Month: December 2020

Monochrome Monday… ‘Strop’ steps, Bridlington

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'Strop' steps, Bridlington‘Strop’ steps, Bridlington
Olympus [mju:] Zoom, Olympus 35-70mm at 35mm – Rollei RPX 400
Developed in Ilford DDX at 1:4, 10 mins at 20°c.

I’m not going to go into why these steps down to North Beach at Bridlington are known (to some of us at least) as ‘strop’ steps… 😁

What I will say is how pleased I am that the £5.00 Olympus [mju] zoom I picked up from a charity shop last year works perfectly! Bargain!

Digitised using Nikon D5500 & AF-S Micro-NIKKOR 40mm f/2.8, pixl-latr and Negative Lab Pro plugin with minimal cropping and tweaking in Lightroom Classic CC.

Single frame… A Happy Christmas to all*

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GWR 6000 class 4-6-0 6023-20130125Great Western Railway 6000 class 4-6-0 6023 KING EDWARD II
Nikon D600, AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR at 100mm, 1/640s, f8, ISO 400

In this year of scaled down festive celebrations I thought it appropriate to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or Cool Yule with, not three kings from the east, but one king from the west! 😁

In this case it’s Great Western Railway (GWR) 6000 class 4-6-0 6023 KING EDWARD II during its visit to the Great Central Railway‘s winter steam gala in January 2013.

* ‘and to all, a good night…’

Monochrome Monday… Howe Lane Crossing

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Howe Lane CrossingHowe Lane Crossing
Nikon F-801s, AF NIKKOR 35-70mm f/3.3-4.5 at 50mm, 1/60s, f8; – Kentmere Pan 100
Developed in Ilford DDX at 1:4, 10½ mins at 20°c.

Railways and shadows… two things guaranteed to attract my lens! 😁

Howe Lane Crossing in Goxhill is on the railway line that runs from Barton-upon-Humber to Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire and with only one one train every two hours it definitely isn’t the busiest crossing in the country!

Digitised using Nikon D5500 & AF-S Micro-NIKKOR 40mm f/2.8, pixl-latr and Negative Lab Pro plugin with minimal cropping and tweaking in Lightroom Classic CC.

Throwback Thursday… Sky Mirror, December 2013

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Sky Mirror, December 2013Sky Mirror, December 2013
Nikon D600, AF-S NIKKOR 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G ED VR at 28mm, 1/200s, f9, ISO 200

What was I photographing on this day in previous years?

Seven years ago it was the Nottingham Sky Mirror.

Designed by artist Anish Kapoor the 20ft wide stainless steel dish was commissioned by the Nottingham Playhouse and unveiled in April 2007.

The striking structure is a bit hidden away on the edge of Wellington Circus but is well worth visiting, especially when the Playhouse Bar & Kitchen is open!

(One thing this image reminded me of was just how filthy the sensor in the Nikon D600 always seemed to be! I’ve had to clone out a dozen or so ‘blobs’ from the sky…

Monochrome Monday… IDA-WAY, Erewash Canal, September 2020

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IDA-WAY, Erewash Canal, September 2020IDA-WAY, Erewash Canal, September 2020
Olympus OM-2 SPOT/PROGRAM, Zuiko 75-150mm f/4 at 75mm, 1/125s, f11 – Rollei RPX 400 rated at ISO 320
Developed in Ilford DDX at 1:4, 10 mins at 20°c.

The narrowboat ‘IDA-WAY’ moored at Mills Dockyard on the Erewash Canal in September 2020, the 32ft vessel was built by the Stoke-on-Trent Boat Building Company in 1989.

In 2017 ‘IDA-WAY’ was spotted on sale for a very tempting £17,950…

Digitised using Nikon D5500 & AF-S Micro-NIKKOR 40mm f/2.8, pixl-latr and Negative Lab Pro plugin with minimal cropping and tweaking in Lightroom Classic CC.

Monochrome Monday… Woodland Track, February 2020

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Woodland Track, February 2020Woodland Track, February 2020
Olympus OM-2 SPOT/PROGRAM, Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.8, 1/200s, f11 – Rollei RPX 400 rated at ISO 320
Developed in Ilford DDX at 1:4, 10 mins at 20°c.

I’m still experimenting with Hamish Gill’s pixl-latr and the excellent Negative Lab Pro Lightroom plugin for digitising my negatives and the more I use this combination, the more I like it!

I’ve never done much tweaking of my film images in Lightroom before posting them… it just doesn’t seem ‘right’ to do so somehow, but at the moment I’m hardly doing anything at all! Negative Lab Pro handles the negative/positive conversion beautifully and I find myself just making slight adjustments to contrast before I’m happy with the image… Maybe I’m just easy to please?

Digitised using Nikon D5500 & AF-S Micro-NIKKOR 40mm f/2.8, pixl-latr and Negative Lab Pro plugin with minimal cropping and tweaking in Lightroom Classic CC.