Your friendly local bookbinders

Not much to report today - a wet, grey day with just a couple of odd blasts of sunshine. Way too busy with meetings and jobs to do (work is a DRAG!) and still suffering from the late night drive back from Manchester last night. Manage to nip out for 10 mins and snap this pic of our local bookbinders. Another shop in the row on Devonshire Green that includes 'Rare and Racy'. You have to admit this isn't your ordinary row of clone franchise joints, which I guess is one of the joys of living in a University town.

Night at the Velodrome

Spent the evening with Gareth at Manchester Velodrome trying to take pictures of a cycling club. The lighting was terrible, so even though we were using fast glass (Me; 50-135mm f/2.8. Him; 70-200mm f/2.8) the shutter speeds were still snail-like slow. I don't think I got a single sharp picture of a moving bike all night. Well, they were travelling at 30mph a few feet away, I guess. Anyway, in the speed blur there are some I like, like the one above showing the peleton coming off the banking en-masse.

The (almost) indestructable Apple

I dug out my old Apple MacBook from home to donate to the fledging Department computing museum we're trying to put together. This was bought to write my PhD thesis maybe 16 years ago now and has probably not been booted up in the 21st Century. The screen got damaged and I never used it after work bought me a new laptop. Out of interest I plugged it in and fired it up - it NEARLY booted! First time round I got the OS (System 7.1 IIRC?) loaded but the system hung, and the second time (pictured here) the hard disk wasn't recognised - so has probably stopped spinning. Good try after a decade though!

Dereliction of duty?

By chance I heard there was an abandoned cemetery not much more than a mile away from my house, so I decided to take a look. I was expecting neglected, but abandoned is actually the correct word. There are literally hundreds of graves that haven't been tended for decades; broken open, overgrown, many with mature trees growing out of them. In the picture above, you can see that RailTrack have simply sliced through a gravestone to build a fence (oh by the way, this is the only graveyard in the UK that has a railway line through it). Many of the graves are military ones due to the proximity of the old Hillsborough Barracks. Apparently the cemetery is owned by the Church of England rather than the local council and the last burial was as recently as the late 1970's. I can honestly say I have never seen such a wrecked cemetery before in my life.

Stanage from Hook's Carr

It was a lovely evening today so I took a drive up to Stanage Edge to see if there were any photo ops. I bumped into a huge mountain rescue operation (3 rescue teams, an ambulance and a medivac chopper) extracting a fallen climber. I kept out of their way so as not to look like a gongoozler. One of the mountain rescue guys later told me it was a severe head injury from a fall and a bit touch and go for the climber. In the meantime I nearly got my own head blown off trying to take panoramic pics in high winds. Not ideal. This is a quick sighting snap with the polarizer.

Rainbow from Commonside

Driving over the top of Sheffield I caught sight of this enormous rainbow dropping into the city centre. I stopped the car quickly and grabbed a shot.

Foucalt's Pendulum

In the atrium of the Manchester Conference Centre is a large Foucault's pendulum, which normally shows the turning of the earth (the pendulum swings back and forth in a straight line but the earth turns beneath it forcing it to describe an elliptical path). However, for reasons not explained, Manchester have placed an electromagnet in the lower brass sphere which keeps the pendulum swinging but FUBARs the effect described by Foucault.

Empty Canal

A canal-based theme developing here with yesterday's picture. I am in Manchester with Mark today for a conference and at dinnertime took a walk round the local area (ok, ok, I lie - we visited The Real Camera Company and London Camera Exchange). This short section of (I think) the Rochdale Canal drained for cleaning and dredging. The little guy in the hi-viz jacket has just removed about half a dozen chrome chairs that must have come from the cafe overhanging the canal on the left - it has the same chairs on the deck!

Down to the Waterline

An all too brief splash of sun this dinnertime let me take this quick snap of this Georgian building down by the narrowboat basin. It was soon grey and raining again, sadly, but for a couple of hours it could have fooled you it was Spring.

Rainy Days and Mondays

Been a poor day weatherwise today, though it's just cleared up this evening. For most of the day the view from my office was something like this.

Get me out of here!

Spent this afternoon helping to finish build Gareth's new greenhouse. Here he is bolting it down to the base. We couldn't put all the glass in because the contents of almost an entire box was broken, which was very frustrating.

I was looking on the internet and I found... THIS!

This picture was inspired by a conversation I had with Diane yesterday. I mentioned that I had taken a fancy to the current crop of Swedish 'stuff', meaning Wallander, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and so forth. Of course she deliberately misinterpreted that to mean the other sort of 'stuff' that Sweden is allegedly famous for (and she didn't mean Volvos).

Oh and I also have a new collapsible black background to try out. Beneath all the japes there is some subtle lighting going on here.

OK, if you say so.

Heaven knows I am not a particular fan of French cars, but I wouldn't have gone THAT far. Spotted in Bradford Uni car park - the numberplate blurred to protect the guilty.

Well we always like to have one spare...

At least I hope it's spare! Took a walk to the Sheffield General Cemetery at dinnertime, which is a vast overgrown Victorian jungle these days. The powers that be seem to be making a serious effort to tidy it up, so I will have to hurry back if I want more dereliction photos. Outside the cemetery general office is this coffin. It's been there a while, 'cos I first saw it last year, only it was propped open then. Either they have filled it meantime or they have just put the lid on to keep it cosy and dry inside.

