Christmas 2 for 1

Two pictures this time of nothing particularly special taken from my "December misc" folder. The thing I love about autumn, as illustrated in these shots, is the skies you can get. When it isn't cloudy they are often crystal clear - at sunset giving a perfect transition from midnight blue in the East to orange in the West, or with a low sun illuminating things in a beautiful golden glow.

Top was from a Newcastle ramble over the central motorway A167(M) and town moor, long exposure with no tripod. Below shows on of my favorite things, a country eatery back home in Lancashire, with horses thrown in for good measure. I had fish and chips for my lunch there today :)

Homeward bound

Not taken any pictures recently and prob wont for a while, so i dug up this from my archives. Taken back in October on a very windy day, the RNLI lifeboat Spirit of Northumberland powers its way back to home to Tynemouth station, rounding South Shields pier. The wind was deceptively strong (id estimate force 8*), but being westerly it was coming off the land hence the low wave heights near shore. A look at the spray coming off the bow wave shows just how strong it was, whipping the water back, and out to sea plenty of white froth. When you consider the "7" class lifeboat is only 17m long (tiny when anything under 100m is classed as 'small craft' at uni) , its sea-keeping abilities are most impressive and design for the harshest weather possible are an amazing feat of naval architecture. One of my lecturers told us recently about how lifeboats were, at certain conditions, designed to be inherently unstable, which is what allows them to self right if they capsize - some seriously clever maths (who says it has no use) was scribbled on the board!

* Force 8, according to my lecture notes is

"moderately high waves of greater length, edge of crests begin to break into the spindrift. The foam is blown in well marked streaks along the direction of the wind - mean wind speed of 37 knots" (around 40mph)

Steel Grey

Apologies for slacking with the updates but ive been busy with serious school work and an "educational" trip to Holland. The latter was most interesting, seeing the world class MARIN research facilities , the unimaginably gargantuan Port of Rotterdam, and two nights in Amsterdam (one during an England away match). Despite this, the trip was pretty abysmal for photography, with it being banned for security and commercial reasons in the MARIN complex, and through a coach window at Rotterdam - also you cant take pics of the ladies in the red light district for those of you interested!

We went over on the Ferry (and got an engine room visit) from North shields to Ijmuiden courtesy of DFDS seaways on the King of Scandinavia which was great fun. The picture was taken approaching Holland in the morning, sailing towards the docks which have a large steel works alongside. To try and make the photo a bit more interesting and atmospheric ive converted the dull colours into a B+W photo on the comp. I have just realised its a month till christmas!

Bang!

Yesterdays explosive action in Geordie land! IS lens in action again..

Somewhere else?

Last weekend i had a trip out before my railcard expired - from now on most trips will be to the library. The pictures above were both taken from the train doin around 100mph (1/500 sec). As you can see the motorway sign has been paint shopped but i left the junction # ... so question is which motorway and whats the river to the left of it?

Sky High

The red arrows were at the Great north run a few weeks back (see previous post) and armed with the 100-300L i fired a few shots off. They were pretty hard to track and lack of USM focus slowed things down but a few shots pleased me. The display was certainley very impressive using the British Hawk jets. Apologies to those who have already seen the pics on fotopic, and those who havent, Enjoy....

Shutter 1/1000 and 1/640 @F8, ISO 200

Keep on running....

Ive been in Newcastle for 3 years yet Sunday was the first time I bothered getting out of bed to watch the Great North Run, which is apparently the largest half marathon (13 miles) in the world. The reasons for this were mostly because Steve and Ben* (G) were running in it, I wasn't hungover, it was sunny, half a mile away, and Si was going. It certainly provided something different to snap, masses of colour as seen in this shot with Nessie forging her way through the crowd. We got up on the northbound carriageway of the A167M central motorway - the sheer volume of the 40,000 ish crowd was impressive, especially as we only saw half of them - the rest passing underneath, dodging the p*ssers up top. In the end we went to South shields via the Tyne Ferry to the finish, where we waited for Steve. Getting home was certainly a mission, so if you end up in Tyneside when the run is on, beware!

Well done to Ben and Steve

Kitchen equipment...

