Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
Quite a lot of power-line shots on this roll. Wooden poled for the most part on the first half from my Christmas Eve countryside walk. Pylons to come soon form the latter half.
Day eight of my haikus. Something a little more cryptic for today.
Red box in the mail
One-hundred-and-twenty-eight
k of memory
Pentax P30T, SMC Pentax 50mm f/1.7 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 24 December 2020
So, my first week of Couch-to-5k has taken a dip on day three where it appears that I’ve gotten myself a calf strain. I managed to walk home ok but the pain has increased since (at least when I move around) and the range of movement has reduced. Absolutely brilliant, eh?
I’m dissapointed that I will likely now have to put the running off for a while. Not because I’ll miss the activity itself – running isn’t something I can say I love doing – but because I do want to increase my fitness and, more importantly, support my son as he runs too. I’ve no idea how long the injury will take to heal before I can run again (even assuming it is a calf-strain. I’ve not spoken to a healthcare professional about it as yet, so it might be something else), but online self-diagnosis suggests it can take up to six weeks to fully recover. Bah!
Like a cramp, it felt
as I tore my calf running
Excercise. What Fun…
At present I can’t really even consider going for a walk until it heals a little as I’m moving about like a pirate with a wooden leg at the moment. I should have stuck to walking!
Here’s a flock of birds and some power lines from a few weeks ago when I was able to move around uninjured. 🙂
Pentax P30T, SMC Pentax 50mm f/1.7 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 24 December 2020
Another thin skim of snow greeted me when I awoke this morning, although it had melted a few hours later and bright blue skies appeared. Had I not been working I might have gone for a walk and made a few pictures, but that wasn’t the case. In the event, I still grabbed a couple of images later in the afternoon when I saw some of my wife’s ornaments catching the afternoon sunlight. I used the Yashica Mat with the close-up lens set. Still ten more frames to shoot though, so it may be a while before they see the light of day (well, for a second time!).
Today’s haiku:
In the USA
Georgian Democrat double
Turn the Senate blue
And to finish, another picture from the Christmas Eve walk.
Pentax P30T, SMC Pentax 50mm f/1.7 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 24 December 2020
A couple of photographs serving as a direct follow on from yesterday’s pictures of the flyover – the first taken when I was stood almost beneath it, the second featuring it as a subject.
I wasn’t sure the second would work as it was shot with the sun directly in frame. While there’s a little flaring, the Telemax’s lens has coped admirably though.
Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Kodak Gold 200. Grain2Pixel conversion.
Taken on 29 September 2020
Two more photographs of the flyover that spans the Rother Valley not far from where I live. I posted a couple of medium format shots of the same location about a week ago here.
The first shows a very similar viewpoint as the previously shot image in the linked post, albeit made on a different day and with misty conditions.
The second is taken from the western end of the field where it reaches the river and looking back to the east. I think this one works much better compositionally as the eye is led along the shaft of sunlight from bottom left, up the bridge support, along the curve of the road deck, and then – thanks to a lucky shadow – down into the field and to the electricity pylon. I’m really happy with this one.
Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 18 September 2020
Long time subscribers of this blog will know that I enjoy making photographs of power lines. It’s a fascination that goes back to my childhood, probably borne out of watching the old Play Safe public information films that were screened on the television here in the UK warning of the dangers of overhead power cables and electrical substations.
I’m not obsessed by them, and don’t go out with the purposes of “pylon spotting” or anything like that, but I find the way they traverse the landscape quite evocative and find they make for interesting photographic subjects.
The three images presented here today feature not only pylons, but the source of their power as well in the form of power stations. After I visited North Leverton windmill, I drove towards the nearby village of Sturton-le-Steeple which is adjacent to the large West Burton power station. One of the public footpaths near the village provided a great vantage point to see the (still quite distant) facility. Another station, Cottam, is visible in the distance to the south in the final of these three photos. These, and other power stations, sit beside the River Trent from which I believe they draw water for cooling.
They are impressive structures, dominating the landscape from miles around.
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 7 mins 45 secs @ 22.5°.
Taken on 25 July 2020
A couple more photos from my Dale Dyke reservoir hike, both featuring one of my regularly shot subjects: power lines.
These were the third and final shots from the roll respectively. I’m really happy with the first shot – the foxgloves add some nice, distinctive foreground interest.
I like the composition of the second image, but the foreground ferns are out of focus. I can’t remember if I’d opened the aperture deliberately to get a shallow depth of field, or if it was an accident – it’s not a shot that really benefits from a narrow depth of field if I’m honest.
Yashica Mat 124G & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8 mins @ 20°.
Taken on 22 June 2020
I had the day off work today and had planned a trip out into the countryside. Alas, the weather had other plans and the day was one of those with a solid sheet of blank grey sky. To make matters worse it also kept raining. Not proper, people-with-umbrellas rain though, but the fine, almost mist-like, rain that just hangs about in the air and gets onto every surface – especially cameras and the front elements of lenses!
So I changed my plans and drove into town instead. Today would be my first trip into the city centre since the non-essential retailers were allowed to open their stores last Monday (and only the second time since lockdown began in March!). Although early, I’d expected more people and traffic that there was – having seen pictures of crowded streets and shops in the media, I thought there might be something similar afoot – but there were very few people about. More than my previous, pre-shops-re-opening visit, but still not many – not even many people travelling into work. The largest groups of workers I saw were construction workers, of whom there were a significant number apparent around town.
Today’s trip was different to the last though in one simple way – I was uninspired. Whereas on my previous visit last weekend I saw photographs everywhere, today I saw few, and the ones I made (I shot around half a 36 exposure roll of HP5+) felt for the sake of it rather than anything I expect to be good when they are developed. Usually, shooting a full roll of film is no problems, but today I left defeated.
It was the first outing for my newly acquired Olympus OM-2 too and perhaps getting to grips with the slightly different fuctionality when compared to my familiar OM-1, had an impact on my photograph making. I’m hoping I might get to finish the roll over the weekend (and I have an extra day off on Monday too) and that the next outing will see me in better spirits.
Today’s photographs are from the dust-spotted Fomapan roll of doom that I’ve spoken about in recent posts. It took me ages to get rid of all the speckles, so I hope someone likes them. 🙂
Yashica Mat 124G & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8 mins @ 20°.
Taken on 6 June 2020
As per the title. 🙂
Pentax P30T, Rikenon 50mm f/2 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°.
Taken on 2 May 2020
Have I posted a photo of some power-lines recently? I’m pretty sure I must have – because I post pictures of them all the time!
Well here’s another one – this is the FINAL pre-lockdown photo I took, the last frame on the roll.
It’s the same field where I took the shots I posted here, back in November of last year.
Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Plus-X (expired 2008).
Taken on 22 March 2020
