Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 MC, and Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro
Taken 6 August 2023.
Park Hill flats
Tag: Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE
Sheffield cholera monument
Despite having lived in the city for five decades, I’d never visited the cholera monument in Sheffield until the day I made these pictures. I’ve seen the monument on many occasions, it sits on an elevated piece of land next to a small wooded area named Clay Woods just a few minutes walk from Midland Station, and is visble from many parts of the city, and on this day I decided I’d finally take a closer look.
The monument was erected in 1835 to memorialize those who lost their lives in the cholera epidemic that struck the city three years previously. Over four hundred people lost their lives and the majority of them were buried in nearby grounds.
The memorial was partly destroyed by a hurricane(!) in 1839, and has been struck by lightning on a number of occasions, including having it’s top section removed completely following a strike in 1990, and was only completely restored in 2006.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 MC, and Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro
Taken 6 August 2023.
Skeggy
Following on directly from yesterdays Ingoldmells post, todays piece features photos from Skegness (or Skeggy for short. Or, amusingly, SkegVegas).
It took about 20 minutes to drive to Skegness from Ingoldmells, a trip I punctuated with a visit to a fish & chip shop for some dinner (dinner is what we call lunch in my part of the world. The evening meal isn’t “dinner”, it’s “tea”, but not the drink. Sorry to cause confusion!). After that a short drive into the centre of the town to get parked.
As a child it felt like Skegness beach was huge. It seemed you had to walk through a veritable desert of sand before you would reach the se. These days however, it laps around the end of the pier, and the pier isn’t even as long as it once was! I expect this is a result of the work that has been carried out to combat coastal errosion in this part of the Lincolnshire coast. Mablethorpe, for isnstance, used to have groynes all along its beach, but these are now buried beneath feet of sand that has been dredged from offshore. I guess it makes for a nicer beach, but it also seems to have lost some interest in the process.
When staying at my grandparent’s caravan in Mablethorpe, we would occasionally have a day trip to Skegness. Skeggy is much bigger than Mablethorpe and has a lot more entertainments, including the pier, and a good sized funfair in Bottons Pleasure Beach. I think, for my grandma, the much greater selection of shops was also undoubtably a lure.
On the day of my visit I walked along the promenade area above the beach before venturing onto the sand to take a few pictures of the back of the Pleasure Beach. From there I wandered to the pier, back through the Pleasure Beach itself, and then onto the main road that runs between the beachside entertainments and the town itself.
While the weather had improved a bit by the time I arrived in Skegness, it was still largely overcast, and I was disappointed that I didn’t get the sunshine and blue skies that I think would have made the colour film work better. As always here in the UK, you get the weather you’re given though, and it’s a case of making the best of it.
One of the things I like about the seaside, is the architecture – the arcades, the food stalls, the touristy stuff. It’s kitschy and sometimes a little worse for wear, but it has a special charm to it and I sometimes wonder if there’s a school of architecture dedicated to designing such structures?
Nobody was enjoying this Altitude attraction when I was there. Maybe the wind was too high or something? Someone was “enjoying” the log-flume though. 🙂
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE and 50mm f/2.8 MC lenses, and Fujicolor Pro 400H. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro
Taken 28 July 2023.
Ingoldmells
Back at the end of July I took a daytrip to the seaside, visiting the Lincolnshire coast resorts of Ingoldmells and Skegness. The two places are just a few miles apart, with Ingoldmells just north of Skegness.
It was the popularity of Skegness – a town that took on the somewhat telling catchphrase “It’s bracing!” – that led to the creation of Ingoldmells (pronounced Ingamells) as a resort, although the settlement had been there for centuries, with the parish church dating to the 12th century. In 1936, Billy Butlin opened his first Butlin’s holiday camp in the village, although it would soon close temporarily due to World War II when it became a shore establishment of the Royal Navy, given the designation HMS Royal Arthur.
Post war, the area developed further into a holiday location. East Lindsey District Council estimates there being nearly thirty-five thousand caravans across the East Lindsey Coasy, incorporating Skegness, Ingoldmells, and the towns further north such as Mablethorpe, with an economic value of over half-a-billion pounds!
It seemed slightly grim that some of the caravan parks were surrounded by barbed-wire topped fencing and, at one point when I ventured into an area to get a picture of caravans with the roller-coasters in the background, I was quickly approached by a member of staff enquiring what I was doing, so I guess some people must get up to no good sometimes.
Ingoldmells is dominated by caravan parks with the focal point being the seafront area and the Fantasy Island theme park which has a variety of rollercoasters and other rides for thrill-seekers young and old. Fantasy Island also has an open air market, with a variety of vendors, all dwarfed by the park’s two big coasters.
