Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
Quickie post alert!
I’ve just got back from two days in London for work stuff, so don’t have it in me to type much today I’m afraid, so here’s a picture of some escalators and a lift that I took in Hull last weekend.
Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 800asa).
Taken on 19 October 2019
This is a photo I took in Sorrento, Italy back in August 2018. The image was on a roll of Ektar that had been left in my OM-1 and forgotten about. For various reasons I didn’t use the OM-1 for several months after the trip to Italy and I ony realised the film was still inside when I opened the camera back!
While a few frames were lost or suffered light leaks, most of the images were ok, including this one – a shot of Via Marina Grande, a narrow street that descends to the old marina.
Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 & Kodak Ektar.
Taken on 24 August 2018
I visited HIP Fest at the weekend – Hull International Photography Festival. This is the third year I’ve visited and there are always interesting things to see, both in the exhibition spaces and also in Hull itself.
The photos in today’s post were taken as I was browsing the work of Claire Armitage, who has a series of self-portraits on display in the main atrium area of the shopping centre where most of the exhibitions are placed. I quite liked the framing of the photos on display and people walking past the white wall in the background, so took a few shots.
While I don’t dislike these images – the first one is my favourite – I really should have been patient and waited for further opportunities as the second shot would have been better taken a second earlier, and the woman in the last one is ever-so-slightly out of focus. Alas, I only had a few hours to spare and felt the need to hurry to cram in the other things I wanted to do while there.
This was also the first time I’ve ever pushed film. While Silverfast seemed to want to overexpose all the scans (I got better results using the Pan F 50 setting than HP5+), the one’s I’ve scanned so far have come out pretty well, and the faster shutter speeds that I was able to use were very useful when shooting indoors or in the dark and overcast conditions outside.
Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 800asa).
Taken on 19 October 2019
I guess today’s picture serves as a direct sequel to the one I posted yesterday, given that the two people on the foreground bench appear to be the same couple who were walking through the scene in the other photograph. This wasn’t intentional and I only realised it to be the case after scanning the negatives. but I quite like how it turned out though.
I’ve not photographed the Barbican Centre much before, but it’s a wonderful urban location. Amazing brutalist architecture that is very well maintained and with a wealth of compositional possibilities. I only had a spare 10 minutes to take some photos while passing, but I could happily spend hours there.
Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 9 October 2019
On my way to a meeting in London recently I was a little early and so managed to grab ten brief minutes of photography at the Barbican Centre, which was on my route. Here’s one of the photographs.
Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 9 October 2019
I have to say that I’m very happy to have my Olympus OM-1 back from its repair. I’d not used it for a while and it had developed a shutter issue. The repair cost me around the same as it would have done to buy a new OM-1 body from a reputable dealer, but this is my OM-1, and it’s worth the money to keep it in good working order. It’s probably my favourite 35mm camera, and while I’m still not too keen on the shutter speed selector being on the lens mount (which I find a bit fiddly), it’s otherwise a very satisfying piece of kit to use. It also looks gorgeous – a proper camera if ever there was!
I loaded it with a roll of HP5+ and shot half in Sheffield, and the other half in London (while travelling between the railway station and the meeting venue). This is one of the Sheffield photos.
Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 6 October 2019
My photo today is a street shot, but the intent was mostly to capture F. G. Thomas, which I noticed has now closed it’s retail premises.
The shop had been there as long as I remember (it had actually opened there way back in 1925) so it came as a bit of a shock to see the empty window and for-lease sign. It appears that, as the lease was up for renewal on the premises, the current owners have decided to move their business online as their footfall in the shop had been gradually declining.
I’ve racked my mind, but I can’t honestly remember ever having gone in the shop, much less bought anything, which makes me feel oddly guilty. On the one occasion I bought a fountain pen (they were a requirement for some unknown reason when I started comprehensive school in the 80s), I think it was from WHSmith, just around the corner on Fargate.
I’m glad to have captured the signage of the shop, even if the windows are now empty – the little man with his “is it a globe, or is it a hairnet?” hairstyle was a nice thing to see.
Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 6 October 2019
I’ve been in London all day today, so don’t have much time (nor inclination) to write much, so I’ll keep it snappy. Pun intended. 🙂
Here are a couple of people sat waiting for a train. One of them has brought some knitting to keep themselves occupied.
Pentax Espio 140m & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 7 September 2019
I saw this lady as I was walking back to the railway station with my family after meeting my son. It was her reflection in the large puddle that caught my eye, so I quickly stopped and took the photograph.
Pentax Espio 140m & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 7 September 2019
A couple of shots of Mablethorpe Rock, a shop that has been there as long as I can remember (or perhaps mis-remember).
Rock is one of those great British seaside traditions that is still going strong today – although, personally, I don’t really like the stuff – it’s overly sweet, sticky, and feels like it will rot the teeth right out of my head as soon as I touch it.
For those not in the know, rock is basically sticks of boiled sugar. It traditionally has the name of the resort you buy it from cleverly running through the length of the stick – something that is done by adding pieces of different coloured sugar to form the individual letters during the manufacturing process while the substance is still soft and malleable – as can be seen in this film from 1957. As well as sticks, you will also find it shaped into all manner of other things – a cooked English breakfast formed out of pure sugar and served on a paper plate is another firm favourite.
Rock comes in a variety of flavours, but plain sugary-sweet, and peppermint are probably the best sellers. The fruit flavoured ones are best in my opinion (if forced to choose), but you can now find all manner of exotic varieties, including such culinary horrors as Tikka Masala flavour!
My favourite part about receiving a stick of rock – it was a traditional gift brought back when someone had been on holiday – was the little black and white photo of the resort that would be inside the clear plastic wrapper. Thanks to the miracle of modern technology, these photos are now in colour.
As you can see from the bottom picture, the shop also sells ice cream, so I had one of those instead.
Olympus 35 RC & Kodak Portra 400.
Taken on 13 September 2019
