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Category Archives: photos
Scenic Decay in Havana.
I’ve been looking through some of my less immediately loved photos from Cuba. There’s always a subconscious hierarchy to a big batch of photos from a trip, there are the ones which you fall in love with at the time, they just look so good on the screen that you instinctively know that they will make fabulous prints. When you get home and see them all on the big computer screen, there are dozens which thrill straight away, all they need is a bit of a tweak and polish and they’re ready to go – all those happy memories in a perfectly saleable print-sized bundle. Then when the first enthusiasm has worn off and other shoots have moved to the top of the list, you pop back to resize something every so often and in a bored moment, you scroll through to remind you of the blaze of colour and the mojito flavoured views and there are always some images which you somehow missed before. And when you’ve done all that, when you’re feeling very dull you might start at the beginning and go through one by one to see what you’ve missed, if your eye has changed something will pop out which didn’t previously. That’s what happened today. I’ve rediscovered two photos which have been passed over countless times and have now left the Lightroom Catalogue to see the light of day.
So, here are my new Scenic Decay in Havana pictures.
First a glamorous streak of slightly battered Art Deco style vintage American automobile cropped tightly as to be almost abstract. This one is in my Etsy shop here in a variety of sizes and finishes.
Next is this battered staircase in the entrance to a residential building in Havana. It has undoubtedly seen far better days, but there’s always something charming in decay……
Find the print here.
Underground Walking Tours Photos
My Underground Walking Tours photos which I shot way back in freezing cold February have finally gone live and been published! They’re in two publications, the first is The Guide, the national trade magazine for the Institute of Tourist Guiding and features my pictures of Sue Grimditch of New Manchester Tours in the massive underground spaces below the Great Northern Warehouse in the city centre. The underground pictures were really tricky as there was limited time as the people on the tour were real-life fee paying customers and Sue didn’t want me monopolising them for photographs when they wanted to be getting their facts about the subterranean life of the city, it was also pretty much pitch black once we left the big space in the photo below and I didn’t have any lights with me, but the customers did have torches with them so they did the trick for the picture at the bottom of the second page. Worst of all though was the way my camera and lenses steamed up as soon as they reached the damp and steamy climate down the long metal staircase so precious time was wasted as I rather hysterically waited for my kit to become usable! So all things considered, I think they turned out rather well!
The second pictures are of Ed Glinert and his group, shot on the same day as Sue’s pictures above. The magazine picked my favourite picture of the day which was in a brick strewn corridor leading from the large lit space (in Sue’s picture above) into a rather mysterious area with small enclosures and some moody lights. It was shot on a tripod for quite a while as it was actually much darker than the picture suggests, the people in the picture must have been pretty still, perhaps taking some photos themselves? I think it captures the atmosphere of the location well.
The pictures of Ed are in the MCR11 Magazine which you can see here.
Manchester Streetart Finds
It was pretty much the first day of decent weather here in Manchester yesterday and it was a pleasure to wander the Northern Quarter and environs without hunching and huddling from the bitter wind.
While not a prizewinning day for photos I did find a few little street treats worth snapping. Here they are:
Tagged graffiti, manchester, streetart
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and then they were gone…..
Photographed at The Lowry Centre in Salford.
Tagged Lowry Centre, manchester, Salford
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Photographers Photographed.
While we were in Crete back in June we stayed at a small seaside village called Plaka, a nice but largely unremarkable place on the North coast apart from it’s nearness to the exclusive hotels at the beautiful Elounda Bay (I am a sucker for exclusive hotels, even if I don’t actually stay in them!) and the historically fascinating island of Spinalonga. Spinalonga is best known for being a leper colony from 1903 until 1957 where a full and functioning town was built with stone houses, churches, streets of shops and hospital and by all accounts the residents had a good life there. The colony is now somewhat ruined, there have been renovations but the majority of the island is a very scenic ruin with Venetian fortifications which are impressive as they are ancient. I confess, unashamedly, to being a terrible snob when it comes to mass tourism and generally like avoid the busiest destinations as I really don’t want to share them with thousands of others, they get in the way, look horrible and spoil my photos – I really don’t like people in my photos. But we headed to Spinalnoga anyway, it was too close to where we were staying and looked too interesting from the shore and pretty when lit up at night not to have a look around.
