Blurred

A slow shutter speed can blur moving objects into ghostly figures, like these two people walking across the bridge which spans the canal along Castle Boulevard.

Water Feature

I've not cycled through Highfields for about a week, so I was amazed and highly delighted to see that the cascade had been reinstated after so long.

The whole area had become neglected. Even the pool where the waterfall is had no water in it, although there is a great big boating lake adjoining it.

It was great to see it in action again. So I laid my OMD on one of the stepping stones and turned the shutter speed down slow, so the water looks frozen.

Hopefully it will remain switched on for a long long time so users of the park can enjoy its serenity.

Art For Art's Sake

Another shot from last night. This time some graffiti or street art sprayed onto the footings of the bridge which spans the canal, reflected in the water below.

Night Noir

We had to go and collect something tonight from Derby, and on the way back we stopped off for something to eat.

We decided to try a pub down by the canal. One that I cycle past everyday from work.

It had got dark by the time we had finished our meal, so of course out came the cameras.  We had a wander down the towpath, seeing if there was anything worth taking in the darkness. I decided to try a mirrored image, as the water was quite still. I put my camera down on a flat, hard surface, as I didn't have a tripod with me, and clicked the shutter a few times, just to make sure I didn't get any camera shake.

Can You Here Me?

One of the random street shots that I like to take now and again.

Still Life

Spotted these three old cameras on a high shelf in the Lion pub in Basford.

I have no idea if they work or not, but seems a shame that they are up there gathering dusk, while they could be filled with a roll of film and taken out and used. After all that is what photography is all about.

Still, saying that, since I got my Olympus OMD last year, I've hardly touched my Nikon D3s, and it sits lonely in the cupboard surrounded by expensive lenses.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

Snails seem to get just about anywhere and everywhere in the garden. For instance, I've moved flowerpots, and there's usually one or two trying to hide under the rim of the pot .

This one was inching its way across the top of our wheelie bin this morning. I watched it, as it slowly made its way to the edge. It stopped as it had ran out of bin and so looked down, to see how far it was, and whether there was anything it could land on besides the tarmac, so its shell wouldn't break. Steady on there, as it's a long way down!

It realised that there was no way down, so it turned left and went to see what that side of the bin had to offer.

It's A Groovy Party

The Disco Prophets are one of the local bands that we go and watch and take photos of. What makes them special for me is the leader is a friend of mine from my childhood days in London.

Tonight they played at a gig at a local pub for charity. Their second one with the new line up.

They play great 70's and 80's disco music, and all the pub staff were dressed up in vintage gear. So it was all great fun.

The pub were using some multi-coloured LED lights, that seem to play havoc with our cameras, as these two photos of Fay illustrate. The above one looks fairly normal, albeit with a green tinge, while the one below shows what happened when the blue lights came on. It was even worse in red.

Mind you, if any of you can remember Top of the Pops from the 1970s, they always used to do lighting and camera tricks like this, so I don't think it looks out of place.

Dead Men Can't Talk

The Kray Twins were a couple of evil criminals from the East End of London that were the leading gangland thugs of the 1950s and 60s. They murdered and threatened people, while trying to live a glamorous lifestyle by trying to rub shoulders with the rich and famous of the day.

But their deadly empire came to an end and they were sent to prison for 30 years in 1969. Ronnie Died in 1995, and Reggie in 2000.

The Galleries of Justice presently have a small exhibition about their life, trial and death. The exhibition contains photos, items and documents about the twins who were born in October 1933. They also have a soundtrack accompanying the exhibition, containing news reports and music of the day. Whilst I was there, The Rolling Stones came on with Jumping Jack Flash.

Lit By Moonlight

I've taken many photos of the tramworks that are taking place in Beeston at the moment, but I realised that I hadn't taken any at night.

So, as I had to go to a local pub to meet a couple of friends to talk over an event that I'm going to be involved with in a few months time, I thought it would be an ideal opportunity.

