35mm · Film photography · Photography

Straight lines and curvy lines

I’m still in my “don’t feel like posting” mood today, although not so much as before. I didn’t have an extra-long day at work today, as with the previous two, plus the report I had to deliver has now been sorted and presented, so that’s out of the way and off my mind to a large degree (although there’s still further work to be done as an outcome). I don’t think the warm weather we’re having at the moment is helping much either, even though it’s not unseasonably hot or anything, rather we’ve had a run of colder-than-expected temeratures and now it’s bounced back to normal it feels like a heatwave in comparison.

The weekend beckons though, and while the usual chores are waiting to rob me of my time (the grass needs cutting again) I should have enough time to at least try and relax and do something I enjoy. This weekend, if the sunshine holds, that will hopefully include a walk to try out some expired Velvia 50 that I have four rolls of. This will be my test roll and give me a good idea of how the film performs given it’s age and give me confidence (or not) as to it being useable. I have some Sensia 100 received from the same person and the first roll of that looks fine (although I haven’t scanned it yet).

Anyway, I’m supposed to be averse to posting at the moment, so I’d better bring things to a close with some photographs. A couple more from my XA3 test roll.

The first photo is looking up to the large block of concrete that is the O2 Academy, but which will always be the Roxy nightclub to people of a certain age. It sits atop a large NCP car park and, while not to everyone’s taste, is quite a distinctive structure.

The second shows a much older building in the shape of the NSPCC building. It’s surrounded by more modern structures, but the curve of the block-paved roadway leading up to and around the building makes for a nice image.

Drinking and dancing
Loud music and toilet floods
That allright f’yers?

Roxy (as was)
NSPCC building

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

Taken on 16 May 2021

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Another day the same

After yesterday’s grumble about not wanting to write a blog post, I’m in the same boat again today. Still at work finishing off a report I need to present tomorrow. The hard part is done, but PowerPoint is dedicating it’s efforts to slow my progress by making seemingly simple tasks time consuming and frustrating.

I’m writing the blog to take a break, so please enjoy a photograph of Pond Street bus station (or “interchange” as I believe it is now named), in Sheffield.

WordPress seems to be on it’s only little mission to perplex me at the moment too. For the last week or so every time I post a new blog entry I get a message congratulating me that I’m “on a streak“. I expect today I’ll get one letting me know my streak is now at 892 days of continual posting. I’ve no idea why this has started, when it will decide I realise and stop bothering me, or why just-under-two-and-a-half-years of continual posting is the time to begin telling me about it.

Why do things happen?
It’s often a mystery
Or a cosmic joke

Pond Street bus station

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

Taken on 16 May 2021

35mm · Film photography · Photography

On days like these…

I really don’t feel like writing a blog post. A busy day at work and all I want to do is chill out, but my daily posting regime means I won’t allow myself to evade the blog. The fact that I’m adding a haiku to every post this year is an extra unwanted bonus on a day like this. It’s all of my own making of course, and no-one is forcing me to write a new post every day, but sometimes I really fancy a day off from it. The issue with doing so is that then the run is broken. What would then stop me from taking a day off every time I didn’t feel like it (which happens on a pretty regular basis)? I suspect that any sort of break would be a straw to break a camels back and my frequency of posts would fall off a cliff.

But hey, look, I managed to get a post out of moaning about not wanting to post anything! Winner winner chicken dinner!

Anyway, here are two more “test” photos from the little XA3.

I can’t be bothered
To try and write a haiku
Here’s one anyway

Sheffield Hallam University
Electric Works

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

Taken on 16 May 2021

35mm · Film photography · Photography

The smallest camera I own

A few shots today from my new (to me) Olympus XA3 which I acquired a month ago. I’ve shot three rolls with it so far and the results from each have been pretty impressive. It’s a low-frills camera, but it makes up for it with a sharp lens and tiny form factor – a benefit both in its portability and also because the film transport is so short that I’ve gotten 39 shots a roll from it each time!

The photos from this first roll were made on a walk around the edge of the city centre and intended mostly to test the camera for oparating problems / light leaks etc. (of which there are, thankfully, none) so expect a bunch of slightly randon pictures of buildings and anything else that caught my eye on the day in coming posts.

Random city scenes
Just the things that catch my eye
While taking a walk

Graffiti and bike
The old bus garage
The Leadmill

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

Taken on 16 May 2021

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Street corners

Just a couple of shots of street corners today.

I’ve had quite a full and busy weekend, but not much time for any photography. I have finished scanning another roll of 35mm film though, leaving me with just another two rolls yet to scan. This makes a total of six rolls of film (4x36exp 35mm & 2x12exp 120) from which I’ve not published a single image as yet. At least I can relax in the knowledge that I can feed the blog for a few weeks without running out of new photos should I need to. I’ll probably have shot more before that happens though…

Plenty of pictures
Waiting in the photo bank
Soon to be seen here

OH MY GOD WE'RE BACK AGAIN!
Pedestrians crossing

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Kodak Colorplus.

Taken on 16 May 2021

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Modern monolith

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

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Ball Street bridge

The Ball Street bridge crosses the River Don a little upstream from Kelham Island and is immediately adjacent to Kelham Weir. The bridge dates to 1856 and was built by Milton Iron Works at Elsecar. The bridge holds grade II listed status.

The bridge is now only open to non-motorised traffic (although maybe motorcycles too). I believe that this is to manage road traffic around the area.

Red and green iron
Spanning the flowing river
Now blocked to traffic

Riding across the Don
Across

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Kodak Colorplus.

Taken on 9 May 2021

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

As wide as the Wicker Arches

The Wicker Arches is a railway viaduct on the edge of Sheffield city centre. It was built in 1848 and the 41-arches span the Don Valley. Most of the arches are now blocked, with various businesses occupying the spaces, but the main arch across the Wicker, with decorative pedestrian arches to either side, remains a busy route into the city, and Effingham Road also passes beneath the viaduct further east. The arch beneath which the River Don passes now forms part of the Five Weirs Walk with the route taking the form of a suspended metal walkway named the Spider Bridge (it’s even decorated with large silver arachnids with illuminated eyes).

Passenger rail services across the viaduct ceased in 1970 when Sheffield Victoria Station, which was situated atop the viaduct, closed, and all rail traffic had stopped by the 1980s.

The phrase “as wide as the Wicker Arches” has been regularly used by people in Sheffield to denote someone who was a bit crafty or a smartarse.

When I was cheeky
“Wide as the Wicker Arches!”
Would come my mum’s cry

As wide as the Wicker Arches

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 9 May 2021

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

The remains of the Farfield Inn

Another victim in the declining pub trade in the UK, the Farfield Inn stands at the western end of Neepsend Lane at the bottom of Hillfoot Road, not far from the busy route that is Penistone Road. There used to be pigeon lofts on the steep hillside along this stretch but those, like the Farfield Inn, have fallen into dereliction, their skeletal remains vaguely apparent in the brush that has grown to take their place.

“Fancy a nice pint?”
Would once have been said by those
Who visited here

Abandoned hostelries
Abandoned hostelries

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 9 May 2021