Tag: Peak District

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Sheldon

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The village of Sheldon stands a short distance from Magpie Mine. It’s a pretty and picturesque place, although these days slightly blighted by the number of cars parked on the streets, I think. But that’s progress, and the inhabitants have a need for transport.

Pictured below are the village pub, The Cock and Pullet, the village hall, a nativity scene including two tyre snowmen (it was just after Christmas when these pictures were taken), some cottages, and a wreath on the church gate.

Sheldon also has an interesting local story:

Sheldon has a curious tale in its history. In 1601 a duck was seen by a local resident to fly into a hollow tree and not to come out again. It gained the name from then on as the Duck Tree. Some three hundred years later when the tree was felled and sawn into planks, each plank contained the life-sized outline of a duck. The wood was reputedly used to make a mantelpiece for Greatbach Hall in Ashford.

Cock & Pullet
Village hall
Monochrome festivities
Village houses
Wreath

Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD on Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.

Taken on 27 December 2025

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Another trip to Magpie mine

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This was my third visit to Magpie Mine, a former lead mine in the Peak District national park. You can see some other posts from previous visits (where I shot 30-year-expired film, and large format) here, here, and here.

This time I was shooting my Nikon F80 with my Tamron 28-300mm zoom lens. As I mentioned the other day, I haven’t been impressed by the sharpness of the lens, and while it’s not too evident in these images, there are others from the roll that I wish had been sharper.

Magpie mine is described here as:

[Magpie Mine] was the last working lead mine in the Derbyshire orefield and is one of the best surviving examples in the UK of a 19th century lead mine. The mine has a fascinating history spanning more than 200 years of bonanzas and failures, of bitter disputes and fights resulting in the “murder” of three miners, and a Widows’ Curse that is said to remain to this day.

Thankfully there were no murders while I was there, and no sign of the widow’s curse. I did however witness another visitor’s dog race off across the fields next to the mine when a hare appeared. The hare made it’s escape hopefully none the worse for wear.

Approaching Magpie Mine
Mine behind rubble
At Magpie Mine-3
At Magpie Mine-2
At Magpie Mine
Magpie mine
Engine house

Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD on Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.

Taken on 27 December 2025

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Hill sheep at 300mm

fishyfisharcade3 Comments

Right at the limit of the 28-300mm Tamron lens I was using.

I bought this lens as a good walkabout lens. It’s compact, quite light, has a good range of focal lengths, and the vibration reduction means handholding it is very easy. Unfortunately, despite the reviews, I found it to be a bit soft, particularly at the edges of the frame.

I wondered about putting up with it for the convenience but, after some umming and aahing, decided that image quality was important to me and so traded it in against a used Nikkor 70-200mm f/4 VR lens. This lens is considerably less convenient in a number of ways (weight and size, certainly), but I’m hoping it will live up to its reputation for being very sharp. If I pair it with my cheap, but very good 28-80mm lens, then I still have most of the focal length range (it was quite rare for me to go beyond 200mm with the Tamron).

I’m hoping to finish off a roll shot with the 70-200mm this weekend, and am keen to see the results.

Hill sheep

Nikon F80, Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD on Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.

Taken on 27 December 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

A glut

fishyfisharcade3 Comments

I seem to have quite a backlog of photographs to post at present. This is mostly a good thing, and far preferable to having nothing new to put on the blog, but at the same time it can become a little overwhelming.

White Lodge, Chatsworth

While film, by it’s nature, will always have some delay between shooting and being able to publish the results (I think I’ve only once shot, developed, scanned, and published a film photo on the same day), sometimes it feels like everything I post is out-of-date. I’m always posting stuff that I photographed weeks, if not months ago.

Steps
Chatsworth bridge

Part of this is due to the way I blog. Posting at least one picture every day means I need to keep up a ready supply of images, something I’m usually ok to do – I enjoy making photographs, and enjoy seeing them revealed even more, so taking a lot of them is enjoyable and something I feel compelled to undertake. At the same time, often due to time constraints (there never seems to be enough of it!), I’ll often only post a single image at a time, meaning a roll of film can result in weeks of blog posts is I’ve had a good hit rate.

Car park attendant's hut
In the courtyard

Pretty soon I’m going to start posting pictures shot with a Kodak H35N half-frame camera – which gives at least 72 photos from a 36-exposure roll – so I’m going to have to clump those together or it will be autumn before I’m done.

Aqueduct

I think some of my perceived problem arises from the fact that I have a tendency to collect (hoard!) things given the opportunity – maybe some ancient instinctive mammalian behaviour coming through – and this includes photogrphs. Whatever the case, I think I’m going to have to fight my instinct to save things, and push out more photos when I’m in this situation, which is why this post contains a bunch of pictures all taken during a hike from Baslow to Chatsworth house. Ideally I would have written a post about the hike, but instead I’ve spent the time on this outpouring. 😀

At the edge of the pond
Hunting Tower
On the path to Chatsworth House

Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 for 8 minutes @ 20°

Taken on 25 January 2025