Category: photography

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Then and Now – Jedburgh Abbey at Legoland

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.

Jedburgh Abbey, a ruined Augustinian abbey which was founded in the 12th century, is situated in the town of Jedburgh, in the Scottish Borders 10 miles north of the border with England at Carter Bar.

At Legoland Windsor there is a Lego model of Jedburgh Abbey, which I have photographed a lot over the last twenty years (or so).

I took this photograph in August 2006. At this point the park was ten years old.

Here is the same model two years later in August 2008.

By August 2014 the ruin had become overgrown with real plants growing across the ruins.

A year later in July 2015 it didn’t look too different.

When we visited in August 2017 there had been some gardening done and various small trees and plants had been removed.

For the most part I did not realise I was taking a similar photograph of the same model. However now this has come to my attention that I have been taking similar photographs I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place. So in October 2022 on my most recent visit to Legoland I sought out Jedburgh Abbey and took a photograph.

The trees behind the model had grown somewhat, but other trees around the model had been removed.

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Then and Now Take Two – River Liffey

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. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

Last week I flew out to Dublin and was reminded of various previous trips to the city.

I had been to Dublin four times before. I was there in August 1998 when I was on a day trip, we were camping in Pembrokeshire and caught the ferry to Rosslare and then the train to Dublin. I do remember going on an open top bus, and then visiting the Guinness museum. I took some photographs, using a film camera.

When I went to Edtech 2020 in Athlone, caught a flight to Dublin. Before catching the train to Athlone I did explore some of Dublin. Didn’t have a huge amount of time back then, but I took some photographs and it was these I decided to intentionally take again.

I went to MoodleMoot 2012, which was in Dublin, however I never go further than the conference hotel which was next to the airport.

My last visit to Dublin was in 2016, where I was keynoting at LiLAC 2016. I saw many different parts of Dublin on that visit. Mainly as I was out at University College Dublin and staying at the St. Helen’s Hotel which was quite far south of Dublin. We did have a nice conference dinner at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. However I did not make it into the city centre on that visit.

I had some time on the day I was leaving Dublin to explore the city, and I attempted to find the locations where I had take a photograph previously. The easy one was the General Post Office (GPO) on O’Connell Street, which had been at the heart of the 1916 Easter Rising.

I had taken this photograph of the River Liffey in May 2020 using a Sony DSC-W35.

This is a similar view in September 2022 using an iPhone 13.

I had taken another photograph from the same bridge in May 2020 using a Sony DSC-W35.

This is the not quite the same view or angle, but close enough, in September 2022 using an iPhone 13.

 

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Then and Now Take Two – GPO in Dublin

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. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

Last week I flew out to Dublin and was reminded of various previous trips to the city.

I had been to Dublin four times before. I was there in August 1998 when I was on a day trip, we were camping in Pembrokeshire and caught the ferry to Rosslare and then the train to Dublin. I do remember going on an open top bus, and then visiting the Guinness museum. I took some photographs, using a film camera.

When I went to Edtech 2020 in Athlone, caught a flight to Dublin. Before catching the train to Athlone I did explore some of Dublin. Didn’t have a huge amount of time back then, but I took some photographs and it was these I decided to intentionally take again.

I went to MoodleMoot 2012, which was in Dublin, however I never go further than the conference hotel which was next to the airport.

My last visit to Dublin was in 2016, where I was keynoting at LiLAC 2016. I saw many different parts of Dublin on that visit. Mainly as I was out at University College Dublin and staying at the St. Helen’s Hotel which was quite far south of Dublin. We did have a nice conference dinner at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. However I did not make it into the city centre on that visit.

I had some time on the day I was leaving Dublin to explore the city, and I attempted to find the locations where I had take a photograph previously. The easy one was the General Post Office (GPO) on O’Connell Street, which had been at the heart of the 1916 Easter Rising.

I had taken this photograph of the GPO in May 2020 using a Sony DSC-W35.

GPO in Dublin in 2010

This is the same view in September 2022 using an iPhone 13.

GPO in Dublin in 2022

The main differences are the new traffic lights and the tram lines. The tram arrived in Dublin in June 2004.

