Over the course of the summer Sheffield has been visited by lions. Lots of lions. A whole pride of them. 300 lions, to be acurate.
Thankfully these are not escapees from a nearby zoo, but are part of a sculpture project organised to benefit the local children’s hospital, and the third such project in a decade (the first was The Herd of Sheffield, featuring elephants back in 2016, then we were visited by The Bears of Sheffield in 2021). This time we have The Pride of Yorkshire, featuring the aformentioned Lions.
In each of the three events, all the sculptures are each individually decorated and there are trails to be followed to discover them (all of them, should you be dedicated enough!). When they conclude, all the animals are auctioned off, raising money for the hospital charity. While the elephants and bears are not stood in public places any longer, it’s still quite easy to find many of them dotted around the city in their new adopted homes provided by the auction bidders, so it’s not unusual to see one stood in a shop, or atop the roof of a factory or something.
Here’s one of the lionesses stood in Tudor Square, but there are Lions and cubs to be found too. I’ve not photographed many of them (I had an idea about doing a project, but never got around to it), but another may appear on here at some point…
Nikon F80 & Nikkor 24-120mm f/4 ED VR on Fujifilm Acros II. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
One of a small cluster of chairs in the open park area at Park Hill Flats. I’ve photographed these chairs at least a couple of times before – there’s something about their stark wiriness and colours (not that you can see that here) that catches my eye each time.
This is the first time I’ve noticed that they’re actually staked to the ground though. I guess they’ve always been that way, and it makes sense given their placement in a public location, but sometimes you look and don’t see sometimes.
Nikon F80 & Nikkor 24-120mm f/4 ED VR on Fujifilm Acros II. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
At this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, one of the gardens featured a giant wooden sculpture of the goddess, Gaia, or Mother Nature and she’s often known. The sculpture featured flowing willow‑branch hair which was crafted by the aptly named artist, Tom Hare, while her leaf‑crowned face and shoulders were carved from a fallen mature tree by sculptor Tim Wood.
And now the entire artwork has been transported north to Sheffield where it will permanently reside in the middle of the Park Hill Flats complex. So, on a visit to the town centre a few weeks ago, I decided to take a detour and go have a look.
Thanks to the hot dry conditions we’ve endured this summer, some of the surrounding grass was a dry yellow, although Gaia herself was somewhat aptly surrounded by lush green growth. There were quite a few people visiting the sculpture, including some who appeared to be part of a guided tour!
The figure is part wood, and part dry stone wall, with her torso meticulously carved with intricate swirling designs.
Up close, she makes for an interesting, if very large, portrait subject.
I took a whole slew of pictures on both film and digital, but these black and white Acros II shots are my favourites, I think.
I’ve been past her again since this first visit and took more pictures, she’s a subject that will reward the photographer, I think.
Nikon F80 & Nikkor 24-120mm f/4 ED VR on Fujifilm Acros II. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
This forms part of the Park Hill Flats complex in Sheffield, a 1960s monument to brutalist architecture. The other side of one of these bridges once bore a piece of graffiti that read “I love you will U marry me?” which over time became part of the city’s cultural identity and you could buy mugs, t-shirts, and other memorabilia featuring the slogan. It even has its own Wikipedia page. When the flats were acquired for redevelopment, the developer, Urban Splash kept the graffiti and gave it a neon overlay.
Sadly, despite the hopeful message, it’s quite a sad tale.
Anyway, that’s on the other side of the bridge. This side is graffiti free.
Nikon F80 & Nikkor 24-120mm f/4 ED VR on Fujifilm Acros II. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
A few weeks ago I bought another new (to me) lens – a Nikkor 24-120mm f/4 ED VR. It was bought as a walkabout lens to use with my Nikon F80, and also the Nikon D810 DSLR that I bought to scan negatives, but which I will probably do some actual photography with as well. I believe that the lens was the kit lens for Nikon’s pro line of DSLRs and, from the reviews I read, appeared to be well regarded and sharp.
Othe than the Reto Ultrawide and Slim camera I have, it’s the widest focal length lens I own, and it’s surprising the ammount of difference between 24mm and 28mm (the widest focal length I otherwise have at my disposal), and I’ve made use of this wider angle on a good few occasions now. It does distort noticeably at the wide end though, and not in a way that’s easily rectified (on film shots, at least), but with a bit or perseverance it can be done well enough for my needs.
It’s also not a small lens and is a little unbalanced on my F80, which is quite small for an SLR, but I can put up with this due to the convenience it brings. The 24-120mm focal length is plenty good enough for most of my needs (I can bring along the 70-200mm lens if I need more reach), and it is sharp – far more so than the Tamron 28-300mm I had for a while.
It’s also a VR lens which makes it even more useful thanks to the F80’s ability to make use of the image stabilisation. It means I’m able to handhold it at pretty slow shutter speeds and still avoid camera shake.