Like me, im sure most of you have seen at least some of Red Dwarf (if not your missing out), and therefore are familiar with Lister's phrase. So imagine my joy when rambling the streets of Scarborough one cold day last November when i spotted the above sign outside a Kitchen shop. For Smeg is also a rather classy brand of Kitchen appliance (£725 + for a fridge), but youd just chuckle everytime you went for the milk if you thought of the cheekyScouser - since appearing on Robot Wars and Corrie. Anyway, the reason for the pic was ive just returned to uni (got on the internet now too) and it pretty much sums up my reaction to the impending workload i face. If i go quiet from now on you know why.....

*Pic taken with Pentax Optio S

Belfast Built

A long spell without posting again as i was in the often overlooked south-western part of Scotland - go north to the end of the M6, past Carlisle, over the Solway and turn left at Gretna. This was my last holiday for the foreseeable future (well until post degree anyway) and was a very relaxed affair. The weather came good towards the end so a trip to Corsewell point, north of Stranraer, to photograph the Marine engineering sights (ships) proved irrestible. Its an exposed location which on a clear day gives views up the Aryshire coast, to the Kintyre pensiular and Northern Ireland - look at the Map! . Note on the picture you can also see the Isle of Arran (far left) and the lump of rock that is Ailsa Craig (left).

5 ferries passed us as they plied their trade from Northern Ireland to Scotland (P&O with 2 ro-pax and one cat, Stena with the HSS and ferry), but the above was the oldest. The Stena Caledonia is seen here on the 8th September heading for Stranraer with the 11:00 sailing from Belfast. Built at Harland and Wolff yard in Belfast, (responsible for the infamous Titanic triplets) in 1981, she was one of 4 "sisters" - ro-ro ferries built for the old British Rail owned Sealink and originally called St David until 1991. Suffice to say she is the last now in UK waters as the others are dispersed around the med. Here are some pictures i found in dry-dock. Id copy the "tech-spec" but if your interested click.

A Canterbury Tale

Another trip down to Kent meant more exploring of the south-eastern tip of England. This time me and Jen made it to Canterbury (home city of Maddy who was kind enough to meet us). Being a Northerner it always suprises me how big Kent seems - on a map it doesnt really look that large but there is quite a lot to it and i still havent reached Margate or Dungeness. It can takes over an hour and a half to cover the 56 (ish) miles from London to Canterbury by train, which compared to the 188 miles from London to York covered in 1hour 5o seems painfully slow. Still its better progress than the pilgrims who use to walk, leading to Chaucer writing the famous "Canterbury tales" that are now a kind of interactive attraction in the pretty city centre. Above is the rather splendid Canterbury Cathedral, an old place of pilgrimage (thanks to Rob i cant ever take that word seriously anymore) since the murder of the priest Thomas Beckett here in 1170.

Inside i also took a picture of the roof utilising my new (to me) 17-85 f4-5.6 lense's Image stabilizing ability. For those interested in photography, the expected sucessor to my camera has been announced by Canon recently as the 400D. The differences dont seem huge, though it gains a few more megapixels, 2 more AF points, and more buffer to name some - Specs . In other news, hasnt the end of August, and hence virtually the start of Autumn come round bloody quickly?

Hard water

Had an excellent weekend at Steves 21st bash, which once again saw me in Knaresborough (see June) . This time i actually went in Mother Shiptons cave, for the bargain price of £0 thanks to Steve's friend (cheers). The main feature, apart from a picturesque river side setting and of course the cave where the illegitimate "witch" was born, is the above picture. This is the Petrifying well, which taking the literal meaning of petrify, turns things to stone. Many minerals in the water are to blame for this, which can turn an object left with the water running over it solid in 3 months. The array of dangling objects include hats, a lobster, teapot, mask and many teddies which i am informed are sold all over the world when hardened. The site has been attracting visitors since 1630, claiming to be the oldest tourist destination in England. If anyone wishes to see the pictures i took last weekend, i've made a gallery on fotopic, and also one of my Scotland holiday. Click!

1/25 [I.S] , F.8 , ISO 400

Military Might

Fort George from the sea showing defences

Interior of fort george showing barracks

Ive got to admit, this long summer is making me lazy. I cant even be arsed updating this much really - to be honest it does take longer than it looks if I want to include some interesting information. Anyway, I was lacking inspiration, so I thought ill try and do requests ... If you want me to put up or take a photo of anything thats a) legal [no little kids please!] and b) pratically attainable ill try my best. Just add your requests as a comment below - I may even already have something in my collection.

