Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
I’m not going all digital, promise! But I just wanted to post something quickly and easily today, mostly because I can feel the effects of staying up half the night watching the Oscars catching up on me.
This is another from the few pictures I took when out testing the D810 the other day.
Nikon D810 and Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-f/5.6 D.
Taken on 14 March 2026
As mentioned the other day, I took the opportunity during our holiday in Menorca to return to the city of Ciutadella alone to take pictures. While I still take pictures when my wife is with me, it’s not the same as wandering by myself, when I can lose myself down side streets and wait for the light and composition of a scene to improve. My wife if patient, but there are limits…
I took the two pictures here just before I entered the “old town” area. The windmill was nigh on impossible to photograph without some type of vehicle in shot as the roads beside it were quite busy, but I don’t mind this van poking its snout into the bottom corner too much.
Just across the road from the windmill was a small pedestrianised area and the play of light and shade, plus the people moving through the scene caught my eye. I like this shot a lot, and I’m impressed at how well this batch of almost 20-years-expired film renders scenes.
Olympus 35 RC & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008). Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 2 October 2025
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE and Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken 2 September 2023.
As I wrote about yesterday, I visited North Leverton Windmill back at the start of the month. I shot five frames in total at the location, three of which are posted here today. The other two were both out of focus to some extent, which I put down to a combination of being in a meadow with slightly springy ground, and also because I was using a 90mm lens that I’ve got on loan at present. It’s a nice lens, but it’s huge compared to my 135mm, and the aperture locking switch is a little stiffer than my Fujinon, meaning there’s a risk of me moving the camera when operating it. I’m not sure if that was the cause here, but it’s something I need to take care with.
It was a hot day and there were few clouds in the sky most of the time I was at the site, although a few blobs of fluffy cumulus had started to appear when I took the two pictures of the windmill.
The people who look after the windmill were curious about my old-fashioned looking camera and asked lots of questions. The mill still produces flour, and is apparently the oldest windmill in the country to have seen continuous operation (it was built in 1813). They were even kind enough to set the sails in motion (even though that kinda made it more difficult to get pictures, it was great to see), and also to move the cars from the front of the mill (which you can see in the first shot), which was very nice of them.
Chamonix 045N-1. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 (second shot: Linhof Super Angulon 5.6/90 on Fomapan 100) & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken 2 September 2023.
The corringham windmill is, let’s face it, not a windmill any longer. Originally built in the early 19th century it functioned as a working mill for around a hundred years, ceasing operation in 1908. It attained Grade II listing status in 1985 and in 1993 was converted to an owl house. It has looked pretty much like it does in the picture below for as long as I have known it, and I’ve passed it on many an occasion.
It sits just to the east of the village of Corringham in Lincolnshire, standing close to the A631 road which runs between Gainsborough and Market Rasen (indeed, it runs all the way from the east end of Sheffield, passing through Wickersley, Maltby, Tickhill, and Bawtry before it reaches Gainsborough) and was one of the stretches of road I would travel when visiting Mablethorpe with my grandparents when I was younger. It’s still the route I take when I visit Mablethorpe now – it feels a bit like a pilgrimage of some sort where I follow the route my grandad drove, even though there are alternate routes that are faster.
The windmill at Corringham was one of many landmarks on the journey to Mablethorpe and it fills me with happiness, nostalgia and a touch of melancholy when I see it appear alongside the road. It’s a part of a beloved journey, one that evokes wonderful memories, but also a little sadness that my grandparents are no longer here. I don’t think I ever took the trips to Mablethorpe with my grandparents for granted, but I sometimes wish I could tell them just how much they meant to me.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D & Kodak Portra 160. Lab developed, home scanned, & converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 17 September 2022
The house in today’s picture is clearly a former windmill. When it became a residential building, I know not. It looked like a good subject for a picture or two though.
I took a couple of pictures of the house and, while I was doing so, I was observed by a lady looking out from a window in a nearby property who was engaged in a telephone conversation. I smiled at her when I saw her watching, but her face remained resolutely stern and she didn’t return the expression. The first shot I took was with my Nikon F80, a fairly standard looking SLR camera, but I wonder what she thought when I pulled the distinctly old-fashioned-looking Yashicamat 124G TLR from my bag to make the photo below? I did smile at her a second time as I did this, but again to no trace of a similar response. I wonder what was said about me on her phone call that day?
