Halloween

So what were you expecting for a Halloween picture? Santa Claus? Spotted and take on a stall at Treacle Market this morning.

Happy Birthday mum

Mum's birthday today. No pithy comments regarding age (it's not worth my life).

Pretty damp out there

My mum's garden has started sprouting these all round the borders. In wonder if they're edible? No, I am not going to try and find out.

Giant pigeons invade Sheffield

One of the Sheffield Photographic Society members, Peter Matthews, took a brilliant version of this image. I looked at his picture and thought 'I can do that. How hard can it be?' Let me tell you - bloody hard. I reckon I have close on 100 rubbish pictures of pigeons because they don't listen to instructions. When you factor trying to exclude people walking by from the picture, plus the need to smile tolerantly at small children who think a group of pigeons is something they should run towards, it turns out that you have to be very patient indeed. The pigeons are happy though - they got a bread roll and two bagels out of me.

St Georges church

This is St Georges church on Broad Lane in the afternoon sunshine. It belongs to the University and houses a lecture theatre and flats for postgraduate students. At 3:45am this morning a Sheffield Hallam student from the Isle of Man was hit and killed by a speeding police car in front of the church.

Incidentally, this is the 300th Picture of the Day for this year.

24 hour access to what?

This gateway to an underground car park hasn't been used for a lot of 24 hours! Actually I think the vast glass office block under which it sits was built as a HQ for the National Union of Miners, but they fell foul of Mrs Thatch and never got to occupy it. It's never really been much used ever since. I wouldn't mind getting inside there 'cos I reckon it would make a great photo location.

Ladybower at dusk

The plan today was to head out to see how the camera saw things in the moonlight, however the moon was fairly late rising, later still in reaching the Derwent valley and promptly hid itself behind a bank of cloud. By this time I wanted my tea, so here's a shot from earlier in the evening which was taken about an hour after sunset.

Sunrise from Mam Tor summit

5:30am the alarm went off on a clear and cold Sunday morning. A 35 min drive and a 15 min climb in the dark saw me on Mam Tor summit just before dawn. Surprisingly I wasn't on my own up there and had to share the dawn with several other people. However the biting wind saw them all descend before sunrise itself. However, being a rufty-tufty photographer I stuck it out and that left me alone to grab this shot of the rising sun behind the summit trig point.

Autumn sculpture

After taking the picture of this tree, I went down and collected a carrier-bag full of different coloured leaves from underneath. This afternoon, I dug the bag out and assembled this little rainbow sculpture on some waste ground across the road from my house. I'm quite pleased with the effect, given that normally I am not the most artistic of persons. I do however confess to absolutely stealing the idea from a posting on another blog.

Si's Last Day

It was Psilosybin's last day with us as a trainee today, so of course we went to the pub. But before that I grabbed a pic of him in our quad.

Fall Colour

This is a tree in Crookes Valley Park I saw at dinnertime today. I couldn't resist giving it the 'splash of colour' treatment in Photoshop - I hope fellow photographers will forgive me (I won't do it again this year!).

A long time in politics

It doesn't seem but a moment ago I was stood in front of Sheffield City Hall photographing local MP Nick Clegg holding a rally in front of hordes of adoring supporters. Fast forward just six months and apparently he's now on par with a Japanese sea monster according to this cheery crowd in front of Sheffield Town Hall(*). The fact that the Mad Chancellor is today revealing how much we're going to have to suffer to preserve his City mates' way of life might have something to do with it too. Personally, I think you'd have to be insane to want to be a politician (but hey, you knew that already).

(*) Confused? Sheffield has a City Hall where the likes of Jimmy Carr and Michael Bolton entertain the masses and a Town Hall where the mayor and the other council bigwigs hang out. They're only a couple of hundred yards apart too.

That didn't work out too well

According to The Photographer's Ephemeris, the sunset should have lined up nicely down Rivelin Valley Road tonight. First of all we had a massive storm just before sunset and then it became blatantly obvious that the sunset wasn't going to line up at all. Not even slightly. Hmmmm, I thought Perfect Planning was supposed to Prevent Piss Poor Performance, or something? Incidentally Rivelin Valley Road is apparently the longest avenue of lime trees in Europe (and if you'd heard me say that before you can just ignore it, ok?).

Juxtaposition

I was walking down Fitzwilliam Street this dinner time when I was struck by the placing of the van belonging to the car body repair shop next to the 'in memorium' bouquet from what I thought must be a road traffic accident. It actually turns out that a lad died just a few hours earlier outside the nightclub opposite after a fight in which he fell and hit his head on the kerb.

Misty morning, Rudyard Lake

Up early this bright, sunny morning, back to Rudyard Lake to see if there would be some sunshine and some mist. For once the god of weather didn't disappoint me.

