Symbolic Forest

Glasgow just wasn’t Glasgow last Saturday. Why? We walked down Queen Street, and there weren’t any goths or skater kids standing around outside the art gallery. None. Not one. The pavements, though, were wet. “They must have all just been hosed away,” said C. We looked around the art gallery, but the main gallery was closed off for installation, and none of the rest was particularly impressive. Being too lazy to get on the subway and go out to Kelvingrove, we ambled back up Sauchiehall Street and got ready for our night out.

Sunday morning, I drove C to her ferry, out along the Clyde shore. I tried to admire the scenery, but it was full of mist. We stopped off at a supermarket in Greenock for breakfast, and talked about ourselves, each other, and everything. I worried I was being a bore, or a geek, and then worried I was worrying too much. “You worry too much,” said C.

I dropped her off at the ferry terminal. Feeling suddenly at a loss, I got out the camera, before setting off for the drive home.

Keyword noise: Glasgow, holiday, photography, Scotland, travel, Wemyss Bay, railway station.

Or, photo-post of the week.

I had to go out shopping for new trainers on Sunday. I took the camera along too, though, which meant I went on a bit of a detour.

I like the third one best – the thumbnail doesn’t do it justice.

Keyword noise: Arnos Grove, clouds, ferry, ferry terminal, London, London Underground, North Woolwich, panorama, photography, pier, railway, Thames, underground, Woolwich, Woolwich Ferry.

Ten years ago, I knew I would be moving away from here, so I spent a while travelling round the area with my camera, taking photos like these two. I travelled round the whole area, as much as I could by bus and on foot, taking pictures of everything I saw, or at least as much as I could afford to get developed.

Now, I find myself doing the same thing again. Of course, I’ve just got a new camera, which gives me a bit of an excuse. Because I’m too mentally exhausted to write anything constructive, here are some photos I took, of this area, the other day.

Keyword noise: camera, photography, village.

Some time ago, I mentioned that I’d been down to the beach to take some photos, to play with a camera lens I’d just bought. Well, here some of them are, at last.

Keyword noise: beach, clouds, dunes, photography, sea, shore, sky.

One of the events from my trip to London recently: a gig by the band Montoya, at the Betsey Trotwood pub in Farringdon.^* I have an interest to declare, of course: John, Montoya’s lead singer, is someone I’ve known for years, and don’t see at all often enough.^**

I’d not seen them play before, but they really were rather good; and I’m not just saying that because John’s a friend of mine.^*** Lively, bouncy indie-rock with intelligent lyrics and intelligent chord progressions; look out for them.

I shot off a whole roll of photos, but – like the Shimura Curves gig a few days earlier, I’m not really happy with them. The Shimuras photos had put me off doing natural-light photos; so I went the other way, and produced a roll of brightly-lit shots with horribly detailed backgrounds and hardly any atmosphere. The few I did with natural light were by far the best. Here are some of them; I also didn’t get any good shots at all of the drummer, because he was hiding away at the back.

* Directly above the Widened Lines, and almost above the Ray Street Gridiron bridge – if you look at this 1860s picture, the Betsey Trotwood is above the tunnel mouth on the left, now the Circle Line.

** He’s a regular reader, too – hi John! – and there are photos of his daughter Piglet Jaime elsewhere on the site too.

*** or because he’ll be reading this.

Keyword noise: Betsey Trotwood, Farringdon, gig, indie, live music, London, Metropolitan Railway, Montoya, music, photography, London Underground, railway, Ray St Gridiron, Widened Lines.

Happy birthday to regular reader Miranda! She’s no doubt far too busy celebrating to be on the internet today, so I can get away with posting embarrassing photos of her without fear of comeback or retribution.

Keyword noise: birthday, celebration, photography.

I walked around London a lot last week. Wednesday, for example.

I started in Islington, along the canal, and wandered downwards. Past the remains of City Road underground station, through Clerkenwell and Farringdon to Smithfield, along Charterhouse Street and Grand Avenue. I walked under the restored Temple Bar to St Pauls. Then across the Millennium Bridge.

Some sort of film shoot was going on on the Millennium Bridge. A Bollywood movie, maybe, or a dance video. I lurked about with my camera, trying to work out what was going on.

Keyword noise: canal, cathedral, City Road, disused, Grand Avenue, Islington, London, London Underground, Northern Line, Millennium Bridge, Regent's Canal, Smithfield, St Pauls, St Pauls Cathedral, station, Tate Modern, Temple Bar, underground.

More photos from last week, because I’m too lazy to write something. Hope none of the people in them mind.

Keyword noise: holiday, London, photography, beer garden.

Number two argument why I need to buy a digital camera: scanning photos really is the most boring job in the world.

I intended to post sooner about last Sunday’s Shimura Curves gig, but ended up writing all sorts of random nonsense which has since been deleted instead. I should really have written about the band too, because they really were rather good. They’re rather hard to categorise, though: laptop electronica, dronerock guitar, but above it all some lovely polished girl-group harmonies. The chap who came on before them, singing along to the best 1980s Casio rhythms, wasn’t so great,^* but we found ways to amuse ourselves during his set by standing in front of the ventilation fans and pretending we were on the Baywatch credits instead.

I tried to take photos of the band, but the lighting was truly awful. A complex mauve backdrop was projected over the whole stage and the band with it, turning natural-light photos into an abstract mass of blurred shapes. Still, here are the best I came out with. The order of the band photos reflects their on-stage positions. I hope none of them mind how bad the photos are; and I like the way K Shimura seems to have a halo.

* a couple of days later I was chatting to Anna Shimura in a pub, and I mentioned that I’d been at the gig. “Oh, yes,” she said, “I remember standing in front of you during the first act, and listening to you slagging him off.”

Keyword noise: gig, harmony, live music, London, music, photography, Shimura Curves.

Well, I was planning to go out for at least one day over the long weekend, with the camera, and shoot off a few rolls of film.

The problem being, my plans for that involved it being sunny and blue-skied. And it’s not. It’s been dull and grey the whole weekend, and right now the rain’s coming down. Something makes me think the weather knows.

Of course, part of being a good photographer would be being able to say: “oh well, that doesn’t matter, instead of doing [the shots I had planned] I can go out and do [these others] instead.” Or, just go out, open-minded, to see what I can see. Not being a good photographer, I haven’t quite gained that skill just yet.

Anyway, as this is a photography post, here are a couple of shots that I wasn’t planning to take at all; just things I came across wandering around This Part Of The Forest. So maybe I did have the necessary skill once, and I’ve just lost it. On the other hand, I’ve just worked out that it’s now over ten years since I took these particular photos.

Keyword noise: light, photography, sunlight, weather.