This was one of those cases where, as soon as I saw the scene, I thought “There’s a picture!“.
The hunch shouldered look immediately brought to mind the iconic scene of the vampire, Nosferatu, ascending a staircase as a shadow. In this case it’s not a member of the undead blocking the light, but inventor and engineer, James Watt, whose statue stands on a plinth just out of frame. The second shot shows the culprit in better detail.
Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 for 8 minutes @ 20°
I took this picture while attending this year’s Photo North festival in Leeds last month. I’ve taken similar images at this venue before, but I like how this one turned out with the placement of both people and gallery exhibits.
In the early days of the new year, before I returned to work, I had a day free to do some photography. The world was my oyster (well, maybe not the world) and I was beset by the angst of choice paralysis – lots of places I might go, but a major struggle deciding on which one to choose. Quite often in these situations I just end up going to the same places I’ve been before – often into Sheffield city centre, or Kelham Island, or somewhere else close but familiar. However I was able to grasp the mettle and make a decision, and pulled Saltaire out of the, er, air.
Saltaire is somewhere I’ve never visited before. It sits to the north west of Bradford which, while not too far away, is still about an hour’s journey in the car. The village (although it’s now kinda merged into the wider Bradford conurbation), was built and named after Titus Salt to house workers employed at his mill, aptly named Salt’s Mill. The streets in the village are named after Salt’s children and other family members.
The mill and village sit beside the River Aire and the Leeds to Liverpool canal and the buildings are built in an Italianate style, which is very photogenic. As well as the mill and the houses, there are a number of other civic buildings, including a church, hospital, school, and others. The village was granted UNESCO World Heritage status in 2001.
The mill contains art galleries, shops, and a restaurant, and was a very nice place to wander around.
It’s a place I think I may revisit at some point as there is much I didn’t see, and lots to photograph.
Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 for 8 minutes @ 20°
A very short walk from the Impressions Gallery in Bradford is a cafe called The Cake’ole (“cake’ole” being slang for “mouth” – the hole where you insert cake 🙂 ). I ordered a sandwich and a coke, and was very happy with both the food and the service. Next time I visit the gallery I’ll almost certainly pay a visit to The Cake’ole again too. Maybe I’ll try one of the nice looking cakes next time. I took the picture below while awaiting my sandwich.
Something good that happened today…
Back at work after the weekend on a gray and rainy Monday (it’s February in the UK, so this is perhaps to be expected). But I had another day that felt productive and that always gives me a satisfied feeling when the working day is over.
The photos shared today were taken when I visited the Impressions Gallery in Bradfordfor the photobook fair and the Cafe Royal exhibition.
I’ve only been to Bradford on a handful of occasions, and every visit has been for a specific purpose with little time to explore, but I think I will make some proper time to do so one day as there is a lot of interesting stuff to be seen.
Something good that happened today…
I went out for Sunday Dinner with my wife and had a very nice steak and ale pie served with chunky chips and proper mushy peas. All washed down with a pint of cider.
Outside Leeds Art Gallery there are a number of brightly coloured “loungers” for people to sit and, well, lounge upon. I took a couple of pictures, but the first is the best because the couple on the red lounger make a nice counterpoint to the Henry Moore “Reclining Woman” sculpture on the plinth above.
Something good that happened today…
It’s Friday, which is almost always good, so I’ll go with that today.
Olympus OM-10 & G.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 on Kodak Elite Chrome 200 (expired 2004) . Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
These four photos were all taken around Leeds Combined Courts Centre. I found the brickwork and the architecture made for interesting photographs, and the nice weather didn’t hurt where the expired slide film was concerned, either.
Something good that happened today…
I’ve had a busy day at work, mostly taken up with meetings. Sometimes days like this can be frustrating because there’s insufficient time between calls to get on with the work I need to do. While that was still the case to an extent, all the calls I was on felt productive, and I came away from them feeling like something had been achieved, which is good.
Olympus OM-10 & G.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 on Kodak Elite Chrome 200 (expired 2004) . Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
This sculpture was stood in a corner of the main entrance gallery in Leeds Art Gallery. It would be incredibly impressive in scale if those were full size bricks, but in reality the figure is not much larger than a normal person. It was a photogenic looking character though, regardless of size.
Something good that happened today…
The robin was on the garden this morning again while I sorted out the cat litter tray (always a delightful task…). Today it flew over an alighted on the wall a couple of feet from where I stood, before quickly shooting off to hide in the laurel bush. At this time I hadn’t yet put out any bird food (the current breakfast for them is a selection of sunflower hearts and toast crusts) and in my mind I imagined that this small display of bravery was a polite nudge for me to hurry up and put some food on the grass.
Olympus OM-10 & G.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 on Kodak Elite Chrome 200 (expired 2004) . Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Steel City Snapper photography 