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.

 

Looking Back a Hundred Years

Here is an interesting scene—a British railway platform, c. 1920s, as recreated in meticulous detail in the National Railway Museum, York. Here one steps back a century—no digital screens, no neon lights, nothing post-dating the era of steam and newspapers. This is the world of P G Wodehouse and Agatha Christie, when movies were silent and radio a novelty. This is the genius of the museum scenario, a kind of immersion in which you can look into another time. The light levels in the museum are quite soft, so I was holding the camera against a vertical surface for stability, and did quite well—the light gathering ability of the old technology was only a fraction of today’s point-and-shoot ability. Supporting the camera during long exposures became second nature. I took this shot on my UK trip of November, 2011, the last time I visited the NRW, and it certainly appeals to my fascination with vanish point symmetry. Minor adjustments to contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Hidden in the Woods

Here’s an example of a reflex shot that turned out just right. It’s a case of seeing the composition and grabbing the shot, just frame and shoot. I snapped this one through the train window on the way to Cardiff on November 21^st, 2012. The sunlight striking the vertical building, framed by the green woods behind and the dark, shadowed foreground vegetation works perfectly, and I did not even need to square up the image with fine rotation. It’s pure composition—I have no idea what this building is (a church, by the looks of it) or even where it is, it just works as a pure visual motif. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Bridge Over a Watercolour Sea

Sometimes the shot just happens, all you have to do is release the shutter. This is one of a series I took on November 23^rd, 2012, from a train heading up the line from Cardiff to the village of Shifnal, during my last main UK trip. I think this is the Severn Estuary, though I confess my geographical sense is a bit turned around on this phase of the trip. No matter, the sun was at just the right angle and the waters were very calm, creating this amazing visual—like a watercolour painting. The overall toning is probably as much to do with some polarising effect of the train window as with the lighting angle, but the result is delightful.Minor adjustments to colour and contrast in Irfanview; and the frame was squared up with fine rotation. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Fun with Reflections

You can get up to all sorts of tricks with reflections, but sometimes you find the reflection is the whole image. This is a 1926 steam locomotive, preserved in the National Railway Museum, York., UK., which I photographed on my visit in late 2011, and the lighting conditions in the sheds were tricky—soft enough to make blur a constant hazard with the light gathering ability of the cameras of the day. (Now, no problem, they handle low light like magic, but then? It took ingenuity.) The engines on display are polished to the nines, and the interplay of artificial light and gleaming surfaces did all the work in this image. It’s not even enhanced, in any way! Just metal, paint, a lot of hard work with polishing tools, and the interplay of light, creating a machine-as-art situation. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Down the Tube to Lanantarn

Yes, I’m a sucker for vanishing point symmetry, it catches my eye and I’ll shoot it whenever I find it! This is the Heathrow Express terminal deep under Heathrow Airport, at 5.33 and 54 seconds (by the electronic signage) on the morning of Sunday, October 31^st, 2010. My plane had just got into Blighty, Customs was a quick process (I remember we were the very first plane load fronting up to the desks for the day!) and I was eastbound for London Town with my luggage. I travelled with the camera round my neck and shot as I went, and all sorts of interesting things appear as one goes. The light was low, of course, so non-moving subjects were preferred (cameras were less fancy in those days, and soaring ISO speeds were a thing of the future). Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

River Frontage

Here’s a deceptively simple image that’s part luck, part skill. A reflex shot—the scene presented itself and I grabbed it—from the window of a train on Tuesday, November 16^th, 2010, on my journey south from Sunderland to London, to head back to Australia. This is maybe 90 minutes after I got the pics of Durham Cathedral through the haze, and several hours before I framed up the neon lighting at Heathrow Airport (see older posts). The train ran through considerable fog, through towns, past great steam-belching power stations, and by the time I was around the latitudes of Birmingham, the weather cleared to sun and blue sky. This is the River Nene, where it flows through Peterborough, and I managed to catch it through a clean patch of window, with the sun angle right for the scene and not to make every speck of dirt on the glass flare. Some adjustments were done—it was squared-up using custom rotation, and the contrast and colour were tweaked just a little. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Geometry in Iron