By the time we had finished talking, it had gone dark, and as The Crown is very close to Beeston Square, I went to see what all the demolition work of the shops looks like in the dark. Piles of rubble just lit by street lights and moonlight. It reminds me a bit of the Blitz, when London was bombed for about three months during 1940.

Getting The Brush Off

This is certainly an interesting and unusual way of cleaning a roof. But then it's not an ordinary roof.  No, it's not the Sydney Opera House, but the Atrium building where I work.

It's a big two story building, with what looks like a giant circus top over it.

Architecturally it looks fantastic, but don't stand by it when it rains, as the water rolls down the sides like Niagara Falls!

Taxi For Gailsman!

It's celebration time today as local taxi company Cloud Cars reaches its first birthday.

So what's so great about this particular company that calls for them to be highlighted on my blog you may be asking?

Well the special thing is that their fleet is entirely made up of the eco-friendly Toyota Prius, and they are probably the best quality taxi company in Nottingham.

I knew about the company through Twitter, but had never seen a vehicle in real life. So earlier this year I messaged them asking if I could pop along to their depot to photograph one of the cars. But then I changed jobs, and it would be a long trek to see them from where I am now based. And so I left it at that for the moment.

Then late last week I spotted a car near where I work, and so I Tweeted the fact. Cloud Cars then messaged me back reminding me about the proposed photo-shoot. As it is their birthday today, I thought it was an opportune time to do it.

So after a few Tweets I met up with Wayne the driver in the Lace Market outside the Lace Market Hotel. Ideally I would have liked to have taken the photo near the castle, but there would be too many people in the area, so I thought the Lace Market would be good, as its a quiet area and has some nice buildings.

We had a chat about the company while I was waiting for the traffic to pass by. Wayne told me that the company presently owns five cars, and there are plans to buy some more shortly. He also told me that all the drivers' backgrounds are properly checked out and are expected to have a pretty good knowledge of the city and its road system. The drivers wear collar and tie, and the vehicles are kept in tip top condition.

For more information about Cloud Cars and how to contact them for a booking, here's the LINK to their website.

Barking Up The Right Tree.

Well I'm back. I don't know why, but somehow I haven't blogged for the past few days. Not sure how that happened. So I have a fair bit of catching up to do, and plenty of photos to show you of the various places/events that Gail & I have been to. So keep popping back to see the missing days.

Anyway, today is World Photography Day, and I was hoping that I would be able to take an amazing photo in celebration of my favourite hobby. But alas, Nottingham city centre was quite quiet today. Probably because it was a Monday, and lots of people are on holiday.

But I did come across this enormous dog, who was part of a sales team publicising a company that provides some new worming alert system, so you get a phone or text message telling you when your pooch needs his worming tablet.

Here Be Dragons

A quick trip up to the garden centre today to try and get some solution to a weed problem that we have in our pond. A little green weed is slowly covering the top of the pond. And the more that I fish it out, the more it seems to grow. So we wondered whether they would have a special weedkiller that I could use to get rid of it.

I explained the problem to the assistant in their aquatic centre, who said that it was duckweed, and pointed me in the direction of a liquid that should get rid of the problem. He said that the weed is usually introduced into the water by frogs, of which we have had loads this year.

So we bought the bottle and then had a look round the plants, pots and garden ornaments. I was quite taken with this dragon, with his big eyes and infectious grin. I didn't buy him though, as he might have scared Oscar and Marmalade!

D.I.S.C.O

You may remember a band that I mentioned last year called the Disco Prophets. They are a local group that play well known disco songs from the 1970s and 80s.

They went quiet for a while, but I have been in regular contact with their leader Rupert, who I knew when we were both children in London. He said that he's had a change of line up and got rid of the horn section.

So as a first outing and warm up gig for a charity night next week, they played at a pub in town for an hour or so. The Disco Prophets usually have a male singer as well called 'The Soul Panther' but as they didn't have one at that point, Fay, a singer from another band was borrowed for the evening. And very good she was too. Singing songs that were around probably before she was born.

