It’s not often that I see classic American cars while out with my camera – outside of car shows and the like at least – so I had to grab a photo of this Chevy when it pulled up beside me. A moment after taking this shot the traffic lights changed and the car pulled forward but had to stop to wait for oncoming traffic. Grabbing the opportunity to photograph it without other cars in the way I composed a quick shot… only for another car to shoot into the frame and ruin the picture. Grrr.
While the car is still obscured in the first frame, it looks much better than the second.
Classic red Chevy Stood in traffic at the lights Waiting for the green
Sheffield is not a city with a skyline. Being nestled in and atop valleys and hills, most of it’s buildings stand against a backdrop of topology rather than sky. There are noteable buildings that stand out however: Hyde Park and Park Hill flats, The university arts tower, the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, The former Hallam Towers hotel and others which are visible from afar both by dint of their size, and sometimes their location.
One building that sits low in one of the valleys also stands out though – the Madina Masjid / Madina Mosque. Completed in 2006 the building has a large green dome and two green-roofed towers which are visible from far around. Today’s photo shows the mosque from a vantage point on Queen’s Road. As Eid is about to be celebrated, I felt it made a fitting subject for today’s post.
Dome and minarets Stand green-topped and prominent A city feature
If you catch a quick glance of this photo it can seem a little odd – at least it does to my combination of eyes and brain. For a moment it looks like the building is symetrical, with to identical ends seperated by the garage doors. It isn’t of course – both ends are different in both shape and size – but before you catch yourself in this realisation it looks like perspective has somehow gone out of whack and the far section of the building is smaller than it should be. Or is it just me?
My eyes can play tricks Or is it my silly brain That’s really to blame?
Today’s photo shows Edmund Road Drill Hall (sometimes known as Norfolk Barracks), a Grade II listed building that was once used by the 4th West York Artillery Volunteers and which was constructed in 1878. It’s currently in use as a training facility for industrial rope access. I guess that castle-like tower might prove useful in that regard. 🙂
Near the town centre A former barracks still stands Castle on a street
Last year I picked up several rolls of expired Kodak slide film – some Ektachrome EPP, Elite Chrome 100, and Elite Chrome 200. I shot a roll of the Ektachrome back in the autumn and was very happy with the results, some of which can be seen here. A couple of weeks back I shot one of the rolls of Elite Chrome 200 with similarly pleasant results. Whereas with the Ektachrome I had used my OM-2n, for this roll I decided to chance it in a point-and-shoot compact – my Canon Sure Shot Supreme. The camera generally does a good job of metering scenes and I wanted to see what slide film would look like shot through a consumer camera. On the whole, I think it did a great job. The images are a little softer than those from my OM-2n, but notby a large margin, and the film itsel gave pleasing result. I doubt the colours are strictly accurate, and I had the subdue a purple cast, but they are attractive nontheless – I don’t shoot expired film expecting it to give perfect colours anyway, my main wish being that it gives me something I like. I’ve added a couple of frames from the roll today and will upload more over the next week or so.
I acquired a couple of new (to me) cameras today. A lady had advertised an Olympus XA3 and Olympus Superzoom 160 on the local Trash Nothing group – where people can advertise items they are giving away free of charge. I spotted the ad first thing and expressed interest straight away. I received a reply later stating the someone else had got in first but that if that fell through then I could have them. I pretty much expected to have lost out on the deal but thn, this afternoon, received another message saying the other person had pulled out and I could have them. I’m looking forward to trying out the simple, and tiny, XA3 (which also has the flash unit), and if the Superzoom works ok, I might run another Travelling Superzoom project like I did in 2019 – this involved loading the camera with a roll of film and them taking a few shots. The camera would then be posted to another participant who would do the same. This would continue until the film was fully shot and we’d then share everyone’s photos amongst the group. The results from that first project can be seen here.
Two new cameras Are waiting to be tested Snap snap snap snap snap
Back when I got my GW690 it arrived with a roll of Velvia 50 already loaded with a single frame shot by the previous owner. Keen to try out my new camera I hurried out on the first opportunity and shot the remaining seven shots on the roll. They were all disappointing.
Velvia is a beautiful film, but you need to treat it properly. Rushing about on a slightly overcast winter day is not the best way to get quality results. It showed, and I wasn’t happy with what I had made. My next few rolls through the camera were black and white, I took greater care with what I was doing, and the camera started to show me what it was capable of.
The disappointing Velvia photos went in my negatives (or in this case, positives!) binder to be quietly forgotten.
Yesterday, because I’ve just bought some more expired Velvia (and Sensia) reversal film, I was looking through my older E6 images and came across the GW690 set. While I still think most of them are disappointing, one of them looked like it might have some potential, so I decided to see if I could breathe some life into it, and the result is presented here today.
It’s not the best photo, but it has a nice early winter morning feel about it and I like the light on the grass and the hazy sky. I’m not one-hundred percent sure about the yellow sunlight on the bridge supports, but it was catching a warm early morning glow so perhaps they’re not too far off the mark. Anyway, here it is for you to make up your own minds. Was it worth the effort do you think?
Don’t rush with slide film Treat it with care or you’ll risk Fujichrome failure
Just a few days ago I said that I was at the end of my autumn colour images for this year. Well. turns out I’m not – I forgot about this roll of Velvia 50 that I shot on a walk along the Chesterfield Canal near Thorpe Salvin a few weeks ago.
The roll was tricky to meter with confidence. Given that I don’t have a spot meter (just a reflective setting that’s has a pretty wide angle and no meand to accurately point it) I almost always use incident readings instead. Incident metering usually serves me very well, but a canal withich has irregular tree cover along it’s banks makes it difficult to match the light falling on the meter with the subject unless it’s pretty close by, or you’re sure it’s in the same levels of light.
As a result, quite a few of the images on this roll are poorly exposed, and the ones here are probably the best from the canal-side walk.
Of the four, the sycamore leaf below is the best I think (even if it did keep attempting to blow away in the light but irregular breeze!).
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Fujichrome Velvia 50.
A bit of a mini image dump of Ektachrome images today, mostly because I’ll get onto something else from tomorrow.
There’s not really any theme to them other than they were all shot in Bakewell. I liked them enough to upload to Flickr, but I’m not sure any of them really elevate above average. Perhaps I should seek a job in the art promotion scene, eh? 🙂
Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.8 & Kodak Ektachrome 100 EPP (expired at some unknown date).
The title of today’s post isn’t intended as a metaphor for the subject of the photograph, although I suppose it could be. It refers instead to the fact that I was in a cathedral with only a film camera containing 100asa slide film. While I had a nice, fast, f/1.8 lens attached, there were very few places within the building that gave enough light for even a slow exposure. This table of prayer candles was lit by a bright shaft of sunlight however and I took the chance at handholding the camera at 1/30sec. Somehow I managed to avod camera shake and ended up with a nice looking photograph.
Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.8 & Kodak Ektachrome 100 EPP (expired at some unknown date).
Steel City Snapper photography 