Park Hill flats in snow

December 4, 2021 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

This is the second version of this post. The first one was about how the short and gloomy winter days are getting me down somewhat this year, but it made for somewhat depressing reading, so I scrapped it.

The days can be very gloomy during the winter though – it’s just after 4pm as I write this and it’s almost fully dark outside. Normally this wouldn’t be the case for another hour at this time of the year, but we’ve got some heavy rain today and the clouds have blocked what little natural illumination we might otherwise have had.

We were due to go out shortly for a family meal, but one of my boys went out with friends last night and had a few celebratory drinks too many so we’ve had to cancel and re-book as he has had a hangover all day. With the wisdom of age I can easily preach to him about the foolishness of drinking too many beers and the price that comes with them, but I’ve got plenty of hangovers of my own under my belt from when I was young which prevent me getting on too high a horse. So the meal will take place tomorrow instead when hopefully we will all be in a fit state to enjoy it.

My other son will now be having some takeaway pizza instead which, from the look on his face when I told him, I think he prefers anyway. Not sure if the rest of us will have the same (or if Mister Hungover will want some – pizza is great at the end of a night out drinking, but I can’t remember if it maintains its allure the following day), but we shall see shortly.

Today’s picture is of Park Hill Flats, a sheffield architectural landmark that has featured here on the blog on a few occasions previously. I made this photo after the shot of the magick studio, and before the picture of the pigeons I posted yesterday. It was taken from the footbridge over the road and shot through the railings.

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°.

Taken on 27 November 2021

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

The birds

December 3, 2021 fishyfisharcade5 Comments

I knew I had to get a photo of these pigeons as soon as I saw them. If I’ve counted right, there are one-hundred-and-eighteen of them perched on the overhead cables (including the two in flight). Normally when I see something like this they’ll all fly away before I get chance to take the picture, but on this occasion I was blessed with a flock tolerant of my presence. I guess city pigeons are generally quite accepting of people though, and they were pretty much out of reach up there on the wires anyway. I suspect that, had I dropped some fod on the floor, the whole lot of them would have descended!

The tram has a slight blur as I wanted to maximise my depth of field, so had to use a slower shutter speed (I think it was 1/125s, but it might have been 1/60s.

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°.

Taken on 27 November 2021

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Too much fish

December 2, 2021 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I’ve just eaten my tea not too long back. Tea in this case, for those unfamiliar with the term outside the drink, is vernacular for evening meal, or dinner, if you like. I think it’s a largely working class use of the word, but it’s what I grew up with and what I continue to use. I don’t think I’ve ever used the term dinner. To confuse matters further, dinner is what I call the midday meal – lunch to posher folks than I – again a standard working-class thing I think (although I do use lunch sometimes too).

Anyway, I had fish for tea today, and got a couple of pieces out from the freezer this morning. Normally I would only have a single fillet, but these felt somewhat small, so I got out two of them.

I should have just gotten one.

While not huge, there was definitely more fish there than I needed (although not too much to eat!). Anyway, I made some batter and shallow fried them and had them with some mushy peas. Very tasty they were too.

Anyway, on to today’s photo – another frame from the roll of Ortho Plus. This one took a bit of post-processing to get it looking how I wanted as it looked very dark and drab on the initial scan. I think the editing has introduced some noise, and it looks almost digital if you zoom right in. It looks better than it did though.

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford Ortho Plus 80 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10.5 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 6 November 2021

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Mystery log frame

December 1, 2021 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

On my wander through the woods at Clumber Park the other week I came across this log frame besde the path. I’m not quite sure what it is, but suspect it’s likely some form of nature conservation set up. The inside of the frame was filled with logs, many of which were showing signs of decay and growths of fungus and the like, so I think it could be to provide a habitat for small mammals and invertebrates. I could be wildly off the mark with this though – my knowledge of conservation and woodland management is not at an expert level I’m afraid.

It’s another frame from the roll of Ortho Plus I spoke about a couple of days ago, but in this case the sun was managing to peek through the cloud cover and provide a bit more light and, as a result, it’s not got the dour, dark look of some of the other pictures.

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford Ortho Plus 80 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10.5 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 6 November 2021

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Missing the warmth – shooting orthochromatic

November 29, 2021 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I bought a roll of Ilford Ortho Plus film, oh, well over a year ago and it’s been sat in the fridge ever since. Until about four weeks ago that is, when I loaded it for an abortive trip where I forgot a vital piece of equipment. So, after we’d had all thge renovations and decorating done, I managed to get a day to go out and make some photographs. As is my luck, the weather was mostly less than ideal on the day – the dreary slab of overcast that tends to sap my enthusiasm. But it was a chance to go out, so I took it.

I decided to head out to Clumber Park, a National Trust property about 15 miles away, near the town of Worksop. It’s a place I’ve been many times, and somewhere I like to go to see some autumn colour. Alas though, I think I pretty much missed the best of the colour this year – or at least the days that would have highlighted it at it’s best. I packed the Yashicamat along with a somewhat ambitious five rolls of film (including the already loaded Ortho Plus). Unlike the previous time I’d taken out the Yashicamat with this roll of film loaded, this time I took my tripod!

