Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
This scene was photographed somewhere in Knaresborough, although I can’t remember precisely where (and my XA3 doesn’t do GPS tagging!). Anyway, I liked the way this house looked squashed between the two other buildings. The road-sign, wiring, and planter add a bit of interest too.
Down the narrow path
A house is squashed in between
Its foreground neighbours
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 26 May 2021
A couple more photographs from our damp, grey day in Knaresborough. The town centre isn’t particulalrly large but, like many market towns, it has an appealing selection of independent stores which are a refreshing change form the same branded chains you tend to find taking over larger towns and cities.
When in Knaresborough
We came across a pie shop
And treated ourselves
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 26 May 2021
The railway viaduct at Knaresborough carries the line to Harrogate across the deep valley containing the River Nidd. It opened in 1851 and cost £9,803 (which equates to around £1.4m today – a figure that seems nonetheless quite low. I wonder how much labour and other costs would otherwise inflate a modern day similar construction?). The viaduct had originally been intended to open three years earlier but it collapsed shortly before completion necessitating a complete re-build.
Across the river
Carrying passengers to
Harrogate and on
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 26 May 2021
Even the Women of Steel statues in Sheffield city centre are taking precautions. Well, one of them is at least. The one on the left is showing blatant disregard for social distancing guidelines while not wearing a mask. Perhaps the anti-vaxxer movement has even found a hold in the staue community…
Finding some humour
In a public health crisis
You have to laugh, eh?
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 16 May 2021
The branch of Debenhams shown in today’s post has been in Sheffield since 1973 when it replaced Paulden’s department store. It closed for good (along withe every other branch of the store) in May 2021, the mandated closure of non-essential retail businesses due to the Covid-19 pandemic hammering the final nail into its coffin.
It marked a double-whammy for Sheffield as there were not just one, but two seperate branches of Debenhams in the city. The one shown here at the top of The Moor, and another, more recent branch, in the Meadowhall shopping mall.
There are not many
Department stores left in town
I hope some survive
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 16 May 2021 & 23 May 2021
The John Lewis department store in Sheffield can trace it’s history back to 1847. It was originally a silk mercer and hosier founded by brothers John, Thomas and Skelton Cole and traded under the name Cole Brothers. The Cole Brothers business was sold to Selfridge Provincial Stores in 1920 which was itself then bought by John Lewis during the Second World War.
The store continued to trade under the Cole Brothers name in Sheffield and moved to new premises in Barker’s Pool in 1963. The store expanded further when the former primitive methodist chapel, Bethel Chapel, which sits across the road from the main building on Cambridge Street, was purchased to house the offices. Later, these secondary premises would house the toy and sports departments. The store branding has now been removed, but the upper floors of this building can be seen in the image below.
In 2002 the store was formally re-branded to John Lewis. In 2021 it was announced that the store would be closing permanently. The main entrance to the building is covered with messages from staff, customers, and Sheffielders recounting memories of working in and visiting the store and lamenting its loss.
Hearts on store window
A lament to memories past
Working and shopping
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 16 May 2021
A quick post today as it’s almost time for our Saturday-night movie – we’ve been watching the whole MCU series in release order for the past few months, one movie per week, and are now almost at the end – just Avengers: Endgame tonight, and then Spider Man: Far From Home next week and that’s all twenty-two viewed in sequence. Then we’re done until Black Widow gets it’s belated release in a couple of months. We’ve also had a Chinese takeaway and I’m feeling stuffed to the gills with all manner of dishes.
Anyway, here’s a photo of a small passageway in the centre of Sheffield that I’ve never noticed before. I always presumed it was an entrance to the office building beneath which it passes, but it’s actually a thoroughfare!
Lots of Chinese food
Now I’m ready for Thanos
And his comeuppance
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 16 May 2021
I’m still in my “don’t feel like posting” mood today, although not so much as before. I didn’t have an extra-long day at work today, as with the previous two, plus the report I had to deliver has now been sorted and presented, so that’s out of the way and off my mind to a large degree (although there’s still further work to be done as an outcome). I don’t think the warm weather we’re having at the moment is helping much either, even though it’s not unseasonably hot or anything, rather we’ve had a run of colder-than-expected temeratures and now it’s bounced back to normal it feels like a heatwave in comparison.
The weekend beckons though, and while the usual chores are waiting to rob me of my time (the grass needs cutting again) I should have enough time to at least try and relax and do something I enjoy. This weekend, if the sunshine holds, that will hopefully include a walk to try out some expired Velvia 50 that I have four rolls of. This will be my test roll and give me a good idea of how the film performs given it’s age and give me confidence (or not) as to it being useable. I have some Sensia 100 received from the same person and the first roll of that looks fine (although I haven’t scanned it yet).
Anyway, I’m supposed to be averse to posting at the moment, so I’d better bring things to a close with some photographs. A couple more from my XA3 test roll.
The first photo is looking up to the large block of concrete that is the O2 Academy, but which will always be the Roxy nightclub to people of a certain age. It sits atop a large NCP car park and, while not to everyone’s taste, is quite a distinctive structure.
The second shows a much older building in the shape of the NSPCC building. It’s surrounded by more modern structures, but the curve of the block-paved roadway leading up to and around the building makes for a nice image.
Drinking and dancing
Loud music and toilet floods
That allright f’yers?
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 16 May 2021
After yesterday’s grumble about not wanting to write a blog post, I’m in the same boat again today. Still at work finishing off a report I need to present tomorrow. The hard part is done, but PowerPoint is dedicating it’s efforts to slow my progress by making seemingly simple tasks time consuming and frustrating.
I’m writing the blog to take a break, so please enjoy a photograph of Pond Street bus station (or “interchange” as I believe it is now named), in Sheffield.
WordPress seems to be on it’s only little mission to perplex me at the moment too. For the last week or so every time I post a new blog entry I get a message congratulating me that I’m “on a streak“. I expect today I’ll get one letting me know my streak is now at 892 days of continual posting. I’ve no idea why this has started, when it will decide I realise and stop bothering me, or why just-under-two-and-a-half-years of continual posting is the time to begin telling me about it.
Why do things happen?
It’s often a mystery
Or a cosmic joke
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 16 May 2021
I really don’t feel like writing a blog post. A busy day at work and all I want to do is chill out, but my daily posting regime means I won’t allow myself to evade the blog. The fact that I’m adding a haiku to every post this year is an extra unwanted bonus on a day like this. It’s all of my own making of course, and no-one is forcing me to write a new post every day, but sometimes I really fancy a day off from it. The issue with doing so is that then the run is broken. What would then stop me from taking a day off every time I didn’t feel like it (which happens on a pretty regular basis)? I suspect that any sort of break would be a straw to break a camels back and my frequency of posts would fall off a cliff.
But hey, look, I managed to get a post out of moaning about not wanting to post anything! Winner winner chicken dinner!
Anyway, here are two more “test” photos from the little XA3.
I can’t be bothered
To try and write a haiku
Here’s one anyway
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 16 May 2021
Steel City Snapper photography 