ODd Hereford

We were in Hereford the other day, doing some shopping in the Newmarket. Whilst I was waiting for other people to sort their lives out, I made these images using my phone. As usual when I do this, I used Snapseed on my Chromebook to process them down.

A Priori II

An image of the Priory Church in Malvern, made as we emerged from the theatre just across the road, using my Pixel 2 smartphone and processed down in Snapseed.

Olympus Mons

I have a new camera, and Olympus Pen F. This is one of the first images I made using it, during a recent visit to Liverpool

South Bank Show II

Another image from the London trip, this time of the Royal Festival Hall.

South Bank Show

Recently, I found myself in London for a couple of days, at a fairly dry conference. However, I did have an evening to myself and as I was staying south of the river, spent some time on the South Bank. As I hadn't bothered to take a camera with me, I ended up making some images with my camera phone.

In case you don't know, this is the front of the National Theatre. A few more images to follow.

My Best Clyde

This is probably my favourite image of the Glasgow series. One or two more to go.

The Bridge on the River Clyde

The next image in the Glasgow waterfront series. This one was made looking downriver from the Tradeston Bridge - that's the M8 in the distance.

Bonnie and Clyde

The second image in the Glasgow waterfront series. This is probably my least favourite of those that made the cut.

Right Turn, Clyde

Recently, I spent a couple of days in Scotland. I was working, but I still managed to find some time for photography. Fortunately, a colleague had suggested that I take a camera with me - why this didn't occur to me anyway is a bit of a mystery, but in any case, I packed my RX100. 

On day one, I was in central Glasgow. After my meeting, I had to walk along the Broomielaw, beside the River Clyde, to the pick up point for the hire car. This was in the late afternoon and the river was very still. I made a number of images which I think are successful, like the one above.

On the second day, I was on Loch Lomond, with some time available in the early afternoon. There was snow on the ground and low cloud which added to the overall drama of the scenery. Again, I made some more images, but this time, none of them were successful.

Now, in my view this result is counter-intuitive. A reasonable person would, I think, conclude that the second day, with access to some of the most imposing scenery in the UK, would provide much greater opportunities to produce the better images.

So what happened?

There are various possibilities. The RX100 isn't the most versatile camera for landscape. And I'm not very familiar with the area I was visiting. But these have the ring of excuses and I have to face the fact that I might just be crap at landscape photography. It does have a reputation as the most difficult photographic genre - although I suspect that war reportage may be quite tricky also.

Anyway, I'll post the images from day one, in the order they were made, rather than in some sort of order of merit, as I would normally do. A sort of virtual walk along the Clyde.

Cabot Circus

Now that the lighter nights have arrived, the whole hanging around in Bristol waiting to go training thing has taken on a new aspect, in that I have to find something worth photographing in daylight.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I found my way to Brandon Hill Park, which surrounds Cabot Tower. On the first occasion, I arrived too late to go up the tower, so I returned the following week. This image was made from the lower viewing platform - I didn't make it to the upper platform - looking south east, I think. My knowledge of the geography of Bristol is a bit sketchy at best.

Bridge End

British Summer Time started at the end of March and the previous week saw my final visit Clifton Down to photograph the suspension bridge at night. As luck would have it, it was on this occasion that I finally found the best vantage point for this purpose. This turned out to be near the observatory and a few metres from the point at which I'd ended my previous visit, a couple of weeks before.

Frustratingly, the sun had only just set when I had to leave for my training session - the image above is the last that I took before packing up. Also, the tower on the northern bank was surrounded by scaffolding, which hadn't been there a couple of weeks before. 

All in all, not a terribly successful note to end this series on, but I think that enough is enough and I'll move on to another subject in my next post.

Upon Reflection

Another week, another visit to Avon Gorge. This time, I stayed around the Cumberland Basin, waiting for darkness. But the year had moved on and it was still quite light when the time came for me to leave to get to training.

I made this image whilst I was mooching around, looking for something to shoot in the twilight, having noticed the reflection in the river water. It lacks the, um, drama of previous images in this series, but I like the composition.

I should say that, a couple of weeks previously, I had switched back to my Alpha 550 for one reason and another, and I've really started to notice just how agricultural it is compared to my Alpha 77. I'm beginning to think that its days are numbered - at 14 Mega-pixels, with poor high ISO performance, its beginning to show its age. 

The question now becomes this; do I buy myself an RX100 or hold onto my cash for the rumoured A77 replacement due early in 2016? The former neatly dodges the A-mount versus E-mount dilemma, which makes it an attractive option, but means that I'll have to keep the A77 for the foreseeable future, which is obviously a hardship.

Observation & Reflection

We're now onto my third week of attempts to photograph Clifton Suspension Bridge from the top of the gorge, and it was at this point that I finally found a good vantage point. This was near the Observatory, were this image was made.

