I’m tempted to start throwing in the lyrics of the Grandmaster Flash classic. 🙂
Today’s photo is one that I’ve made before, from almost exactly the same spot, using the same camera and film. Apart from the fact that I pushed this roll by a stop, the technicalities of the picture are almost identical. The only real difference is the conditions when the images where made. I’ve published the original picture before here, but will add it to this post too so they can both be easily compared.
Two pictures the same But seperated by time Such differences
First the new image, made a couple of weeks ago:
And the older image, made in April 2020:
Holga & Ilford HP5+ (@800). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20° – older shot made at 400asa and devved for 9mins.
The next in a sequence of photographs which, if you know the area, kinda maps the route I took when out walking on the day they were made. There are a few gaps where I’ve omitted some of the shots from the roll (and, unless I change my mind, the next one will have a gap of half-a-mile or so from today’s).
I guess this image might have been improved by a person waiting at the stop, but no-one was in need of a bus at the time, so it’ll have to remain human-free.
Quiet roads of white Unused shelter sits empty Folks stay home instead
I’ve now managed a full month of haiku’s too. I’m not suggesting they’re good haiku’s, but haiku’s they are. 🙂
I made this picture about a minute after some idiot decided to put their foot down to overtake a slow moving tractor, thereby driving through a pile of wet, slushy snow on the side of the road closest to me and spraying it all up my legs in wet clumps. Lookily I’d worn some water resistant trousers and so the impact was reduced. Most people have grey matter inside their heads. Some people have brains resembling something of a different colour unfortunately.
Wet snow on wet roads Plumes of heavy slush made by Selfish car drivers
When we had a day of snow a couple of weeks ago, I made the effort to go out and make some photos. I had an excuse to go out as my wife had a birthday card that needed to be posted, plus it was a chance to get in my allowed exercise too.
I pondered which camera to take out, taking consideration of the fact that none of them are particularly weather-sealed. I wondered about the Zeiss folder at first, as I could easily drop that into a pocket, but the thought of big, wet flakes of snow landing on the bellows gave me pause. In the end I decided on the Holga. While I doubt it’s in any way water-sealed, it’s almost entirely plastic, so as long as I put it back in my bag between shots, I reckoned it would be ok.
The Holga gives very little control beyond zone-focusing and the ability to switch the aperture between f/8 and f/11, but that limitation also makes it very easy to use. I knew I’d keep it at the f/8 aperture setting, so it was just a matter of estimating the distance, framing the shot, and making the picture. The Holga is a genuine pleasure in this regard.
I walked around for about an hour and fired off all twelve frames on a roll of HP5+ and I think I have a decent number of keepers from the bunch. The fixed 1/100s shutter speed did a great job of capturing the movement of the falling snowflakes. As the day was heavily overcast (as you might expect during snow!) I decided to push the roll a stop during development, which I think was a good choice.
As the lockdown (and the demands of my Couch-to-5K plan) are limiting the chances to get out with the camera slightly, I’m rationing the photos a little, so they’ll be spread out over the next few days while I develop another roll of film I’ve shot and, hopefully, get out and make some more images this weekend.
Out posting a card Off to a friend of my wife On a snowy day
Edgelands are defined as “the transitional, liminal areas of space to be found on the boundaries of country and town“. I’m not sure that the location in today’s photo is quite true to that description as, while it’s on the edge of an urban area, more recent development means that if merges quite quickly into further, newer, suburban developments long before it can merge into the countryside proper. It seems to be a feature of many industrial cities though that there is no defined boundary between countryside and town. Instead, as you reach closer to the boundaries, so patches of land where perhaps lost industry once stood, or where no development is possible due to natural features such as rivers and their flood-plains, become more commonplace, penned in by industrial estates or suburban housing.
I enjoy getting out into the countryside very much, but I do have an affinity for these semi-industrial / semi-urban areas too. I like the way that I can find relics of the coal-mining that used to be prevalent around here. Disused railway lines, bridges, and brickwork bereft of purpose can be located amongst bugeoning new-growth woodland like the remnants of some past civilisation.
Hidden in the soil Fragments of brick and metal Industry as was
A few days ago I said that there would be another version of the shot posted there to come. And here it is today. This one was made with the GW690 and on a snowy day to boot. I wasn’t sure if the minor parallax difference that would be present from using the rangefinder viewfinder would mess up my alignment of the pylons but it seems to have worked out fine.
Through the winter sky Cables of steel move power Over frozen ground
A familiar scene for anyone who’s followed my blog for a while – the Beighton Station signalbox. I think I’ve mentioned before that the signalbox is scheduled for demolition due to signalling and the level crossing now being controlled remotely. A local effort was made to try and save the signalbox but this appears to have fallen through with the proposed cost to move it to a new location being in the region of a quarter of a million pounds.
At the same time however, I’ve heard that plans to reopen Beighton Station are moving forward, the idea being (I believe) to have a tram-train service that runs between Sheffield and Chesterfield, with Beighton being one of the stops. I don’t expect that it will be much of a station in the traditional sense – most likely a couple of platforms, some bus-stop-style shelters, and a car-park to allow park-and-ride services for commuters. I think it will be a good thing to have though and can imagine it being especially popular in the warmer months if it used as a means for people in other parts of the city to get access to the nearby Rother Valley Country Park.
I’ll be sad to see the signalbox go though.
An old signalbox Its functionality gone To another place
Takeaways, a cafe, a tattoo parlour, and an empty salon make up this row of shops about a mile from home. This is probably a bit of a record shot really, but it’s the sort of thing that will mature with age as the shops change hands and purpose and the cars become old fashioned. I enjoy looking at photos depicting places how they used to be, and perhaps in a decade or two, this one will fit that bill too.
Time moves. Places change So dull contemporary Becomes nostalgic
We’ve had quite a lot of snow so far this winter. I mean that in terms of how much we normally get though, which is generally very little. I can’t remember it snowing at all last year – certainly not to settle on the ground. While other parts of the country see snow more often, and higher elevation areas not too far from us can be seen to be white-capped when everywhere else is bereft of the stuff, we don’t tend to see it often at home. Occasionally, every few years though (maybe a result of ripples of effect from El Nino or some other climate event elsewhere on the globe) we get more snow than usual.
It’s not often more than a couple of inches, but in 2018 we had a good foot of snowfall. Since Christmas, we’ve had three days where enough snow has fallen to coat the ground and roads, and two of those occasions provided enough for snowman building and sledging. I’ve heard rumblings on the news that there may be chance of a cold spell into next week too but, as a photographer, I know that weather forecaster’s predictions should be treat with some caution. Whatever the case, I wonder if 2021 will be a snowy year hereabouts?
We don’t get much snow Some years there’s barely a flake To fall on the ground
Today’s photo was made after the first of the three snow days we’ve had so far.
Steel City Snapper photography 