It’s Friday. Work is done for the week, so time for a shower and some relaxation (ha!). Maybe catch the final episode of The Haunting of Bly Manor and drink a beer.
Not that this photo has anything to do with any of that whatsoever. I just liked it for today’s post and didn’t really have much else to say. 🙂
Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Kodak Gold 200. Grain2Pixel conversion.
Taken on 10 October 2020
Most disabled-parking spaces are marked with the usual yellow paint staight onto the pavement. This one, however, looks like a sprite from a 1980s videogame, which is cool. 🙂
Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Kodak Gold 200. Grain2Pixel conversion.
Taken on 10 October 2020
Today I present a photo of the University of Sheffield Student’s Union building…
…and a literal stone’s throw away (as can be seen by the looming Hick’s Building looming in the background), and also conveniently for the students, a bar…
Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Kodak Gold 200. Grain2Pixel conversion.
Taken on 10 October 2020
Today marks the thousandth post I’ve made to this blog. I’ve known that it’s been coming for a while now and have spent some time thinking about how I might mark the occasion. However, no matter how much I thought about it I couldn’t think of anything profound. I have a bit of a dislike of anniversaries if I’m honest. They tend to make me uncomfortable. I’m not a person who craves limelight or attention, actively seeking to avoid it in fact.
I suppose having a blog might seem contradictory to this. After all, I’m putting my work out there where it can be seen. The blog was never about that though. It was more about quietly scratching a small mark of my existence on the world. When others find my stuff and like it, then of course that makes me happy, but at the same time I find it hard to take a compliment in the way that others might, instead shuffling my feet and looking awkwardly at the floor while I mutter an embarrassed thanks. Modesty comes easily.
I also wonder about the rationale of numeric signifiers such as this. What does it matter that it’s my thousandth post? Why is yesterday’s post #999 any lesser? What about tomorrow’s? What about the thousandth consecutive post (coming sometime next year all being well)? It seems that there’s something about the human condition, at least the modern, western condition, that places strange virtue on divisibility by ten.
So, anyway, here’s post #1000 for all its significance. It’s divisible by ten you know.
As is the number in the picture below.
Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Kodak Gold 200. Grain2Pixel conversion.
Taken on 10 October 2020
Three autumnal images, all taken almost a month ago now – once again, where does the time go?!
The first two are in an out-of-town industrial estate. I’d spotted them on the way to where we were going and then made my wife wait in the car while I photographed them on our return. I always carry a compact camera in my coat pocket at this time of year for opportunities such as this. I try to carry one in the warmer months too, but having the need to wear a coat gives better opportunity to carry a pocketable camera.
The final photo in today’s post was made on a seperate outing, but was taken on another industrial estate not far from home – I can’t remember if I was out dropping a film off to be developed or visiting the postal sorting office, but it was one of the two.
I have a feeling that my Telemax might have developed a light leak on the lens assembly. It’s displaying minor, but noticeable signs of leakage at one corner of the frame, although easily fixed in Photoshop. It’s similar to, but not as severe as, the leak I had on the Samsung Fino compact I tried a while back. The Telemax is the only camera in my collection (other than my Instax Mini) that I have owned since new – a gift from my parents around 1990-ish. I might have to retire it if the leak persists (although I shan’t get rid of it – I have an attachment to it now).
Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Kodak Gold 200. Grain2Pixel conversion.
Taken on 10 October 2020
A couple of photographs serving as a direct follow on from yesterday’s pictures of the flyover – the first taken when I was stood almost beneath it, the second featuring it as a subject.
I wasn’t sure the second would work as it was shot with the sun directly in frame. While there’s a little flaring, the Telemax’s lens has coped admirably though.
Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Kodak Gold 200. Grain2Pixel conversion.
Taken on 29 September 2020
Nothing much to say about my photos today – some more shots of the road viaduct that I’ve posted other pictures of recently.
I’ve mostly been glued to CNN for this week for obvious reasons and today has been a good day. I don’t know exactly what the future will bring, but it feels like a corner has been turned. For me, and I think for many, it is a happy day.
