Andy – Page 22 – Mechanical Landscapes

#471 – The View From The North 10 Year Retrospective – Book Now Available

In 2007, I decided to create a website. I can’t remember why, but it must have seemed like a good idea at the time. I’ve never looked back. To celebrate the first ten years, I’ve pulled together a book of some of my favourite images. Truth be told, I’d have liked to include a lot…

#470 – Best of 2016 part 3

So a (belated) third part to my 2016 retrospective continues with a quick look at Mutual Mills in Heywood – not an explore, more a drive by as I was in the area. I’ve a few more from the Manchester area that I’ve not yet got round to posting up – I’ll put these up some…

#468 – Best of 2016 part 1

So, it’s a few years since I did this, but as 2016 has been a productive year photographically, I think it’s time for a retrospective. I guess it’s down to the fact that over the past few years I’ve been busy with my career and family has meant that taking photographs has not been a…

#467 – Return to Grove Rake 2

Something I found on the photographs from last time was that they suffered from the lack of dynamic range of the sensor in my Nikon D70. I did bracket many of the images but not all, and consequently, some of the images were technically lacking, but I like to think I captured the spirit…

#469 – Best of 2016 Part 2

The early year tour of mills in monochrome, came to a shuddering halt when I was approached by a PR company to do an urbex style shoot using the new Samsung Galaxy S7. London Road Fire Station in Manchester was the first location, a magnificent late Victorian building that was last used in the 90’s,…

#466 – Return to Grove Rake 1

I rarely return to places I’ve explored, primarily because they tend to be demolished, regenerated or burnt down in the time that follows my visit. I made an exception this week to revisit Grove Rake Mine on the windswept wastes of County Durham, a place I previously explored in November 2008. The place was as…

#465 – Shadows of the North Second Edition now on sale!!

I am pleased to announce that having sold out the first run of Shadows of The North, I have produced an expanded second edition, with many new photographs from 2016 including Brierfield Mill, Hope Mill, Ancoats and several others. I’ve also had a shuffle round of the existing images. The book is now 94 pages…

#464 – Shipbreaking in Morecambe

Quite how I came across the fact that Morecambe was once a major shipbreaking port is unclear. I think it was through researching something vaguely related but several steps later I stumbled across it somewhere en route. Either way, there’s not a whole lot of information on the net, but I found out that a book…

#463 – English Fine Cottons – a tour of Tower Mill

If, on the off-chance you’re a regular reader of this blog, you might recall me mentioning on a number of occasions that the only things made in Manchester these days are cornflakes and Coronation Street. I’m only half joking here – large scale manufacturing has been decimated while new industries such as media have prospered….

#462 – Mechanical Landscapes Website Relaunch

So after two years of wrestling with my Zenfolio hosted http://www.mechanicallandscapes.com, I’ve ditched it and moved to Squarespace. While I can’t fault Zenfolio’s customisation options, it drove me round the twist sometimes, and despite doing everything recommended on the SEO front, traffic was next to nothing. So I’ve cut my losses and built a much simpler site…