Symbolic Forest : photography

Photo Post Of The Weekend

In which we remember Latvia

Written by Forest Pines; published at 6:59 am on January 16th, 2010.
Filed under: Photobloggery, The Family.

All that snowy weather we’ve been having – almost all gone now, apart from the enormous pile of snow cleared from the office car park – reminded me of the holiday we took a couple of years back, to Rīga, Latvia. “Make sure you wrap up warmly,” said The Mother. “Get proper thermals. Lots and lots of layers.” “You’ll need to take sunglasses, too,” said Dad, “or you’ll get snow-blindness.”

All of which we ignored, fortunately, because we’d have looked bloody silly. Rīga in February was not too dissimilar from Britain in February, being grey, damp, and largely snow-free; it shouldn’t really have been surprising, because it’s on about the same latitude as Dundee. We took plenty of photos; but for some reason they never appeared on here.*

* Unlike the above anecdote about the snow-blindness, etc, which definitely has.

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Keyword noise: Baltic, cold, Europe, February, grey, holiday, Latvia, photo, photography, photos, Riga, snow, travel, USSR, weather, winter

Photo Post Of The Week

In which we ignore the weather

Written by Forest Pines; published at 7:30 am on January 8th, 2010.
Filed under: Photobloggery.

Everywhere at the moment, of course, is full of photos of thick winter snow. Sometimes, though, it’s good to be contrary.

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Keyword noise: boatyard, Bristol, Bristol Harbour, building, Floating Harbour, Georgian, harbour, Hotwells, photo, photography, photos, shipyard, terrace, Underfall Yard

Photo Post Of The Year

In which we look at the Christmas tree

Written by Forest Pines; published at 9:57 am on January 1st, 2010.
Filed under: Photobloggery.

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Keyword noise: angel, bauble, Christmas, Christmas tree, decoration, deer, glitter, ornament, photo, photography, star, tree

Second Season

In which we spot something getting under way again

Written by Forest Pines; published at 9:35 am on August 18th, 2009.
Filed under: Media Addict.

Fans of supernatural TV drama series Being Human, currently making its move up the channels to BBC1, might be interested to know that location filming for its second season is just getting under way.

How do I know? Because, on my way home yesterday, I spotted a chap tying up temporary road signs for the benefit of lost Being Human crew members. They’re bright pink, so you can’t really miss them.

Being Human location shoot signs

These particular signs are on Bedminster Bridge. “BH LOC” is pointing towards Bristol General Hospital, one of their main shooting locations. “BH BASE” is pointing, presumably, towards the expanse of waste ground waiting to be developed between Cumberland Road and the new museum: that’s where the shoot’s trailers all parked up when they were shooting the previous series, so I assume that’s where they are now.

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Keyword noise: BBC, Bedminster, Being Human, Bristol, photo, photography, Redcliff, Redcliffe, television, telly, tv

Photo Post Of The Week

In which we look at an old diesel train and a newer steam train

Written by Forest Pines; published at 11:18 am on July 17th, 2009.
Filed under: Geekery, Photobloggery.

Another thing I mentioned that I hadn’t posted really: some pictures of old trains. Which, I know, isn’t something unusual for this site. But I did rather like this one:

Which, I like to think, could almost be a Western Region publicity poster – or rail safety poster, maybe – from around 1964. The impressive new Hymek diesel-hydraulic, made in Britain with the latest German mechanical technology, sweeping past Washford with a non-stop express to Minehead. Here’s some more, and a rather newer steam engine.

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Keyword noise: 60163, A1, diesel, diesel engine, diesel hydraulic, diesel locomotive, Hymek, LNER, Peppercorn, photography, photos, preservation, preserved, railway, steam, steam engine, steam locomotive, steam train, Tornado, train, Washford, West Somerset Railway, WSR

Photo Post Of The Week

In which we go to Glastonbury

Written by Forest Pines; published at 10:29 am on July 3rd, 2009.
Filed under: Photobloggery.

Talking of summer storms: we popped down to Glastonbury the other month, for a poke around the bookshops, and for a walk up to the top of Glastonbury Tor. As we did so, the heavens opened, and we, and all the other tourists making the climb, got soaked.

