A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about how I’d gone out for a spot of photography as a break from all the renovation and decorating that has been going one, but then forgot to take my tripod with me.
Today’s photograph was made when I realised what I had done. Instead of a medium format picture of this scene, I used my XA3 which I had thankfully taken along too. Although the day was dull and without much in the way of good light, the HP5+ in the XA3 was being pushed a stop to 800asa, so gave me good leeway in the conditions.
I’m not sure how a 6×6 medium format version of this scene shot on Ilford Ortho Plus would have looked, but this HP5+ version came out nicely.
Sometimes a mistake Can lead to good things instead Of disappointment
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
An iconic symbol of traditional British seaside resorts, the chair in this photo was nowhere near a beach – it was for sale on a stall with a wide array of memorabilia and brik-a-brak.
I like to look at stalls and shops selling this sort of stuff. Occasionally they’ll have something I’m interested in purchasing (camera gear probably), but they are also a treasure trove of nostalgia and unknown stories. Wher did this deckchair come from for instance? Was it taken from a seaside beach at some point, or was it purposely bought for someone’s garden, or perhaps to take on days out so the cost and hassle of hiring a chair might be avoided? Similarly the Bahamas calendar hung up beside it? Who bought it? When did they travel there? How did it end up on this stall? (although I fear I know the answer in most cases…).
Often you will find children’s toys, whether abandoned as they grow out of them, or perhaps lost, like something from a Toy Story movie. Sometimes things that you might expect no-one would buy, such as the plastic radiotherapy mask that was also on this stall – whoever that belonged to, I hope they discarded it as part of a full recovery.
When I was a child I would watch Bagpuss on TV. For those unfamiliar with the show, it was a children’s programme about an antique shop owned by a girl named Emily. Within the shop were a number of children’s toys including stuffed animals, dolls, carved wooden bookends, a “marvellous, mechanical, mouse organ” and the eponymous Bagpuss himself, a pink and white saggy old cloth cat. In each episode, Emily would bring a lost item to the shop and the inhabitants would awaken (“When Bagpuss wakes up, all his friends wake up”!) and they would examine the item, someone would tell the charming tale of it’s history, and it would be mended (by the mice) and placed back in the shop window so that it’s owner might find it again. It was made by a British animation studion called Smallfilms who made a number of similarly nostalgic and charming shows. The creators of the shows were Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate, both of whom are sadly no longer with us, but whom countless grown-up children carry a small fond part of in their memories.
Stalls such of this always remind me of Bagpuss a little.
A saggy cloth cat Brings back memories of youth Now I’m saggy too
Yashicamat 124G & Shaghai GP3. Lab developed in Xtol.
Still on the photos of vintage cars and the like made during my recent trips to a couple of traction / vintage rallies.
Today a 1952, series 62 Cadillac Coupe. I know this because it says so on the car’s license plate. 🙂
Once again, some very nice results from the pushed Shanghai GP3. Unfortunately more dust spots than normal, but I always seem to find this when I have lab developed film – the rolls I develop at home have far less dust surprisingly (although they do tend to suffer much more from drying marks).
No pink Cadillac This one was rusty and worn Perhaps on purpose
Yashicamat 124G & Shaghai GP3. Lab developed in Xtol.
The three people in today’s photos caught my eye as I wandered around the collection of classic vehicles at the Smallwood Steam Rally last week. It was the tall stovepipe hats that attracted my attention initially as they could be seen from a couple of rows of cars away.
When I reached them they had all sat down for a breather beside a large trailer / RV. Rather than attempt a candid shot, I asked if they would allow me to make a portrait, to which they kindly agreed. I think the Yashicamat helped in this – TLRs are quite the attention grabbers in a way that a regular SLR or rangefinder probably wouldn’t be.
The photo is on Shanghai GP3, but shot at 200asa and push-processed. One of the other people at the rally with us that day had said it was his favourite film shot this way, and the results are pretty nice. Almost with a Fuji Acros look to them.
It was difficult to find developing times to push the film (at least with the developers I had to hand). While I found some suggested times, there was some variance depending upon where I looked. The other option would have been to use the standard 1.5x normal developing time for pushing a single stop. In the end I decided to take them to my local lab rather than risk messing things up – I thought I might have some nice pictures on the roll, plus it had been a 3-hour round trip to get to the rally, and I didn’t want to lose the photos.
The negs were a little on the thin side, but scanned really nicely.
Once upon a time Engineers would wear these hats When building marvels
Yashicamat 124G & Shaghai GP3. Lab developed in Xtol.
Continuing with an irregular theme of churches that I photograph without ever using them for anything else…
This is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon church not too far from Chesterfield town centre and I usually pass it if when visit the town. It’s a modern building, but looks great when it catches some nice light.
Across the road from the Mormon church is Christ Church, a building I didn’t even realise was of religious use until I stopped to photograph it when I saw how it looked in the morning sun. According to Google the main building is a parish centre rather than a church, although the entrance at the south side of the building is clearly labelled as Christ Church, so perhaps it’s multi-purpose?.
A couple of pictures of The Hub, home of Sheffield University’s Student’s Union. This was a museum – the National Centre for Popular Music – when it was originally opened in 1999. It closed a little over a year later due to lack of visitors (including myself).
The local lab that I use for developing has re-opened. Well, in actual fact it opened weeks ago, but I’ve only just spotted that the walk-in reception has now opened again too, meaning I can drop off and collect films without faffing about paying (and waiting) for postage.
Given I’ve been developing my black and white film at home since the lockdown took place, it’s likely that I won’t use them as much as I used to, but today I had a roll of Provia 100F to get developed – I don’t have the chems for E6 film, not do I really want the faff of the temperature control involved. I also had a roll of HP5+ that I was going to develop myself but, as I won’t get the chance until after next weekend, I decided to take the lazy option and pay for it to be devved on this occasion.
I’ve not scanned either roll yet, but the Provia shots look nice and, while I’m not an expert at reading negatives, the HP5 shots look good too – something I’m pleased about as I took a few shots without realising I’d accidentally knocked my light-meter’s ASA setting to 800!. I’ll try scanning both rolls with Vuescan on my Epson this week to see how they compare with my usual Epsonscan process.
Today’s photo is as hot of a building in the city centre. I liked the play of sunlight on the windows. It’s one of a number of photos I made with the 28-70mm Tamron Adaptall lens that came with the OM-2n when I bought it, but it’s quite soft in comparison with my Zuiko lenses, so I think I’ll sell it on. It hasn’t fared too badly with this scene though.
In recent years there have been a significant number of cat cafes open in the UK. These are regular cafes, but home to several cats. The idea being that you get to enjoy a coffee and some cake while watching, stroking and (if they’ll let you) cuddling the cats. You usually have to book a place as they’re very popular and entry to the premises is controlled through an airlock-style double door system to prevent mass escapes.
As with so many other things however, the cat cafes have been hit by the pandemic and lockdown. While some may be starting to re-open now, when I passed this one a few weeks ago it was still closed for business and this little lady was looking forlornly from the window.
As Lightroom and Photoshop have decided that this extremely hot and humid day would be the perfect time to test my patience by stealing all my PC resources thus making even the simplest copy-and-paste action into a chore, this will be a short post (it took nearly 40mins to back up the catalog! Why! Why do this to me today!!!). If you don’t see any more for a while it’s because my PC has met with an unfortunate accident and fallen out of the window!
Steel City Snapper photography 