Arnos Vale, September 2020

Making the most of some time off work in September, combined with a relatively relaxed period of lockdown, I met a friend for a socially-distanced wander around Arnos Vale. It's been tidied up a lot since I first went there back in 2003, but there are still large areas that are heavily overgrown - it's a fascinating place, well worth a visit. The square ones here were taken on the Hasselblad, with Ilford XP2 film....
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Aust, January 2020

We had a particularly frosty Saturday night during January, so I thought I'd head down to Aust to see how it looked. The biggest surprise was that it actually looked very different - they'd knocked down the old ticket office, leaving just a wall and the turnstile.A bit of research shows that South Gloucestershire Council had consulted on, and approved, some changes to make the site safer and more secure, and to discourage some anti-social behaviour.There are more changes to come, but hopefully I'll still be able to access the site and take more photos. Back to the visit - the frost was pretty spectacular, and while I was there the sun started to burn it off....
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France 2019

We'd been to the same gite in SW France for the last 4 holidays, but this time we booked late and it wasn't available. The one we went for this time was a bit more expensive, but absolutely lovely - and huge for the two of us, given that it can accommodate 16 people!The gite was booked via Halcyon Leisure - we've booked with them since 2000. We really didn't do very much at all - I took a couple of trips out to take photos in Fumel and at Chateau Bonaguil, but that was about it apart from going out to buy food and wine. The first set of photos are from the gite, with a couple from one of the trips out. The second set are images of the sky.Disappointingly we didn't have many good sunsets at all - just in the last half of the second week. Mind you, the main reason for the lack of them was because there...
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Bristol 2019

I'm lucky enough to work by the Harbourside in Bristol, which does make for some nice lunchtime walks - this is the sort of thing that I tend to post on Instagram (@shendy42), so quite a few of these are taken on my phone. Here's a selection of photos I took around the Harbourside area during 2019. Some of these are taken on film, from when I was testing my dad's Pentax cameras.The first section were taken at the Underfall Yard, and there's also quite a few images from Cumberland Basin which is another place I keep going back to as it's got the gritty concrete look I like. But I don't only photograph the harbourside - I do see other bits of Bristol....
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Exmouth Boat Trip, August 2019

At the start of August I headed down to Exmouth for the annual naturist boat trip up the River Exe. I've done this quite a few times now, and always still find something slightly different to photograph.We were fortunate with the tides this year, as we were able to go right up as far as the Princess Weir bridge - as far as the boat is able to go - rather than turning round just after Topsham. The day after, I took a trip to the Devon Sculpture Park - I don't think it's been open that long, as I'd not come across it before. As the crow flies it wasn't far from Exmouth (you could probably actually see if from where I was staying), but I had to drive all the way up to Exmouth and back down the other side of the estuary to get there - and then it takes a bit of finding as it's well out of...
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