I’ve shot a few rolls of film using it so far, and the ones I’ve developed and scanned all look good, so I’m pretty happy with it.
And what better subject for a new lens than some pylons. 😀
Nikon F80 & Nikkor 24-120mm f/4 ED VR on Fomapan 400 (shot at 200asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Perhaps the biggest outing I had during our holiday in Madeira was a trip I took to the Nuns’ Valley where the village of Curral das Freiras nestles amongst the mountains. The valley is so-named after the nun’s who retreated there as it was out of sight from the coastline and the threat of passing pirates.
I had originally planned on booking an excursion, but then found I could DIY it for much less money by simply catching a bus! I forget how much the excursion would have cost, but the bus fare was around three Euro each way, so a noticeable saving.
So, after working out which bus I needed to catch, and where in Funchal I needed to catch it, I decided to take the trip on the last day of June.
The bus took a route through the centre of Funchal before rising up into the outskirts and residential areas on the steep hillsides, often following roads that you might not expect a bus to fit – but it obviously did. From there it rose into the mountains, one moment through thick and steeply sloped woodland, then next alongside vertiginous drops to the valleys below.
While Curral das Freiras was my destination, for this trip it would very much be a case of the journey being the destination as well as, rather than going directly to the village, my plan was to leave the bus at Eira do Serrado, the location of a scenic mountain-top viewpoint. From there I would follow the mountain path 1,300 feet down to the village below.
Before I began my descent, and after a quick refreshment break in the small hotel and shop that sits at the peak, I first walked to the scenic viewpoint. On the way I met a curious chap playing an accordion and wearing a flag-bedecked hat. As I approached he asked where I was from. “The UK”, I said, and he began to sing me a song. I gave him a few Euro in thanks and asked if I could take his picture.
The viewpoint itself was both spectacular and fear inducing. An amazing view out across the mountains and down into the valley floor, albeit with a vertigo inducing sense or terror when I looked over the waist high fence to a drop of maybe a thousand feet! After (very carefully) enjoying the view for ten minutes, I made my way back down the path to the hotel area. The accordion man asked again where I was from – I clearly made little impression before!
The two pictures below were made from the viewpoint and the path back to the hotel.
Past the hotel I found the top of the hiking trail and began my descent. The trail followed a zig zag down the mountainside, but the first section ran through a stand of trees where the air was refreshingly cooler – the day of my visit featured empty blue skies and a hot sun that gradually brought more of the valley into light as the morning progressed. Part of me wished for more cloud to add some (literal) atmosphere but I guess I was lucky in a way as, while I find empty blue skies uninspiring, they were probably preferable to the low cloud I had seen enveloping the mountaintops on other days and which would have both completely obscured the view and, worse, required me to descend the path in what would effectively be fog.
The path was cut from natural rock in places, and in others paved with placed stones. Sometimes the angle was gentle, sometimes steep. There was an occasional section with a wire guard-line, but it crossed my mind numerous times that a trip or loss of footing might easily see my rapidly stumbling out of control and into nothingness.
At one stage I was a little worried that the path might take me on a precipitous looking ledge hugging a cliffside, but thankfully not. You can get and idea of my concern from the picture below.
As I descended, the village below grew from tiny specks of white to recogniseable buildings, as seen in the next two pictures. I did shoot quite a few colour frames during the hike but I’m not satisfied with how most of them look. The one below is ok though. If you look closely at the bottom right of the frame, you can see a small rest area with a bench and viewpoint about halfway down the mountainside. The next picture was taken from the rest area if I remember correctly.
As the descent continued, so the trail began to pass through more wooded areas. There was also one section with thousands of bees flying all around. Thankfully they were just interested in going about their business rather than the sweaty englishman passing among them.
I walked with another English couple during this lower stretch of the path, and it was nice to share the experience with others. I also passed at least two other couples walking up the trail from the bottom, which must be a real feat of endurance.
As I got down into the valley floor I took some pictures looking back up at the mountainside, and from where I had come. In the first picture you can just make out the hotel up at the viewpoint and the path zig-zagging below.
I’ll finish the post off with a couple of pictures I took in Curral das Freiras itself. The village is small and mostly quiet with a few touristy shops and restaurants (in one of which I treated myself to a nice piece of cake and a very welcome ice-cold drink) and is apparently famous for it’s chestnut dishes. I spent an hour or so wandering around the place, looking inside the church (which has a lovingly kept graveyard where all the graves feature an inlaid photograph of their occupants), before making my way to the bus back to Funchal.
I sat across from the couple I’ve shared the descent with, who it turned out were staying in a hotel not far from ours, although they were heading home the following day. Sadly, as I was facing backwards, I felt somewhat travel-sick by the time I arrived back in Funchal, but not enough to place a cloud over the experience.
And so we come to the end om my Madeira pictures (unless I dig out some more I like at some point). Now to get on with the rest of my growing backlog…
Olympus Trip 35 & Fujifilm Across II. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
