A Merry Mersey Meet Up

 A year has flown by since I first attended a Mersey Meet Up, organised by the man, nay, the legend, Steve "Stig" Starr. I promised in November 2024 that I would be back and I put my name down for the 2025 Merry Mersey Meet Up as soon as I found out when it was happening. I even booked my train early, just to make sure I was going to be there. The day of the meet up was Saturday November 29th and the meeting point was at the Cenotaph outside St George's Hall. Stig picked the right spot as it's right outside Lime Street Railway Station where my morning train journey ended. 

I arrived in time and said hello to people I haven't seen for a year as well as some I haven't met before. For the walk I had given some thought to the time of year and dug out my last roll of Kodak T-Max P3200 into my OM-2 with Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 lens and set it to shoot it at 800 iso. I also loaded a roll of Lomo 800 into my OM-1n with Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 lens to try to capture the festive colour around town.

Stig puts a lot of effort into the route and this year we headed down William Brown Street, past the Central Library, Walker Art Gallery and Museum. It was getting busy as people were heading the the Christmas Market and Fun Fair on the plaza around St George's Hall. Stig lined us all up on the steps outside the Museum and we dutifully got our group photo done.

We headed down Dale Street, taking photos of murals along the way and also had a stop at the Real Camera Co. shop. I could easily have spent my christmas savings in there, but I exercised restraint and bought a couple of rolls of expired Agfa Vista colour film. A few of the group also spent a few quid there and once that was done, we headed towards St Pauls Square.

This is where the famed Liverpool Stadium once stood and hosted World Championship Boxing matches. Sadly age took it's toll on the building and it was demolished in the late 1980's. A Memorial Plinth now stands on the site, surrounded by tall office buildings. It was unveiled by John Conteh who competed and made his name there. We also had a spot of lunch at Little leaf, a lovely cafe that served a wonderful sausage roll and made excellent tea.

From there we meandered to the Pier Head and another Christmas Fun Fair. I'm glad I had a roll of Lomo 800 in my OM-1n for a future blog as the colours were indeed amazing, despite the light being flat. From there we headed around the Royal Albert Dock and It was there I finished my roll of Lomo 800. I also took a few photos with my phone camera on this section of our walk, just to capture the bright colours whilst I still could.

By now we were behind time and losing the light. Stig hurried everyone along towards St Lukes, the bombed out church in the Chinatown area and I said my farewell to everyone as I knew keeping up would be a problem for me. I shook hands with everyone and made my way back to Lime Street Station and my train home, knackered, but happy I made it to another Mersey Meet Up.

I developed my TMax P3200 with Bellini Euro HC, 1+31 dilution B for 8 1/2 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. Once dry I scanned it with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi 35mm film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 size led light pad. I processed the RAW files with Affinity Studio. 

In my defence it was a bit of a grotty day in Scouse land, the light was flat and the sky rarely cleared to give us any brightness, but I got my choice of film right and got my exposures there or thereabouts. Taking two cameras, Lomo 800 colour film in my OM-1n and TMax P3200 B&W film in my OM-2, divided my attention and made my brain hurt. I did get some decent shots despite having my attention span seriously challenged. I'm too easily dist.... look, a squirrell! 

What really mattered on the day was the chance to get out and meet people I have been gassing with on social media. There was a few new faces at this years Merry Mersey Meet Up and the chance to say hello in person was very welcome. I will be keeping an eye on the Photowalk website as I really fancy attending the Spring Mersey Meet. If you fancy a photowalk, you can visit the Photowalk website via the link below.

I will be sharing my colour film in a future blog, but for now here's a few favourites from my roll of TMax P3200 shot with my OM-2 on a splendid walk around Liverpool with great people. I have placed them and more in a album on Flickr you visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

www.photowalk.me 
Kodak P3200 - OM-2 - Merry Mersey Meet