Category: photography

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Then and Now – ICC Birmingham

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.

I always think I should give them 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.  The first instance of this that I noticed was in May 2019 when I went to  Manchester. It only really came to my attention that I was doing this a lot, when checking the Places function on the Apple Photos Mac App that I could see I had taken the same photograph of the same thing just years apart!

Next door to the ICC in Birmingham is a canal and there is a bridge across there from Brindley Place, and it would appear quite often when crossing the bridge I would take a photograph.

This was the view in March 2015

Here we are seven years later in March 2022 with a very similar view.

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Uphill Wharf and Marine Centre

Over in the village of Uphill, close to Weston-super-Mare is the Uphill Boatyard (or Wharf and Marine Centre).

One evening I was there and took a few minutes to take some photographs of the boats in the yard.

I was surprised and a little saddened to see a large number of boats in such poor condition.

I kind of expected that there would be a few boats that needed some loving care, but the majority seemed to be in a state of disrepair.

However these boats do make an interesting subject for some HDR photography.

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Then and Now – Jurys Inn, Manchester

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. I always think I should give them 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.  The first instance of this that I noticed was in May 2019 when I went to Manchester. It only really came to my attention that I was doing this a lot, when checking the Places function on the Apple Photos Mac App that I could see I had taken the same photograph of the same thing just years apart!

As I started publishing this series of blog posts I am now a little more conscious about taking photographs and in some cases I am intentionally taking a similar photograph of what I have photographed before. Even so, now and then I find I am unconsciously taking similar photographs.

I was in Manchester in March 2022 at a conference. I consciously retook a photograph of the council building which I had taken before. What I didn’t realise I had unconsciously taken another photograph on the same visit that was similar to one I had taken before.

While I was in Manchester I also took a photograph of the Jurys Inn (where I was staying) by the canal.

Going through my photographs I wasn’t too surprised to find that in July 2017 I had taken a very similar photograph.

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Then and Now Take Two – Manchester

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. 

The first instance of this that came to my attention was in May 2019 when I went to Manchester.  I had recently been using Amazon Photos as an online backup service for my photographs. One of the nice features is that in the app it shows you photos from the same date in previous years So I was amused to find that two years ago to the day, not only had I being in Manchester, but I had also taken some photographs including this one the same council building I had taken.

So having come back to Manchester in March 2022, the first time since that time in May 2019,  it was a bit of a no brainer to take the same photograph again.

Here is the photograph from May 2019. I was staying in a hotel close to MediaCity, so caught the Metrolinktram into the centre of the city. I arrived in St Peter’s Square and decided to take a few photographs, including this one of a council building.

This was the photograph I had taken in May 2017.

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Then and Now – ICC

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. I always think I should give them 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.  The first instance of this that I noticed was in May 2019 when I went to Manchester. It only really came to my attention that I was doing this a lot, when checking the Places function on the Apple Photos Mac App that I could see I had taken the same photograph of the same thing just years apart!

As I started publishing this series of blog posts I am now a little more conscious about taking photographs and in some cases I am intentionally taking a similar photograph of what I have photographed before. Even so, now and then I find I am unconsciously taking similar photographs.

I took this photo of the inside of the ICC in Birmingham on April 15th 2008.

I have been going to the ICC for conferences for years now, so it wasn’t too surprising to find that earlier this month on the 9th March 2022 I took this photograph of the ICC not realising that fourteen years ago I had taken a similar shot.

I hadn’t even planned this shot, I had had a text from my son asking about my day and where I was in Birmingham, so I took this photo as I walked to a sessions and sent it to him.

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Then and Now – Kiln House

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.

Unlike some of the photographs in this series, this time the now photograph was an intentional photo.

Back in May 2016 I went for a lunchtime walk and saw the building work in the Redcliff Quarter of Bristol. One place caught my eye, Kiln House, where the majority of the building had been demolished, but the facade was retained (it was probably listed).

This is another view of the facade.

The other day I was out for a similar lunchtime walk and remembered taking the photograph (didn’t actually remember when, I had to find the older photograph when I got home). So I took another photograph from a similar (but not quite the same) perspective.

Kiln House is now modern flats, but I don’t know much about the history of the original building.

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Then and Now – St Pancras Railway Station

St Pancras Railway Station

I took this photograph of St Pancras Railway Station in March 2019 from an office building across from the station.

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.

I always think I should give them 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. The first instance of this that I noticed was in May 2019 when I went to  Manchester. It only really came to my attention that I was doing this a lot, when checking the Places function on the Apple Photos Mac App that I could see I had taken the same photograph of the same thing just years apart!

