Category: photography

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Then and Now Take Two Once More – Cheddar Yeo Sword

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. 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 took this photograph of the Cheddar Yeo Sword in May 2026 using an iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Cheddar Yeo Sword

I took this photograph of the Cheddar Yeo Sword a month before, in April 2026 using an iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Cheddar Yeo Sword

I took this photograph in August 2025 using an iPhone 13.

Back in January 2024, I was having a short walk in Cheddar after the storms and the Cheddar Yeo stream was a real torrent of water. I took a photograph of the Cheddar Yeo Sword being bombarded by the water. This was taken with an iPhone 13.

I checked my older photographs of Cheddar after taking that photograph and there was this very similar photograph I had taken in Cheddar in May 2021 from almost the same perspective. This was taken with an iPhone 8.

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Then and Now Take Two another time – Minehead Engine Shed

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. 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 took this photograph at Minehead Station on the West Somerset Railway in May 2026 using an iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Minehead Engine Shed

Here are the other photographs of the same place dating back to September 2004.

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Then and Now Take Two – Clifford’s Tower

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. 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.

Clifford’s Tower was the keep of York Castle. I first went to York on a school trip in 1979 and we went up the tower. I didn’t have a camera back then. I made a return visit to York in the summer of 1987 and visited the Tower then as well.

In October 1987 I studied at York University for three years and saw Clifford’s Tower on a regular basis as I went in and out of town. I made a return visit to York in July 1993. It was quite a few years later before I visited again, and this time it was a fleeting visit to the university in March 2006. I also was there for a workshop in April 2009.

My most recent visit to York was in April 2026 and I took this photograph of Clifford’s Tower using an iPhone 17 Max Pro.

Clifford’s Tower

This is my original photograph. We did a family holiday to York in March 2013 and I took this photograph of Clifford’s Tower with an Apple iPhone 4.

Ten years later in September 2023 I was back in York and it was pouring with rain and I quickly took a photograph of Clifford’s Tower with an iPhone 13.

It wasn’t too surprising that it was a similar view to the photo from 2013 with the iPhone 4.

In June 2024 I took this photograph using an iPhone 13.

The window is dark in later photographs as they built some stuff inside, whereas back in 2013 the castle was very open.

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. I quite like those Then and Now comparison photographs that you see in books or on the Facebook.

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Then and Now Take Two – Marmorkirken

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. 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.

The Marmorkirken is an 18th-century Lutheran church with the largest dome in Scandinavia.

I took this photograph of the Marmorkirken in July 2004 using a Sony Cybershot digital camera.

Marmorkirken

When I returned to Copenhagen in March 2026 I took a similar shot using an iPhone 13.

Not quite the same shot, but pretty close.

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Then and Now – Cox’s Mill Hotel

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. I quite like those Then and Now comparison photographs that you see in books or on the Twitter or Facebook.  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.

After a recent visit to Cheddar I was reviewing some photographs from previous visits and realised I had taken two similar photographs of the (then) historic Cox’s Mill Hotel. This was a hotel built on the site of a former mill dated back to the mid 1800s.

This was taken in August 2013 with a Canon EOS 400D digital camera.

This view of the now boarded up hotel was taken in May 2021 with an iPhone 8.

However in October 2022 the hotel was demolished as it was beyond economic repair and the space has been turned into initially a public space, but is now a motorbike parking area.

This (almost) similar shot was taken in January 2024 with an iPhone 13.

I took this photograph in April 2026 with an iPhone 17 Pro Max of the water area.

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Then and Now Take Two Again – Cheddar Yeo Sword

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. 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 took this photograph of the Cheddar Yeo Sword in April 2026 using an iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Cheddar Yeo Sword

I took this photograph in August 2025 using an iPhone 13.

Back in January 2024, I was having a short walk in Cheddar after the storms and the Cheddar Yeo stream was a real torrent of water. I took a photograph of the Cheddar Yeo Sword being bombarded by the water.

I checked my older photographs of Cheddar after taking that photograph and there was this very similar photograph I had taken in Cheddar in May 2021 from almost the same perspective.

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Then and Now Take Two Once More – Sand Bay Bunker

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. 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.

I have taken many photographs of the bunker. This was taken in April 2026 using an iPhone 17 Max Pro.

Here are the photographs from over the years taken of the same view. This was taken in September 2024 using an iPhone 13.

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

This was taken 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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Then and Now Take Two – Back to Bristol Airport

So, I have taken this photograph lots of times, literally every time I visit Bristol Airport.

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. Over the years I have taken this view at Bristol Airport quite a few times, both unintentionally and now intentionally.

This was taken in March 2026 using an iPhone 13.

Bristol Airport

Here are the photographs from over the years taken of the same view.

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Then and Now Take Two – Portishead Marina

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. 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 took this photograph of Portishead Marina  in March 2026 using an iPhone 13.

The housing complex is so different when the sun is shining upon it.

I took this photograph of Portishead Marina  in December 2025 using an iPhone 13.

Portishead Marina

Whilst writing about the coffee I had, I noted that I had taken this shot in April 2023 (also with an iPhone 13).

Blue skies and reflections.

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Then and Now Take Two One More Time – Killerton Chapel

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. 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 visited Killerton back in June 2023 and made a return visit in May 2025, I also went in February 2026.

This photograph of the chapel was taken in February 2026 using an iPhone 13.

Killerton Chapel

When I made my return visit in May 2025 I took a photograph of the chapel, this was taken with a Canon EOS R100.

When I visited in 2023 it was covered in scaffolding. I took this photograph with an iPhone 13.