They also had a new bass guitarist called Heather, who is Paul the keyboard player's partner. She was also excellent, thumping away on an instrument that was nearly as big as she is.

It was a great gig, and I think the smallish audience enjoyed their unique take on all those hits from all those years ago

Tank Mania

I took a day off work today to drive to deepest Leicestershire to do a model shoot with a difference, as it would involve tanks, armoured cars and other military vehicles.

The place I went to was called Tank Mania, and you can pay to have rides in the tanks around a very muddy track. They also restore old army machines and do team building days.

There were about seven of us photographers and five models to make the most of the hardware on offer. Unfortunately Gail couldn't join me as she couldn't get the day off. I had met a couple of the models before at Donington recently, so that was pleasing to know.

As I said, there was quite a bit of mud about and some very big puddles. More like lakes in some cases. All the models were wearing army fatigues that the company had provided. So three of them decided to get down and dirty, by walking into a rather deep and muddy puddle.

Then then started larking about and posing for the togs who had all lined up at the water's edge. I thought that if I did that, then I would just end up with the same photographs as everyone else. So I scrambled up the side of the bank, and shot a few photos, just to get a different angle. Here's Jade posing for the cameras whilst up to her waist in muddy water. Who said that modelling was a glamorous profession!

One of the models called Katerina didn't want to get her or her clothes wet, and so had gone off back to the portacabin for a cup of tea. I decided to find her as I had got a bit bored with the 'water babes' and wanted to ask her if she wanted to do something with just me. She said yes, and so as she was dressed in her own khaki outfit , I saw her as an action girl; Emma Peel or Purdy for example. We had got hold of a replica gun, so we spent an enjoyable 20 minutes or so, walking about looking for little scenes that we could act out, such as this sandbagged area.

The Bear Essentials

Whilst waiting for the show to begin, I noticed that someone had put their little teddy bear on the red carpet and I bet had taken a photo of it.

The person must have been a photographer; as there were a lot about, as the teddy has a little camera round his neck. I think it might be a special edition Leica, as it doesn't look like the usual big black lump of a Nikon or Canon.

Nott A Fashion Show

A very unusual fashion show took place tonight under the Council House. It was billed as not a fashion show, and although there was plenty of fashion on show, I don't think any of the people involved were models.

There was some music too with a vocalist singing some old songs and this young singer who had a unique fashion style, but cannot remember her name.

The idea was to show off the multi-culturism that exists in Nottingham, and so people from different ethnic groups made an appearance, like this group of young Asian ladies.

Firemen, judges, female footballers all made an appearance, together with two Robin Hoods and these beekeepers who all shared the red carpet.

I also met up with some

Learning How To Be Like Robin Hood

As it's the school holidays, there's plenty of activities available to keep the kids amused. Like this one where kids get to shoot arrows like our famous outlaw.

Don't worry, they were safe arrows with suckers on the end, rather than points. But that doesn't explain where the inflatable Robin Hood looks a little limp. If he wasn't punctured by an arrow, then why does he look a bit drunk?

Camping 1960's style

Besides the old motorbikes on show at Donington Park, I came across this 'domobile', belonging to one of the bike owners.

I have never slept in on, but I know the roof lifts up and there a little bed appears. I don't think that I would feel that safe up there, especially if I were to roll over and fall out.

Bicycle Fun

While we were wandering around Donington Park with our two models Sophie and Caroline , Gail and I were constantly looking for things to shoot the girls with, that might make for a good photo.

One of the girls spotted the big black motorbike, which you can see, but there was lots of stuff around which we couldn't move, but I did see this kids bike, so thought it would make for a couple of fun photos, considering all the speed machines on show there.

Motorbikin!

Just got back from a grand day out at Donington Park, thanks to Paul Lush and his girls. This time it was models and motorbikes.

I must admit that I'm not that excited by motorbikes. Give me classic cars or aircraft any day.  But it was fun all the same; especially as we got to work with some different models.