St Paddy's Day

Today is St Patrick's Day. I searched the department in vain for someone Irish to photograph (where are you when I need you Prof Sharkey?) so you'll have to make do with the Dog & Partridge on Trippet Lane. Assuming you suffer from red/green colour blindness, on an ordinary day it's hard to know this is an Irish pub (that's an *Irish pub*, not *Irish theme pub*). One step inside though and you will be transported to the Emerald Isle, and a very Republican bit of it at that. I bet there's nowhere with so much John F Kennedy stuff on the walls outside of the JFK museum in Hyannis Port, Maine. However, it's reputed to pull the best pint of Guinness in all of South Yorkshire.

Bargains from ebay?

Bought these two Agfa 35mm camera on eBay. The Super Silette rangefinder on the left cost 99p and no-one else seemed to have noticed [or cared?] that it was the model with the better Solinar 4-element Tessar-type lens and Synchro-Compur shutter, (maybe because the eBay picture of it was terrible). The Silette brightline on the right, with the 3-element Apotar lens and Prontor SVS shutter, cost a dizzying 1p and attracted no other bids whatsoever. Both cameras work and don't look bad at all after a good clean. However, there are a couple of problems. Both of them have lazy shutters in the slow speeds, a common problem on 50 year-old Agfas, so to be 100% useful they are going to need a CLA [Clean, Lubricate, Adjust] before they do any hard work. In addition the Super Silette absolutely stinks of someone's loft, despite multiple cleans. It will fade in time, but it's off-putting right now!

ITMA

More graffiti from the warped mind of the artist we know only as 'Phlegm'. This is right next to The Moor shopping arcade and is apparently painted with the encouragement of our blessed council.

Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day today. I bought mine a signed copy of the Hairy Biker's cookbook. Mum's not too keen on posing for pictures, so here's the book instead.

The path through the secret woods

Waited in vain all day for the grey weather to lift and do something interesting. Towards the end of the afternoon it was photograph now or give up on the outdoors. I took a walk down this short stretch of hidden woodland in Tytherington, sandwiched between houses and a school. It doesn't even show up on the Ordnance Survey 1:25000 scale map, despite being something like 1/4 mile long. A tiny stream runs besides the path through the broad-leaved woods. No-one else was there except the squirrels and me.

Whatever happened to The Highwayman?

When I was a kid we would visit my grandmother in Derbyshire. On the way back I used to watch out for the silhouette of the highwayman rearing up in the car's headlights. It had the thrill of being slightly scary and it also meant we were nearly home. Recently when I passed the pub (near Rainow, Cheshire) I noticed it was all boarded up. I wonder how they went out of business after so many years?

Rampant façadism

Sheffield has some fine old buildings from its industrial past. In an attempt to prevent them being knocked down, but without stifling development, the council seems to be allowing a lot of new buildings to be 'hidden' behind the façade of the old one. This is Walter Trickett's Anglo Works, once a cutlers and silversmith, now with a massive great apartment block glued on the back. Meanwhile the façade of Morton's Cutlers is on the opposite side of the apartment building.

Fake Fireman Sam

Seen through the glass of the Sheffield Fire and Police Museum. Could there be a less realistic dummy anywhere do you think? Shiny fire engine though.

Focus at Birmingham NEC

Ill-informed people might claim that Focus on Imaging, the annual UK photographer's jamboree at the NEC, is nothing more than a load of girls in low-cut tops and push-up bras sticking their chests out so some hack can 'demonstrate' lighting equipment and studio techniques. I can tell you these people are very, very wrong; some of the girls have short skirts as well!

Sunset over Astra-Zeneca

Due to some last-minute dashing around, I ended up with 30 mins more-or-less to find and take today's picture. Pretty desperate, I was driving up Kerridge Road, and stopped to take the sunset over the Astra-Zeneca pharmaceutical plant.

A trip to Salford Quays

A cloudless but bloody cold morning. Took a trip out to Salford Quays to visit the Imperial War Museum North and catch the Don McCullin exhibition. Before the museum opened I took a few shots round the Quays. This is the pedestrian bridge that leads from the museum side to The Lowry. The cranes in the background are building the new televison and radio studios that will form part of the Media City complex.

Snowdrops

Because the winter has hung on so long the snowdrops in mum's garden are still very much in flower. I realised that they probably wouldn't be for much longer so better catch a picture whilst I still could.

Look up, young man

Many years ago, a wise man once advised me to look up when walking round cities. I have been following his advice ever since and have the bruises to prove it! However, when you do raise your eyes above your fellow pedestrians and the Starbucks and Subways, you often see some quite wonderful buildings. This is the Cavendish on West Street, a cavernous theme pub popular with students. The building itself above the bland plate-glass of the pub is quite astonishingly elaborate.

Chris has had his hair cut...

...and he looks a right nut! I had my hair cut today. This is not something I have done until I am tripping over it, so I thought maybe I'd record it for posterity. The funny thing was, I spent so much time running back and forth to the camera and flashguns that I forgot to actually comb my hair for the picture! Actually, come to think of it I am not sure where the comb even is.

Sarah

Sarah is leaving us at the end of this week to go exploring in South America. She let me grab this photo before it was too late. I always think it's hard to know what to do with your hands in a picture, so I gave her one of my old cameras to hold.

Gruesome display

I think that what this project needs is more people pics! Most folks don't seem to like having their picture taken - I know I am one - but these chaps in a shop window on Division Street didn't seem to mind posing. Oh, it's a gothic clothing shop, in case you were wondering if it was a cheese shop or something!

Crane against an angry sky

It's been a sunny day all day today and I took loads of pictures at dinnertime. However, mid-afternoon a huge rainstorm passed over. As it moved away, this crane was sunlit against the dark grey sky. The picture was taken from the research retreat, our tea room at work.