Tag: Reflections

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Flooded field

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A couple more shots of the flooded field at Elmton, although without any sign of the church this time.

Appropriately enough, the road that runs past the field is called Spring Lane. The spring itself is a little further up the road to the south east, but I’m not sure if it’s this which feeds the flooded area at the bottom of the field.

There’s something I find fascinating about water courses that takes me back to being a child where I would read Ladybird books or similar, and watch children’s educational programmes about the water cycle. There’s something in me that wants to trace the journey from source to destination. From that tiny bubbling spring all the way to the ocean.

I enjoyed making “boats” out of a twig or a branch and then watching as they navigated the straights, eddies, and rapids of a stream until they would eventually reach a place where I could follow them no longer, but from where I would imagine them making a grand voyage all the way to the sea.

Corner pond reflections
Corner pond

Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°

Taken on 16 February 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Church submerged

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The bottom corner of this field at Elmton floods in wet weather and makes for some interesting picture opportunities, including reflections of St. Peter’s Church.

I guess the shots also continue this week’s molehill theme. 🙂

St. Peters and reflection
St. Peters and reflection-2

Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°

Taken on 16 February 2025

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Lifeguard paddleboard

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Following on from yesterday’s pictures of the Bridlington lifeguard station, here’s one of their paddleboards on the beach, ready for them to take action should someone be in distress.

The sand was wet from the receding tide and so cast nice reflections. The four people walking into shot made the picture. It breaks the “rule of odds” (not that I take such rules all that seriously), but the flag kinda makes five, I think.

Past the lifeguard flag

Olympus OM-1N, G-Zuiko Auto-W 35mm f/2.8 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 15mins 45secs @ 20°

Taken 17 June 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Rushing it

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After yesterday’s post where I spoke about missing the focus slightly on a 4×5 large format photo, despite not rushing, here is a picture where I did exxactly the same thing, although this time I was rushing.

When I say rushing, that’s relative. You can’t really rush a picture with a field camera in the same way you can with 35mm or medium format (or, I guess, large format press cameras to an extent). There is still a lot of setting up to do before you get to the nitty gritty of finessing the focus etc.

At the time I took this picture there was no-one in the frame and my intent was to photograph the building, with the canoes and the front of tha canal boat. However, I was concious that there was a sizeable group of young people along with an instructor who was prepping them for going in the canoes. As I was setting up the shot, I heard him say something along the lines of “Right, follow me.” and the group headed towards my field of view.

I didn’t really want a big crowd of kids in the shot, so took this picture quickly when just two people were in the frame (one obscured by the other) and, because I was rushing, I didn’t check focus properly. The centre of the frame (horizontally) is fine, but the sharpness drop steadily towards the top of the building. Again, had this been reversed so that the lower part of the frame was softer, it wouldn’t have mattered because that’s just water and distorted reflections.

To make matters worse, the group of people then proceeded to walk right through the frame, exiting to the right, meaning I could have waited and got a better shot anyway!

Sheaf Quay

Chamonix 045N-1. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 15mins 45secs @ 20°

Taken 8 July 2023.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Riverside reflections with the Olympus Trip 35

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A couple of photographs of the River Don taken from the Ball Street bridge on a lovely September morning a few weeks back.

Every time I use my Olympus Trip 35 it rewards me with beautiful images, sharp and well-exposed. It’s a camera I really need to use more often and perhaps in conjunction with my XA3 – another Olympus zone-focus model. Perhaps one with B&W and one with colour for flexibility of choice when shooting.

More Olympus Trip 35 pictures to come over the next week or so…

From the Ball Street bridge
Riverside reflection

Olympus Trip 35 & Kodak Colorplus. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 23 September 2022.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Beneath a bridge

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I’m pretty happy with how this picture turned out. It was a spur-of-the-moment effort quickly taken when I spotted the girders and their reflections as I walked beneath this bridge over the River Aire in Leeds.

Apart from framing the photo as I wanted, my only real concern was that there might be some camera shake due to lack of light and my inability to control shutter speed or aperture on the little Olympus XA3. There was a railing just out of frame and so I leant on that to give a little extra stability. I was happy to see that the shot came out well, and better than I actually anticipated.

Under the bridge

Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins 20° .

Taken on 26 February 2022

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Riverside reflections (and a new camera – the LETO Ultrawide and Slim)

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When I visited Kelham Island the other week I decided to follow the river downstream to where it skirts the edge of the town centre and shot a number of black and white photos on that leg of the walk. The photo in today’s post shows the scene just upstream from Lady’s Bridge (which you can see peeking into the shot at the lower right).

I received a new film camera in the mail today. An actual, bona-fide brand-new film camera to boot and, no, it’s not a Leica. Quite the opposite infact – it’s a RETO Ultrawide and Slim, which is a copy of the Vivitar Ultrawide & Slim. It’s a toy camera made almost completely out of plastic, including the lens, with the distinctive feature that the lens is a 22mm focal length, hence the “ultrawide” in the name. There have been a number of copies of the original Vivitar version, of which this is the latest.

I’ve not had chance to try it out yet, but the lens is supposedly quite sharp (although what that means in real terms, I’m unsure), but with a dropoff in quality to the edges of the frame, and with a vignette too. I’m a fan of my Holga and the images it produces, so thought this might be fun to try out. It cost me £30, which is probably more than it is worth (especially considering some other cameras I could buy for the same or less) but, well, I’ve spent money on worse things.

When I get around to shooting with it I’ll post some results and maybe a review.

Near Lady's Bridge

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & & Ilford FP4+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°

Taken on 15 January 2021

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Up the Don

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BAck to expired slide film once more, this time some Velvia 50 getting on for 20-years expired. As has been the case with previous rolls of untested slide film where I have more than one at my disposal, this was again shot mostly to test the results. Once again though, this doesn’t mean shooting test cards or anything like that, it’s just a case of shooting the roll at box speed to see how it performs with the hope that it all goes well and I get a bunch of interesting pictures as well as a knowledge of how the film fares. I can then update my settings and so on for future rolls of the same batch.

This Velvia 50 produced mostly well-exposed photographs but has a very warm tone to the results. I’ve reduced it somewhat in my scans but it still persists. It’s possible that Velvia just scans this way and that I need to modify my technique accordingly, or it might be a colour shift caused by the age of the film.

I’ll bear this in mind when shooting the other rolls.

This image shows the River Don in Sheffield where it flows past the Kelham Island area to the left of this scene.

A mirror surface
Broken by the ripple wakes
Of a pair of ducks

Up the Don

Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/18 AF-D & Fujichtome Velvia (expired 2003).

Taken on 13 June 2021

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Modern monolith

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Like a Borg Cube descended to Earth, this angular structure sits adjacent to the River Don behind Savile Street. The circular “portholes” and horizontal bands break up what might otherwise be a plain and undistinguished structure. I like the way it looms in the picture both above and below the water.

Angular it stands
A monolith by water
Blue and grey tower

Riverside

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Kodak Colorplus.

Taken on 9 May 2021