The Pathetic Fallacy

Oh dear, here comes the obligatory sunset photo.

Recently, I found myself at a loose end in Liverpool. The family had been safely packed off back to Somerset and I didn't feel like hanging round my father's house. So, I set off with my camera and followed my nose to the river.

I have a strong sense of connection between my family and the Mersey. My grandfather sailed down it and away to travel the world. My father was a diver in it, then he worked in the shipyard on it. So there was some sense that the images that I was capturing were in his memory, hence the title of this post.

The camera in question was the new Alpha 77. My memory is that I had my 50mm lens with me - which is not the best for landscape - but that's not what the EXIF data on the RAW file says. Again, no tripod. Sometimes, I wonder why I bought the damn thing.

As you might expect in these circumstances, most of the images where useless, but I quite like this one. I've tried to make a mono image out of it but it looses something, so here I am again, presenting a colour image for your consideration. Normal service will be resumed soon.

Blast From The Past

The Mersey, looking downriver from Otterspool,

Christmas Day, 2005

This post brings together a couple of subjects already mentioned in other posts - namely, What I Did On My Christmas Holidays and Liverpool.

In 2005, in a break from our usual routine, we decided to spend Christmas in Liverpool. I should say that this was a couple of years before our son was born. The need to get out of the house hit earlier than usual - Christmas afternoon, to be precise - and we ended up at Otterspool Promenade. Obviously, we'd had to get through dinner first, so it was approaching sunset when we got down there.

When we arrived, the river was completely still - no tide, no wind, nothing. My father, who spent many years working on the Mersey - or more accurately under, as a young man he was a diver - said that he'd never seen it like that.

Fortunately, I had my camera with me. At that time, I was still using my first digital camera, a Fuji bridge model. Its traditional to report that this was a great little camera and that I wish I still had it. But that's not quite true. Yet again, a technology company had modified one of its products to make it less functional than it might have been. 

But no matter. I got a couple of nice images, of which this is one.

In another link to my father, the building that you can see on the skyline is Camell Laird's shipyard, where he also worked for a number of years as a cabinet maker. I can't imagine it being possible to have such a varied working life these days, but maybe that's just me and my blinkered view of the world.

Hey, That's My Home Town...

Liverpool from the Mersey, May 2011

I may have mentioned that I come from Liverpool.

I made the images that became this panorama during a visit to see my father at the end of May 2011. We took a trip on the Mersey ferry (and yes, they do play that song - constantly), had a ride on the Liverpool 360 and did all the touristy things, ostensibly for the benefit of our son.

I like the fact that the Three Graces aren't front and centre as in every other photo of the waterfront. The newer build has more prominence and you can just about make out the Albert Dock on the far right.

I know that panorama creation is getting to be a standard feature of many digital cameras. However, like many technologists, I'm a Luddite at heart (and a bit of a freetard) so I used Hugin to create this. It's based on the Panotools library, which was originated by a bunch of heavyweight German mathematicians, so it must be good.

I have very early memories of traveling on the ferry with my maternal grandfather, who would take me out and about during the summer holidays. I can remember the old wooden landing stage, with the massive tires lashed to the side. This was replaced some years later with a concrete platform, which had an alarming propensity to sink in rough weather.

The concrete stage is still there, but the whole of the Pier Head has been redeveloped and you'd have to be blind to say that its not an improvement. I haven't made it to the new museum or the Open Eye Gallery yet, but I guess I will one day.