Newport Transporter Bridge, September 2020

By shendyNo Comments
I had been vaguely aware of Newport Transporter Bridge for a fair while, but for some reason it popped up in my Instagram feed during the summer, so I decided to head over for a look during September. It was lucky that I did, as I was there only a week or two before it closed - and that might be for a couple of years, as they are going to be refurbishing it. And what a spectacular thing it it, very much the sort of industrial thing I like to photograph.Even better, you can walk across the top - the steps up weren't too bad, and the walk across was quite something....
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Amsterdam

By shendyNo Comments
In June I was given the opportunity to attend a conference in Amsterdam, at just a few days notice. Never having been before, I graciously accepted. As it happens, the conference itself was really interesting, and then I headed out every evening with my camera.Doing some research beforehand I found an Amsterdam photography blog (whose name I now shamefully forget) which pointed out the best places for photogenic bridges, churches and houses - very useful. Everything you've heard about cycling in Amsterdam is true, and then some - an amazing number of cyclists, and I saw about 3 people in lycra or on bike with anything more than basic gears. The bike park at the station is a sight to behold! The last photo is from the conference, where one of the keynote talks was from Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple. A lovely city that I barely scratched the surface of - I didn't get to any museums because of the conference - so...
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Going Back to Film, part 2

By shendy Comment Closed
A bit of a follow-up on the previous post, with some more on my adventures back into film photography. In February I upgraded the TLR, buying an MPP Microcord. Unfortunately it turned out that mine was faulty so it went back to the supplier. The first images on it were taken during the heavy snow we had - I wish I could claim that I was trying to emulate the soft look of some of the early photographers, but no - the shutter was slow and it also had issues with winding on. It did take some slightly sharper shots on a visit to Aust for the spring tides, and at the SS great Britain, but it wasn't good enough so back it went.   This left me with the dilemma about what to try next. In the end I went for a substantial upgrade and succumbed to a Hasselblad, having lusted after them for many years. I found one on Ebay at a...
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A summer of photos, and a new camera

By shendyNo Comments
Right, a bit of catching up to do - this post contains several sets of photos from the last few months - this is a re-post of several posts I put up earlier as I thought it better to lump them together into one. St Mary Redcliffe Back in April I bought a new camera - a Fuji X-T20, and this was the first trip out with it. Given that my office at the time was pretty much next door to St Mary Redcliffe, it was nice and simple to drop in one lunchtime. I'd worked there for over 10 years and this was the first time I'd been in to take photos... The main reason for looking at the Fuji was practicality - when we went to Cornwall last year, I found I was leaving some of the Nikon kit behind because it was so damn heavy and it's just daft to have kit and not use it. I'd been looking at...
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Exmouth Boat Trip

By shendyNo Comments
Friday was a lovely evening for a boat trip up the River Exe from Exmouth - warm and sunny but with some good clouds to photograph, good company and nice food - all with some really nice live music. I've been on similar trips the last couple of summers but instead of turning round at Topsham, we went all the way up to Countess Weir (apparently) - something only possible a few times each year. This included passing under the M5 bridge, which was wonderfully lit by the evening sun. Less nice was the sewage treatment plant... As usual, we seemed to attract a bit of attention from passing boats (we even made it into the Exeter Express and Echo) - have these people never seen a naturist boat trip before?...
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