Evening light with lake and cows

I was heading out on a sunny late afternoon with the hope of climbing The Roaches in Staffordshire. I hadn't been driving for many minutes when it became obvious that North Staffs was under a blanket of cloud, so instead I stopped in a layby overlooking Rudyard Lake and waited to see if the light did anything interesting.

Especially for Diane

Bah humbug. This chap has been standing in front of a house in the village of Hope since the beginning of October, but this is the first opportunity I have had to photograph him. Some people really can't wait for Xmas, can they?

Careful wiring

Work is really cutting into my photo shooting time at the moment. If they didn't pay me I wouldn't bother turning up at all! But I passed this old courtyard entrance archway on Rockingham Street and was confronted by the sight of this wiring. I'm no expert but it looks a bit makeshift to me? Especially for something essentially open to the the public waking in and poking it.

Patterns and reflections

Beautiful day today but alas not much time to make anything of it. Managed to spot this sunlit block of flats reflected in the shady side of a building though and quite liked it.

Chasing the Light

I can't believe how early the light goes now. In order to get out and photograph anything from work, I have to be really fast on my feet - having a Windows sysadmin coming at you in a panic at 4pm because one of his servers has lost the network does not help at all. By the time I got to the Ladybower reservoir the light had almost gone. I just had time to catch the dying rays on this bridge (which stands over where the old village of Ashopton once was) before the sun had fallen behind the surrounding hills.

Sunshine underneath my office window

Somehow, I have no idea how, this sunflower has been planted in the narrow border between the pavement and my office window. Normally the strip is full of hardy plants, usually the thorny sort to deter scallys, but someone has added this to the mix. I'm not ungrateful, whoever you are.

XXX

St Michael's Church, Macclesfied at 10:10 10/10/10 taken on a Canon G10.

Sorry, I couldn't find any more tens to include in the picture.

Toddbrook

On my drives by I have noticed that Toddbrook reservoir in Whaley Bridge is very, very low on water indeed. I took a wee trip out to investigate! It seems that it's being deliberately drained to allow repairs to the valve gear. It's really quite deep - I am used to reservoirs being disappointingly shallow with no water in them - but those steps in the foreground must go down 50 feet alone.

Are You Lonesome Tonight

The Sir Titus Salt in Bradford is having a bit of a ale festival. This was my tipple of choice, shipped all the way from Sheffield. One of my favourite Kelham Island brews so far. Also loving the picture by local Sheffield artist Pete McKee - I have one of his prints on my wall.

Mam Tor summit after sunset

Hiked up to Mam Tor this evening only to find the top already colonised by one of the beige lens brigade(*). So I moved on over the far side looking for other shots, and by the time I struggled back to the top after sunset, I had the peak to myself. Bloody-mindedness made me choose this as the picture today over all the other pictures and even though Mam Tor is really a sunrise peak. This is looking due west (of course) towards Rushup Edge and Chapel-en-le-Frith.

(*) That's a Canon user to you. He was texting on an iphone and I would lay bets that was his silver VW Golf in the car park too. Probably got his personality out of the latest fad catalogue as well.

Sunset from the Sheffield Wheel

Now I don't like heights, but when I heard that the Sheffield Wheel was closing at the end of the month I thought I better get my skates on and get up the dratted thing before it's too late. Anyway, today was a nice day so I waited until sunset before heading for the ticket office. £6.50 buys you four puke-inducing revolutions. I don't really get my money's worth because the camera was jammed to my eye throughout. This is the view looking west over Barker's Pool with the start of the Pennines beyond.

Crucible

It was an oddly unproductive walk at dinner today. With no fixed destination I found myself outside the refurbished Crucible Theatre.

Winter Garden

A beautiful autumn day today so the plan was to head out after work and take some pics in the hills during the golden hour. Except I had forgotten how early sunset is now and I ended up dashing into town again for this picture, of a subject that any Sheffieldsider has seen several times already. Ah well, first time for me and happy that it seems to have turned out OK.

Even ducks were complaining

I don't think it could have rained more today. The fall colours are starting to appear and I am keen to get out to photograph, but unless it dries up a bit, this is the closest I seem to be getting.

Theatre of Dreams

Went to Old Trafford for the Rugby Super League grand final, St Helens vs. Wigan Warriors. The Saints lost, for the fourth consecutive year running! This was our view of the pitch, which despite being up in the gods, offered a pretty good view.

Overflow, Ladybower

Well October has has showed up with the wettest day it could. This is the overflow for the Ladybower dam, and despite what seems like heck of a lot rain these last few weeks, you can see how far from being needed it is at the moment.