Getting it wrong – push processing film shot at box speed

Over the last few weeks I’ve posted a whole bunch of photos taken with my Olympus XA3 on Ilford HP5+, which I pushed a stop to 800asa.

Or so I thought…

After receiving a comment about one of my posts using this setup, where I was asked if there was a reason I was shooting the film at 800ASA, I replied that it was to aid me during the low light conditions that are prevalent during the UK winter. Given that the camera has no manual control of shutter speed or aperture, this is a logical thing to do to get faster speeds and avoid camera shake.

But after replying, a small exclamation mark began to flash above my head. So I took a look at the camera manual and, lo and behold, it turns out I’ve not actually been shooting at 800ASA at all, but at 400ASA – HP5+’s box speed. Although the XA3 allows the ASA setting to be changed, it turns out that it will automatically override this if a DX code is present on the film being used. The manual control is just for non-DX coded films!

So in actual fact, I’ve been overdeveloping my film by push processing it!

Fortunately for me, the shots are all perfectly usable, and it’s a testament to Ilford’s HP5+’s resilience to these sort of damn fool mistakes that this is the case.

Anyway, here’s a random shot of one of the impacted frames, proving that if you ever accidentally push your HP5+ by a stop in DD-X, you will likely be forgiven your mistake…

Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 20 January 2024

I used to skate here

The Gosvenor Casino in Sheffield occupies the building that once housed Silver Blades, once the city’s only ice-skating rink. Sheffield still has an ice-rink, but it’s now located in Attercliffe and is the home of Sheffield Steeler’s, our local ice hockey team.

Ice hockey took place at Silver Blades too, although I was never involved in the sport and just went to the rink to skate about with friends and play video games in the mini arcade that was there (teetering about on a pair of skates and attempting to play Marble Madness took a degree of skill!).

When I first went to the rink I would hire a pair of boots. They were, if I remember correctly, all purple and always felt somewhat damp and clammy. After going for awhile, I decided to invest in a pair of my own skates and got some Bauer hockey boots. While I was never a skilled skater, I was proficient, and could get up a decent sprint on the ice.

While most of the sessions involved skating around in an anti-clockwise circuit (complete with a DJ playing music from a booth overlooking the ice, usually with a bunch of kids crowded below submitting requests), there would also be a short daredevil intermission half way through the evening where the circuit would become a figure-of-eight health-and-safety nightmare (although I cant ever recall any serious collisions happening).

I’ve not skated for about three decades now. I wonder if it’s one of those things you don’t forget how to do?

Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 20 January 2024

Nailing night-time

I took this photograph, of the Christmas-themed play area behind Sheffield’s Meadowhall shopping mall, without much confidence that it would turn out. The light was dark, I only had 400asa film in the camera, and the XA3 only really gives me control of the zone-focus . Everything else is handled by the camera’s small electronic brain.

So colour me impressed by how well this turned out. I have no idea what aperture was selected, but it was good enough to get the important elements in acceptable focus. Likewise the shutter speed – there’s a little motion blur on the figure at left of frame, but it was fast enough to prevent camera shake. The exposure has given me plenty of detail in the shadows, but avoided blowing the highlights. and the sky (which was a muddy, light polluted scud of clouds) also has great definition.

It’s always great when a little camera like this delivers the goods.

Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 20 December 2023

Giant micro-organisms and metal trees

Just a couple of pictures of unusual stuff today. The first is a shot of a giant micro-organism – an e-coli bacteria to be specific – that was lurking within Sheffield’s Winter Gardens. This larger-than-life model is 90 feet long, apparently making it five million times larger than it’s actual size. At this scale you’d have no problem spotting if your food was contaminated, I guess, although I tremble at the thought of the chicken that it might have inhabited!

You can find more information about the sculpture here: https://www.lukejerram.com/e-coli/

The second picture is of another sculpture, a steel willow tree commemorating the victims of Covid-19 and the unsung workers of the pandemic. It was unveiled in March 2023 and stands in Balm Green Gardens, close to Barker’s Pool in Sheffield.

Olympus OM-1N, G-Zuiko AUTO-W 28mm f/3.5 & Ilford FP4+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 @ 20° 10mins.

Taken 21 October 2023.

My Brutal Life

Back in October I visited the My Brutal Life exhibition in Sheffield. The exhibition featured a variety of pieces from various artists, covering photography, painting, collage, poetry, and film, all linked by the theme of brutalist architecture.