It was already baking hot by the time we arrived at 10ish in the morning, and not too busy. It’s a fascinating place especially as there was an interesting island wide art exhibition by Greek artist Costas Tsoklis, called ‘You, the last leper‘ involving in-situ music and interesting use of mirrors in unexpected places. We wandered the dusty streets getting hotter and hotter as the crowds grew larger and noisier with tour guide thundering down the narrow rough streets blocking all view and getting in the way. I gave up trying to take nice artistic picture fairly early on and was just enjoying the view when I started to notice the outrageous posing going on. Girlfriends posing on walls and rocks, hips jutting and lips pouting looking adoringly at their men folk who were dutifully snapping away, groups posing en-mass, couples taking photos of themselves with swivelly lenses.
I stated to take photos of the posers and their photographers which kept me very happily amused for the remainder of our visit and I think I came away with an unusual set of pictures. It’s a project which I’d like to continue, but as I mentioned in the beginning of this post, I really don’t like to be in the busy places which means that this type of image is hard to come by, and one good use of a crowd is that the sneaky photographer remains nicely hidden. Perhaps I’ll have to change my itinerary on future trips and go to the big and busy monuments to see if I get lucky again.
Iyengar Yoga Photos
I recently took some pictures for the iYoga centre in South Manchester, a brand new fully fitted and kitted custom made Iyengar yoga studio run by teacher Carolyn Ferguson. I took photos of the studio space without students, of Carolyn in some key poses and then during one of her regular evening classes. I was very pleased with the results – the studio looks large and light and the students were equally photogenic and they put up with me pointed my camera at them with very good humour. I don’t think I’d too thrilled to be photographed in a variety of asanas! As a trainee Iyengar Yoga teacher I found it fascinating to observe a class from the sidelines. It was a totally different experience for me to observe a very mixed class (there was one total beginner, a few recent pupils and a few more experienced students) and to see how they responded to the teacher’s instructions and for me to see how the teacher responded to their poses and how they were corrected either by hands on repositioning or by explaining the position in a slightly different way. All good experience for my training!
Here are some of the photos I took:
There’s an open day on August 18th when you’ll be able to chat to Carolyn and the other teachers and have a go at an Iyengar yoga class and I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get to it and enjoy the lovely space myelf – read all about it here!
Tagged yoga
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Wild Wales
We were in Wales this weekend for two reasons, first it was my dad’s birthday and instead of doing our normal thing in Manchester, we decided to spirit him away to Anglesey with the intention of eating vast quantities of Welsh black beef. The plan did work, but with a few changes. When we called our chum on Anglesey to invite ourselves over he informed us that Friday night would be the opening of his latest exhibition – Paint and Plastic at Rhyl Library we headed to Wales a day early for a bit of artistic inspiration! The show was fantastic, we’ve been fans of Wil’s art for a long time and have a couple or his paintings and my mum has a smattering of them too. It was great to see the epic collection of plastic lighters which were all found on the beaches of Anglesey being shown to the world and even though the lighters on show was a fraction of the total collection they made a real impact as you can see here:
From the gallery in Rhyl, we drove to Menai Bridge for a splendid supper at an impressive new restaurant right on the water with fantastic views called Dylans where we made a satisfyingly rowdy party of about 30 – fabulous food (crab and then mackerel for me) then lots of goodbyes and another drive to our rather rubbish hotel in Cemaes Bay.
The following morning we went to our friend’s house where I took a nice new batch of photos in his studio which is one of my favorite places to photograph – my aim was to get enough decent pics to fill up a good number of slots in my 2013 Artist’s Studio Calendar – I’m very pleased with the results!
A selection of these colourful pictures will be showing up in my Etsy and Folksy shops soon!
Tagged artists studio
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Gracie’s Butty Bar
I have been missing my Roadside Cafes project as I stopped taking my ‘proper’ camera and wide lens out with me as it became a bit if a hassle and then I just sort of forgot about the whole thing. Until today when we stopped for a cuppa at a van in Wolstanton near Stoke en route to measure two warehouses and I decided to take the picture with my iPhone and my trusty Loftus lens and film combo and was very pleased with the result. The wide lens meant that I had to risk my life by standing in the middle of the road, but I survived to tell the tale!
Last day of holiday.
Our week in Crete is almost over…..Luckily though we have a late flight home so we have plenty of time for a last leisurely swim in the beautiful sea. Here are a few more photos:
In Crete!
We’ve been in Crete for a few days and having a splendid time. We started off in the big town of Heraklion and yesterday drove south through very big scenery to end up on the coast in the little hippy village of Malata which was fab and we had a delicious lunch, then a short drive to Kalamaki. Heading east to Myrtos in a bit.
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