Friday 30th December 2011

While travelling between our hotel in Schlitters and the resort at Kaltenbach on the train, we noticed that every town had a church of very similar design. Up close, they were more individual, this one (in Schlitters) sporting a full height mural. This web page gives some more information, saying it's "the parish church of Schlitters, dedicated to St. Martinus. Constructed in 1740 AD in Baroque style, the interior primarily strikes due to wall and ceiling paintings by Josef Anton Mayr". I like this photo because of the angles, and because I got all the settings and composition as I wanted it first go, just the one snap. Which is a good thing too, as it was snowing on the lens!

18mm, 30s, f/13, ISO 200

Our reason for being in the town was to enjoy some local fireworks. Apparently Austrians quite often celebrate the New Year locally on the 30th before their big celebration on the 31st, and the fireworks were pretty spectacular.

18mm, 10s, f/22, ISO 100

Thursday 15th December 2011

1980s wallpaper and 1890s flooring, in the derelict Oakhurst House, Ambergate.

18mm, 1/40s, f/4.5, ISO 400

Sunday 11th December 2011

Stained glass in Penkhull.

119mm, 1/4s, f/5.6, ISO 400

Friday 18th November 2011

The impressive Falcon Manor hotel in Settle, Yorkshire Dales.

20mm, 13s, f/8, ISO 200

Thursday 10th November 2011

I made it back up to the colliery tonight (see yesterday), but with a friend so that I wouldn't get scared off by any hissing noises (there was still much hissing, but I realised it was probably owls). This photo represents various things I've been working on, one being the colliery (see previous photos here and here), and one being a silhouette of a person (which I keep trying down a cave, and failing on). This is one shot, no HDR, just with a bit of 'dodging' in photoshop. I think it looks a little un-real, which I really like about it.

20mm, 30s, f/10, ISO 400

Wednesday 9th November 2011

Tonight I thought I'd try a photo I've been want to take for a while, and walk up to the colliery. Trouble is I got spooked by some hissing noises before I got to my photo spot, and retreated. Instead I went for a different photo that was long overdue - Burslem town hall. This is a very impressive building built between 1854 and 1857. It was superseded as town hall in 1911 by a different building behind it. The novelist Arnold Bennett often mentioned it and referred to the gold angel on top.

18mm, 15s, f/10, ISO 200

Thursday 3rd November 2011

I am told this is the old 'Home & Colonial' store in Stoke. I don't know what it is now, or why it is lit up at night, but it's quite a nice feature.

155mm, 8s, f/8, ISO 200

Tuesday 25th October 2011

This is the town I work in, Tunstall, taken from the town I first lived in when I moved to Stoke-on-Trent, Burslem. This is a view that I theoretically see pretty often but while passing down this street your eye can see so much more and usually focusses on the road. When driving today I noticed how many of the nice buildings I could see in the distance so pulled over to see if my 270mm lens could get close enough in. It did, and the parts I wanted to capture pleasingly filled the whole frame, giving a different perspective to the one I usually see. Instead of trying to get round the street lights and the foreground houses, they actually made a more rounded image.

169mm, 1/100s, f/8, ISO 100

Thursday 20th October 2011

The composition isn't right on this photo, but it was a lovely building and the picture I had in mind didn't work, so this is what I was left with.

46mm, 1/80s, f/8, ISO 200

Wednesday 19th October 2011

This is Victoria Hall in Stoke, venue for various performances and concerts. It is VERY colourfully lit, with the lights on a scrolling cycle of various modes. This was the most garish and I was pleased I managed to capture it before it changed despite the 6 second exposure. This isn't really a hard photo to take, but I think it was worth capturing!

20mm, 6s, f/8, ISO 200

Tuesday 11th October 2011

This is The Crescent in Buxton, originally a Georgian spa developed in the 18th Century by the Duke of Devonshire using his mining profits and modelled on ones in Bath. It has been empty several years but is being restored with the help of lottery funding.