Plus it was foggy this morning, and I got to go out and make photos in it. Bonus!
Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Kodak Gold 200. Grain2Pixel conversion.
Taken on 29 September 2020
A slightly larger selection of photographs today made up of most of my remaining pandemic-related pictures. I have a few others, but I’m not sure if they’re worth posting or not.
As retail opens up and the lockdown measures ease, there might be opportunities to make more photographs relating to the situation (and if the whole thing goes belly-up, there might be a whole bunch of new lockdown pictures too!), but for now this is the last of what I have to show.
The photos were made over three seperate outings, using two different cameras (and film stocks). The first three follow on directly from the trig point images I posted yesterday, being made on the same walk. The first shows the KFC restaurant at the local retail park. This place would normally be full of cars at the time I walked past, but on this day is was completely deserted. I think it may have re-opened for drive-through sales now but on this day it was shut. The McDonald’s to the right of the image was similarly closed (although it was part way through renovation as the lockdown took effect, so won’t reopen until that is complete anyway). There’s a Pizza Hut off the edge of the frame to the left too, but that was also closed. Probably good for people’s cardiovascular systems though.
After walking past the KFC I dropped down to the shopping mall to get some items from Sainsbury’s. The usual socially-distanced queue was in effect and took me past these signs on the store window close to the entrance. The rightmost sign is for the Big Night In, a television special made by the BBC where the majority of the performances came from the act’s own homes. You can just make out the ghostly reflections of other socially-distanced shoppers in the window too.
Walking home I passed by a local pub restaurant, closed up since before the lockdown started. Like many similar venues, the noticeboard features a thank you message to NHS and other key workers.
This next photo was taken from practically the same spot as the second picture in this sequence, but on a different day. It shows the supermarket’s promotion of technology to make it easier for people to avoid contact with others while in the store.
And finally, this is one of the children’s play areas at Rother Valley Country Park, the gates taped up, warning notices applied, and fastened shut with plastic cable ties.
Shots 1-3. Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Ilford Delta 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8 mins @ 20°.
Taken on 25 April 2020
Shots 4-5. Pentax P30T, Rikenon 50mm f/2 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins @ 20°.
Taken on 29 April & 2 May 2020
The British Isles is dotted with triangulation pillars. These “Trig points” were placed by the Ordnance Survey as a means of triangulating locations when mapping the country back in the 1930s. They can be found all over the country and are generally marked on Ordnance Survey maps (certainly the 1:25,000 scale Explorer maps at least).
Todays post shows a trig point a mile or so from where I live. I’ve known it was there for a long time, but had never walked up to it before this occasion. While the pillar is the usual concrete obelisk, this one has a significant number of rocks, stones and pebbles deposited around it’s base, many of them decorated with pictures and messages.
During the Covid-19 pandemic many of these messages are in support of the NHS and frontline workers. Some of them are brightly coloured and this was an occasion where colour film might have been a more suitable choice.
Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Ilford Delta 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8 mins @ 20°.
Taken on 25 April 2020
I think that this little run of pandemic-related photographs might be coming to an end shortly. I have a few more yet to post but, as it feels that the country is pretty much out of lockdown now following the latest set of relaxation measures on the existing rules, I’m not sure that I will take many more. Hopefully my fears that this easing of the lockdown are misjudged and that I’m not going to be back posting a whole new set of pictures from lockdown phase 2 in a couple of months time. Having seen pictures of huge crowds of people flocking to the usual beaches and beauty spots to enjoy the good weather in the news today though, I won’t hold my breath.
A couple of photgraphs from the local kid’s park posted here today. I’ve shown some from here previously, but these tie quite nicely into the news that competitive sport is being allowed in the UK from 1 June. This will have to take place behind “closed doors” which means no crowds of spectators will be present at the events for obvious reasons.
Similarly, people will be able to exercise together in groups of up to six people while observing social distancing measures, meaning that some other recreational team-based sports may now be possible.
Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Ilford Delta 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8 mins @ 20°.
Taken on 20 April 2020
Steel City Snapper photography 