Today’s picture is another that would have fit well in my post about converging verticals that I published a couple of days back. It’s another image where the converging lines work well to produce a sense of scale in the composition, the buildings towering over the viewer (and the people in the scene) even though they are relatively low-rise structures.
Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 50mm f/2.8 MC & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°
Taken 5 February 2023.
I posted last week about my ill-fated attempt to photograph some light-trails for a photo competition entry. The following evening I made a second attempt and, thanks to removing the dark-slide this time, this one was successful. I made three exposures and like the one here the best (the first two are very similar to one-another, but you can’t see the mororway snaking into the distance as well as you can on this one).
I exposed the film for 8 seconds at f/22. I used a digital camera to meter the scene which gave me a 4 second exposure, but I had to factor in some reciprocity failure for the HP5+. I calculated it as requiring 6 seconds, but the ETRSi only had 4sec or 8sec setting, so I erred for the longer exposure and it seems to have worked pretty well.
If I’d had enought time to get ist developed before the competition closing date I’d have used colour film instead, which would have been much more effective, but beggars can’t be choosers and I’m pretty happy with the results I got in the end.
Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°
Taken 24 February 2023.
A chap I know who shoots exclusively in large format claimed that I’d damaged his eyes with the converging verticals in the shot below. He suggested I take the picture again with my 4×5 camera. He was joking, of course, but it did make me think about the opposition to this geometrical distortion when it occurs in photographs.
Converging verticals seem to cause quite some consternation when they appear in photographs – the photography club I used to be a member of had photo competitions where, should your vertical lines not be perfectly perpendicular, you would lose points and receive a judgemental comment from the, well, judge. It was this sort of arbitrary nonsense that, in combination with covid shutting everything down for some time, led to me stopping attending, even though the other club members were all very nice people (and I should emphasize, the judges were not members of the club).
Converging verticals are how things appear to the eye though, so attempts to “correct” them is inheritantly false unless the photograph was made from a location where they do not occur, such as ensuring the camera is aligned with the ground, or you are so far away that the effect becomes minimised by distance. Stand at the foot of a tall structure though, especially one with regular features such a an office building with regularly spaced windows, and look up and you will see converging verticals. It’s just perspective. In exactly the same way that a long straight road will appear to narrow to a point in the distance, so looking up at a tall building will show the same effect. And I never hear anyone complain that photographs of roads should have the perspective corrected.
I do think that some shots can work well if the verticals are all perpendicular, especially where the angle of convergence is only slight but, as a counterpoint, convergence can add a sense of scale. The photo published here today does this, even though the buildings are not tall. Combined with the steep street the buildings appear to loom over the viewer.
I am kinda interested in seeing what the same scene would look like “corrected” by the movements on my large format camera though. 🙂
Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 50mm f/2.8 MC & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°
Taken 5 February 2023.
I went out to a steak restaurant this lunchtime and ate my fill, and was then out for the rest of the afternoon. Now all I want to do is sleep.
So a quick post today. I guess these hotels would have plenty of places to snooze. 🙂
Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 50mm f/2.8 MC & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°
Taken 5 February 2023.
This is the Methodist New Connexion Chapel in Sheffield. I’ve photographed the building before and the area – another part of sheffield where new construction is booming – is rapidly changing to something new. Many of the buildings that were present last time I walked past have now vanished to be replaced by blocks of apartments. But this chapel remains.
The building dates back to 1828, built three decades on from the founding of the church by Sheffield man Alexander Kilham after seceding from the Wesleyan Methodists. Early in the 20th century the church would become part of the United Methodist Church.
Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 50mm f/2.8 MC & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°
Taken 5 February 2023.
I went out this evening after work with the intent of taking some long-exposure nighttime photos (for the photo comp I participate in that I’ve mentioned on here a few times). I took the Bronica loaded with some HP5+ with the intent on getting some light trails from traffic a busy road. I’d have preferred to shoot colour but I wouldn’t be able to get it developed in time to meet the end of the month closing date.
I drove out to the location, set up the Bronica, used my digital camera to work out a suitable exposure time and set up everything, including screwing in a cable release. It was too dark to focus with the waist level finder so I just set the focus to infinity and chanced it. Because the exposure was going to come in at a few seconds, I attempted to allow for reciprocity failure, deciding on an 8-second exposure. Feeling happy with all this I took three pictures. The first one I forgot to use mirror lock-up, so re-took it, just in case. Then the third shot I took was a different composition.
After this I packed everything up and set off back. It was only when I was almost home that I realised that I’d not removed the dark-slide when taking the pictures, meaning all three of them are going to be blank wasted frames! This was even more annoying because, normally, the camera won’t fire if the dark-slide is inserted, so I can only assume that using a cable release bypasses this somehow. Whatever the cause, I’m feeling somewhat pissed off about it. Partly because of the wasted film, but mostly for the fact that I now have to repeat the exercise again tomorrow.
Here’s a picture of some balloons I took earlier this month. I feel like the middle one right now.
Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°
Taken 5 February 2023.
Today’s post features one of those picture which I find oddly appealing. Something about it catches my eye despite it maybe being something that no-one else will glance at twice. I think that, in this case, it’s the light and the way it’s casting shadows across and onto parts of the scene. It had a nice three-dimensionality to it, I think.
I am wondering if I should have cropped it a little at the top to remove that bit of the hotel logo though…
Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°
Taken 5 February 2023.
The former home of HSBC in Sheffield, these buildings have since been refurbished following the bank’s move to new offices elsewhere in the city.
Bronica ETRSi & Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°
Taken 5 February 2023.
Posh looking modern homes in Little Kelham. Front gardens are limited in scale though…
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Fujifilm Pro 400H. Lab developed. Home scanned and and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 5 February 2023.
I’ve wandered around Kelham Island in Sheffield to take photos on many occasions and I still manage to find things I’ve not photographed before. This view east through Little Kelham is one such composition. The skyline will no doubt look different again before long once the cranes in the distance finish their work.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Fujifilm Pro 400H. Lab developed. Home scanned and and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 5 February 2023.
Steel City Snapper photography 