The venue for the exhibition was the Moore Street Electricity Substation, itself a notable brutalist building that sits just on the edge of the city centre. While the substation is in active use, one of it’s floors is empty. This floor was originally intended to hold the equipment that would provide electricity to two foundries and a car factory that were never built.

It forms an impressive space – effectively a large concrete emptiness with no source of natural light at all – that was perfect for this exhibition. I had seen a number of the pieces on show previously – something that’s bound to happen when you visit local exhibitions featuring local artists and of local subject matter – but others were new to me, or at least not seen before by myself in person.

One of the artist’s featured was Jen Orpin, a Manchester-based painter who has produced a number of works featuring roads and bridges, notably concrete spans across motorways. I first came across her work in a feature in the Guardian newspaper and her compositions of brutalist bridges crossing mysteriously empty stretches of road caught my eye. There’s a photorealism to the work that evokes recognition and a sense of otherworldliness. You can see example of her work on her website: https://www.jenorpinpaintings.co.uk/

Although the exhibition space was far too dimly lit for me to take film photos (I had no tripod), I did take a number of pictures of the staircase that needed to be ascended to reach the exhibition space (126 steps!) and of the substation itself, which you can see here in this post.

Olympus OM-1N, G-Zuiko AUTO-W 28mm f/3.5 & Ilford FP4+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 @ 20° 10mins.

Taken 21 October 2023.

What I saw on departure

The pictures coming over the next week or so are a continuation of the pictures I made on a day trip to Leeds back in October. I’ve already posted a bunch of images from this trip, starting with this post from 27 November, but those were black and white photographs shot with my Olympus OM-1N on Ilford FP4+. The set that I’m going to post are all taken with my Canon Sure Shot Z135 compact and, in a first for me, shot on Kodak Ultramax. I’ll let you know my thoughts on the film and my results as I post more images.

The view from my seat as I waited for my train to depart for Leeds.

Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.

Taken 14 October 2023.

Church and willows

A few miles south from the Herdings Twin Towers that I posted about yesterday lies St. Peter’s church at Greenhill. The church was built in 1964/65, so is a relatively modern structure. It’s slightly squat spire always has an air of a witches’ hat, I think.

The early morning light was casting a beautiful glow onto the willow trees that grow beside the church. I don’t think my photograph does proper justice to the light.

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Kodak Portra 160. Lab developed, home scanned & converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken 25 November 2023.

Around the edge of the city centre

Often I will eke out multiple blog posts from each roll of film I shoot. At present, however, I have approaching two-hundred pictures that I’ve mostly either not scanned, or uploaded to Flickr yet, so I guess I have enoungh leeway to chuck our a batch of them all at once every now and then.

These shots are all from the same walk around the edge of town (shot on the day I used the roll of Portra 400 from which I’ve recently shared images of the Cholera Monument and other stuff). There’s no particular theme, although I guess it forms a snapshot of the sort of stuff that tends to catch my eye in an environment like this when I walk around with a camera.

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE or Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 MC, and Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken 6 August 2023.

Sheffield scene(s)

I took this picture not fat from the Cholera Monument, which I posted about recently. It’s a view towards Sheffield city centre. I found it interesting to see in the picture a whole host of other locations that I’ve photographed on other occasions.

I’ve photographed the new structure in the centre of the image (with the two red cranes) at least twice (here & here). Just to the left of that you can see The Hubs, which I’ve also taken many pictures of, such as this one, and this one. The “Cheesegrater” car park can be seen behind and to the right of the new construction. At the right edge of the fram can be seen Sheffield Hallam University with th red lettering at the top. On the side of the building you can just make out the “What if?” poem, which you can see here too. Behind the university building in the distance is the university arts tower, which I’ve poasted loads of pictures of, such as this.

There are several other buildings I can see where I have pictures too, some of which I’ve posted on the blog, others which I haven’t. The building in the foreground begind the grass is Sheffield Midland Station, another location where I have lots of pictures from.

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 MC, and Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Taken 6 August 2023.

Granelli’s

Granneli’s is a traditional ice cream and sweet shop that resides on Broad Street in Sheffield. The shop has been in business since 1874, opened by Italian brothers Luigi and Charles Granelli (although they had begun the business in different premises three years earlier). It began as an ice cream shop before expending to selling sweets. The ice cream business continues and there are Granneli’s ice cream vans serving a number of areas.

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 MC, and Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Taken 6 August 2023.