35mm · Film photography · Photography

Two views of the River Aire (and losing people online)

Both of the images in today’s post were taken from the David Oluwale Bridge in the centre of Leeds. The first looks eastwards and downstream, the second westwards with Bridgewater Place dominating the skyline (I wrote more about that here).

Today was my last day of work before Christmas, and I now have a week-and-a-half of (I hope) leisure time, which is nice. I just need to put work stuff out of my mind – there’s a lot of stuff waiting my attention in the New Year – but I can hopefully manage to do that just fine.

Despite my breaking up for Christmas today, the morning started off with some sad news when I discovered that one of the people on an online forum I frequent has passed away. He died a couple of weeks ago, but the folks on the forum have only just found out. I met him in person earlier this year when we had a big forum get-together and he was a nice guy, outgoing and fun, so while I didn’t really know him well, or even share a lot of comments on the forum, it’s a bit of a shock to think of him being gone.

It made me wonder about how many people will just disappear from their online lives without notice when they die. Online connections are not always replicated offline and so there’s probably not a route to communicate someone’s passing to all the places they might frequent. Maybe we should think, before it’s too late, about leaving word for our loved ones to inform our digital connections when we depart this mortal coil.

Yellow boat on the Aire
The River Aire and Bridgewater Place

Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.

Taken 14 October 2023.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Almost beneath a bridge

This is the same bridge that featured in yesterday’s post (and also the post about Retropan 320 the day before).

This is my favourite of the three pictures – the wider angle and format shows more of the bridge’s structure than the 6×6 Yashicamat photo did, plus the people in the shot are well placed in the frame, have well timed gait, and also similar hairstyles, all of which contribute I think.

Under the iron bridge

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

Taken on 26 February 2022

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Beneath a bridge

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