We watched the storm motoring its way off across the Somerset Levels, away to soak the distant hills.

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Keyword noise: Glastonbury, Glastonbury Tor, photography, photos, Somerset, storm, weather

Photo Post Of The Week

In which we compare analogue and digital

Written by Forest Pines; published at 10:23 pm on June 5th, 2009.
Filed under: Geekery, Photobloggery.

It took me a while to catch on to the idea of digital photography. “Bah,” I thought, “you can’t spend hours in the darkroom with a digital photo. And I’ll always need to keep buying more and more disk space.” Both slightly false excuses, to be honest: it’s years since I’ve had easy access to a darkroom, and the disk space doesn’t get burned up that quickly. Generally, though, it was a good thing that I didn’t rush into it; I saved up, until I could afford a good camera, rather than jump in at the cheap end. And I’m pleased with what I got.

This post, though, follows up from the previous Photo Post Of The Week, in which, as I said, K and I walked up through London from Tate Modern to Clerkenwell, retracing a route I’d done a few years before. Both times, I took photos. Three years ago, I had my cheaply-grabbed-on-Ebay Nikon F801 with me. Here’s one of the photos:

This time, we took K’s nifty little compact Panasonic. Remembering the last trip, I deliberately retook that last photo with it:

I can see straight away which is the better photo. That doesn’t mean I regret waiting until I could afford a good digital camera; but it does make me wonder what opportunities I missed, and what I could have improved with my film shots.

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Keyword noise: camera, digital, digital camera, film, London, photography, photos, Smithfield, Smithfield Market

Photo Post Of The Week

Because there’s still a handful of photos to show you

Written by Forest Pines; published at 9:02 am on May 8th, 2009.
Filed under: Photobloggery.

Well, I still have a few to put up. Ones from London last weekend, for one thing, although they’re still on the memory card at the moment. And some from closer to home too. I particularly like this one:

This one, though, is probably best left without a caption. It’s on St Thomas St.

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Keyword noise: Bristol, cemetary, Easton, grave, graveyard, Greenbank, Greenbank Cemetary, memorial, photography, photos

Not Photo Post Of The Week

In which we don’t have many photos, but do have some of the latest guided busway gossip

Written by Forest Pines; published at 9:41 am on April 24th, 2009.
Filed under: Linkery, Photobloggery, Political.

Back in August, we went away to Cornwall. As you’d expect, I took the camera, and took hundreds and hundreds of photos. They slowly went online – very slowly, because I’m impatient, and it takes a long time to upload photos when each one weighs about 4Mb.

Moreover, a few weeks after we got back from Cornwall, we moved house; and after we moved house, we were offline for about two months whilst we argued with various broadband providers whether our flat really existed or not. All that time, we were out taking more photos, which slowly built up. As a result, when we did finally get online, I had a rather large backlog of photos to deal with. Plenty of photos for me to upload 30-35 photos per week, and post the best few on here every Friday.

800-odd photos later, though,* the end is in sight. I’m still working on the photos from the Easter weekend, but after that, that’s about it. The backlog is over, and I’m going to be putting photos up within a few days of taking them. Which leaves Photo Post Of The Week a little stuck, without the regular flow to pick the best of. I’m not entirely sure what to do with it. Do I return to it when I have more to show, or do I go back and post here photos that I took months or years back? I’m still trying to decide. Maybe it will just be replaced, with a sign like this:

In the meantime, there have been more Bristol Guided Busway developments following my most recent post on the topic. Chris Hutt yesterday published “At Last, The Truth” about the history of the West of England Partnership’s plans for Prince St Bridge, and Bristol Traffic has pointed out that their plans to replace the Bristol-Bath Cycle Path with a buses-only road are still marked out clearly on their maps despite being tactfully edited out of the text, which merely mention their aspiration to build an Ashton-Emersons Green route one day. Personally, I think Chris is being a tad optimistic as to whether he’s discovered the truth and the whole truth, as you could say, but we’re certainly closer to it than we’d be if we were relying on the West of England Partnership’s own somewhat misleading and vague publications and press releases.

* Or “800 odd photos later”, you could argue.

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Keyword noise: Bedminster, Bristol, BRT, Bus Rapid Transit, guided busway, misleading, photography, photos, West of England Partnership