The photo posted here today is a composition I’ve shot on quite a few occasions. It’s one that just seems to work and always catches my eye. I’m not sure how many times the scene has featured on the blog (at least once before, here), but I know I have several different versions. This one is, I believe, the first time I’ve shot it on 6×9 though.
Fujica GW690 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 4 July 2021
The Kelham Island area of Sheffield has provided me with pretty good pickings from a photographic point of view and it’s often a place I’ll head to if I’ve got some camera time but no real idea of where to go. The area isn’t huge but there are still parts of it that I’ve not seen. Plus, the ongoing gentrification means that there are always new things popping up down there.
It’s a little sad to see the old industry converted into apartments, but the industry was mostly gone anyway and the other option would probably have been a decline into dereliction. At least this way a lot of the architectural heritage survives with new purpose.
It was a day of changeable weather when I made this photo and five minutes earlier I’d had to rush for shelter (along with a few other people) when the heavens opened. The rain on the floor in the photo is the evidence of the downpour.
My small umbrella
Under the onslaught of rain
Was insufficient
Fujica GW690 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 4 July 2021
A couple of photos of the Wig & Pen pub in Sheffield City centre. I don’t think I’ve stepped foot in here for thirty years! I remember going in occasionally on work’s nights out, but it never featured as a venue when out with my friends. It didn’t use to be red back then either, but it makes for a nice vibrant picture.
Stuck for a haiku?
Just make up some old rubbish
That will do just fine
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/18 AF-D & Fujichtome Velvia (expired 2003).
Taken on 13 June 2021
The interesting building seen in this picture used to be a synagogue and cloister’s chambers, originally built in 1872. As with so many buildings in the city, it has been re-purposed and now serves as student accommodation.
As time moves along
New uses for old buildings
Places recycled
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/18 AF-D & Fujichtome Velvia (expired 2003).
Taken on 13 June 2021
Just a simple photo of a street today – Haymarket, in Sheffield.
I think the Velvia 50 (and the F80s matrix metering) have done a pretty nice job with the scene. Early morning sunlight was casting a combination of contrasty highlights and shadows – something I normally keep well away from where slide-film is concerned – but in this case the result is very pleasing with lots of detail and lovely rich colours.
Golden Touch gaming
Fruit machine prizes at stake
Be gamble aware
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/18 AF-D & Fujichtome Velvia (expired 2003).
Taken on 13 June 2021
So says the slightly forlorn looking billboard. Assuming the exciting development is coming to this piece of land, there’s little sign of progress as yet.
Exchange Street leads up to what was once the thriving market area, with Castle Market up the street and to the right, and the Sheaf Market to the left where the modern red brick car-park can be seen in the picture. The markets have now moved to The Moor at the opposite end of the city centre – a move much lamented by some. The new markets are busy, if smaller than the old locations, while the original site of the Castle Market is supposedly being re-developed into a park.
Scent of the market
Fish and fruit and meat and veg
A memory now
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/18 AF-D & Fujichtome Velvia (expired 2003).
Taken on 13 June 2021
A picture of one of the many apartment blocks that have risen across Sheffield city centre in the last couple of decades. Th university seems to throw up ne buildings on a contant basis, but I believe this one is private accomodation. I’m not sure if the building shown here has a specific name, but it stands on Blonk Street right beside the river Don just above to point where the River Sheaf merges.
Velvia colours
From a roll of expired film
Vividly azure
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/18 AF-D & Fujichtome Velvia (expired 2003).
Taken on 13 June 2021
BAck to expired slide film once more, this time some Velvia 50 getting on for 20-years expired. As has been the case with previous rolls of untested slide film where I have more than one at my disposal, this was again shot mostly to test the results. Once again though, this doesn’t mean shooting test cards or anything like that, it’s just a case of shooting the roll at box speed to see how it performs with the hope that it all goes well and I get a bunch of interesting pictures as well as a knowledge of how the film fares. I can then update my settings and so on for future rolls of the same batch.
This Velvia 50 produced mostly well-exposed photographs but has a very warm tone to the results. I’ve reduced it somewhat in my scans but it still persists. It’s possible that Velvia just scans this way and that I need to modify my technique accordingly, or it might be a colour shift caused by the age of the film.
I’ll bear this in mind when shooting the other rolls.
This image shows the River Don in Sheffield where it flows past the Kelham Island area to the left of this scene.
A mirror surface
Broken by the ripple wakes
Of a pair of ducks
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/18 AF-D & Fujichtome Velvia (expired 2003).
Taken on 13 June 2021
Today’s photo shows another angle of St. Peter’s church at Elmton. This was the view that I spotted as first approaching the village by road, but there was nowhere at this spot where I could park (the roads being quite narrow with no verge that I could pull onto), so I continued into the village and parked my car on the road beside the church. After making a few photos around the church itself I decided to walk back to the vantage point I’d seen earlier. I could have followed the road which, in this picture, passes the wall just in front of the church, heads to the left of the scene, and then takes a 90-degree turn back towards a place close to this spot. But there was a shortcut…
Looking at my maps app on my phone, it was apparent that there was a public footpath through this field which cut the corner. Sure enough, I spotted an old wooden footpath signpost and a stile built into the wall beside the field. Climbing the stile I set off across the field. It quickly became apparent that the grass was longer than I expected and also that very few people must use the path as there was no real evidence of it’s existence, not even in the form of some slightly flattened grass. Nontheless I perservered and made my way down the slope to where my map showed the path exiting the field. As I progressed, the grass in the field began to be joined by clumps of large hardy weeds that I had to skirt and also, worse, nettles! Given I was wearing a pair of cargo shorts, thoughts of stung legs came to the fore of my mind, and I had to take even more care over where I walked.
Eventually I reached the spot where I made this photo, and I ducked into the grass to allow it to provide more prominent foreground interest. It turned out to be the final frame on the roll, so I continued down to the corner of the field and the exit. Unfortunately the exit was conspicuous by it’s almost complete absence, with all that I could see was a rusty kissing gate almose buried in tall weeds and more nettles and then continuous growth for about the next ten feet or so. I could have walked back the way I came, which would have been a sensible option, but the thought of forcing my way through the high grass didn’t appeal, so I decided to chance the overgrown exit instead. It probably took me as long to do this as walking back throuh the field would have done.
I had to procede with great caution, carefully placing my feet as to squash the nettles away from my legs with each step. By some miracle I wasn’t stung a single time, although the final four or five feet involved me making a daring leap across a clump of nettles right where the verge dropped down onto the road. No doubt this would have looked highly amusing to anyone passing by, but thankfully no-one was around.
In the end I had to walk back via the road anyway, so maybe it would have been simpler had I used that route for both legs of the jaunt. But then what would I have written about today? Plus the picture was worthwhile, I think.
These stinging nettles
And not a dock-leaf in sight
A peril for legs
Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 12 June 2021
This church – St. Peter’s – in the small village of Elmton, dates back to Norman times, although it was rebuilt in the 18th century. While I’m not an expert on churches, I found the design of this one to be unusual. Most churches tend to have either a pointed steeple, or a tower (usually with crenellations), so the sloped bell-turret roof stood out to my eye.
The hot weather continues here in the UK, although it is forecast to be a little cooler tomorrow. It doesn’t help that I’ve managed to come down with a summer cold during the heat! At first I was concerned, despite my vaccinations, that I might have contracted Covid-19, but having carried out two lateral-flow tests – both of which returned a negative result – it’s probably just a your bog-standard common cold. I guess that’s better, but I still feel worse for wear.
A cold in summer
Not really what I wanted
If the truth be told
Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 12 June 2021
Steel City Snapper photography 