The seafront and nearby streets are home to a varety of arcades, food outlets, and seaside bucket-and-spade shops.
I didn’t get the best weather on my visit, it being overcast for the most part (although it did brighten up a little in the afternoon when I moved on to Skegness) and even a little rainy, which is not my favourite scenario for shooting colour film.
At some point while I was there I sheltered from the drizzle and I must’ve disturbed a spider’s nest as, for the next hour, I would occasionally feeling something crawling on me, each time it being a small money spider. Being concered about the extent of this “infestation” I even put my phone into selfie mode so I could check that I didn’t have a swarm of the things crawling unnoticed on me. That might have been embarrassing / horrifying, depending on your feelings about arachnids!
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE and 50mm f/2.8 MC lenses, and Kodak Gold. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro
Taken 28 July 2023.
Vintage bus, vintage bike
The last couple of medium format pictures from this year’s Sheffield Steam Rally, the first a late 60s Bedford coach, which reminds me a little of childhood daytrips with school, of on a working man”s club outing to the seaside (although this style of bus would have been dated by the time I was going on those).
And secondly, a hundred-year-old Triumph motorcycle. I’m not sure which model – either an SD or an R perhaps?
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE, & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed, home scanned, and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 24 June 2023.
It had to happen eventually, I guess…
Well, after two-and-a-half-years, I’ve finally tested positive for covid-19. My wife too (although this will be her second time).
I’m not sure exactly where I picked it up, but the flight to Spain is probably a good bet, confined in an airplane for two-and-a-half hours, plus walking through two international airports would seem to increase the odds. That said, I might have just picked it up in the local shops. Who knows?
I first noticed the symptoms last Wednesday, a couple of days after we returned from our trip. Nothing severe, just a mild sensation at the back of my throat like there was something stuck there, maybe a bit of granola from my breakfast of something. I also had some achy muscles, but I was putting those down to all the hiking about I did in Malaga – especially a hike up a steep path to the castle – but they may well have been covid symptoms too.
By Thursday I was feeling worse and under the belief that I’d caught a summer cold. My muscles ached more and I was suffering from bouts of fever and chills although, again, nothing too severe. Friday and Saturday were similar, but paracetamol kept the worst of it at bay – a headache around the base of my skull being the most debilitating symptom. This morning my wife was feeling ill too and we pulled out some of the covid testing kits we still have at home. Almost instantly, both our tests showed two solid lines indicating infection.
I’m actually feeling quite a lot better today and haven’t needed any paracetamol, but I’m feeling somewhat pissed that my remaining annual leave – where I had quite a few things I’d hoped to do – has been blighted by illness and resulted in my doing little. It’s a public holiday tomorrow here in the UK and the weather currently looks nice so, if I don’t feel ill, I’m tempted to take a trip with my camera somewhere. It’ll be someplace outdoors and I’ll not be mixing with anyone, so it should be fine if I decide to go ahead.
It still makes me feel oddly guilty to be considering it though, even though there are pretty much zero restrictions regarding covid here in the UK anymore. Even people working in healthcare are allowed to go to work while infected in most circumstances, so a trip out somewhere by myself should be ok I guess.
Here are three more Sheffield Steam Rally pictures. 2023 was the first year the rally returned after three years away due to the pandemic.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE, & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed, home scanned, and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 24 June 2023.
Lorries
A selection of vintage lorries photographed at Sheffield Steam Rally in June.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE, & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed, home scanned, and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 24 June 2023.
Traction engines and a mountain of scanning
A few pictures today of traction engines (and a wooden caravan) photographed at the Sheffield Steam Rally back in June.
I did a quick tally of how many negative I currently have waiting to be scanned today and it came as a bit of a shock. I currently have four rolls of colour 135 each with approx 38 frames on each, two rolls of colour 120 with 15 frames on each. On top of that I have four frames of large format sheet film to develop and scan, and also a roll of 120 HP5+ with 6 frames left to shoot before I develop and scan it. By my reckoning that will be 201 pictures to be scanned – a daunting prospect! Plus I still have three rolls of film that I’ve already scanned that have not been seen here in any shape yet! At least I won’t run out of stuff to publish on the blog any time soon…
Obviously not everything will be worth publishing, but I expect that I will be featuring more picture-heavy posts on here to avoid falling ever further behind, chronologically.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE, & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed, home scanned, and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 24 June 2023.
Cortina, reflected
The same Ford Cortina that I posted a picture of a few days ago, this time in a Vivian Maier-style selfie.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE, & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed, home scanned, and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 24 June 2023.
We all queue for ice cream
A series of (mostly) wordless posts…
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE, & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed, home scanned, and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 24 June 2023.
Steel City Snapper photography 