A couple of weeks back I posted an article about getting some of my photographs professionally printed and ready for entry into my local Camera Club’s Annual Print Competition.
I just joined the club this year and this was my first real experience of entering competitions.
Well my efforts were rewarded - as luck would have it I ended up winning 1st prize for my image “Suitcase 1519″. The competition was judged by Roy Robertson FRPS.
To say I was well chuffed was an understatement
As hinted at in my previous post, one of my favourite photoblogs can be found at Chromasia.com.
This multi-award winning site features the work of David and Libby Nightingale who are based in Blackpool, the well-known seaside town in the North West of England. David and Libby commonly feature various Blackpool landmarks in their daily photoblog and being in their area at the weekend
I was inspired to try and emulate one of my favourite images, and also to make an attempt at a “Chromasia-look” preset in Lightroom.
I was camping down in Chromasia country (Blackpool and Fleetwood) this weekend and took an early morning trip out to see the Riverdance ferry/cargo ship which had ran aground on Cleveleys beach recently. It has been there since the 31st of January after being hit by a freak wave on its way back from Northern Ireland to Heysham near Morecambe.
There had been hopes that this ship could be refloated but just this weekend they announced that it would never sail again - primarily due to recent bad weather which has hampered salvage attempts and continued to damage the ship.
Being just a mile or so from the tourist mecca that is Blackpool, the ship has became quite a popular tourist attraction itself. I was out there at around 7:30 in the morning and there was just the usual dog-walkers and a couple of fellow photographers on the beach. However I passed by the wreck the following day at around 3pm and there was a very large crowd of onlookers perched on the seafront try to get a good view.
I took a series of photographs, but the wind was almost gale force and bitingly cold. Needless to say even on a solid tripod, it was a struggle to get a sharp picture. It was also difficult to get close to the wreck as Coastguard security were keeping onlookers quite a distance from the ship.
This of course is The Chrysler Building in New York City. I took this image whilst on holiday there in November 2006.
Of all the New York skyscrapers (what an old fashioned word that is nowadays), this is my favourite. It’s the ‘57 Chevy of skyscrapers. A stunning piece of architecture.
My all-time favourite shot of this building was taken by Vincent Laforet - it was used in the early magazine adverts for Apple’s Aperture. He shot a welder repairing one of the “eagles” which jut out of the building. The ones near the top - not the lower ones more prominent in this picture. If you missed those adverts and have never seen that vertigo-inducing image - you must check it out. Stunning work.
Meanwhile, I’ll happily continue to shoot from much lower and much safer levels.
This is the family mausoleum of the Clan MacGregor (or more correctly Clan Gregor), which lies near the small village of Auchtubh (pronounced “achtoo”) on the road to Balquhidder in Perthshire. It is still in use today and the last clan chief, Gregor MacGregor, was laid to rest there in 2003.
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