Thursday Doors

15-06-17

The weather has been so unpredictable this year but it finally seems to have settled a little. Managed to get out and about this week on a couple of days in between the chores. Here’s my (late) eclectic contribution to Norm 2.0 “Thursday Doors” blog.

Fleur Enjoying The Warmth

Met up with my PhotoBuddies on Tuesday for a coffee and a walk around some of the older parts of the city (Leicester).

Louvre’s 

This is very near to where the old Great Central Railway bridged it’s way into the station. I’ve decided I like louvre’s.

Underneath The Arches

These two guy’s were more than happy to pose for a photograph outside their Engineering Co. which sits under the old railway arches. We had a good chat about how the area had changed over the years. I’ll pop back next week and drop them in a print of this photo.

S R & S 1919

I’ve tried to find out what S R & S was, but no luck. I guess a trip to the reference library and a look at some old trade directories might supply the answer. The whole area (Bath Lane) had a lot of engineering companies and foundries in it’s heyday, it’s now becoming an apartment block zone !

Peeling

Tucked Away

The next few are from yesterday’s (Thursday) trip to town.

This shop at the top of the Market Place is being restored, it’s a lovely old shopfront.

Knight & Garter

This pub has been just been totally restored, I was tempted to go in and try the beer but I had jobs to do at home.

Bowling Green Street
 
I’ve walked past this lovely doorway countless times, never really took much notice. But it’s been restored and is now a restaurant. Can’t find much information about the building other than it’s Grade 11 listed and possibly the old Water Board offices.

Nikon FM2

04-06-17

One of my Beer & Curry night buddies very kindly donated his old Nikon FM2 to me. It’s very well used and he wasn’t sure if everything still worked as it should.

It came with 3 Nikon lenses, a 50mm f1.8, 28mm f2.8, and a 70-210mm f4.

So I popped in some fresh batteries and loaded up with £1.00 a roll Agfa Vista 200.

Frame 0

Didn’t expect this to come out as I was winding on to frame No.1. Nice shot of my Giottos blower though !

In The Garden – 50mm Lens

Mimi

Mimi is difficult to photograph because of the amount of white fur she has, and she’s very lively, but I’m guessing a bird or something must of caught her attention giving me time to grab this shot. Film tends to cope with the whites better than my digital camera’s.

70 – 210mm Lens

Lilac Tree

An exciting shot of my washing! But a good subject for testing the focus and Bokeh on the lens.

Street Art – 28mm Lens

The film was processed at a quick photo store which means lots of scratches and marks. Had to use Digital ICE on the Coolscan to remove it, this softens the image so a little bit of sharpening in post processing was needed.

Really liked the Nikon, good viewfinder and a wide range of shutter speeds so it’s really flexible.

Thursday Doors

01-06-17

Thursday Doors and Street Art might be a better title for my contribution to the excellent Norm 2.0 blog, do click through and check out some of the great contributions.

Was completely oblivious that last weekend there was a street painting event “Bring The Paint” in our cultural quarter, just as I had no idea the Queen was visiting my home town in April. I don’t use social media very much, just Instagram, really gone off facebook where apparently information about the event abounded !!!!

I had arranged to meet up with a couple of friends for a Photowalk on Tuesday and much of the street art was still around.

Photo Buddies
 
I’ve known the guy on the far side of the street since 1970 when we were both at Leicester School of Printing and both had hair.

Counting this one as a door, and there’s a shopping trolley as a bonus.

This one even has an electricity substation behind it, one of my favourite subjects.

 
A lovely old gate.

And from the front.

The little window caught my eye on this one.

Roller Shutters

 

Music Venue Door

The Sound House apparently want to keep the street art on their building.

Old Factory Door

This is the side gate to the factory above.

Finally Some Neglected Doors

All of this artwork was completed over one weekend, most of it will disappear as the whole of the Cultural Quarter is in the process of being restored or rebuilt.

I Thought It Felt A little Cooler This Morning

Spotted on my walk to town today.

Olympus OM101/(OM88) #4 – Last Few

I managed to get a 50mm f2 lens (well another camera as it was cheaper than buying a lens on it’s own) for the last few frames on the roll.

Not Cricket

Anticipation, Waiting For The Queen

Broken

I really enjoyed using the OM101, the manual adapter with 50mm lens let me get some nice out of focus backgrounds. I’ll definitely be using the camera again but at the moment I have 4 different cameras on the go.