Back in August 2007 I took this photograph of St Pancras Railway Station.

St Pancras Railway Station

At the time the station was undergoing an £800 million refurbishment to become the terminal for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link as part of an urban regeneration plan across East London.

London St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is the terminus for Eurostar services from Belgium, France and the Netherlands to London. It provides East Midlands Railway services to Leicester, Corby, Derby, Sheffield and Nottingham on the Midland Main Line, Southeastern high-speed trains to Kent via Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International, and Thameslink cross-London services to Bedford, Cambridge, Peterborough, Brighton and Gatwick Airport. It stands between the British Library, the Regent’s Canal and London King’s Cross railway station, with which it shares a London Underground station, King’s Cross St Pancras.

This is the (similar) view of the station which I photographed in June 2016.

Two years later I was back and took a similar shot in September 2018.

This time I was actually catching a train from St Pancras to Paris (and then onto Brest) for a conference presentation.

I was back at St Pancras in August 2021, however I took a photograph from a different perspective.

St Pancras Railway Station

Close by to St Pancras is Kings Cross Railway Station.

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Then and Now Take Two – Snowing in Weston Village

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.

I published back in February some photos of Weston Village in the snow, so when I was there recently I decided to (intentionally) take a similar photograph and add it to the photographs I had taken there before. This time no snow, just some spring sunshine from April 2020.

Weston Village

However the following photographs were intentionally taken from the same location. I have over the years (when we had snow) taken a particular photograph so here is the 2018 version.

This with the wind and the cold was actually some of the worst weather I have seen down here, but as you can see it doesn’t look too bad…

This was how it looked in December 2010. Back then we had very heavy snow.

This was how it looked in eleven months earlier in January 2010,  again heavy snow.

And here it is in February 2009. At this time this was some of the worst weather we had seen in twenty years. This was taken from the other side of the fence.

 

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Then and Now – Clevedon Pier

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.

I always think I should give them 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.  The first instance of this that came to my attention was last year in May when I went to Manchester.

It only really came to my attention that I was doing this a lot, when checking the Places function on the Apple Photos Mac App that I could see I had taken the same photograph of the same thing just years apart!

I had taken some similar photographs in Clevedon, which you can see in this blog post.

Clevedon Pier is a seaside pier in the town of Clevedon, North Somerset, England on the east shore of the Severn Estuary. It was described by Sir John Betjeman, as “the most beautiful pier in England”. The pier opened in 1869 and served as an embarkation point for paddle steamer excursions for almost exactly 100 years. Two of the spans collapsed during stress testing in 1970 and demolition was proposed, but local fund raising and heritage grants allowed the pier to be dismantled for restoration and reassembled. It reopened in 1989, the pier now, once again, offers a landing stage for steamers and is a popular attraction for tourists and anglers.

I took this photograph of Clevedon Pier in May 2005.

In July 2014 I took these photographs of the pier.

Not quite the same view, but very close.

In February 2016 I took this photograph.

We were back in Clevedon in June 2017 and this was the photograph I took of the pier.

February 2018 saw me take this photograph.

In July 2019 I took another very similar photograph, this time much closer to the pier though.

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Then and Now Take Two – Moor Lane

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.

I published back in March some photos of Moor Lane, so when I was there recently I decided to (intentionally) take a similar photograph and add it to the photographs I had taken there before. This time no snow, just some spring sunshine.

Moor Lane

My other photographs of Moor Lane though did contain some intentional similar shots. The first of which was taken in January 2010 when we had some of the worst snow for forty years. I had woken up to a deep blanket of snow on the ground, so myself and my son got all wrapped up and headed off to Morrisons to do some panic buying of milk and bread (as advised by the BBC, well I think that was what they were saying. I saw this view of Moor Lane in the snow and it reminded me so much of how I pictured Narnia.

This was taken with a Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera which at the time was pretty good on taking photographs and video.

We had snow again in December 2010, so I took a similar photograph. Though we had snow by the time I got to Moor Lane a lot of it had melted and turned to slush.

In March 2012 the sun was out, and no snow.

We had snow again in January 2013, so yes, I took the same photo.

In 2016 the Moor Lane Bridge was closed to traffic for six months and then permanently closed to traffic. This has obviously had an impact of traffic on this stretch of road.

In March 2018 we had the Beast from the East and so I took a similar photograph again of Moor Lane.

So there is a distinct snow theme with these photographs, which is one of the reasons I took a new photograph of Moor Lane in the sun.