Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
A quick post today as I’m off to the movies with my eldest son in a bit.
Keeping a slight movie theme, here’s a picture of Tom Hanks, who I found sitting patiently beside the wax museum ticket booth in Barcelona.
Olympus OM-10, E-Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 20 December 2024
This is possibly my favourite film photo I made while in Barcelona in December. I like the way I managed to compose it, the timing, the colours (those splashes of red), and the shallow depth of field.
Olympus OM-10, E-Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 20 December 2024
So says Diego Maradona, apparently.
Something good that happened today…
It’s that time of year when I take a day off work and watch the Oscars. Because they are broadcast live in the early hours of the morning here in the UK (and as I pretty much always have a need to get up early the next day, even if I have the day off it seems), I resort to recording the show and then watching it the morning after. This requires a careful media blackout when I wake up to avoid spoilers, but I usually manage this successfully, and this year was no exception.
I didn’t start watching it until 9:30am and, because it’s such a long show, it didn’t finish until 1:30pm (taking into consideration my fast-forwarding through some of the breaks, but also pausing it to get drinks, snacks, and lunch).
Of all the main nominated films this year, I’ve only gotten around to seeing two of them – Dune Part 2, and The Substance – so will have to try and catch up on the others when they appear on one of the streaming services. Sadly I don’t get to the movies as much as I once did – before we had kids we’d regularly see two or three films in a week at the cinema – and don’t really get enough time to watch that many at home either (not without sacrificing other activities, at least). Maybe one day, when I’m retired, I’ll have enough time to do all the things I’d like to…
Olympus OM-10, E-Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 20 December 2024
Today has been split (so far) into four main sections.
Firstly, my dad paid his usual Sunday morning visit. He arrived a little earlier than I expected because he’d walked it (he still walks miles most days – not bad for a guy in his mid-eighties. I hope I might be as fit when I get to that age!) and I was still sorting the cats out when he got here. I didn’t hear him come in, but I’m not sure if this was because I was outside, or if my hearing is getting worse.
The second chunk of the day was spent developing a roll of Ilford HP5+ that I shot recently. This one was deliberately pushed a stop (unlike yesterday’s accidental push) and the negatives look nice. I’ll maybe get to scan them later this week.
After the developing was done and all the gear tidied away I grabbed something to eat and then watched The French Connection on TV. Hearing the sad news of Gene Hackman’s death (along with his wife and dog) made me remember I’d never watched the movie (I’ve seen the car chase scene on clip shows many times though), so I decided to put that right. I enjoyed the movie a lot. It’s interesting to see how film making styles have changed over time.
The fourth part has been scanning some negatives – a roll of Kodak Gold shot with the Kodak H35N half-frame camera I got for Christmas from my Secret Santa. I’ll say more about this camera and the results in a future post, but the 70-something frames seem to be taking forever to scan. As I type this I still have two full strips to go, and I’ve been scanning a strip a day since the middle of the week!
The rest of the evening will be spent watching TV.
I mentioned the circus – Circo Raluy Legacy – that made up part of Barcelona’s Christmas attractions beside the marina in my post a couple of days ago, and here’s a picture of it.
Olympus OM-10, E-Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 22 December 2024
It’s been a good day today. Not only did I have the time to take an outing with my camera(s), the weather was also perfect too. This sort of alignment of the fates is a rarity!
I decided to take a day trip to Lincoln. Lincoln is a nice city to wander around with plenty to see and photograph, and it has the added bonus of only being about an hour’s drive away.
The weather forecast had given the impression of clear blue skies which, while better in many regards to flat grey skies, can also be a little uninteresting, but I was blessed with blue skies full of streaks of thin high-altitude cloud, meaning I got the benefit of the good light with the bonus of interesting textures.
I managed to shoot three-and-a-half rolls of film – two-and-a-half colour, and a roll of B&W.
Although it was a great day, there was one small hiccup – I forgot to change the ASA dial on my Olympus OM-10 and shot the entire roll of Agfa APX 100 at 400ASA. This normally wouldn’t be a problem as I’ve pushed film on many occasions before (even if this time it was accidental), but it seems there is very little data out there on pushing Agfa APX 100 beyond 200ASA.
It looks like I can develop it for 25 minutes(!) in Rodinal 1+50, but there are no times for Ilfotec DD-X. There are calculations that can be used to get a rough idea of how long to push films, but I prefer to use tried and tested methods – I think there will be some nice photos on the roll and I don’t want to ruin them with ham-fisted experimentation.