Ricoh Shotmaster Ultra Dual #3

I was just congratulating myself last week for going about four years without having a cold or flu, so foolish. Friday the throat started to feel sore, got a really annoying dry cough, and an aching head, so I have now got Man Flu. At least I’ve got a film to process if I’m going to have to stay indoors, and some old negs I’d like to scan. 

I wondered if the Ricoh Shotmaster would be any good for street photography, I’m never sure about autofocus cameras when shooting from the hip. There was a continental market in the town a few weeks ago, the weather was good so I thought I would give it a try.

Face In The Crowd

What You Doing

I was pleasantly surprised, I’m sure the bright light helped as the camera would have stopped down to give a good depth of field.

My Nurse Maid ! (Mimi)

Thursday Doors

27-04-17

I’m a little bit late posting, went out for a few beers with some old friends last night, didn’t get back home until 12.45am.

Anyway here’s my contribution to Norm 2.0’s excellent “Thursday Doors” blog.

The weather on Tuesday was really good, so I set off for a walk to town on a different route to the one I normally take. I wanted to photograph some Georgian doors near to Leicester Prison ! (fondly known as Leicester Castle)

Leicester De Montfort Hall

Before heading to the prison area I stopped off at De Montfort Hall, the flowers in the grounds looked really good considering the bad weather we have had over the last few weeks. I’ve seen some great bands at this venue over the years, Pink Floyd, Captain Beefheart, Eric Clapton and Kraftwerk to name just a few. 

This place is being refurbished so I was glad I got this shot.

This used to be the Norwich Union Insurance offices, it’s now been refurbished and turned into apartments.

Heading towards the prison area I spotted this rather nice plaque.

There seemed to be a huge difference in the condition of the properties in this area.

And To Finish With

I’m sure I read somewhere that this building used to originally be a Harmonium manufactures premises, but I can’t find the information so I could be completely wrong. 

Ricoh Shotmaster Ultra Dual #2

The Last Real Department Store Closes

35mm lens Setting

55mm lens Setting
This was the last real traditional department store in the city and has now sadly closed. I used to shop there for greetings cards and kitchen bits bobs, the staff were really friendly and helpful. The store was first opened in 1880, it was called Joseph Johnson & Co. (Some interesting History) This seems to be the story in a lot of countries around the world. I believe it’s going to become apartments, no surprise there.

Victoria Park Gateway

35mm lens Setting
On a brighter note the the gates and stonework to Victoria park (not far from where I live) have been restored and look really good. They have also completely rebuilt the car park, I was a bit dismayed at first because they cut down a lot of trees, but have replanted with more than there were before.   

Ricoh Shotmaster Ultra Dual #1

22-04-17

I couldn’t resist, it was on that auction site at a £1.00. starting bid, but the postage was £5.00. (a bit steep) No one else bid so it was mine. I have always liked Ricoh cameras and this was a model I hadn’t seen before. It has a dual lens (35mm & 55mm) rather than a zoom, the flash can be turned off by a flicking a slider, there’s an infinity button and the viewfinder cover acts as the on/off switch. The camera is quite small and easily fits in a coat pocket, and an added bonus is that it takes two standard AA batteries.

Loaded it up with £1.00 a roll Agfa Vista 200asa and took it out with me on my walks to town.

Natural Green (35mm)

The light was quite tricky for this shot, sun and shade. I have found Agfa Vista 200 has a slight magenta cast, but the Ricoh coped well with the lighting conditions.

Brightening Up The Park (35mm)

More tricky lighting.

Pegs & Finials (55mm)

Having recently bought a Nikon TW zoom 35-70 and then donated it to a charity shop because of the really slow autofocus I didn’t know what to expect from the Ricoh, I needn’t have worried, it has one of the quickest autofocus systems of all of my compact cameras.

The film was developed by a local high street photo store, and scanned in by me on my Nikon Coolscan as near to neutral as I could get, with some contrast and sharpening adjustments in Lightroom to get rid of the digital fug. 

 

Thursday Doors

20-04-17

I’ve not really been anywhere for photographing doors over the last week. The weather apart from a few days has been cold and dull and when the sun was shining I was catching up on garden chores or going to see some bands playing, which inevitably involves drinking beer :>)

Here are a few doors for Norm 2.0 ‘s excellent “Thursday Doors” blog. I’ve been collecting examples of original domestic doors, there aren’t that many left nowadays, most being replaced by plastic or aluminum. The one I forgot to take a photo of is my own !

Columns, Portholes, and Stained Glass

Plain But Original

The One On The Left I Think

1930’s I Would Guess

As It Was Built

And A Grand One To Finish With