Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
As mentioned yesterday, I spotted this chap sitting outside his chalet with three friends, so I asked if I could make a couple of pictures. The dogs didn’t seem too keen, snarling at me when I pointed the camera in their direction, but I got the shots.
Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko AUTO-T 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford Delta 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 11 September 2020
The first shot on this roll of HP5+. A roll that I’m pretty sure I’ve overdeveloped. From the point of hanging the negatives to dry I had a feeling something was amiss as they looked noticably denser than I might have expected. Once scanned it became apparent that the highlights were much brighter than they should have been and there was more grain than expected along with the loss of some fine detail.
The reson for this, I believe, was my developing the roll on a hot day where controlling the temperature of the developer was difficult. By the time I was ready to start the process, it had risen from 20 degrees to 22.5, so I had to consult the Ilford compensation charts to see how that would affect the time. While the charts are very helpful, they only show compensations for whole degrees, so I made a best guess to put my time somewhere between those quoted for 22 and 23 degrees. I think I should probably have shaved another 15-20 seconds from the time.
I’ve managed to save pretty much every frame with some post-processing tweaks in Lightroom, but they’re not what I’d planned. Still, everything’s a learning experience, eh?
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 7 mins 45 secs @ 22.5°.
Taken on 23 July 2020
I sometimes wonder at the purpose of these windows placed in the barriers that surround construction projects. Is there a specific purpose for them? Or are they there, as might seem obvious, to allow passers by to have a nosey at what’s taking place on the other side of the fence?
It seems that the obvious reason in this case is the actual reason. The windows are there for public engagement to allow them to see what’s happening on the construction site from behind the safety of a barrier.
I’m not sure that I would want someone to have a little window to peep in on me doing my work whenever they felt like it. Then again, my work is likely far less interesting to the average passer by. Perhaps I should buy an excavator…
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Agfa APX100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10.5 mins @ 20°.
Taken on 23 July 2020
It’s still ludicrously hot here today. Well, compared with the normal temperature at least. It’s undoubtedly positively cool in comparison to many places, but we’re not prepared for it. Whereas it would be the norm for people to have air-con units, or buildings designed specifically to keep cool in locations that regularly get heat, we don’t generally have the need for that in the uk – It’s usually cold and rainy. 🙂
Anyway, it’s too hot to type for long and I’m almost finished scanning a strip of negatives and very much looking forward to a cool shower, so another quick post today I’m afraid.
So, somewhat randomly, here’s a big chicken…
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Agfa APX100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10.5 mins @ 20°.
Taken on 23 July 2020
While wandering around Sheffield’s Kelham Island area recently I came across this piece of street art that I thought was deserving of a photograph. For those readers outside the UK, the person depicted is Dot Cotton, a long serving character of the British soap opera Eastenders. June Brown, the actor who plays the role, joined the soap back in 1985. She had a hiatus in the 90s from 1993, but returned again in 1997 where she played Dot up until January this year.
I don’t actually like Eastenders, and I don’t think I’ve ever watched a full episode (although my wife used to watch it and I picked up many of the storylines of the time via osmosis). Dot Cotton is, however, an archetypal British screen character and I really liked this small homage to her on this namesake street.
Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Kodak Colorplus.
Taken on 28 June 2020
A couple of pictures of The Hub, home of Sheffield University’s Student’s Union. This was a museum – the National Centre for Popular Music – when it was originally opened in 1999. It closed a little over a year later due to lack of visitors (including myself).
Olympus OM-2n, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10 mins @ 20°.
Taken on 21 June 2020
I had wondered if I might have come to the end of this series of pandemic-related photographs given the relaxing of the lockdown here in the UK, but I’ve got a few new images of scenes in the new, post-lockdown world.
The weekend before last was the final one before non-essential retail was allowed to re-open on the 15 June, so I took a trip up town to see how things looked before the shops returned to life.
The town centre was largely empty, with the largest groups of people I noticed being construction workers and homeless folks. It was a little eerie and the weather – dank and grey – felt more akin to a winter’s morning than one approaching the summer solstice. There were pigeons in the Peace Gardens and I wondered if they’ve been forced to work harder for their dinners given the lack of humans feeding them or dropping scraps?
The city has been given new signage outside some shops (although it seemed somewhat hit and miss as to which shops did – it certainly wasn’t all of them), and benches and the like feature signs requesting they not be used, or to keep your distance from others.
I’ve made a couple more trips since this one (and still have more pandemic-related photos from this roll yet to upload), so I guess this series will continue for a while yet.
Olympus OM-1, F-Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10 mins @ 20°.
Taken on 14 June 2020
I took this photograph not long after the start of the UK’s lock-down. People can be seen observing social distancing while queueing to enter the superstore to buy groceries and other essentials. The store was operating a “twenty at a time” rule when this photograph was taken, but this changed the following day so that is was limited to twenty individuals instead of groups (couples etc.). The system worked efficiently and the waiting times were quite short.
Apart from items like pasta, hand-sanitiser, paracetamol and other previously panic-bought items, the store was well stocked with most goods.
As the lockdown has continued, and panic-buying has (thankfully) subsided, most stores are largely back to normal in terms of the stock they are carrying. The social distancing rules are well implemented and most customers now understand how they work. In some ways, and despite the fact you have to queue to enter the store (admittedly something I’ve not had to do in bad weather yet), the lower numbers of people in the shops makes for a nicer experience
Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Ilford Delta 400 – Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins
Taken on 28 March 2020
Another sculpture in The Hepworth (and, yes, once again I didn’t make a note of it’s title or the artist’s name because I am an idiot…). I took two photographs of this scene, one with the figures in focus, and the one published here, with the sculpture sharp and the couple out of focus. I definitiely prefer this one – partially because of the effect, and also because the pose they’re in is much nicer in this shot.
I decided to take a walk before I began work today and got out for about half-an-hour. Although still lovely and sunny, the temperature has dipped considerably since Sunday and there was a distinct chill in the air. Although it wasn’t too early, the sun was still low enough to cast some beautiful light, especially on the local churchyard with is currently full of blossoming trees.
I had a Canon Sure Shot in my pocket, so took a few photos during my walk. The blossoms made me wish I had some colour slide film in the camera rather than the Delta 400 that I’d loaded.
Minolta SRT 101b, Rokkor 50mm f/1.7 & Ilford HP5+ (@800).
Taken on 14 March 2020
I’ve spent much of the afternoon listening to music while scanning the roll of film I developed yesterday. I’ll post about my second attempt in another post (once I’ve uploaded some of the pictures), but suffice to say it all went well on the whole.
The OCD part of my brain likes to do things in a certain way, so it’s a little on edge that I’m scanning and uploading my home devved rolls before some of the lab devved rolls that were shot earlier. It’s hardly ruining my life or anything, but there’s still a niggling sense that I’ve broken some sort of rule.
The truth is that any rule I’ve broken is one that I’ve abitrarily set myself anyway. Maybe I should just set a new rule that states that I should learn not to worry about such silly things and just, like, chillax man. 🙂
Today’s photo is an earlier one – from my trip to The Hepworth gallery before the lock-down came into force.
Minolta SRT 101b, Rokkor 50mm f/1.7 & Ilford HP5+ (@800).
Taken on 14 March 2020