Due to a lack of recent updates ive given you 2 for 1. From the title you may guess there is a military theme, for this is Fort George which lies on the Moray Firth just east of Inverness. A few miles from the fort was the battlefield of Culloden, when in April 1746 the English army pretty much put an end to anymore Scottish Jacobite uprisings, in what was essentially, much like today, a religious dispute. Despite the decisive English victory, they had had enough, so as a permenant deterrent they decided to build a Huge fort in the heart of the Highlands. This was to be Fort George, an excellent piece of military design and engineering of the time to house 1600 soldiers, taking 21 years and a (today) cost of £1billion to finish. It worked, despite critics saying it never saw action, becasue surley thats the point of a deterrent? Its had many upgrades too as warfare has changed over the years from Napoleon era to the 1st and 2nd world wars and beyond, including the upgrading of guns with some Armstrong ( see "Art for Arts sake") kit. Although its suitablity to new roles has been debated, it was always considered an important stronghold.

Today you get in for the sum of £6.50. Whilst being able to walk all around the walls and some buildings, its most interesting as it still houses army facilities and staff, so you can see soldiers going about their business (smoking, pimping round in Clios, and playing loud music on the saturday afternoon i visited - much like castle leazes). Apparently you can also watch dolphins in the Moray, though i didnt see any.

Art for Arts sake?

This is a double bed .... in a Lake* - which apparently makes art, and an excuse for me to use a 10CC song as the title (excellent old band if youve ever heard of them). Its not a particuarly amazing shot in any respects, but it tickled me and ive done a zoom view- click here

* When i say lake, technically i should probably say reservoir, for this is at Cragside, Lord Armstrongs country house in Northumberland. Armstrong was a Victorian industrialist, famous in the north east of England for his factories on the Tyne. These engineering facilities turned out warships and heavy guns to name a few examples, later becoming Vickers- Armstrong and now eventually part of Rolls-Royce. For the uni people, Jesmond Dene in the Newcastle suburbs was donated by Armstrong to the working classes of the "toon" for them to enjoy. His house at Cragside was revolutionary in many respects, for the "lake" was part of his hydro electricty scheme (worlds 1st) - the whole house utilising water power. Mechanically to power a lift and kitchen and household equipment, and electrically to become the first electrically lit house in the world in 1878. Funny thing is, after all these years the house needs re-wiring, so its shut for 2 years while they do it, hence the random "art" around the estate to try and make up for it.

Highlands and Islands

Ive been to Scotland quite a lot, so its fair to say I like it. Many places are amazingly beautiful if your into the water/mountains + wild/rugged combo. You have the beaches of Arisaig and the Hebridies, the jagged skyline of Cullin ridge on Skye (not neighbours), the majesty of Torridon, or bleak expanse of the far far north. Personally i believe on a perfect day you would struggle to find anywhere in the world that could match it, be it some gippo country, the far-East, the Americas or Africa. Im not saying you shouldnt go to them (it keeps here quieter), or I wouldnt find something enjoyable to do. What i am saying is sometimes you can go a lot further for a lot less reward, to me it seems crazy to go half way around the world and not even know or appreciate whats on your own doorstep. The major flaw in all this however is the most British of subjects, the Weather. Yep, Scotland can be grim - 90% of the time its wind, rain, cloud, rain, snow, wind, and extra grey - with a few midges in summer. Get clear blue skies, sun, light breeze to keep the midges off and its a world beater - just dont bet on it if your going.

Anyway, picture is taken from the promenade at Rothesay, the only real town on the Isle of Bute. It shows the £8.5million Polish built ro-ro ferry, Mv Bute, heading back to the mainland for another boat load of holidaying Glaswegians. Caledonian Macbrayne run most ferry services on the Western coast of scotland, keeping the place alive. Last week the Queen hired the Hebridean princess for her 80th birthday, but this made me chuckle, when it seems someone got it mixed up with the modern Herbrides of cal-mac when they were organising it.

