Bristol 2019

By shendyNo Comments
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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Quenington Fresh Air Sculpture, June 2019

By shendyNo Comments
Back in June we made our second visit to the Fresh Air Sculpture exhibition at Quenington in Gloucestershire - held every other year. It's held in the large (and lovely) grounds of the Old Rectory, with modern sculpture works spread all around - as well as some lovely art, it's also a really nice place to simply wander around. We'll definitely be back there in 2021...
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Bristol Aerospace Museum – May 2019

By shendyNo Comments
A few shots from our first trip to the Bristol Aerospace Museum - we'd been to see Concorde when it was on display out in the open, back in 2009 (see Previous Concorde post). Lots of really interesting exhibits to see, plus of course the incomparable Concorde - now safely under cover.Plus of course a few photos of the area - I'm a sucker for warehouses and suchlike. See also http://www.shendy.co.uk/2019/03/concorde-2/ - photos from when that Concorde last landed in Bristol....
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Cumberland Basin and Scouring

By shendyNo Comments
Note for those unfamiliar with Bristol: Cumberland Basin is the bit of the Bristol harbour system that sits between the Floating Harbour (where the historical docks are/were) and the tidal River Avon that heads out under Clifton Suspension Bridge and into the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth (where the modern docks are). This is not the same Avon as Stratford-upon-Avon - that joins the Severn at Tewkesbury. Cumberland Basin normally looks like this. A few weeks ago someone at work mentioned that Cumberland Basin was empty, which sounded unusual so I quickly googled to see what was going on - and apparently it's something that happens quite regularly, with a schedule published on the harbourmaster's website.It's all part of the process to stop the Floating Harbour from getting silted up - they let the Cumberland Basin empty with the tide and then open sluice gates to allow water from the Floating Harbour out, which takes silt with it. The process is called "scouring". Given...
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Using A Vintage Camera

By shendyNo Comments
One of the cameras I inherited from my father was his parents' camera - an Ansco No.3, which is now somewhere in the region of 100 years old.I'm pretty sure that this is the camera my dad took with him when he cycled through the Alps in 1953, which was a couple of years before he bought his own camera. It's a lovely old folding camera, but with some surprises. It has movements - rise and fall and some swing.It takes 118 rollfilm (more on that in a moment) but also has a separate back for sheet film - quarter plate, for which there are also a dozen (heavy) dark slides.You can see on the photo below that it even has a small built-in stand that folds out - there's another for when you use it landscape. It's always looked in good condition (although I have had to re-stick the leather(ette) cover, and the shutter speeds seemed sensible. The big blocker has...
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