Trafalgar Warehouse

June 25, 2020 fishyfisharcade4 Comments

It’s extremely hot anf muggy here today. Despite having a fan blowing air all day, working hasn’t been much fun. As a result, I’m going to keep it short today so I can enjoy the bliss of a cool shower!

A couple of photographs of Trafalgar Warehouse near Sheffield city centre, a former warehouse building dating to the1930s which now serves as an events venue (presumably closed at present due to the pandemic).

There are 136 glass blocks visible in this next picture, in case anyone is remotely interested. 🙂

Olympus OM-1, F-Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 14 June 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Pandemic scenes #12

June 24, 2020June 24, 2020 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

14 June was the day before the reopening of non-essential retail stores in the UK. Signs were apparent in windows, both those of retailers re-opening on the 15th, and also those who would remain closed for now. Debenhams, a UK department store, was one of those re-opening it’s doors and there was a sign in the window of it’s cafe area (although I don’t think that this part of the store will resume business just yet).

Elsewhere, there are still signs of the contruction project to renovate and re-develop part of the town centre into a new “retail quarter”. I wonder how the impact of the pandemic will affect the plan, particularly if retail is slow to return to previous levels (if it ever fully recovers)?

Olympus OM-1, F-Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 14 June 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

A door for disinfectants

June 23, 2020 fishyfisharcade7 Comments

While walking around the eerily empty town centre a couple of weeks back, my route took me behing the town hall building. There I noticed a door which looked like it might make for an interesting photograph. The door itself is labled “Town Hall” via a plaque afixed to the wood, but carved into the masonery on the lintel above the entrance is the word “Disinfectants”. In all my years of living here in Sheffield, I’ve never noticed this before.

A quick bit of searching online reveals that this dates back to the Victorian period and formed part of a strategy to rid the city of the disease and vermin which would have been rife in some of the slum conditions that existed at the time in industrial cities. As the poorest members of society would not be able to afford the cost of purchasing disinfectants themselves, these would be given out by the local authority via this entrance to the town hall building.

Olympus OM-1, F-Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 14 June 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Pandemic scenes #11

June 22, 2020June 23, 2020 fishyfisharcade6 Comments

I had wondered if I might have come to the end of this series of pandemic-related photographs given the relaxing of the lockdown here in the UK, but I’ve got a few new images of scenes in the new, post-lockdown world.

The weekend before last was the final one before non-essential retail was allowed to re-open on the 15 June, so I took a trip up town to see how things looked before the shops returned to life.

The town centre was largely empty, with the largest groups of people I noticed being construction workers and homeless folks. It was a little eerie and the weather – dank and grey – felt more akin to a winter’s morning than one approaching the summer solstice. There were pigeons in the Peace Gardens and I wondered if they’ve been forced to work harder for their dinners given the lack of humans feeding them or dropping scraps?

The city has been given new signage outside some shops (although it seemed somewhat hit and miss as to which shops did – it certainly wasn’t all of them), and benches and the like feature signs requesting they not be used, or to keep your distance from others.

I’ve made a couple more trips since this one (and still have more pandemic-related photos from this roll yet to upload), so I guess this series will continue for a while yet.

Olympus OM-1, F-Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 14 June 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Garry Winogrand and wonky veg

June 21, 2020 fishyfisharcade1 Comment

My favourite photographer’s quote originates from Garry Winogrand: “I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed“.

This quote pretty much encompasses why I make many of my photographs. I’ll see something, be it a scene or an object, and I’ll be inspired to see how my camera will render it as an image. How will the lens make it look?; What if I use a different aperture or focal length?; What about the film I’m using – how will it render the contrast / grain / light / colour? etc.

I’ll still make pictures of more obvious, traditional compositions, but even then the impulse is still the same – how will it look as a photograph? It means that pretty much anything might be a suitable subject for a photograph to be made, whether a beautiful landscape, or a dirty, rainwater-filled plastic cup left on a window-ledge after someone’s night out. Anything can catch my eye. Given that all my photos are made with an audience-of-one in mind – namely myeself – everything is good. I’m sure that some people will wonder what the hell was I thinking when I raised the camera to my eye, but all that needs to be understood is that I saw a photograph that, to me, was worth creating.

Today’s photgraph falls firmly into this remit. The first shot on a roll of HP5+ I shot last weekend, depicting the box of “wonky veg” that was sat in the window of a ground-floor flat close to where I’d parked my car. The rising-sun motif, the grain of the wood, the Pepsi can, and the slightly dirty window all caught my attention.

This is the first roll of film I’ve pushed and then home-developed, and the Ilfotec DD-X has done a great job.

Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 14 June 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Figures in a gallery

April 14, 2020 fishyfisharcade4 Comments

Another sculpture in The Hepworth (and, yes, once again I didn’t make a note of it’s title or the artist’s name because I am an idiot…). I took two photographs of this scene, one with the figures in focus, and the one published here, with the sculpture sharp and the couple out of focus. I definitiely prefer this one – partially because of the effect, and also because the pose they’re in is much nicer in this shot.

I decided to take a walk before I began work today and got out for about half-an-hour. Although still lovely and sunny, the temperature has dipped considerably since Sunday and there was a distinct chill in the air. Although it wasn’t too early, the sun was still low enough to cast some beautiful light, especially on the local churchyard with is currently full of blossoming trees.