Repeating shapes always make for interesting visual exercises, and this is mid-Victorian ironwork—Brunel’s masterpiece, Paddington Station, in London. After booking into my hotel on Sunday, October 31^st, 2010, I walked back round to the station to play with imagery, and this one was taken from a footbridge spanning the tracks. In the 1850s (Paddington opened in 1854), British railway engineering was a boom industry, and cast iron was the masterstroke of the age, making possible shapes and sizes of structure previously unknown. Here, thousands of tons of iron create an airy, arched pavilion large enough to accommodate the smoke of steam trains without choking the commuters, and to this day it is one of the busiest railway terminals in London. A simple shot, it took advantage of the topography, creating an almost organic feel. Minor enhancement only—just contrast and colour. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike

 

950 Years of History

This is Durham Cathedral, one of the oldest in England, whose origins date back to the early years of the Norman conquest. I grabbed this and several other frames through the window of a train on Tuesday, November 16^th, 2010, having departed Sunderland at 10.30 on my way to London for my return flight to Australia. The train passed through Durham’s elevated railway station, thus the views over the city and across to the bluff above the river bend where the Cathedral and castle were built. The morning, though quite clear, was hazy, and the train window adds to the effect. In this frame I managed to not pick up my own reflection, which is always a hazard—I have memories of pressing the camera to the glass to avoid reflections in many instances. I would have loved to spend some time in Durham, exploring this amazing place and its history, but that was set aside for a future trip—which unfortunately hasn’t happened yet. This picture marks the beginning of the second year since I resurrected this blog (April 9^th, 2023).Very minor enhancements were done—there’s not much more to pull out of a frame as soft as this. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

 

Morning Trade

An interesting exercise in holding the camera steady for opportunistic shooting: this is London's Paddington Station, about 6 in the morning of Sunday, October 31^st, 2010. I had just got off the Heathrow Express, after a 4.50 arrival from Australia via Singapore. It was much too early to be making my way to my hotel, so I killed time around the station, got a bite at a small cafe and just watched the morning traffic as daybreak unfolded. I have another frame showing a clock, snapped at 6.45. Here the place is floodlit but essentially deserted, and I was shooting hand-held. Normally I would look for something to support the camera on with light levels like these, but they were just on the balance point of being high enough, and I was far from well on the 2010 trip, so not being fancy. I held the camera quite appreciably steady, I think! There are nice symmetries in the architecture (by the great Brunel). The picture was squared up with fine rotation, colour and contrast were enhanced and there was some minor gamma correction and sharpening. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Inside, Looking Out

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An amazing thing about the evolution of a city is the way its structure becomes interlinked. In eastern London, the Docklands Light Railway was built as a 'people mover' linking the residential redevelopments taking place around the long-disused docks (the revolution in sea freight with containerisation made the old docks redundant long ago) and this elevated railway snakes amongst the buildings, crossing canals and docks, and passing right through some buildings. This station is inside a low floor (third or so) of a high-rise tower, and immediately outside is a bridge across a wide canal. The city engineering is impressive and almost picturesque in a 21st century way. Here the chip has done an amazing job of balancing the dark interior with the bright exterior, and creates a real feel of conditions on the day. The natural contrast is very hard, and mid-tones were enhanced with gamma correction. Colour was also encouraged a little as an image like this is preferentially close to black and white. December, 2007; Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Colourful Livery

This is the nose-end of a Transpennine Express, a service/route of one of the rail corporations that sprang up since the denationalisation of British Rail many years ago. Commuters will tell you service has gone to pot since the railways went back to private enterprise, and if the likelihood of actually getting a seat on some journeys (as opposed to standing between cities) is anything to go by, they're probably right. This photograph was taken in November 2007 on the platform of York Station. The exposure control of the chip is quite amazing, given that this is inside a huge building. I was impressed by the way the train's headlights burned in, and the sharpness of the reflections of the skylights in the windows. The colour scheme always reminds me of a roll of Kodak film, about ten years ago, though I'm not sure which grade had the purple in the packaging! Colour, sharpness and contrast were adjusted slightly for publication. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

