken out as it’s having a new floor laid at the same time, so I’ve spent hours carefully packing things away with the lurking knowledge that I will have to reverse the whole process next week. On top of that, we’re also having the other upstairs rooms decorated and re-carpeted the same week – plus the staircase. <sob>…
Re-decorating
Five syllables full of threat
Of stolen free time
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 4 September 2021
It’s been a lllooooonnng time since I watched the movie Private Benjamin – it was most likely as a VHS rental sometime in the 80s, where I remember a bedraggled, helmet wearing Goldie Hawn peering out from the box on the video shop’s shelves. As a result I have no idea if a truck the same, or similar to this one featured in the film, or if the owner named it by some other association. It’s an impressive looking vehicle whatever the case.
In VHS days
Persusing the shelves of films
For that night’s viewing
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 4 September 2021
Here’s me, some other people, and a bunch of other old cars reflected in the shiny boot of this Lanchester.
Shine like a mirror
Reflections of the world appear
In the bodywork
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 4 September 2021
I was quite pleased when I came across this set of Raleigh pedal-bikes recently. I was the owner of two of the models seen in the picture – the Budgie (at the front), and the Chopper (third one along). Despite having the Budgie first, I never progressed beyond the use of stabilisers with it, and it was on the much larger Chopper that I actually learnt to ride a bike. I think at the time the Chopper was still a bit too big for me, but I had one anyway (2nd hand initially, and later a brand new one for Christmas one year).
I learnt to ride it when one of the bigger kids on the street took me out with it. Promising to hold the back so it wouldn’t tip over while I got my balance he proceded to let go as I rolled down a hill on it. It was a ride-or-die type situation, and I rode.
I never had a Tomahawk, which can be seen nestled between the other two bikes in the photo – although one of my friends did, if I remember correctly. It was like the kid brother to the chopper, sharing the same large rear wheel / smaller front wheel design, but on a smaller scale and lacking the three gears of its sibling.
Carefree times gone by
We would ride our bikes all day
Then back home for tea
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 4 September 2021
I found this scene to be somewhat sinister, perhaps a hangover from growing up under the shadow of a potential third world war during the 80s. The mannequin with its gas-mask and rubber gloevs reminiscent of a scene from countless post-apocalyptic dramas.
The title of today’s post is nicked from the 2000AD comic strip, ABC Warriors.
The place I grew up
Was the scene of the film “Threads”
‘Twas scary as hell.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 4 September 2021
I think the flag really makes this picture. Without it it would have been much of a muchness, especially with the uninspiring sky.
Fly the Stars and Stripes
From a Jeep in a green field
Wartime memories
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 4 September 2021
The owner of this little Fiat 500 has added a few humerous signs to their vehicle.
The car and the “Parking for Italians only” sign remind me of the time my wife and I (well, it was still before we were married back then) visited Rimini on the Adriatic coast of Italy. It would have been the best part of three decades ago now, which seems incredible!
Anyway, one of the things I noticed when there was the number of cars with dents, scrapes, and prangs of one sort or another. It seemd not a sigle car remained unscathed, like they’d been used as bumper-cars.
So the “Parking for Italians” sign conjures an image of some driver nonchalantly ramming his car into a space at the side of the road, shunting aside other vehicles in order to fit.
I can’t say I noticed many damaged cars when I visited Sorrento a few years ago, so maybe it was just the drivers in Rimini.
This tiny Fiat
Has escaped the scrapes and dings
Witnessed in Rimini
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 4 September 2021
Steel City Snapper photography 