I had a Canon Sure Shot in my pocket, so took a few photos during my walk. The blossoms made me wish I had some colour slide film in the camera rather than the Delta 400 that I’d loaded.

Minolta SRT 101b, Rokkor 50mm f/1.7 & Ilford HP5+ (@800).

Taken on 14 March 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Bank holiday scanning

April 13, 2020April 13, 2020 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I’ve spent much of the afternoon listening to music while scanning the roll of film I developed yesterday. I’ll post about my second attempt in another post (once I’ve uploaded some of the pictures), but suffice to say it all went well on the whole.

The OCD part of my brain likes to do things in a certain way, so it’s a little on edge that I’m scanning and uploading my home devved rolls before some of the lab devved rolls that were shot earlier. It’s hardly ruining my life or anything, but there’s still a niggling sense that I’ve broken some sort of rule.

The truth is that any rule I’ve broken is one that I’ve abitrarily set myself anyway. Maybe I should just set a new rule that states that I should learn not to worry about such silly things and just, like, chillax man. 🙂

Today’s photo is an earlier one – from my trip to The Hepworth gallery before the lock-down came into force.

Minolta SRT 101b, Rokkor 50mm f/1.7 & Ilford HP5+ (@800).

Taken on 14 March 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

An empty dress

April 7, 2020 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

This translucent mesh dress is an exhibit in The Hepworth gallery. As with yesterday’s photo, I didn’t take note of the artist of the name of the piece unfortunately.

It did make me think that there are going to be an awful lot of unfilled dresses in clothing stores around the world right now. I’m not sure of the lock-down restrictions in other countries but, here in the UK, non-essential shops are now closed, including clothing stores. The only places selling clothes at present (online excepted) are supermarkets that happen to have clothing sections.

Given the fast-moving pace of fashion, by the time the lock-down is lifted most of the clothes currently sat unpurchased in stores due to the coronavirus will be either out of fashion, or out of season, likely prompting huge sales when the shops re-open as they attempt to clear stock for new autumn lines (assuming the lock-down is at least partially lifted by then) and to try to recoup some of their investment.

Also, while most shops are cleaned frequently, I wonder just how much dust will have settled by the time they need to prepare to open to the pubic again. A situation like this gives rise to so many things that I never really gave thought to before – even things as everyday and mundane as vacuuming a store each night.

Minolta SRT 101b, Rokkor 50mm f/1.7 & Ilford HP5+ (@800).

Taken on 14 March 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Tiring developments

April 5, 2020 fishyfisharcade4 Comments

Today’s post will be shorter than those from the last week or so, mostly because I’ve had a busy day and want to kick back and put my feet up for a bit. When I say busy, it’s not that I’ve been doing any heavy lifting or anything, but today was my first attempt at developing lack and white film at home, and it’s been kinda mentally tiring as I’ve tried to get everything right and not mess the whole thing up.

The good news is that I have some negatives that (from first glance) look ok. They’re currently hung in the shower drying (there’s an irony in that statement, surely…) so the proof will be when I come to scan them.

I’ll post the results and an account of my experience in a forthcoming post, but suffice to say that not everything went to plan…

Until next time, here’s someone admiring a nude in The Hepworth.

Minolta SRT 101b, Rokkor 50mm f/1.7 & Ilford HP5+ (@800).

Taken on 14 March 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Distraction

April 4, 2020April 5, 2020 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

Despite the lock-down, today has been quite a full day so far.

After breakfast, I decided to take a walk – as I’m not at work today I decided on a longer outing so I could get a bit more of a workout (insomuch as brisk walking counts as “working out”). I chose a route that took me through the industrial estate before cutting back across to the Trans-Pennine Trail and then back home. As usual, I took a camera in case I saw any shots I could get while out. One of the things I photographed was a notice affixed to one of the businesses stating that visitors should ring the bell and wait to be admitted due to the coronavirus pandemic. I’ve been taking photographs of coronavirus related sights that I see when out and might post about them when I have a few developed, but want to capture them for a record of the times whatever the case.

Taking the photo today led to a car pulling up beside me and the two men inside asking what I was doing. They’d seen me taking the photo and I think they were suspicious that I might have been casing the building for nefarious purposes or something. When I explained why I’d taken the shot they seemed satisfied and drove off. The 1975 35mm film SLR I was using to take the photo was probably not an efficient tool for mischief even if I had been inclined that way. 🙂

When I got to the Trans-Pennine Trail it was busier with people jogging, cycling and walking dogs. Certainly not crowded in any sense of the term, and it was easy to keep a wide berth from others, but I think I’ll avoid it in future at weekends (unless I go out especially early). I took a few photos while walking and finished the roll in the camera, so tomorrow might be the day I have my first attempt at home developing. Eek!

Once back home, the rest of the morning was taken up by washing the cars and then giving the garden a once-over. The grass is now cut (and so begins another summer of regular mowing duties…), the weeds pulled, and some general tidying-up. There’s quite a lot of garden waste left over and, given the normal outlets for disposal are closed, I will probably have to burn it later in the garden incinerator.

The result of this is that I’ve mostly been distracted from whatever today’s news is regarding the pandemic. I’m happy to keep it that way if I’m honest. Plenty of time to catch up on that stuff later.

Today’s photo is of someone else apparently distracted…