Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
Yesterday I spoke a little about those photos which, upon later inspection, reveal a person in the scene who is looking right at you (or appears to be). Well here’s another…
Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Fujifilm Acros (pushed to 400asa).
Taken on 22 October 2019
This caravan was parked next to the Minerva pub on the bank of the Humber Estuary at Hull and the words written upon it made me smile. For those not from the UK (or anywhere else that has a fanbase for The Housemartins), the words are a play on the lyrics of the song Caravan of Love. The Housemartins originated in Hull, so it seems particularly fitting somehow (although I’ve no idea if the band were gin drinkers or not).
Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 800asa).
Taken on 19 October 2019
A couple of photos for today’s blog post. One looking south(ish), the other north(ish) from opposite sides of the same street.
The first – the southerly-facing picture – is of Hull Minster. It’s a slightly odd image aspect ratio as, for some reason, the negative for this frame was missing a slice. I like the way there are several couples going about their business in the scene – in fact it almost looks like they might be following each other, walking in an anti-clockwise circle from one side of the street to the other. You can see the tables and chairs at the bottom of this frame in the second picture too, which indicates roughly where I stood to take this first photograph.
I didn’t go inside the minster on this occasion (although I have in the past). I find churches to be impressive buildings, always full of interest – both architecturally, and also because of their history and the artifacts within, especially those with original fittings, and Hull Minster doesn’t disappoint in that regard. Alas, I didn’t have time to pay a visit this time.
The second image is of the northerly view and was taken from a position to the right of the post in the picture above – there’s an open plaza in front of the minster, which is where I stood.
I took a couple of variants of this shot. The one I didn’t use had a number of things I liked – a woman in dark clothes framed between the two windows on the left of the image, and the people at centre right were crossing the road and no longer partially obscured by the bin. The one I’ve posted below has the guy in the middle doubled over though, and I didn’t want to lose that. I think he was looking at something in his lap (or maybe even praying with clasped hands), but in the next shot he’s upright again and it lost a little interest as a result.
There’s another, slightly different, viewpoint on this location in this post from a couple of years back.
Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 800asa).
Taken on 19 October 2019
It’s always a joy to wander around an unfamiliar area with a camera, whether it be somewhere far-flung and exotic, or just a part of your own town or city that you’ve not explored before.
During my wander around Hull last weekend I found a number places that just brought a smile to my face. While probably not drawing a second glance from many local eyes, to me they were heavy with possibility – even in the somewhat flat, grey, overcast light in which I viewed them.
This is one such location – Bishop Lane. I never knew this existed before last Saturday (and why should I? Despite a couple of prior visits to the city, I’ve barely scratched the surface in terms of exploration) but as soon as I saw it I was finding photographs in it’s wonderfully cobbled straightness and shot a few pictures. The first two were of an empty street, but then a couple appeared at the far end of the lane and began to walk in my direction. As they got closer I noticed that the man carried a guitar case and the woman a smaller intrument case – possibly a fiddle – and I knew I had to get them in a photograph of the location.
Before they got too close I checked my focus – the 28mm is fairly forgiving, but I pre-focussed on a spot where I thought the composition would work best as they passed, and then I waited. Looking at the photo it seems evident that one thing I didn’t check was the shutter speed as the couple have some noticable motion blur, so I’m guessing the camera was at 1/125sec (or perhaps even 1/60sec) when I pressed the shutter button. Despite this, I feel the photo works with the blur – it adds a subtle hint of motion in an otherwise motionless scene.
Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 800asa).
Taken on 19 October 2019
On my visit the HIPFest last weekend I discovered upon arriving that a) there was no longer a charge to enter the exhibits (it cost £5 for a wristband that granted you access to all the gallery areas on my previous visits) and, b) that the galleries (apart from the display in the main atrium area) didn’t open until noon (it was a little before 10:30am at this point).
Given that I’d planned on spending some time walking around Hull town centre taking photos anyway, this wasn’t too big of an issue, so I set off for a wander. I’d done a bit of a recce before the visit – Google Streetview is very handy for this – and had found a location that might make for good pictures, so I headed off to find it.
The first three images today are of the place I found on Streetview, and the last is of an alleyway that I found by chance slightly later.
Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 and Zuiko AUTO-Zoom 75-150mm f/4.0 & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 800asa).
Taken on 19 October 2019
Quickie post alert!
I’ve just got back from two days in London for work stuff, so don’t have it in me to type much today I’m afraid, so here’s a picture of some escalators and a lift that I took in Hull last weekend.
Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 800asa).
Taken on 19 October 2019
This is a photo I took in Sorrento, Italy back in August 2018. The image was on a roll of Ektar that had been left in my OM-1 and forgotten about. For various reasons I didn’t use the OM-1 for several months after the trip to Italy and I ony realised the film was still inside when I opened the camera back!
While a few frames were lost or suffered light leaks, most of the images were ok, including this one – a shot of Via Marina Grande, a narrow street that descends to the old marina.
Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 & Kodak Ektar.
Taken on 24 August 2018
I visited HIP Fest at the weekend – Hull International Photography Festival. This is the third year I’ve visited and there are always interesting things to see, both in the exhibition spaces and also in Hull itself.
The photos in today’s post were taken as I was browsing the work of Claire Armitage, who has a series of self-portraits on display in the main atrium area of the shopping centre where most of the exhibitions are placed. I quite liked the framing of the photos on display and people walking past the white wall in the background, so took a few shots.
While I don’t dislike these images – the first one is my favourite – I really should have been patient and waited for further opportunities as the second shot would have been better taken a second earlier, and the woman in the last one is ever-so-slightly out of focus. Alas, I only had a few hours to spare and felt the need to hurry to cram in the other things I wanted to do while there.
This was also the first time I’ve ever pushed film. While Silverfast seemed to want to overexpose all the scans (I got better results using the Pan F 50 setting than HP5+), the one’s I’ve scanned so far have come out pretty well, and the faster shutter speeds that I was able to use were very useful when shooting indoors or in the dark and overcast conditions outside.
Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+ (pushed to 800asa).
Taken on 19 October 2019
I have to say that I’m very happy to have my Olympus OM-1 back from its repair. I’d not used it for a while and it had developed a shutter issue. The repair cost me around the same as it would have done to buy a new OM-1 body from a reputable dealer, but this is my OM-1, and it’s worth the money to keep it in good working order. It’s probably my favourite 35mm camera, and while I’m still not too keen on the shutter speed selector being on the lens mount (which I find a bit fiddly), it’s otherwise a very satisfying piece of kit to use. It also looks gorgeous – a proper camera if ever there was!
I loaded it with a roll of HP5+ and shot half in Sheffield, and the other half in London (while travelling between the railway station and the meeting venue). This is one of the Sheffield photos.
Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 6 October 2019
My photo today is a street shot, but the intent was mostly to capture F. G. Thomas, which I noticed has now closed it’s retail premises.
The shop had been there as long as I remember (it had actually opened there way back in 1925) so it came as a bit of a shock to see the empty window and for-lease sign. It appears that, as the lease was up for renewal on the premises, the current owners have decided to move their business online as their footfall in the shop had been gradually declining.
I’ve racked my mind, but I can’t honestly remember ever having gone in the shop, much less bought anything, which makes me feel oddly guilty. On the one occasion I bought a fountain pen (they were a requirement for some unknown reason when I started comprehensive school in the 80s), I think it was from WHSmith, just around the corner on Fargate.
I’m glad to have captured the signage of the shop, even if the windows are now empty – the little man with his “is it a globe, or is it a hairnet?” hairstyle was a nice thing to see.
Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 6 October 2019
Steel City Snapper photography 