Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
I’ve posted before, at least once, about revisiting locations and taking the same pictures I always do. The same subjects, and often the same compositions. Some scenes just catch the eye, like this view up the River Wye at Bakewell. Seen before here and here (and probably other times too)
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 29 March 2024
A couple of years ago I made plans to visit Bakewell during the autumn in the hopes of catching some nice colour in the trees. Sadly, covid-19 lockdowns put paid to those intentions and it was not until last month that I had chance to bring them to fruition.
While there’s a definite autumnal air to the pictures I made on the day, the colours in the trees were not spectacular. The best of the colour seemed to come early with some vivid tones from the maples, but most other species seemed to remain resolutely green. They’ve gradually turned now and mostly lost their leaves, but they never really lit the place up this year. Oddly, some of the nicest colours are now apparent in the bright yellows of the leaves still remaining on birches, but most of the other trees have now dropped their coats.
However, despite the state of the foliage, it was quite a nice morning weather-wise in Bakewell with enough cloud cover to make for interesting skies until it thickened to produce rain around lunchtime.
The four photos published here today were made soon after arriving in the town and shot as I walked across and beside the River Wye up to Bakewell Bridge. The first shot was made with my 50mm Zenzanon and the rest with the 75mm. The final shot is pretty much the same composition (and taken within a minute or so) of this black and white picture made with my Olympus XA3.
The last shot has a cooler tone to the others. I’m not sure why – probably something in my post-processing though.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 and Zenzanon 50mm f/2.8 & Fujicolor Pro 400H. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 1 November 2022.
The bridge that carries the A619 Baslow Road across the River Wye at Bakewell can be quite frustrating to photograph. It’s an attractive structure but, due to it carrying traffic on one of the main routes into and through the town, along with the popularity of the place as a tourist trap, it can be difficult to catch a moment where some vehicle isn’t raising it’s distracting head above the top of the walls. I’ve nearly managed to avoid it in the picture published here today. But not quite. If you look carefully there’s a van peeping into view. Not a bad picture though and I have almost the exact same composition to come in a future post, but this time on 6×45 and in colour.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford Delta 400 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
Taken on 1 November 2022
A couple more photographs of the packhorse bridge at Ashford-in-the-Water today. I shared another photo of the bridge a couple of days ago and mentioned that the sheep paddock at one side of the bridge contained only ducks on this occasion. You can see a couple of them (well just the back-end of one) in the second picture.
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford Delta 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 19 April 2022
On the day that I visited Ashford-in-the-Water, I also drove up to Monsal Head, a scenic viewpoint which overlooks a stretch of Monsal Dale where the valley takes a sharp bend. As with Ashford, the River Wye flows through (and indeed, eroded) the dale here too, a few miles upstream from the village.
One of the main features of the valley is the disused Headstone Viaduct which used to carry the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midland Junction Railway. The line was open between 1863 and 1968. The route of the railway now forms the Monsal Trail, a popular route for hiking and cycling. The viaduct is 300 feet in length and 70 feet tall.
A little downstream from the viaduct a weir slows the flow of the river.
Yashicamat 124G & Fujifilm Pro 400H. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 19 April 2022
This photo was made on our first visit to Bakewell in almost a year. I last visited back in October last year. I’d planned on going out again when the autumn colour kicked in properly but the country was thrust into a series of “tiers” based on Covid-19 infection rates and I was unable to travel beyond our local area.
While it was nice to get out there again on this day the weather wasn’t the best, being dull and rainy while we were there. I shot twenty frames with the XA3 and got a few nice pictured despite the conditions, including this one looking up the River Wye.
I was very busy with work and sorting our cat out after his recent accident, so stumped up to have this and another roll lab developed to save me the time.
A trip to Bakewell
On a dull and rainy day
Can still be quite nice
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Lab developed in Xtol.
Taken on 16 August 2021
This “amusing” play on the Alec Guiness WWII movie title has been forced upon my readership once before. But this is a different bridge, so I’ll wheel out the rubbish joke once more. 🙂
Cross the River Wye
Prisoners of war might not
Have built this one though
Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 24 May 2021
My apologies. Today’s choice of photograph was almost 100% selected so I could use such a cheesy pun as a title. 🙂
No sign of Alec Guinness here though, just people enjoying the riverbank footpath alongside the River Wye as it flows through Bakewell.
It’s one of those photos where it looks like the people in the shot are looking at you as you take the picture but which, upon closer inspection, they’re looking elsewhere. The guy appears to be testing the capacity of his pocket to breaking point!
Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 18 September 2020
Steel City Snapper photography 