Tag: Urban Exploration
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#528 – Old Negative Scans Part 8 – Huncoat Power Station
I made a few trips to Huncoat Power Station, as it was dead easy to explore and only about 30 minutes drive away. The first trip I primarily shot colour film (which I’ve not re-scanned yet, but my original scans from 10 or so years ago are here) and just a few black and white…
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#445 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – London Road Fire Station, Manchester – 3
Final selection from London Road. Not much else to say really that I haven’t already said. A word or two about the phone – yes, I was being paid to shoot these photographs, but that aside, I was very impressed. The HDR mode was immensely useful in these high contrast conditions, and the screen was fabulous.…
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#444 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – London Road Fire Station, Manchester – 2
London road fire station is an amazing site, arguably well ahead of its time in that it was a multi purpose building featuring a fire station (plus accommodation), ambulance station, bank and a coroners court in one large triangular site in the heart of the city. It served as a fire station until the 1970’s…
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#403 – Pen-yr-Orsedd Quarry Part 3
Winding engine (I think) in one of the sheds. Just a few more random ones from the visit. It was good to have some expert accompaniment on the visit, so thanks again to Iain Robinson for spending a good part of the day with me as he’s very knowledgeable on the local quarry industry and…
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#402 – Pen-yr-Orsedd Quarry Part 2
While I’m not a frequent visitor to North Wales, I have visited at least annually over the past ten years, and had experienced only one sunny day in that time. So I was pleasantly surprised to experience the area when it wasn’t smothered in cloud, fog and rain. Photographically, this represented a departure from me for two…
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#385 – theviewfromthenorth.org updates
I first launched theviewfromthenorth.org in 2007, and while new content is only added infrequently at the moment, I do periodically tidy things up a bit. Part of the problem is its size – there are over 60 galleries and nearly 1000 pictures, all processed with varying degrees of skill and attention to detail over the…
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#310 – Mechanical Engineering 1
I trained as a mechanical engineer, and I still love the fact that you can see what’s happening with mechanical devices. Of course some pieces of mechanical machinery are incredibly complicated, but motions, cams and flywheels are infinitely more interesting, visually at least, than the PLC’s used on modern machinery. I had to laugh when a metal spinner, a dark…
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#303 – Ivy Bank – Shadows of Change
I love these long shadows! Like something out of scooby doo where the haunted house becomes alive and the windows become eyes. Backlighting (centre jour) can do interesting things, and this was taken on an April morning, when the sun was still low in the sky.
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#302 – Loom Of Doom
In the corner of the top floor of Bailey Mill, sat this, one of the last looms produced by the Dobcross loom company in nearby Diggle. The loom industry used to be huge, with the likes of British Northrop in Blackburn employing 3000 people at their massive site in Blackburn. But with the rapid decline of…
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#293 – Re-visiting photos 2
More reworked photos! These are from Edenwood Mill, which if still standing, must be a pile of soggy wood and rubble as it was in a right state back in 2008. This one hasn’t really benefitted much from the monochrome conversion compared to some, but the lens corrections have slightly improved things. The next…
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#261 – Cheadle Bleachworks
For reasons that are, at best unclear, and at worse, downright weird, I have this thing about industrial ruins. Not so ruined that you can’t tell what it was, but ruined enough to be beyond repair. Proper mongy old crap – roofs caved in, doors hanging off and such like. They’re usually quick to explore…
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#144 – Book Review – Henk van Rensbergens Abandoned Places 2
After months waiting for the book to arrive (I ordered it in June), Amazon have finally delivered my copy of Henk van Rensbergens new book, Abandoned Places II. Ok, so the title lacks a bit of imagination, but in fairness Abandoned Places is the name of his website, and the photographs definitely don’t lack imagination, and…
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#132 – Mechanical Landscapes book finished!
Finally, after months of sorting, editing, writing, and goodness know what else, I’ve finally finished my book ‘Mechanical Landscapes’ and sent it off to Blurb for printing. You’d have thought it would be straightforward to just put a load of photos in a book, and if that’s all you’re doing, then yes it is. But…
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#110 – Grown Up Scalextric – One Way
I quickly got bored of photographing tarmac. I can do that in my street outside my house, so I looked for things that made this place unique. There weren’t too many, but there one or two things that made it interesting.
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#108 – Grown Up Scalextric – Armco
I used to have a Scalextric when I was younger, complete with banked corners, cross-overs and all sorts. At around that time, this place was in full swing, testing trucks from the production lines at the nearby Leyland Motors Works. Since then, the place has gone into an irreversible decline, and like pretty much all of…
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#30 – Inside Looking Out (4)
Grove Rake Mine. A great photographic composition technique is known as ‘framing’, that is having the main subject of your photograph within something else, such as an arch or a window. It’s something I look to use when I explore old buildings, sometimes like this, or sometimes just whatever happens to be out of the…
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#28 – Inside Looking Out (2)
Three Windows. Sometimes, things in three’s just work better. I’m sure there’s a link between the composition of this picture and that rule of thirds thing.
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#27 – Inside Looking Out (1)
Prestolite. One of the few times I’ve had any success with a single image HDR. I still think it’s a bit overdone though, just haven’t got round to going back and toning it down.
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#14 – Book Review – Henk van Rensbergern’s “Abandoned Places”
Although this book was only published in 2008, it is now out of print and copies were recently selling for £60+ on Amazon! I’m glad I got mine when I did and am kicking myself for not buying several copies now!! The format of this book is superb, with each of the places visited having…
Mechanical Landscapes 