Hallo from Sheffield, looking for ideas

MkII · Jun 16, 2009

Hallo there,
I'm Mark, currently in Sheffield, UK. I've been on the cusp of doing something interesting with my cameras for 15 years now but am only just setting up a (improvised) darkroom for the first time this week.

However, I need a project to get stuck into but am lost for ideas. I will be using an old Zeiss Ikon 6x6 with Pan F to start with, hoping to use non-pan film soon (I have a couple of roll of efke in the cupboard).

Can anyone suggest something for me to think about?
Thanks,
Mark

Thomas Wilson · Jun 16, 2009

Mark,

Why not start a project on the history of The River Sheaf. Its history as a border over the centuries, tied together with some silky-smooth B&W (and color) photography from your Zeiss Icon 6x6, would make for a wonderful coffee table book.

We (I) often take for granted what is closest and most familiar.

Tom Kershaw · Jun 16, 2009

Hello Mark,

When thinking about what to photograph I have found it more helpful to think about what I want to achieve from a visual aesthetics point of view, rather than a project as such; but this depends what you want to get out of your photography.

Tom.

Jeff Kubach · Jun 16, 2009

Welcome Mark to APUG! Take time to think it over what to do.

Jeff

papagene · Jun 16, 2009

Mark - hello and welcome to APUG from western New England.

gene

Christopher Walrath · Jun 16, 2009

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.167 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102 UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0)

Welcome to APUG. What are you passionate about? Do you have a cause close to your heart? Live near a historical area? How many pictures of the privy can you make without someone knowing that you are photographing the privy? Something will come to you. Good luck.

mts · Jun 17, 2009

The main reason I photograph is to stay in the darkroom.

paul_c5x4 · Jun 17, 2009

MkII said:
However, I need a project to get stuck into but am lost for ideas.

Search your local antique/stamp/card/tat shops for photographic postcards from the local area. Try to locate the spot where they were taken, and rephotograph the scene.

Or cribbing an idea from another thread - Pick a street, any street and use a whole roll of 36exp photographing that one stretch of road.

What ever you choose to do, do it well, but above all, have fun doing it.

perkeleellinen · Jun 17, 2009

I like photo projects, they get you out and about and make you think; both at the design stage and again at the interpretation stage.

If I lived in Sheffield, I'd probably base a project around steel. Maybe not the actual works, but maybe the environment that built up around the works. A sort of urban anthropology, remains of a by-gone era in many instances.

wayne naughton · Jun 17, 2009

Well, i googled (images) Sheffield and some of the things that came to mind would be industrial archaeology/history, urban renewal/decay, parks and gardens, historical churches/castles. yorkshire landscapes, Victoriana.....Gee, you could spend the rest of your life photographing Sheffield....grin

Grab your camera and go for a walk. Go and have a coffee or a beer at your local and simply OBSERVE....sooner or later it'll come.

Victorian buildings and churches at night would be a nice project to start off with.

kompressor · Jun 17, 2009

Hi, why not make a documentary from Meadowhall Oh i used to love that place in the late 90's

MkII · Jun 21, 2009

Thanks for all your suggestions - I was thinking about them as I wandered around town yesterday. Some interesting topics there though I haven't had that 'aha!' moment yet... I think I need something abstract that will encourage a less literal interpretation, alongside something more specific. I'm not sure about what the first could be (maybe 'blocks' or something?) but I might have something for the second - portraits of a single tree in each of the 53 Sheffield postcode districts (possibly too ambitious).
Thanks again and maybe bump into a few of you in another forum or two.
Mark

perkeleellinen · Jun 22, 2009

MkII said:
portraits of a single tree in each of the 53 Sheffield postcode districts (possibly too ambitious).

That sounds really good. When I lived in Göteborg I had a project to take a portrait of every tram stop on the whole network (116 stops). In the end it took me the best part of the spring / summer to get all the photos I was happy with. I made a little book of my project.

Hallo from Sheffield, looking for ideas

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