Other alternatives include stand or semi-stand development (but, again, it’s not something I’ve done before, and I’m a bit worried about maintaining the temperature to avoid bromide drag), and splashing out on a bottle of Ilford HC (or HC-110, or one of the other variants) – which also has a recipe for pushing the film two stops. Or rather for pushing Kentmere 100 by two stops (I believe they are the same film stock).
Anyway, I’ll be sure to let my reader know what I decide to do and how I fare. Wish me luck!
Olympus OM-10, E-Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 22 December 2024
One of the Barcelona Christmas attractions was situated beside the marina and consisted of many more food and drink stands, plus attractions such as a large Ferris Wheel, which can be seen in both of today’s photos. There was a circus too, but I’ll post a picture of that on another day.
It’s been a somewhat sad day today. It was the last day for most of the people impacted by the wave of compulsory redundancies that hit our team after Christmas. There are still a couple of people here until the end of March, but I had to say goodbye to the others. I’m still in contact with most of them on social media, but it’s not the same as being able to reach out to them as part of the team.
I’m sure they will go on to better and brighter things, and I wish them every success, but I’m gonna miss them.
Olympus OM-10, E-Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 20 December 2024
My wife and I took a trip to Barcelona the weekend before Christmas. The main reason for the visit was to go see the festive markets, although this actually didn’t take up much of the three nights we were there.
The markets were nice enough, and importantly, different to those that we tend to get in the UK so there was some novelty in seeing different types of stalls. This being said, there was a lot of duplication in the stall types in the Barcelona Christmas Markets, with there being a lot of repetition of decorations, miniature nativity figurines and dioramas, and El Caganer figures.
The latter were something I’d not experienced before. El Caganer is roughly translated into English as “The Pooper” and is a peasant figure in traditional dress squatting down to poop (with a significant deposit made!). In Spanish Nativity scenes (which can be large dioramas depicting entire towns, rather than just the stable scene), the figure is positioned somewhere out of the way to be discovered (I expect it might be frowned upon to place him beside the manger…). While the original figure wears traditional garb, the tradition has also evolved to take account of the multitude of celebrities and mascots we have in modern times, and you can find pooping figures in the guise of almost anyone: pop stars, movie characters, videogame figures, royalty, politicians – including one stall which had a crapping Donald Trump complete with a bleeding ear from the assassination attempt! – and more. The range was certainly considerable and diverse!
You can browse a range of Caganer figurines at the official website even.
Today’s picture is of a Caganer stall at one of Barcelona’s Christmas Markets.
Something good that happened today…
I think I might rest this section of my daily blog. Not because it’s a bad idea – I fully intend to keep recognising the good things in my life – which is a good thing to do. But I’m considerate of the fact that sometimes they can maybe feel a little trivial to post about, so I think I’ll save these bits for when the “something good” is a bit more notable than my having eaten a nice pastie for lunch or something.
Olympus OM-10, E-Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 21 December 2024
Another digital shot from Barcelona.
Something good that happened today…
I went out for a drive with my son who starts his new job on Monday. As it’s a considerably longer drive than to his previous place of work, I chaperoned him on a test run to make sure he was happy with the route. All went well.
Ricoh GR III
Taken on 20 December 2024
Another digital shot from Barcelona today.
Something good that happened today…
I had a chilled couple of hours lying on the bed watching episodes of QI while the cats snoozed beside me. It’s really nice to relax like this (especially as my legs were aching a little from yesterday’s hike) and it’s something I don’t do often enough, always being busy with other stuff that can probably wait a little while.
Ricoh GR III
Taken on 20 December 2024
I’ve not had chance to write up my new “Expiriment” post today as I went out for a hike and didn’t get back home in time. Maybe tomorrow, time allowing…
Instead here’s another digital shot from December’s Barcelona trip.
Something good that happened today…
I went out into the Peak District with the intention of wandering around Baslow, one of the closest villages in the park to Sheffield. I think there are plenty of subjects there and, while I’ve driven through the village on many occasions, I’ve never actually stopped to explore.
However, when I arrived, I instead decided to walk to Chatsworth House, which stands a mile or so down the Derwent Valley from the village. I ended up hiking for miles, but the weather was bright and clear, I shot a roll and a bit of Tr-X through my Yashica Mat 124G, and had a good time doing it. It’s nice to get out and get some fresh air and exercise.
Ricoh GR III
Taken on 22 December 2024
Steel City Snapper photography 