Trying to make a tram postcard

I’ve recently gotten into swapping art with people. This is through the Reddit Print Exchange¹, Postcards from Afar² and Postcrossing³. In the latter case, quite a few people have requested photos of trams.

Well, we have a tram here, so I thought I’d go out, shoot a roll of film and see what I could come up with.

The photo above isn’t a technical wonder but it’s the one I keep coming back to for some reason. I wish it had a foot or so more breathing room to the left, but that’s life. I was already shooting 28mm so quite wide already. That also meant getting closer to the tram than I probably should…

I got some other stuff while waiting for the tram to come by. This is Sheffield Cathedral, it’s pretty modest by cathedral standards.

This is another self portrait if you do a CSI enhance.

This building lies on one of the prettier more underrated parts of the city — Paradise Square.

Then right behind the same square, a big square block car park. I quite like this building too, even though I didn’t totally nail the photo I wanted.

Back to the tram. I camped out across the road from the stop at City Hall, waiting for them to come past in the sun.

I like the guy in this one in the chair. I like how the scaffold contrasts with the building. Maybe it’s a keeper.

This is right behind where I was stood. It didn’t really work out but I left it in as a note to myself. I remember I was trying to capture the light playing off the buildings, which sort of works, but the composition is off. I spent ages trying to crop it and edit it and it just keeps getting worse and worse.

Again not quite right but sod it I’ll post it, I like the statue.

So do we have any postcard worthy photos? Apart from the self portrait one I’d be tempted to print limited runs of all three of the others.

I don’t know if I will go back and try and do some more, I feel weird taking pictures of the tram for some reason! But at the same time it was quite fun to have a little project.

If I were to have another crack I’d consider colour. The trams are blue and orange generally, so I’d want to be out somewhere fairly monochrome to help make it stand out.

I’d also be interested in trying a longer focal length like 85mm, to give it that compressed busy-city look.

In terms of location there is a tunnel at the top of a steep hill where the tram emerges from the ground like a worm from Dune. I can’t figure out where I’d stand but I think there’s a picture to be had there somehow.