A Harmony of Steel

I’ll always come back to vanishing point symmetry—it’s just so eye-catching, with its implications of motion and the third dimension. Here is a study of architectural relationships, a major railway station, one of the most fun places to capture this kind of image. It’s the Manchester Piccadilly Centre, photographed on November 19^th, 2006, and I believe it’s early in the morning—there are very few people about and the shadows are long. This would be my departure leg. I had one night in Blackpool, having come across the country on the Transpennine Express from the Yorkshire coast, and I was bound for London next day. I snapped this shot from high on one of the escalators, which I recall being exceptionally smooth, not jostling the shot at all. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Cavernous Architecture

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I was heading down a people-mover from the local-line platform to the gigantic national line terminal at the Manchester Piccadily complex in November 2006, and the symmetry of the stone and steel in this gigantic structure just begged to be shot. The high perspective brought out the marching line of Romanesque arches that echo 19th century civic structures--columns with ancient Corinthian capitals-- and the spiderweb of trusses supporting the roof, while the line of the people-mover itself is a mechanistic adverse feature as its own axis is at odds with the rest of the image. The shot was not difficult, automatic exposure and a simple framing. The floorway moved smoothly so there was no jostling for which to compensate, simply the challenge of shooting straight while toting your baggage. Enhancement is the usual round of subtle tweaks of sharpness, contrast and colour. Fuji FinePix S5600; image by Mike.

Futurism Today

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This was a deceptive exposure: an indoor shot, but in a building so huge the light is harsh. Note the burned-out areas in the background, while the subject is correctly exposed. These are British supertrains, Richard Branson's idea of playing with trains is to own a railway, and his locomotives are nothing if not instantly recognisable, like something out of Thunderbirds. I took this shot while waiting to board an express to London in the Manchester Picadilly Centre, a truly amazing modern indoor rail exchange, around the beginning of December, 2006. The Fuji FinePix S5600 was on automatic all the way. Image by Mike.