I liked the juxtaposition between the foreground statue and the background building in this scene. The figure looks defiant, as though holding back the looming structure in some way. The low angle makes him look larger than he might otherwise appear.
Brick by brick, stone by stone, build him till he’s fully grown. Fetch more water, fetch more sand, biggest person in the land. Empire State Human – The Human League
On my last trip to Birmingham, the train got me to the station with plenty of time to spare before I had to be at my meeting, so I wandered around and took some pictures with my Canon Z135 compact. It’s not the smallest compact I own, but it’s proven that it can produce reliable point-and-shoot results and the images are plenty sharp, although with perhaps a bit of softness right at the edges.
The cathedral (St. Philips) was open, so I popped inside to see if there were some photos to be had and I made the three you can see below. While the cathedral interior wasn’t too dark, the Z135 doesn’t have a particularly fast lens – f/3.5 at its widest – so I was pleased I was still able to make these three pictures handheld with no noticeable signs of camera shake.
On my last visit to Birminghm I had an hour or so from getting off the train to when I needed to be at my meeting so I did what any self-respecting photographer would do – I took photos.
Just outside the station I found an underpass with a reflective ceiling and a number of cylindrical columns which looked like it might make a good location to catch a picture or two. Noting the reflections that pedestrians were casting in the mirror of the ceiling I waited for a couple of people to walk through the scene.
For this first shot I metered for the interior of the tunnel.
For this second image I waited for a person to appear at the far end of the underpass, the camera metering for the bright opening and casting the tunnel into a starrk, low-key light. This is the one I prefer.
I mentioned recently that my local film processing lab has gone out of business and that I’ve had to find somewhere else to carry out my C41 and E6 development. I’ve had a couple of rolls of C41 developed last week by my local camera store (they do E6 as well, but this is sub-contracted to another lab with a slightly lengthy turnaround, so I sent my roll of Velvia to another place fot quicker results).
The camera shop cut and sleeve 35mm in film into strips of four frames, as opposed to the strips of six that the old lab provided (and to which I cut my home-developed B&W negatives) so I opted to receive the developed film uncut and sleeve it myself at home. The roll of 35mm they developed was tucked into a 35mm film canister, as was the roll of 120 film, the main difference being that the width of the 120 roll meant the cannister was uncapped with the film poking out the end. I think this was the cause of the significant amount of dust on the 120 negatives when I scanned them. While imperceptible to my naked eye, once imported into Lightroom there was an entire galaxy of small white spots apparent on the resulting scans!
So this afternoon has been spent painstakingly cloning out the spots in Photoshop. I’d estimate it took a good 20-25 minutes to deal with each of the ten frames that are worth processing further. I really hope that the 35mm roll is not similarly afflicted!
Here’s a photograph that feels apt in the circumstances.
I always wonder if “squashes” is the correct terminoligy for this type of vegetable? There are pumpkins in there too, plus some marrows, and some weird swan-like things that I don’t know what they are, but I guess they are all types of squash? Please correct me if I am wrong about this important subject. 🙂
The flash fired on my first attempt at photographing this scene so I took a second picture. The version with flash looks much better though.
Whitely Woods is an area of woodland alongside the River Porter in Sheffield. I have a vague but fond memory of walking here with my nan when I was young. She bought me a small fishing net on a cane and I caught small fish – probably minnows, or perhaps baby fish of some species, but all given the group name ot “tiddlers” – in the dams further downstream in Endcliffe Park.
This is the millpond that feeds the waterwheel at Shepherd’s Wheel museum.
It’s not an area I’ve ventured back to all that many times – most of them have been in the lasrt few years as somewhere to go with a camera. On this occasion I’d taken a walk with my wife – mainly because I was testing out my ankle after my fracture, but also because it was a pleasant way to pass an hour or two (with the benefit of finding somewhere nice to get a bite to eat).
I took this one because the tree looked like it had a frowning face. An Ent, perhaps?
All three pictures here were made during the part of the walk in Whitely woods on the way to and from Shepherds Wheel.
Close to the bottom of Whitely Woods. At the end of the path before you reach the houses there is a road. The path through Endcliffe Park continues the journey towards town.
Shepherd Wheel is a working museum in the Porter Valley in Sheffield. It’s one of the earliest surviving water-powered grinding workshops in the area. The earliest reference to the wheel is from the 14th century.
The wheel still powers a variety of machinery in the workshop where caraftspeople can be seen putting them to use. It’s fascinating to see the ingenuity of the design, with numerous pieces of machinery powered by a complex series of shafts, cogs, gears, and belts.
I had my Sure Shot Z135 on me when we ventured inside and while this is a capable point-and-shoot (with a flash), I wanted to try and get a picture in natural light. The actual machinery was probably going to be a step to far for the f/3.5 maximum aperture of the camera, but I was able to take this image of some old pots and pans in the light of a window. I’m quite pleased that it came out nice and sharp, and that the film has captured detail in both the highlights and shadows.
Another mini-batch of photographs shot during a trip to Barcelona almost three years ago now. Again, these are all recent re-scans, converted with Negative Lab Pro.
I’ve been re-scanning some older negatives over the past couple of days – some Portra 400 shots made during a trip to Barcelona with my wife back in 2019. The main reason for the re-scanning (actually not re-scans really, as the originals were lab scans) is to see what they look like when converted with Negative Lab Pro. The answer is… much better than any previous attempts I’ve made.
The original lab scans were fine but I know I can get much more resolution and detail out of my Plustek than the scan sizes the lab provides can offer – even their large scans – with the bonus of it not costing me anything to do so. And I’m finding that Negative Lab Pro is giving me colours that I’m actually happy with!
So today, here are several photos I took inside one of the markets in Barcelona – the Mercat de Sant Antoni, I believe. I guess that British market stalls are just as interesting to look at really, but there’s a definite draw in seeing the different wares on offer in other countries. Some markets in the UK might provide delicatessens akin to the ones here, but they are not commonplace, so it’s always interesting to see the mundane through the eyes of a visitor.
Steel City Snapper photography 