RSPB Old Moor Reserve

As a consequence of having my laptop and wildlife camera gear stolen from the boot of the car, I will now always carry all camera gear and computers with me when away from home lecturing, so they need to be as light as possible. Yesterday, I visited Old Moor reserve on the way to talk at Sheffield and used the Fuji XT-1 and 50-140mm lens for a bit of bird snapping to see how it performed. Some of these are quite large crops but still show good detail. Not as high hit rate as with the Canon and I have yet to master anything moving but surprised at the ability to focus even where distracting branches as in last two.

Park Hill Estate in Sheffield

Park Hill is a council housing estate constructed between 1957 and 1961. In 1998 the estate was granted Grade II listed building status. Following a period of decline the estate is currently being renovated by the developers Urban Splash.
The Park Hill Flats were inspired by Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation. Construction is of an exposed concrete frame with yellow, orange and red brick curtain walling. The concept of the flats was described as streets in the sky. Broad decks had large numbers of front doors opening onto them. Each deck of the structure, except the top one, has direct access to ground level at some point on the sloping site. Cobbles from the terraced streets surround the flats and pave the pathways down the hill to Sheffield station and tramlines. The lower two pictures show the three stages with some flats still occupied, others empty and vandalised and the third stage of stripping out all but the concrete shell and refurbishing.

Visit to Sheffield

Spent a very enjoyable few hours looking round Sheffield City Centre.
The first image is looking up into the rennovated lantern of Sheffield Cathedral.
The Lantern was repaired in 1998-99 with new windows designed by Amber Hiscott. The shapes of the lantern contrast well with the tiled floor.

The other images show the mixture of architecture that comprises the centre of the city.