Another of my converted Kodak Gold shots. I almost left this one as colour, but I think the black and white version is better. The colours were pretty muted in any case.
Today was the thing at work that I mentioned a couple of days back – the thing that was causing me stress even though I suspected I was worrying for nothing. And I was right. Everything went absolutely fine. So I’ve spent a few days spending way too much time being concerned about something I needn’t have. Now I need to catch up on the other stuff I didn’t do because I was focused on this. Oh to be me…
Fujica GW690& Kodak Gold (converted to B&W in Lightroom).
Here’s another photo of a bridge crossing the River Moss (as I mentioned the other day). I took this photo just after my wallaby / kangaroo encounter (see here if you want to find out about that) and regaled a couple of other people with the tale of my unexpected encounter.
I had pretty high hopes for this photograph. I’d switched from black and white film to some Kodak Gold by this time and, while the light was dim due to the fog and the tree cover, the camera was tripod mounted and the composition was nice.
Sadly this roll of film is one that Negative Lab Pro (or perhaps me, as the user) struggled with – usually Negative Lab Pro works a treat, and I’ve had no issue with it converting Gold in the past. It could be the fact that I’m scanning on a V700 rather than a V550, but I’m not really sure. A couple of the colour images look ok, but many of them had a nasty green and purple cast to them that I was unable to remove. In the end I decided to cut my losses and convert them to black and white using Lightroom. Happily all the shots I converted suit the monochrome treatment pretty well.
I still have the un-converted RAW DNG scans so I may yet re-visit them to see if I have more luck with a further attempt but, for now at least, some of this roll will be sans colour.
Fujica GW690& Kodak Gold (converted to B&W in Lightroom).
It’s one of those days today where I don’t know what to write on the blog (although here I am, writing stuff about not knowing what to write…). Today I think it’s because I’ve got something preying on my mind at work. Nothing terrible, just something I need to do this week that I’m not sure I’m fully prepared for. Usually, it comes to pass that I’m stressing out about nothing and everything will go just fine, but that doesn’t stop my brain flipping into anxiety mode. The fact that I’m focusing on this one thing also means I’m not spending time on a bunch of other things I need to be doing, leading to a cumulative worry about, well, more stuff.
It also doesn’t help that I tend to procrastinate. And while I always pull things together in the end, there’s always the worry that one day I might not be able to. I seem find myself increasingly easily distracted from things I ought to be concentrating on in recent years, to the extent that I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out I have ADD (but that’s another story). I guess that tomorrow I need to just pull myself together, give myself a virtual slap across the cheeks to wake myself up, and just get on with what I need to do. In a couple of days the thing will have passed and I can get back to normal (i.e. worrying about the next thing…).
So, look at that – I’ve written more than I do on many other days. Good ol’ productive stress, eh?
Here’s a picture of a foggy scene. This is probably not disimillar to what it looks like inside my head right now. 🙂
This is the first of two photographs of bridges crossing the River Moss That I’ll publish – the second will be here in a couple of days.
I managed to get out and shoot a few rolls of film today, 36 exposures on some Superia Xtra 400, and a couple of rolls of 120 through my Bronica ETRSi (one HP5+, one Fuji Pro 400H). It’s the first time in ages I’ve shot so prolifically, and should mean that the wolves can be kept from the door for a while in terms of me having new photos for the blog. I’ll get the two rolls of C41 sent off for developing tomorrow and will maybe dev the HP5+ one lunchtime this week if I get the chance. I’ve got about a half-dozen more pictures from the GW690 to keep things ticking over until then though.
I think the left side of this picture is a little messy, but there was unfortunately no way to get around it short of cropping. The GW690 has a fixed focal length and, while using my legs to zoom is often a viable technique, in this case I was hemmed in by trees at either side, and in front of my feet the ground dropped into marshy wetness where the rushes are growing and I didn’t fancy a boot full of freezing mud.
Nonetheless, the foggy morning does a lot of lifting and makes the shot quite pleasing, I think, particularly the contrast of the heads of the rushes against the faded backdrop.
Trees. Big, solid, tall, impressive things, aren’t they. But what if you were a giant? What if you stood several hundered feet tall? Would a forest become a lawn? Would the people walking beneath their canopies become like bugs?
This is what popped into my head when I was composing this shot.
This ruined structure sits beside the River Moss in Eckington near Sheffield. The main flow of the river runs to the right of the scene in the picture but there’s also a separate stream that runs behind the building which leads me to think it was a water mill of some kind. The building is depicted on Ordnance Survey maps but not named. There are the remains of mineworking in the area, with a pumphouse (named the Seldom Seen Pumphouse) a little further up the valley, so it’s possible that this building may have formed part of those activities.
The Tinsley viaduct has been a feature of Sheffield since 1968, carrying the M1 motorway across the Don Vally to the east of the city. It was unusual at the time for being one of the first two level road bridges of its kind. Until 2008 the viaduct had a fellow landmark in the shape of the two cooling towers of Blackburn Meadows power station. The power station remains, albeit in a new form, but the towers were demolished – to much local consternation from people who didn’t want to lose a landmark that indicated they were almost back home following a journey, and which was felt to be an intrinsic part of the city’s identity. The twin cooling towers can still be found on items of Sheffield memorabilia despite the fact they are no longer in existence.
To the west of the viaduct – towards Sheffield – would have been the site of much heavy industry when it opened but the most noticeable feature now is probably the large Meadowhall shopping mall.
Fujica GW690 & Fujicolor Pro 400H. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Walking around one of the industrial parks on the outskirts of the city, I really liked the way the side of this Boeing facility was illuminated by the early morning sunlight. There’s probably a better angle to photograph it from (avoiding that slightly annoying lamp post in the middle of the frame), and maybe something that would look good in large format…
Fujica GW690 & Fujicolor Pro 400H. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
This area has been massively developed in the last decade or so. It sits just to the west of the site of the old Orgreave coking plant – famous for the “Battle of Orgreave” which took place between striking mineworkers and the police back in the early 80s. Pretty much all signs of the previous industry have now disappeared, replaced by a large housing development and a modern industrial park, but construction still continues in the area, with further homes and also new business units being built.
I’m not sure what the structure in today’s photograph will be when completed, although it has the feel of a small hotel, perhaps to accomodate visitors to all the new businesses in the area. Whatever it will be, I felt there was a picture to be made.
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Steel City Snapper photography 