All the girls had dressed as though they had stepped out of the 1960s.  The plan was for the models to pose by some vintage bikes, but for some reason it didn't quite turn out that way. That was a shame, as I was planning on messing around with the photos in Lightroom to give them an aged feels. Still I am quite happy with this shot, which is more or less out of the camera.

Two highlights of the day was seeing the RAF Memorial Flight fly over the circuit, and this George Formby lookalike, who had recreated a scene from the 1936 film 'No Limit', in which our hero wins the Isle of Man TT race.

Blast From The Past

Walking through town at lunchtime, I was surprised, and pleased to see the old BOAC name and logo on this guy's bag.  What spoilt it for me though, was the fact that the bag was red, whereas it should have been dark blue.

For those of you who don't know BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) was a British airline in the 1960s. It used to fly VC10s and the very first Concorde sported the airlines colours. They merged with BEA (British European Airways)  in the early 1970s and became British Airways. Which according to advertisers is the world's favourite airline.

If you are interested in the airline's history, here's a useful WEBLINK.

Lushhh...

This is Helen, one of the models that we shot at Donington Park the other week.

She's sitting in a Porsche. I like the reflection of the two guys, one of whom is the owner looking on.

I just thought I would post this, as sadly, I didn't take any shots today.

Meals On Wheels

I thought about calling this photo "Give Us Our Daily Bread" as this camper van was being used to promote a new make of bread.

The promotions people were toasting it, and people could try it with jam, or marmalade etc. As there was such a queue for the freebie, I didn't bother. So I took this photo instead.

Shame It's Not Venice

Not a very productive day photographically speaking, as had my fisheye lens on, as I was planning to see what the Riviera would be like.

But it's been a fairly overcast day. Although the sun did come out at 5.30, so it was nice to ride home in the sunshine.

So here's a shot of the canal lock gates near where I work, with two boats waiting for the water to rise.

The Eve Of Destruction

The continued demolition of the precinct in Beeston continues with bulldozers tearing down a row of shops.

Piles of rubble, wood and metal everywhere.  The local council say that it will be an improvement. But I don't see it myself, as how can less shops be better?

A Splash Of Colour

We had a trip to our local branch of B&Q yesterday afternoon to buy some new flooring for the hallway.

Whilst we were looking around, I thought that I would take some photos of some of the colourful plants that were on sale, as they all looked very photogenic.

Unfortunately I didn't make a note of the plant names. But I'm sure the gardeners amongst you will be able to tell what they are.

I also spotted some wildlife, whilst I was there. These ducks looked very friendly. But as they are made of pot, I don't think they will float somehow.

This bee was enjoying flying from plant to plant, gathering precious nectar for the hive. Its a sad fact that the British bee appears to be on the decline, due to the loss of habitat, use of chemicals and possibly the weather. So it was good to see the plants on sale that bees are attracted to.

And finally this hummingbird garden ornament looked fun, and a gorgeous blue colouring. Was I tempted to buy one for the garden? No, as the springs joining the wings are likely to rust and then they will drop off.

Festival Bites

The Riverside Festival is an annual treat down by the Embankment. We've been going for a few years now and mostly in the afternoon, so this time we though we might try the early evening.

It was quite overcast when we arrived, so it looked a bit darker than it actually should be. The canopy of trees adds to the feeling of night time.

The main road through the park is always full of fairground rides and food stalls. We were feeling a little peckish, so stopped to have some potatoes that had been roasted in duck fat. The potatoes had been diced, but hadn't been cooked long enough, so they weren't very crusty on the outside, the way that roast potatoes should be.

Music also plays a big part of the festival. This year there was three stages. We were drawn to the one that had the biggest audience. We could here the music, a real Latin beat, and the musicians seemed crazy with jumping and leaping all over the stage to their tunes.

I found out that they are called Txarango, and here's a WEBLINK to their site, so you can learn a bit more about them. They will certainly get your feet tapping, just like the audience's at the Riverside Festival.