Enough ramble, here is the route of my trip:

Preston > M6> border > A75/6 > Wemyss Bay > ferry > Rothesay > ferry > Cowal pensiular > A886/8003 > ferry > Tarbet > A83 > Oban > ferry > Mull > ferry > Ardnamurchan > A861/830 > Arisaig > A830, A86, A9 > Fortrose (black isle) > A9, M9, M73, M74, M6 > Preston.

One O'clock Gun

This picture shows the north Edinburgh skyline, looking to the Firth of Forth and Kingdom of Fife beyond. Taken from high on the ramparts of the fiendlishly expensive Castle, at the bottom left is the famous gun, which is fired every day at 13:00 hours. The main street visible is Princes street, containing many of the capitals modern shops, and along with Geroge street which runs parallel, forms part of what is refered to as the "new town", built in the late 1700's. I went on this little jaunt back in June with Jen, but it seemed appropriate to include now as im off to the Scottish highlands for a week. Therefore dont expect any updates for a while!

Sunset this evening

I took this picture a few hours ago, on the Lancashire coast at Fleetwood. Unlike the East coast where I spend my uni days, the sun sets over the sea on the westside, far superior in my opinon as you dont have to get out of bed. We also have the vast Morecambe bay enclosed to the north by the Lakeland fells, visible on the right horizon, which with good weather can make a beautiful scene.

In the middle of the picture, although not really visible here, lies Barrow-In-Furness. This, along with Workington up the coast (which is home to a steel plant making railway rails - due to close this year), is one of Cumbrias few (ex?) Industrial towns, responsible for turning out some fine marine engineering - Submarines. I recently read that the land across the water above, Cumbria, would be one of the poorest areas in Europe if it wasnt for the tourist income generated by the Lakes.

To the Garden of England

Some of you may notice ive just edited this (passing through the big smoke), as im back from an excellent weekend in Kent, visiting my Kentish Maid. The county located in the very South East of England, is the 10th Largest county (area), or 7th by population of around 1.6 million. Its highest point stands at 823ft (Betsoms Hill), and much of the North Downs chalky ridge reachs around 600ft. Its title of "garden of england" is due to the farming influence, in the form of many orchards, fields of crops, livestock, vineyards, and not forgetting hops, essential for fine Kentish Ale - visible by many pretty oast houses in the countryside used for processing the crop.

The picture above is looking South from the North Downs towards the village of West Malling and Kings Hill in the distance (left) , until recently site of a former air field seeing major activity in WWII. Nestling away behind fields and hedges the M20 crosses the picture horizontally, as does the Ashford - Otford railway line.

Time travel?

This picture shows another of my recent trips . . . back to 1913. Yes, for it is possible at the North of England open air museum, aka Beamish (opened 1971) . Here, in the countryside not far from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, are 300 acres of various times and places in Industrial Northern England's past. The above shows a recreation of a 1913 town, with high street (all shops present), bank, park, pub, garage, terrace housing, tramway (visible) and masonic house! The inside of the buldings have been recreated and furnished too, then you are free to explore talking to actors dressed up in period costume to learn about life back then.

There is also a 1913 pit village and mine, a short antique bus ride away, where you can descend into a drift mine or visit a school and church. If thats not enough there is an old railway station (moved in whole and re-built from its 1867 site at Rowley), a farm, Victorian era country manor house, and mock up of a pioneering steam wagonway.

The museum is well worth a visit and despite being quite expensive, it is a whole day out to see everything, and £3million annual running costs have to be found somewhere.

Bonjourno!

Im back from a week of relaxation on the shores of Lake Maggiore, above. As may be expected from a week in such a picturesque location, i managed to take a fair few pictures, which made the task of selecting one for here very hard.

The picture shows 2 of the 3 Borromean Islands in lake Maggiore, and the resort I was stayin at Baveno, to the far left. The nearest is beautiful isle, containing an impressive palace and gardens built in the 15th century, and then the "fishermans island", or Isola Superiore, population of around 200. Also note one of the boats of the state run "navigazione di maggiore", which ply the lake continously during the day with an interestingly varied range of vessels.

Ive now made a whole gallery of my favourite shots from this holiday on fotopic (click). Enjoy

Welcome home...