18mm, 15s, f/11, ISO 400

Monday 19th September 2011

Reading town hall. I MUST have walked past this when I lived locally but now I walk around with a photographer's eyes, I notice many things that I never did before. It was quite striking, and although I got a couple of shots of the whole building, I prefer this one of the windows.

19mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 800

Wednesday 14th September 2011

This was interesting - trying to take get the white balance right on a pink building lit by orange lights at night. In some ways a success and some ways a failure. The colours absorbe (or reflected?) the light meaning the pink lost its pinkness - so this is accurate to how the building looked at night, but not at all the colour it looks in the day.

I've passed this building countless times in the 5 years I've lived in Stoke, and have always been curious about it. It's pink - both pale and darker - which seems modern but the paint is decaying and it looks like it's been that way forever. The tablet at the top says 'Bethel Chapel 1824', so I looked it up. It was built as a methodist chapel to seat 1000 worshippers, one of 7 (plus 2 churches) in Burslem. Burslem only had a population of 12,000 but they were enthusiastically religious. The wings contained school rooms and the preacher's house, the facade was originally brick but was later stuccoed, and left and right wings were added in 1875. It's now used as warehouse storage.

18mm, 4s, f/8, ISO 250

For the chap that stopped in his car to have a chat, I said I'd put the photo of you up and here it is! For a better example of my photography see the photos page.

Thursday 8th September 2011

Another church, this is Parish Church of St. Mark in Newcastle-under-Lyme. I like the mixture of colours and interesting lighting.

10mm, 20s, f/11, ISO 200

Tuesday 6th September 2011

Unfortunately I haven't quite got used to the Fujifilm SLR yet and for a couple of days I didn't realise it was on manual focus. So as a result this photo is blurred, although I've corrected it a little in photoshop. This is the Minster Church of St Peter ad Vincula, in Stoke, Stoke-onTrent. I'm not religious but I do find churches appealing.

14mm, 13s, f/11, ISO 250

Thursday 1st September 2011

Some rivets and a letterbox on a big old door in Cirencester. The edges are exactly lined up but it still feels oddly crooked to me, I think someone put the rivets in squiffy.

6.1mm, 1/200s, f/3.2. (auto)

Friday 26th August 2011

I was rushing from Glasgow Buchanan bus station to Glasgow Queen Street train station when I took this, but I'd seen the feature when we pass it a few moments early on the bus and I thought it was cool. It was unexpectedly extravagant too, being on the side of a car park.

10.8mm, 1/60s, f/4.5. (auto)

Thursday 25th August 2011

On my way home from work today I went for a stroll down the canal from Westport Lake towards the Middleport Pottery. I've been meaning to take a photo of this for a while, and thought it might be easier with the wide angle lens - which it was. It's still in use now, although from this side it looks rather ramshackle. The pottery is currently owned by Denby but for the most significant stretch of its existence it was the Burgess & Leigh pottery. You can read more about its history here.

12mm, 1/160s, f/4.5, ISO 320

Thursday 18th August 2011

Another thing I can do with the Ixus is continue with a theme I started early on in the year. Two themes in fact - highlight some of the cool buildings in Stoke, and do a series of photos of Stoke sub-stations, since most of those are in cool buildings with cool brickwork. I've taken photos of this one before but wasn't happy with them. This one is better, but having reviewed what I took I also know what I'd do if I returned. Which I may, I just love the intricate patterns and the variety of tiles and bricks!

4.6mm, 1/125s, f/2.8. (auto)

Monday 13th June 2011

A viaduct I spotted a couple of years ago on the way to the climbing wall - at the time it was catching the glow from the sunset on each of the arches. Despite arriving in the 'golden hour', this isn't the photo I went for (it's taken from the side that the sun was hitting for a start, the opposite side to the one seen from the road), but I forgot my tripod so I was restricted to where I could balance the camera!

141mm, 1/6s, f/16, ISO 100