Few words and many pictures today…
Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Fujichrome Velvia 50. Lab developed & home scanned.
Taken on 4 November 2022
Autumn blowout
Tag: fall
Fruiting bodies
Why is Toad from the Super Mario games so popular? Becasuse he’s such a fun guy!
Ho ho ho. 🙂
It’s autumn and toadstools, mushrooms, and fungi of all manner of varieties are in full evidence. There were numerous examples to be seen when I visited Padley Gorge the other week, including some teeny-tiny specimens growing from the trunks and stumps of trees. I’m glad I had my macro lens with me!
Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Fujichrome Velvia 50. Lab developed & home scanned.
Taken on 4 November 2022
Autumn leaves
Another lone Velvia 50 autumn photo today – probably the last of these single images with a group of pictures realted by theme tomorrow and then, if I have time, the remaining decent photos from the roll as a kind of autumn blowout.
Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Fujichrome Velvia 50. Lab developed & home scanned.
Taken on 4 November 2022
Bracken
There was a lot of bracken in this area, but this plant stood alone and was catching the sun. I wish I’d done a better job of checking my corners and moved that encroaching frond at the bottom-right of the picture though…
Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Fujichrome Velvia 50. Lab developed & home scanned.
Taken on 4 November 2022
Frosted maple leaf
A few years ago I bought myself a roll of Fuji Velvia 50 as a treat. At the time I think it cost me in the region of about £11 for the roll, which seemed expensive. Little did I know…
Anyway, moaning about the price of film aside, the reason I bought it was to try and photograph some autumn colour. Unfortunately, when that autumn came around I either didn’t have the time, or the conditions weren’t right, and so the season passed. I kept the fim in the fridge though, thinking it would keep until the following year. But I didn’t shoot it again. And then covid arrived and limited my ability to shoot it even further. In the subsequent time I actually picked up a few more rolls of Velvia 50, albeit expired, and I’ve shot a couple of of those (although, given its cost, it always feels like a “special occasion” sort of film), but none of it during autumn. This year though, I had my chance – I booked a week of work for the first week of November which, this time, would be unperturbed by pandemic related lockdowns.
I went out a couple of times during the week to do some photography – the first trip to Bakewell (images to come at a later date), and then, later in the week, a visit to Padley Gorge and its surrounding environs. It was there that I finally shot the full roll of Velvia 50. I’ll probably share most of the worthwhile results in a seperate autumal-themed post, but there are a few that I like enought to post individually, or in small sets, today’s picture included.
This was the first day of the season that I had encountered frost – I had to scrape the car windows before heading out and, although I didn’t set off too early, there was still a little frost left on the ground when I arrived (although it was quickly steaming away where the sun hit it). Just across the road from where I parked my car there were numerous fallen leaves right beside the footpath, all with a light frosting of ice, and the one shared here today grabbed my attention. I was very glad to have taken my Sigma macro lens, and used it for almost every shot on the roll, even the non-macro stuff. It’s a very nice lens and one I should make better use of.
Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Fujichrome Velvia 50. Lab developed & home scanned.
Taken on 4 November 2022
Autumn road
Just a few metres from the picture in yesterday’s post but facing the opposite direction, the morning sun was beginning to be snuffed out by cloud-cover when I took this photo. The trees are not glowing as much as they had been when I’d driven past on mornings with clearer skies. Nontheless, there’s still a hint of autumn in the leaves and I like the damp road and it’s slightly reflective surface. And it has a pylon. 🙂
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 15 October 2022.
Winter sun and waterski structure
The last frame from the roll of Colorplus that had been left in the DL-270 – literally so in two cases (I don’t think I’ll be posting any of the others AND it was the last frame on the roll, hence why it’s cropped to a slightly stunted ratio).
I tested the capability of the lens on the camera quite strongly by deliberately making a number of shots straight towards the sun, albeit trying to obscure its disk behind scenery – in this case the counterweight that helps balance the cable-pulled waterski structures. It passed all tests in this regard.
Fuji DL-270 Zoom Super & Kodak Colorplus. Grain2Pixel conversion.
Taken on 26 November 2020
Golden willow and white swan
Another photo from my “Whoah! Where the heck did those colours come from?!?!” series. I know I’ve mentioned it on more than one occasion already but, just, wow. The shots with this willow lit by the rising sun have got beautiful complementary tones – that classic, and perhaps over-used, orange and teal thing. I’ve not tinkered with the colours at all in these shots – it’s how they popped into being after converting the negatives with Grain2Pixel. Sometimes I can have to work at things with certain film stocks and Grain2Pixel, but these just landed perfectly.
I will confess to a bit of Photoshoppery to remove a trio of distracting ducks (or maybe they were gulls) bobbing about in the water behind the swan. I’m usually relucant to edit my photos in this way (apart from getting rid of bits of debris), but in this case I think it made the picture a lot better.
Fuji DL-270 Zoom Super & Kodak Colorplus. Grain2Pixel conversion.
Taken on 26 November 2020
More woodland mist
These shots were take on the same day as the ones made with the Bronica which I posted about here. These were a bit of an afterthought really – I had the Fuji in my coat pocket and decided to make a few photos. I wasn’t really expecting much for a number of reasons: I had no idea of the provenance of the film; the camera had not been tested by myself; and because the lens is somewhat slow (starting at f/5.6 at the wide end I think), so I doubted I’d have much joy on a dimly lit morning with 200asa film. As it happened, they turned out very well. They maybe don’t stand up to close , pixel-peepy, scrutiny, but otherwise they are nice pictures. The colours from this roll, as I think I mentioned yesterday, are really nice.
Fuji DL-270 Zoom Super & Kodak Colorplus. Grain2Pixel conversion.
Taken on 7 November 2020
Beighton Signalbox (while it’s still here)
This is the signal box at Beighton Station, not far from where I live. Although it’s named Beighton Station, no station has been present since the 1950s when passenger services ceased. There have been recent rumblings about building a new terminal suitable for tram-train services however.
The signal-box is currently scheduled for demolition in 2021, much to the displeasure of locals who see it as a landmark, and there are campaigns looking to try and save it.
More photos of the signal box can be found in my blog posts here, here, here, and here.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 50mm f/2.8 MC & Fujifilm Superia 100 (expired 2008).
Taken on 8 November 2020
Steel City Snapper photography 