Im back in Preston (for another 6 hours - im off on holiday for a week), and upon my return noticed the "development" of Sharoe Green Hospital was continuing apace. The above picture shows it on the 10th April, with plenty of smashed windows that can be seen on this closer shot. The demolition has been on the cards for nearly 2 years now, it shut the first week of September 2004 when i was still working at RPH, and it used to accomodate maternity, obbs and gynae, old people and some other stuff. It should be pointed out that my self and the Master of Salt none the less were born in this very building in the Thatcher years, as im sure were some of my Preston friends. All services were moved to a new building on the RPH site, Preston going from 3 hospitals (4 including the Asylum) to 1 in under 20 years. Anyway, suffice to say the site is now rubble awaiting houses. Ill take a picture of it when im back from holiday, but if you cant wait, Graham took some pictures of it being pulled down when i was at uni, and this random bloke went on some "UrBeX" here - reccomended.

Sundown in Knaresborough

We have been having an excellent spell of weather over the last week or so, and last saturday evening i made it to a rather calm and picturesque Knaresborough. Home town of Steve, its most famous for Mother Shipton , the "Yorkshire witch", born here in a cave during a storm in 1488. Visitors to the cave can see the "petrifying well" which turns objects left in the water into stone due to high calcium deposits. It is also home to Englands oldest chemist, opened in 1720. The picture shows rowing boats laid up for the night on the River Nidd, responisble for forming a deep gorge through the area.

Crossing the border

On Firday i shot up to Berwick-Upon-Tweed before work, on what turned out to be a beautiful day. Using the 100-300 mm lense i snapped a Scotland bound GNER express crossing the Royal Border bridge. I will come back to the bridge on a latter date, but also of interest is the train visible. These were the last of BR designed coaches, Mk4's , built for the East coast main line electrification. Constructed in Birmingham by Metro-Cammel* from 1989-1991, they were built for 140Mph running, with future-proofing tilt profiles, and are still one of the most comfortable trains in the country. They are also highly regarded for their strength and crashworthiness, due to excellent (British) engineering. This was demonstrated by the number of casulaties at both the Selby and Hatfield rail crashes, considering the trains were travelling at around 120mph - imagine a road accident at half that speed without seat belts.

*The more observent of the uni people may notice that the Metro-Cammel works also made the Tyne and Wear metro trains (look on the floor when you board). The company was bought by Alsthom in the 1990s, who now are seriously in debt (cue French government handouts). The factory shut last year (after making the new virgin tilting trains), and with the Preston factory now running a skeleton staff is another nail in the coffin for British manufactuing (if any more were needed).

Steep Hill

Tuesdays adventures took me to Lincoln, where the above picture of the aptly named "Steep Hill" street was taken. Just visible on the left skyline is the impressive cathedral that sits on top of the hill - its quite a pull from the station. Lincoln grew from a Roman town, a fort being built when they arrived in 48AD, and now has a population of 86,000.

A bridge too far?

I was meaning to cross the Humber bridge by foot in October when i visited Yates, but the weather was atrocious so it was put on the "to do" list. Ive been out and about this weekend as ive finished exams, so on Saturday thought id have a go. Unfortunatley the weather was very cloudy and the Humber was very muddy, so I didnt get the good pictures I could have done with blue sky and fluffy clouds. Still i made it to the other side with no problems and back via Cleethorpes.

Although the "Humber Bridge act" of parliment was passed in 1959, construction wasnt started until 1973, 12 years being taken to secure some government funding. It opened 8 years and £98million after that, in 1981, although due to loans will still be in debt until 2032! It Has a single span of 0.9 miles (total length 1.38 miles), which was the longest of its type in the world until 1997. It offers what would be excellent views of Hull and North Lincolnshire on a clear day.

The 1st picture > > > tulips

This is a colourful picture of a bunch of red tulips taken in my back garden (Preston), and is the 1st of what will hopefully be many pictures added here. Every few days (maybe a day or week depending on "things") or so i intend to add a different picture, covering many different topics of interest to myself, including landscapes, creatures, engineering interest, moving things (boats, trains, cars, etc), people, urban scenes, and generally anything else that i fancy taking or is a good photo.
Each picture can be enlarged by clicking it, or viewed on my Fotopic site where they are uploaded. Most will be taken with my new camera. I will also include technical information of settings and lenses if of note. Images have been resized (usually 1024*768 seems best), and many will have had minor editing. using paint shop. Finally, enjoy the pictures.
Dave