A Bridge Too Far

My previous outing to Circular Walk had been a failure, so the following week I planning my trip more carefully. A bit of time spent on Street View identified the area next to the bridge, off Sion Hill as a likely spot to get some good images.

However, there were still problems. Even at the wide-angle end of my Tamron super-zoom, I still couldn't get the whole length of the bridge into a single image. This is one of the better shots from that trip, but I still hadn't got to the image that was in my head. 

Circular Reasoning

Having spent three weeks photographing the Clifton Suspension Bridge from below, and flushed with success, I decided to try my luck from the top of the gorge. 

My first attempt was from the vantage point along Circular Walk on Clifton Down, which was a failure. I'd forgotten about the high railings and the fact that you can't see the whole of the bridge, add to which it was very dark and cold. I didn't stay long, so this is one of the few images to come out of the session.

London, Aye

We were in London on Saturday. Having visited the London Eye, we walked up Victoria Street to the Apollo Theatre. On the way, I made a few images using my camera phone, having decided not to lug a DSLT around with me all day.

Blog, Interrupted.

Our phone line and internet connection have been down for a few days, hence the recent lack of posts.

Anyway, this is probably the final image from the Clifton Suspension Bridge set, and its a mess, but I like it nonetheless. The lines at the bottom of the frame are a cyclist riding through.

Bridge to the Past

Another image from my third trip to photograph the Clifton Suspension Bridge. This is of the tower on the north bank of the Avon.

Looking at these images has reminded me of the first time that I saw the bridge. Unusually, I can tell you what date that was – it was in March 1996. And I know this because that’s the date written on my Shodan (1^st degree black belt) certificate.

At the time, I was living in Stoke-on-Trent and training with Steve Hulson at the local karate club. In 1995, I’d graded a couple of times – the first attempt was a complete failure, but the second time I got kata only*. So, in early ’96, I needed to finish the job. The first scheduled grading was at Bath Uni and coincided with my fiancé’s birthday, but it was agreed that she would go to visit her mother in Swansea and that I would join her there after the grading.

It was also arranged that one of the black belts at the club, a Nidan call Pete – I really can’t remember his surname – would drive me down to the venue. My memory is that we didn't plan the route – Pete wasn't that sort of guy – so we followed signs. I any case, we must've driven down the M5 to junction 18 and then got onto the A4, rather than cutting across on the M4 which would have been the sensible option.

We had no idea that the A4 would take us under the bridge. We’d set off before dawn and the sun came up on a misty morning, so we didn't see it until we rounded a bend and there it was, right above us. I have a very strong memory of a “wow” moment, with this structure floating in the air above us, before we were past it and into the centre of Bristol. The next thing that I remember is being in Bath, near the station I think, and having to ask directions to the Uni.

I don’t have strong memories of the grading itself, but I passed. Pete shook my hand. He was a thoroughly nice chap who went well out of his way to help me, and I'm embarrassed that I can’t remember his surname. He dropped me at Bath station and I got the train over to Swansea, which took an age because the Severn tunnel was closed and the train had to go round via Gloucester. I remember that it was very cold on the train despite the fact that I was wearing several layers.

Anyway, this line of thought led me to reflect that at the time, I had no idea that I would one day live in the area and that, nearly twenty years on, these locations would be familiar to me. I don’t know what this proves, apart from the fact that you never really know where life will take you, which isn't a terribly profound observation, but true nonetheless.

*For those who aren't au fait with the structure of a karate grading, there are three elements – kihon (basics), kumite (fighting) and kata (set forms or patterns). So long as you pass kihon, you can fail one of the other two and be called back for that element only.

At the previous grading, which would have been in December ’95, I impressed Sensei Enoeda enough to give me a pass on kumite despite getting my nose broken and bleeding everywhere, but he decided to call me back for kata. This was a bit of surprise because I considered that to be my strong suit. Consequently, I saw the March grading as a bit of a formality, so I was keen to get on with it.

This contrasts with my experience grading for Nidan, were I got kumite only on my second attempt and then spent the next few years repeatedly failing that element, to the point where I gave up grading for a while and finally scraped a pass in March 2008.

Bridge That Gap

We're now on to the third Clifton Suspension Bridge session. I started with a doomed attempt to make some more images from the east side of the bridge, which I pretty soon abandoned and made my way over to the west.

As you can see, this particular evening was cloudy and there was a strong wind. If the previous occasions had been a bit chilly, then this time it was actually cold, in the brass monkeys sense.

Despite this, I managed to make a few decent images and this is probably my favourite. I'll post some of the others shortly.

Underneath the Arches

Another image made from my viewpoint directly underneath the Clifton Suspension Bridge on my second outing to photograph it. 

This one is looking at the northern buttress - unfortunately, the roof of the road tunnel has found its way into the frame, and there's no viable way of cropping it out. Plus, light from the traffic has fogged the image.

Still, the clear sky adds something, and I think the result is still worth posting.