Author: jamesclay

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Then and Now Take Two – Where’s Santa?

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

I have taken this view at Cabot Circus a fair few times, one big difference this year is that there is no Santa. This photo was taken in November 2023.

This photograph was taken last year on the 26th November 2022.

I remembered I had taken a photograph in the same location, back on December 8th 2019. I was on my way to do a pick up from the Vue Cinema, so I took a photograph of the festive Cabot Circus.

I also wrote about it back then as well and in that post I used an image I found  searching Flickr from December 2012. It would seem I am not alone in taking photographs from that vantage point outside House of Fraser.

Cabots Circus by David X Mitchell via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

I have written a few times about how I have taken photographs of this view of Cabot Circus.

Then and Now Take Three – Cabot Circus

Then and Now Take Two – Cabot Circus

Then and Now, but not alone – Cabot Circus

Then and Now – Cabot Circus

Then and Now Take Two – Cabot Circus Christmas Changes

Cabot Circus Christmas Changes

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Then and Now Take Two Again – Bristol Airport

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

Over the years I have taken this view at Bristol Airport quite a few times, both unintentionally and now intentionally.

I was flying to Glasgow in November 2023, so I took my usual photograph.

I was flying to Amsterdam in October 2023 so I took a photograph from the window next to the balcony at the departures lounge. The balcony itself was closed, it was rather foggy.

Bristol Airport

When travelling from Bristol Airport in August 2023 I took this photograph from the balcony at the departures lounge.

View of an airport

When I was at Bristol Airport on the 14th November 2022, I intentionally took a photograph from the same vantage point.

I had taken a similar picture in February 2017.

I took this view of Bristol Airport from the departures lounge on an early morning in August 2016.

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Then and Now Take Two – A really BIG crane

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

Staying in Glasgow last year for a conference, I was impressed with the Finnieston Crane, so took a photograph of the crane.

The Finnieston Crane is a disused giant cantilever crane in the centre of Glasgow, Scotland. It is no longer operational, but is retained as a symbol of the city’s engineering heritage. The crane was used for loading cargo, in particular steam locomotives, onto ships to be exported around the world.

So when I was back in Glasgow I intentionally took a photograph of the crane.

I took this photograph in November 2022 and then edited it using Snapseed.

I took this photograph a year later  in November 2023 and also edited it using Snapseed.

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Tyntesfield Again

For Christmas I got a National Trust membership. It’s being a few years since I was last a member, but now looking forward to visiting new places and going back to places we have been to before.

Back in 2016 I did start to keep a note of how much we saved with the membership, but looking back over the blog, I never kept up to date with that, but with this membership I am intending to blog about the visits we do this year and the savings we made.

We visited Tyntesfield back in January, this time I was on my own. I was going for a walk, and decided I would walk the grounds at Tyntesfield and visit the house whilst I was there.

Tyntesfield

An ornate Victorian Gothic Revival house with extensive garden and parkland, just a stone’s throw from Bristol

Current saving £243.55

Adult Ticket £17.00

Parking £3.00

Total saving £20.00

Cumulative saving £397.15

Membership cost £133.80

Net cumulative saving £263.35

Continue reading “Tyntesfield Again”

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Topping & Company Booksellers of Bath

Visiting Bath, I was told about an amazing bookshop that my daughter had visited on a previous visit to Bath. 

It took a while to find it, as she couldn’t quite remember the exact location, and she doesn’t know Bath that well. Eventually we found it. 

Topping & Company Booksellers use to be on The Paragon, but in December 2021 after fourteen years they moved to the old Friends Meeting House on York Street.

I had never been here or seen it before.

It was an amazing bookshop with three levels and lots of books.

Ladders for climbing the tall bookcases and (in theory) complimentary tea and coffee.

You could spend all day in there.

Lots of books.

Out the back is a historic house.

Certainly will be returning here, the next time I visit Bath.

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Then and Now Take Two – Sand Bay Bunker

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

On the beach at Sand Bay is an old second world war pillbox. It looks like it has sunk into the sand, I am not sure if it has just sunk, or of it had slipped down the beach over the years.

This is the bunker in October 2023, which I took with an iPhone 13 intentionally.

I realised checking my photo collection that I had also taken the same photo (probably intentionally) in April 2021 with an iPhone 8.

Here is the (same) view in June 2020 taken with an iPhone 8.

This was the view in April 2017 taken with an iPhone 6S Plus.

There appears to be an extra telegraph pole in the 2020 photo, that was installed in the intervening  three years.

I do think it interesting that there are quite a few pillboxes and beach defences at Sand Bay. You wouldn’t have thought that this coastline was under threat of German invasion back in the 1940s. It’s quite a way from the continent and you would need to go around both Devon and Cornwall (going past Plymouth, a major Royal Navy port), as well as South Wales before hitting the beaches at Weston and Sandy Bay. However doing some research about the pillboxes, I came to realise that the British in 1940 did believe that invasion may come from the South West. The Taunton Stop Line was a defensive line in south west England. It was designed “to stop an enemy’s advance from the west and in particular a rapid advance supported by tanks which may have broken through the forward defences.

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The Little Cars of Amsterdam

On my recent visit to Amsterdam I saw lots of small cars, quadricycles, oh and a trike.

car
Citroen Ami

car
A very old Fiat 500 which had its doors replaced.
car
Open Rock, which is a rebadged Citroen Ami

They seemed very popular with young and old alike.

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Then and Now Take Two – Bristol Airport

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

Over the years I have taken this view at Bristol Airport quite a few times, both unintentionally and now intentionally.

I was flying to Amsterdam in October 2023 so I took a photograph from the window next to the balcony at the departures lounge. The balcony itself was closed.

Bristol Airport

When travelling from Bristol Airport in August 2023 I took this photograph from the balcony at the departures lounge.

View of an airport

When I was at Bristol Airport on the 14th November 2022, I intentionally took a photograph from the same vantage point.

I had taken a similar picture in February 2017.

I took this view of Bristol Airport from the departures lounge on an early morning in August 2016.