On Mablethorpe promenade used to sit a number of unusual beach huts. Sadly I think they’ve fallen prey to vandalism and at least one has now been demolished, while the others are boarded up. This one was a functioning camera obscura.
Standing by the sea
A camera obscura
Its eye is now closed
Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Lomography Xpro Chrome 100 (expired 2012)
Taken on 16 September 2021
The informal photo competition I take part in each month had a theme of “Tempting” last month, and I made a few photos that might fit the bill – the picture I posted here yesterday of the seaside cafe was the one I chose to enter and it got me second place.
The photo in today’s blog was another potential entry, and one I’d had high hopes for, but I was disappointed when I received the developed film as the ice cream cone was off to the left of the image. I quickly realised that this was due to me not using the parallax correction lines in the camera’s viewfinder. I’d had to hold the ice cream at the limit of my reach in order for the camera to focus correctly, and this meant the subject was close enough for parallax error to creep into the composition. The camera does have a macro mode, but that uses a partial zoom which meant the subject fell well outside the image edges when viewed.
After looking at the photo again I decided that it might work with an off-centre viewpoint, so I cropped in a little to get the picture you see here. I’m pretty happy with it now.
Offset ice cream cone
At the limit of focus
The end of my arm
Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Lomography Xpro Chrome 100 (expired 2012)
Taken on 16 September 2021
The Mermaid cafe sits on the small promentory on Mablethorpe’s prmenade, just to the north of the Pullover – the main access point to the beach at the end of High Street. The cafe has been there as long as I can remember, although I can’t recall if it’s been known as The Mermaid all that time. It stands adjacent to a small crazy golf course (which can be seen to the right of the photo). The course is now pirate themed, but I remeber it in its slightly ramshackle and homemade guise from when I was younger, with obstacles that looked like they had been built in some inventive creator’s garden shed. It was great fun.
Games of mini golf
The sound of waves and seas breeze
Acompanied play
Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Lomography Xpro Chrome 100 (expired 2012)
Taken on 16 September 2021
I like my Holga camera. I find, despite its lo-fi credentials – plastic lens, single shutter speed, being built like a cheap toy etc. – that it can produce some sublime photographs when used to its strengths. It’s notable in my case though, that this generally tends to be where black-and-whitefilm is concerned. While I’ve probably not shot enough colour film with the camera for this to be a fair comparison, I’ve found my non-B&W results to be less impressive.
For this roll, it probably doesn’t help that it’s an expired film with some colour shifts (albeit nothing too bad), and one that I had some trouble scanning to my satisfaction to boot. It might also be argued that the images I made are not my best from a compositional point-of-view either – I’m not sure I was seeking to get the best from the roll, rather than just using it up.
Whatever the case, I don’t think these work as well as they might have done in B&W. I don’t hate them, but the feel a bit “meh” at the same time. I’ll leave it up to anyone who reads this to make up their own minds on the matter.
A plastic piece of junk?
Beauty is more than skin deep
I think you might find
Holga 120N & Fujifilm Superia 100 (expired 2008).
Taken on 17 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
