The sheep roasting jack in Eyam in the Peak District. The village carnival, when the sheep roast takes place, is held each September. It’s not something I’ve ever attended, but it’s nearly lunchtime and the thought of it is making me hungry!
The second photograph is of a building just behind the roasting jack.
Yashica Mat 124 G & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 2 February 2019
A week or so back I wrote a post about colour photography and how I like to use colour film to record vignette type shots (you can read it here). I think the theme may have legs, so I’ve decided to use the same post title format each time I do one of these.
So, again, here’s a trio of colour photos with no particular theme (although I guess they could fall under “architectural abstracts” or “looking upwards” something like that). The main reason I took these was that I wanted to test out a camera I bought last year – a Canon Sure Shot AF35M II (known as the Autoboy II in the US, I believe) which I bought for the princely sum of £1 at a a flea market. When I originally took the camera home and inserted some batteries it whirred noisily into life (this isn’t a quiet camera!) but then, on the first occasion I decided to shoot with it, it seemed to have died – fresh batteries did nothing, so I thought the worst. However, a couple of weeks back I decided to take another look at it and noticed a very small spot of corrosion on one of the battery terminals. Five minutes later, after some careful and professional(!) scraping with the tip of a screwdriver, I inserted some fresh batteries and it sprang back into an active state.
The camera has a 38mm f/2.8 glass lens that is nice and sharp, autofocus, flash, and a timer lever that also doubles as an AF lock for occasions where you don’t want your subject to be centered on the single AF point. The AF lock works effectively, but is perhaps best described as a somewhat clunky method for achieving the result. As I already have a Sure Shot (a Telemax) – albeit one with a slightly slower lens – I’ll probably sell the AF35M II so that someone will get good use of it, and I can use to proceeds to pay for one of my MF cameras to get a service. However, before selling it I needed to test it properly so went for a walk around town on an uncharacteristically sunny February afternoon the other weekend.
The camera was loaded with a roll of 2008 expired Fuji Superia 100 that has been cold stored, and I shot it at 80asa. So, anyway, onto the photos…
Canon Sure Shot AF35M II and Fujifilm Superia 100 (expired 2008).
Taken on 9 February 2019
The rear of Eyam church is where the more recent graves appear to be located, and they rest in orderly rows overlooked by a number of tall trees.
Yashica Mat 124 G & Kodak Tri-X.
Taken on 2 February 2019
I really like the way this quaint village scene came out (it’s in Eyam). It has a nice contrast and crispness about it. It has a somewhat nostalgic air, or a least it does until you notice the modern cars in the background and the fact that the phone box has now been modified to house a defibrillator instead of a payphone. Hopefully no-one will attempt to make a call with it! 🙂
Yashica Mat 124 G & Kodak Tri-X.
Taken on 2 February 2019
Another photo from my outing in the Peak District the other week. I took a few shots of this area of silver birch with my DSLR, but grabbed a shot with the Yashica Mat too. Unfortunately, it seems the batch of film I was using was one that had faults and so the print from the backing paper has shown up on a number of pictures – especially in low detail areas such as the sky. I think I’ve manged to remove it reasonably well in Photoshop though.
Yashica Mat 124 G & Kodak Tri-X.
Taken on 2 February 2019
A trio of shots of old buildings still present in the Attercliffe area. There are many more than just these, but I didn’t photograph the others. 🙂
The old Burton’s menswear building and the Adelphi cinema are next door to one another, and neither has been used for their original purpose (or for much else) in many a year. The Momento picture framing shop is still actively trading. Given the post box outside, I wonder if this might have been a post office at some point in the past? I’ll ask my dad next time I see him as he’ll likely know, having grown up and then worked in the area when he was younger.
Kodak Retina IIa & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 26 January 2019
For the past two years I’ve taken part in the Emulsive.org Secret Santa gift exchange. This year I was extremely fortunate to receive not only six rolls of nice and interesting film, but I also received a copy of my Santa’s book and, best of all, a Kodak Retina IIa camera in lovely condition.
Sadly I was ill over Christmas (just my luck to be sick the entire duration of the two week’s I had away from work!), so I didn’t get a chance to shoot with the camera until this past weekend. I loaded a roll of Fomapan – badly, it turned out, and I had to re-open the camera back to do it properly, losing a few frames in the process – and set out on Sunday morning as I had a couple of hours before picking my eldest and his girlfriend up to come for lunch at our house.
I decided to shoot in the Attercliffe area of Sheffield, and area formerly dominated by the steel industry that the city made its name on, but now mostly made up of smaller engineering and manufacturing firms with the odd steelworks still dotted here and there). There’s an old derelict cinema building that I wanted to photograph, plus a cemetery, but I then just went for a wander to see what else I could find.
Sometimes it’s just the little things that you come across on your travels that make for the best images, and I think the shot below is definitely my favourite from the roll.
As for the camera, it’s a very nice little machine – a very compact folding 35mm rangefinder dating back to the 50s. A lot of my shots are a little soft, but that might be down to some camera shake in some instances (some of the slower shutter speeds might be a little sketchy side in terms of their accuracy), but enough are sharp to prove that it’s not a failing of the lens. I did find it difficult to see the full frame in the viewfinder due to my wearing spectacles, and I’ve had to straighten one or two shots as a result, but again, nothing serious.
Kodak Retina IIa & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 26 January 2019
So, unless I make another visit to an airshow or aircraft museum in the near future, this is probably the last aircraft shot for a while. It’s another shot of the Vulcan bomber from yesterday, but this time a profile shot of the cockpit.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 26 January 2019
I’m still not quite done with the aircraft pictures…
This is the Vulcan bomber at Newark Air Museum. While there are no longer any of these still being flown, they were a spectacular sight, whether at airshows or, as I would sometimes see during my childhood, in actual active service. They are still a very impressive sight when on the ground, especially when you are able to walk beneath the fuselage and wings.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 26 January 2019
This is one of those shots that might not be any good, but which I like for some undefined reason. I don’t know if it’s something in the arrangement of the goalposts, or perhaps the small football-playing figures, or just some random alignment of things that just switches something on in my brain. I have similar feelings about this shot that I took ona digital camera a few years back. No-one else really seems to say much about them, so I guess it’s just me.
It’s a conversion to black and white (although the colour version had its own charm too).
Pentax P30T, Rikenon 50mm f/2 & Kodak Colorplus.
Taken on 9 December 2018
Steel City Snapper photography 