Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
This is another frame from the roll of Provia 100F that was badly affected by light-leaks. I’ve had to crop this one quite a lot to avoid the effect. It’s now in a 6×4.5 ratio and probably less than half the size of the original image. It’s a shame that I’ve had to crop out some of the long line of red tractors, but better than losing the entire image, I suppose.
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Fuji Provia 100F.
Taken on 17 August 2019
Yesterday I made a comment about providing an explanation for cropping my 6×6 photo to a 6×7 ratio. The reason for this was a series of highly noticeable light leaks across the whole set of images, and I think I know the reason why this occurred…
After shooting the roll of Provia, I wound the fill all the way onto the take-up spool as I normally do. Then, however, rather than removing the film and sealing it ready for processing, I instead left it inside the camera. My reason for this was that it was a bright, sunny day and, as I wasn’t planning on shooting any more medium format during the day, I’d leave it in the camera rather than risk it in the daylight. Oh, the irony.
What I think then happened is, as I enjoyed the rest of my day out, the film in the camera – no longer held under tension – was able to loosen itself slightly on the spool. Then, when I got home and removed it, I immediately noticed that the rolled film was protuding over the flanges on the spool slightly. I quickly wrapped it in some tinfoil but, alas, the damage was already done – as evidenced by the light leaks on the top and bottom of most of the frames.
Thankfully, with a little bit of cropping (turning most of the roll into 6×7 or 6×4.5 ratio images, or reducing the area of the 1×1 frame) I’ve been able to rescue most of the photos, including today’s shot of an old Octopus fairground ride.
I’ve not seen one of these rides in a long time (although, to be fair, I don’t tend to visit travelling funfairs all that often anymore now that my kids are older). My last real memory of this particular ride (literally this same model) was back in the early 80s when myself and a friend went on it. It made me feel a little dizzy and I was glad when it was time to get off. Unfortunately, the operator miscounted the riders when letting people off and new people on, and we ended up getting a free ride. Sometimes free stuff really isn’t worth it!
And here’s an example of the light leak (admittedly this is the worst one of the roll):
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Fuji Provia 100F.
Taken on 17 August 2019
I’m in a bit of a rush today, so can’t say a lot, but the eagle-eyed readers of this post might notice that this is a 6×7 format image and the Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 is a 6×6 camera. Hopefully I’ll have time to explain the reason for my “creative” croppage tomorrow.
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Fuji Provia 100F.
Taken on 17 August 2019
This is the view eastward down 23rd Street from the High Line park in Manhattan. The road at the bottom of the shot is 10th Avenue. While I’m all for curves, the clean sight-lines, coupled with rows of high-rise buildings, make for some nice photo opportunities. The slightly faded tones of the Portra 400 have replicated the feel of the very warm day on which the shot was taken quite nicely, I think.
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Kodak Portra 400.
Taken on 27 May 2019
You can’t fail to be struck by the advertising hoardings in Times Square, whether it be the high-tech animated electronic boards, or the more traditional versions like in today’s photo.
I’m a little disappointed with the roll of Ektar I shot in NYC – not due to the film itself (the colours are glorious), but because of my results. Apart from a couple, all the shots (including the one here) show at least some minor signs of softness. I know the camera is capable of sharp images, so this is down to camera shake or DOF blurring when using wider apertures. Although it wasn’t badly lit on the day I shot the roll, the light meter app on my phone was giving somewhat long exposure times when I metered the shots, so I was shooting with longer shutter speeds and / or wider apertures than I’d have liked. As this was a family trip, not a photography expedition, I was also taking less time than I would have liked to compose and take many shots, which probably exacerbated things too.
I wish I’d have taken my Sekonic L-208 meter with me instead of relying on the phone app. The phone app is normally ok, but on this occasion seemed to be giving me somewhat variable results even when readings were taken in similar conditions. I think the L-208 would have been a more reliable companion.
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Kodak Ektar.
Taken on 27 May 2019
A group of cows recline in the grass beside the footpath atop Curbar Edge.
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford FP4+.
Taken on 12 May 2019
Climbers ascend the crags at Curbar Edge, Peak District National Park.
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford FP4+.
Taken on 12 May 2019
Another photo from a recent trip to Manchester. The meeting I was attending finished earlier than expected so I had an hour or so to kill while waiting for the train I had a ticket for. So I went for a walk. I’d taken the Zeiss on the trip for two reasons: Firstly, I’d just had it CLA’d and wanted to test it out if I got the chance, and; Secondly, it folds down to almost pocket size, which is a wonderful feature in a medium format camera when you need to travel light.
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford Delta 400.
Taken on 23 April 2019
Well, sort of…
On a recent visit to Manchester I arrived at Manchester Picadilly station to find a series of boards displaying the winning entries for the most recent Landscape Photographer of the Year competition.
There were some beautiful and striking images on show and I took a couple of photographs of people looking at them – this one from the balcony overlooking the ticket-hall area.
I’ve cropped it from the square original due to a winding error (I didn’t wind it on enough and got two slightly overlapping frames).
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford Delta 400.
Taken on 23 April 2019
I’m digging this one out of the archive (it was taken 13-months ago). A fairly mundane subject, but the mundane stuff is often what I like, and the low December sun illuminating this sandwich shop caught my eye on the day and was worth the shot I think.
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 21 December 2017
Steel City Snapper photography 