Yashicamat 124G & Fujifilm Pro 160NS. Lab developed, home scanned, & converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 17 September 2022
These three shots will probably mark the end of my North Leverton windmill photos for now. I still have a few more, but they’re quite similar to what I’ve already shown, so will probably stay in the archive for now.
I think these three are pretty nice pictures though (despite the over-developing problems) and the last of the trio is maybe my favourite of all the photographs I made at the location.
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 7 mins 45 secs @ 22.5°.
Taken on 25 July 2020
I mentioned my photos of North Leverton windmill a couple of days ago, so here are a few of them
The mill was built in 1813 by a collective of local farmers to grind their corn. It was also agreed that the mill would grind corn from other farmers and “industrious poor persons” for an agreed fee.
The windmill is completely without electrical power, relying on the wind to operate – although there are a set of engine stones for use when the wind is too low to turn the sails.
The windmill still sources locally grown grain to produce flour and animal feed, using traditional millstones to grind it.
I had a couple of cameras with me on the day – my Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & my Canon Sure Shot Supreme (plus my phone). Because of the hedges and fences that surround the mill, it was sometimes difficult to frame shots with the fixed focal length lenses of both cameras. Ironically in the next shot, I could have used a longer lens perhaps.
The final shot is of the cottage beside the mill, which had a group of chickens roaming about the place – presumably the source of the eggs in the photo I posted the other day.
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford Delta 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8 mins @ 20°.
Taken on 25 July 2020
Another photograph I made on my final pre-lockdown roll of film today. It’s a photo I like a lot, but it’s one that, from an aesthetic perspective at least, could probably do with some editing. I’m talking primarily about the twigs at the left of the frame and the light stalks of grass at bottom-right, but also possibly the modern turbine (although I do like the juxtaposition, I’m not so keen on the placement of the old and new structures). I don’t mind removing distractions from my photos – although I never add anything in – but I’m also conscious to not completely change the reality of what was observed. Based on this, the twigs and grass are probably fair game, but I feel the wind-turbine is maybe a bridge too far.
Ideally, I would try to avoid distractions such as the twigs when taking the shot, but this particular composition has a very limited vantage point and reaching over to move the twigs would likely involve a fall or a nasty laceration from the barbed wire atop the fence through which I made the picture. Perhaps I’ll try again one day though.
In other news, our government in the UK has announced some loosening of the lockdown measures that will come into force this Wednesday. The key one for me as a photographer is that it is now allowed to drive to an outdoor location for the purpose of leisure as long as social distancing is observed. Although there was no mention of photography specifically, sunbathing and picnics (albeit only with members of your household) were both given as examples, so I’m pretty confident that photography would be ok.
While I like the fact that I can now venture further afield for purposes other than exercise or essential shopping, I’m not convinced that this is a good idea where reducing infection rates from the coronavirus is concerned. While I’m quite happy to just go for a walk around some agricultural land where I’m unlikely to encounter any other people (or can easily distance myself if I do), I fear that it will give free licence to masses of people who will now see it as ok to travel to the seaside, to beauty spots, and to other “honeypot” locations, meaning that these places will become potential hotspots for the virus to spread. Even if everyone maintains a two-metre distance, there will still be the need to use toilets and other facilities where there will be multiple opportunities frof conamination.
I’m not sure if, given my concerns, that my going out for photography – even to a place that is likely going to be deserted – makes me a hypocrite?
Yashica Mat 124G & Kodak Plus-X (expired 2008).
Taken on 22 March 2020
A photo from the first roll of medium format film I shot, back in October 2016 on my first medium-format camera. Most of the photos on the roll were uninspiring, and I rushed through it in my eagerness to see what results the camera would give. The camera in question was a Lubitel 166 Universal, a relatively no-frills Soviet era TLR, but one that (despite the difficulties I had in focussing and framing my shots) is capable of very nice results indeed, and this is one of (perhaps the) best of that first roll.
Lubitel 166 Universal & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 15 October 206.
Steel City Snapper photography 