In Memoriam

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This is the sort of thing you will never see in Australia, New Zealand, America or Canada, a small, discreet, public memorial to war. There are war memorials all over the world, they didn't call them 'world wars' for nothing. Every town and village in Australia has it's memorial to those who didn't come back. But this is different: a memorial to those who died when the war came to them. I took this simple snapshot on the platform of Middlesborough Station, Yorkshire, UK, in November 2006, and to look at the classic 19th century architecture, dressed-over with late 20th century glasswork, screens, automatic doors and all, was to realise that the same building was the one bombed on that day in 1942. People dressed differently, thought differently, did things for different reasons and the details of their lives were, well, very different. But it was right there that it happened, and that reminds you of both the flow of time and your own mortality. The image was sharpened and brightened a little for publication. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

A Dizzying Perspective

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The escalators up and down to London tube stations (the "Underground") are extremely steep. You really have to hold tight to your baggage and the handrail because in the long glide, especially when moving, and looking, upward, you can lose your orientation. An indication of how steep they are, and of how far off-true your middle-ear can take you, is the orientation of the show posters that line the walls. They are genuinely upright, everything else is skewed! You can also get a sense for how low the lighting is, as the escalator and the people on it are in focus as they are moving relatively the least, while the walls are soft as they move by during the exposure time. A simple framing job, I shot one-handed while holding the rail. The normal sharpen, contrast and colour tweak were applied. Fuji FInePix S5600, automatic; December, 2006. 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.

Sleeping Dinosaurs

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Steam locomotives are wonderful things -- visually fascinating and loaded with history, machines that characterised past ages and which are preserved in museums as the ghosts of those times. This is an engine undergoing service at Britain's National Railway Museum in York, in November, 2006. The biggest rail museum in the world, it is located on part of the oldest passenger rail network: George Stepheneson's Rocket ran those lines in 1825.! This is a simple frame up but, as with the Hendon aviation museum, the lighting in these enormous buildings was perpetually in the cracks between just enough and never enough for a virtual 200ASA. I was concerned about digital grain and wanted crystal clear shots, so didn't go up to 400, and as a consequence I was permanently fighting motion blur in these places. This shot is a supported one which beat the problem. Mild enhancement: sharpen, contrast and colour. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Calm Hills in the Sun

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This tranquil hillside suggests a simple settup shot, perhaps over the hood of a parked car on a country road. It was actually shot from the window of a train, so the tranquility was in perpetual motion. The remarkable thing about this frame is that not a single reflection in the window glass has intruded on the image, nor an area of dirt on that glass registered. Capturing an image through glass is dependent on the qualities of that glass, and in this case it paid off well. This is the Esk Valley in Yorkshire, through which wends the railway from Middlesbrough to Whitby. The bracken has died back to rich russet; this was early November, 2007, and the winter sun is mild on forests thinning for the cold months, on grazing sheep and pheasants wandering by the tracks. Enhancements include sharpening, and bringing up the colour saturation, as the one inescapable effect of the glass was to leach colour, creating a more pastel-like rendition of what was really a very colourful scene. That's the beauty of digital post-enhancement, restoring what's lost in other parts of the process. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. 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.

Symmetry in Steel

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There is something about Victorian engineering that remains both an endearing connection with the past and a reminder of times which for good reasons are gone by. But Victorian engineers knew how to build, and build to last. This is York Station, on the oldest stretch of line in the world. Britain's National Railway Museum, the largest in the world, directly adjoins it. I took this snap on a cool evening while waiting for connections to Middlesbrough and on to my hotel in Whitby. The FinePix S5600 was set for 200ASA filmspeed and automatic exposure, the shot was hand-held, which makes the clarity somewhat remarkable. The image was sharpened but in no way colour enhanced for publication. Photo by Mike, November 2006.

Reflex Shooting, Sort Of...

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London is such a varied town, there's still plenty to see and commit to pixels away from the classic sights. But sometimes you need to be quick on the trigger... This is part of the new residential complex of the East End around the old canals, the "Docklands" district, and the frame was captured through the window of the DLR, the Docklands Light Railway, an elevated railway connecting the Tower with Maritime Greenwich and points further east. There are multiple bridges and elevated stations, the railway threads amongst and through buildings and is a marvel of engineering. To capture a frame with no blur, no window reflections, and with the camera on an even keel, while juggling a pack and cheek by jowl with other passengers, was not easy! But steadying the camera against the glass, pointed directly outward, then looking ahead to time the arrival of the clear space of the next bridge and tripping the release as the vista opens out, is a good way of minimising the problems. FinePix S5600, full auto. Photo by Mike, November 2007.