Hallo from Sheffield, looking for ideas

[MkII]

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]

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]

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]

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

Jeff

 

[papagene]

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

gene

 

[Christopher Walrath]

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]

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

 

[paul_c5x4]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[MkII]

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]

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.