I wandered around the park for a few hours, eventually shooting the full roll of Ortho Plus and also a roll of HP5+ before heading home. I developed Ortho Plus the following day (the HP5+ roll is still sat waiting for me to get around to it) and noticed some very dense looking negatives. I’m not sure if this is normal or, perhaps more likely, due to the fact that my Massive Dev Chart app managed to reset part way through the development meaning I had to quickly try and get back on track on the fly. While I think I was still pretty close with the timings, I was probably at least 10-15 seconds out. Maybe this impacted the process.

I scanned the roll and was pretty disappointed with the results. Not only were the results dark and drab looking, there also seemed to be quite a lot of veil flare on a number of the frames. This might be because, despite remembering the tripod, I still forgot the lens hood for the camera. I’ve noticed similar flaring from the Yashicamat on other occasions, although it’s not consistent and I often get full rolls where it doesn’t appear at all (whether the lens hood is attached or not).

The other reason for my disappointment probably stems from my ignorance of using orthochromatic film. I think I got it muddled up and thought the trees in the shots would look quite lively. In actual fact, the film doesn’t register reds and other warm tones, reducing them to dark grays and blacks instead. This meant that, while the autumn colour wasn’t at its best, there was still enough of it present to make my photos look pretty sombre.

All-in-all it wasn’t what I’d hoped for but, as I say, it’s my ignorance at fault here. I’ll maybe try a roll of the film again at some point, I just don’t think I’ll be in a hurry to do so.

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford Ortho Plus 80 . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10.5 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 6 November 2021

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

The descent into Tideswell

June 23, 2021 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

The final three photos I made during my walk around Tideswell Dale, Miller’s Dale, Monk’s Dale and then across the meadows back to Tideswell itself. The final three photos from the Yashica Mat at least – I also shot a few more frames with the OM-2n which had spent most of the day tucked in my backpack.

The skies were beginning to get more threatening by this stage and veils of rain could be seen falling to the south and west. Luckily though, I managed to avoid all the showers. Unluckily, the chip shop where I thought I might treat myself to a well-deserved lunch, was closed. 😦

I wanted some chips
But instead had to go for
A tuna sandwich

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 24 May 2021

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Look both ways

June 22, 2021 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Another couple of photos made near the village of Tideswell. I found this location on Google Maps while planning my walking route and decided it would be a good location for a photograph or two.

The puddles on the track add interest but also meant slick mud and, if you look closely, you can see evidence of my passing in the middle of the lane.

The pictures depict the lane in both directions, although not from the same precise point.

Muddy puddle track
On a day with atmosphere
A draw for my eye

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 24 May 2021

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Howdy cow

June 21, 2021 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

Walking across the fields towards Tideswell was something of a test. The footpath passed throught a whole bunch of fields with a stone stile forming part of the dry-stone walls to be climbed between each. While I’m not getting any younger, stiles dont generally pose me much of a problem, but on this day I discovered that my hiking boots don’t grip very well on limestone, particularly that which has been worn smooth by countless other feet! This meant I had to be super careful climbing over each and every one.

The route took me past a field of cows though, and one of them walked over to look at me with a curious gaze, so I made a portrait.

A curious cow
Walked away from its herd mates
To see what was up

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 24 May 2021

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Too much food and not enough photographs

June 20, 2021June 20, 2021 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I’ve had a bit of an indulgent weekend, having dined out for lunch with my wife two days running. The food has been good on both days, although we ate too much yesterday and felt stuffed for the rest of the afternoon and evening. It means that I’ve not been out making any photographs this weekend thoug. In fact, against my general rule of alway carrying a camera, all I had with me was my phone – and all that got used for was some pictures of out food to share with family members, plus some selfies. Not the sort of subject matter I generally go for.

But, while I haven’t made many new pictures this week, this is offset to a degree by the fact that I have a decent-sized backlog of unpublished images made over the preceding weeks. In fact, ignoring the Yashica Mat images I’m currently uploading, I have five full rolls of 36-exposure negatives to publish (although not every shot, of course!). Four of the rolls are scanned (or nearly scanned) already, and the fifth roll was developed and sleeved ready for scanning today. I’ll probably get started on those later in the week.

Because I don’t tend to bulk-upload images, instead uplaoding just two or three to my Flickr account each day, it’ll likely be some time before many of these photos are featured here on the blog. Whether I’ll let this continue, or if I’ll choose to try and catch up somehow, I don’t currently know. Given I’m not using the photos as some sort of cutting-edge, up-to-the-minute viewpoint on what I’m doing though, it probably doesn’t matter.

So, for today, here’re a couple of photos from Miller’s Dale taken almost four weeks ago.

My photography
Can sometimes feel a bit like
A compulsive need

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 24 May 2021

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

In Monk’s Dale

June 19, 2021June 19, 2021 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

A few weeks ago I wrote about my exhausting hike through Monk’s Dale. Today I’ll share a couple of photos from the hike – or at least the most difficult part through the steep-sided and heavily wooded limestone gorge.

This first image was a point of great relief. It looks back into the gorge that I had just exited through the gap in the wall. Ahead of me lay only a short section of grassy fields before I reached the road (although I then had to hike up the steep incline to the top). The photo is nicely atmospheric but doesn’t really convey the sweat-dripping tiredness I felt at this point.

This next image was taken part of the way through the thickly wooded area and shows the thick, dripping moss that covered the stones and trees at the foot of the valley. What it doesn’t convey is the autumnal orange colour that this moss displayed.

The valley is a very interesting place photographically, but I’m not sure if I’ll venture back just yet.

My path wandered through
A place of rocks and woodland
Humid and mossy

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 24 May 2021