At the edge of the reservoir

This photo was taken shortly before the picture of the flying gulls that I posted yesterday. It’s one of several I took (this one and yesterday’s with the Zeiss Mess-Ikonta, and the others with the Holga 120N).

There were a significant number of birds present. Most of them were out on the water as I approached, but they’re obviously used to being fed by people as, as soon as I appeared, the whole lot of them swam or flew straight to the shoreline and right up to my feet. They then all flew away suddenly in a cacophany of flapping wings when a lady with a dog turned up. As soon as they saw she had a big container of food for them they soon came back though, completely ignoring the dog.

I nearly had a mishap while taking these. There was a “No Swimming signpost that I thought might make a nice image, but the muddy floor was extremely slick underfoot and I almost went down on my back when my feet slipped. In the photo, the floor looks like a gravel surface, but this is misleading – it’s actually a thin layer of slippery mud with leaves dotted through it. Thankfully, my ninja-like reflexes saved the day.* 🙂

Both this and yesterdays photo both managed to find their way into Flickr Explore this morning, although the one with the flying gulls dropped from the list later on.

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 30 November 2019

* Ninja-like reflexes = lumbering middle-aged bloke who got lucky this time.

Points of comparison

I thought that I would share a couple of photographs of the same location in today’s post as it could make for an interesting comparison. The place is a local reservoir about five miles from my home, and both pictures were taken in similar conditions at around the same time of day a week or two apart. The weather was comparable on both occasions (although there’s a little more hazy cloud in the second shot).

The first shot was taken with my Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 medium format folding camera on Fuji Provia 100F. This camera has a superbly sharp lens. The second shot was taken with my recently acquired Holga 120N on some expired Kodak Tri-X (from a badly manufactured batch that shows the backing paper details on the negatives). This camera has a plastic lens which is somewhat sharp in the centre, but not really anywhere else.

The first picture is looking roughly north-east across the water, the second north-west, but I was stood at the same spot on the bank for both pictures.

If I had to pick a favourite from the two than I think I’d have to go for the Holga shot. It lacks the sharpness and definition of the Zeiss photo, but makes up for it with heaps of atmosphere. My only dislike is the branches creeping into the upper left of the frame – caused either by the Holga’s viewfinder not showing the full image frame, or possibly because with my glasses on it’s a bit difficult to see the full frame in its entirety through the viewfinder. The fact that I have a definite preference for black and white images probably also swings things in its favour.

Which one is your favourite, and why?

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Fujifilm Provia 100.

Taken on 25 August 2019

Holga 120N & Kodak Tri-X (expired).

Taken on 9 September 2019

Damflask

This is another photo dating back to early 2017 and depicts Damflask reservoir to the north-east of Sheffield. It is one of a series of reservoirs in the Loxley Valley and tributaries, the others being Agden, Dale Dyke, and Strines.

Dale Dyke is notorious for having catastrophically burst in 1864, shortly after construction, flooding the valleys downstream and the city of Sheffield, resulting in 244 deaths.

Damflask reservoir is named after the village of the same name that was washed away by the Dale Dyke tragedy.

Olympus 35 RC & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 13 January 2017

Dam wall

Another photo taken during my walk around Linacre reservoirs a week or two back.

Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 135mm f/3.5 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 20 January 2017

Still water

This is one of those shots that turns out much better than you expected. I took a few shots of the reservoir and reflected trees, but the ones I thought would look best featured some ducks in the middle of the still water. I didn’t really think much about this one until the negatives came back, and it was the best of the bunch.

Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 135mm f/3.5 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 21 December 2017

Mystery box

I spotted this curious little box attached to the wall of a reservoir. I’m not sure what might be inside (someone suggested the key to the lock 🙂 ).

Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 20 January 2018

Ladybower

This is a shot taken back in the spring with my Lubitel 166 Universal. I’ve since sold the camera after getting my Yashica Mat 124 G – while the Lubitel could take some nice photographs, it was pretty fiddly to use and focussing was tricky.

This is cropped to 6×4.5 ratio from the 6×6 original (although the camera had an adapter that allowed 6×4.5 shots to be made).

Lomo Lubitel 166 Universal and Rollei RPX 400.

Taken on 12 March 2017

Damflask

I took this photo back in January. I’d visited the villages of High and Low Bradfield on the same day (and fallen flat on my face while striding down the steep road to Low Bradfield!) and stopped off at Damflask reservoir afterwards where I grabbed a few shots.

Olympus 35 RC & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 13 January 2017