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Then and Now – Ashorne Hill Conference Centre

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!

I was recently at the Ashorne Hill Conference Centre and took this photograph of the centre.

Going back over the food photographs from when I was there last year comparing what we had then to what we had this time, I shouldn’t have been surprised to see this photograph.

When it was a coffee break, you could go outside and this was the view and perspective of the centre from the patio area outside where we had coffee.

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Then and Now Take Two – The Gatehouse

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. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

I was in Manchester at a conference and was walking back to my hotel. I turned a corner and I was reminded of a photograph I had taken at that conference in 2005.

I had attended a conference in Manchester in 2005 and had taken a couple of photographs including this one of the University gatehouse.

When the conference returned to Manchester in 2009, it was at a different location and I forgot about this view. I also couldn’t remember where it actually was on later visits to Manchester.

So it was quite an interesting surprise when I walked around the corner and there was this view of Manchester that I knew from 2005.

The gatehouse looked a little worse for wear, and the trees had grown, but apart from that little has changed in seventeen years.

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Then and Now Take Two – Morton Laboratory 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. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

I was staying up in Manchester again. This time I was staying at the Macdonald Manchester Hotel. I had stayed at the hotel before in September 2015. Back then I had taken this photograph of the Morton Laboratory from my hotel room window.

So staying at the hotel again in September 2022 I took a similar photograph.

Not quite the same angle, as I was in a different hotel room and (probably) on a different floor.  The newer photograph was taken with an iPhone 13 which is better in low light conditions.

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Then and Now Take Two – MSS Tower 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. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

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.

I was staying up in Manchester again. This time I was staying at the Macdonald Manchester Hotel. I had stayed at the hotel before in September 2015. Back then I had taken this photograph of the MSS Tower from my hotel room window.

So staying at the hotel again in September 2022 I took a similar photograph.

Not quite the same angle, as I was in a different hotel room and (probably) on a different floor.  Not too much had changed, the trees have grown though. Also the newer photograph was taken with an iPhone 13 which is better in low light conditions.

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Then and Now Take Two – Philadelphia Street

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.

Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

Philadelphia Street was part of the Cabot Circus and Quaker’s Friar development.

This photo of the construction of the development was taken in July 2008.

This is Philadelphia Street in July 2022.

This overhead view I took in July 2005 shows the old car park.

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Then and Now – Kings College Chapel

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!

On a recent visit to Cambridge I took an intentional photograph of Trinity Lane as part of the Then and Now Take Two series. I also took a lot of other photographs including this one of Kings College Chapel.

I was looking at posts on this blog with the cambridge tag when I noticed that back in 2020 (pre-pandemic) I had taken a virtually identical photograph of Kings College Chapel.

Kings College Chapel

The 2022 photograph was taken in the middle of the day in July, whilst the 2020 photograph was a late afternoon shot in January.

 

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Then and Now Take Two – Trinity Lane, Cambridge

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.

Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

I grew up in Cambridge, but moved away when I went to university in York. I remember rarely visiting the University of Cambridge as a youngster, why would I? However I did do some specialist maths classes at Trinity College, so would walk down Trinity Lane.

So on a recent visit to Cambridge I knew I had to take a photograph I knew I had taken before. So, this is a photograph of Trinity Lane taken in July 2022 with an iPhone 13.

This was taken in the middle of the day in bright sunshine.

It was back in March 2009 when I was at a JISC RSC Eastern event in Cambridge I did take the time the day before to walk around the town and took this photograph of Trinity Lane.

It was taken in the early evening with a Sony DSC-W53 camera, which to be honest struggled with the low light conditions.

I stayed over in Cambridge back in January 2020 and as on previous visits I had a walk around the city before heading to my hotel. I took this photograph of Trinity Lane. I hadn’t recalled I had take a similar photograph already, and it was only when reviewing some photographs that I recalled that I had taken two very similar photographs of Trinity Lane.

I took this with an iPhone 8 in late afternoon I did edit and enhance the image with Snapseed, but the iPhone was able to deal with the low light  conditions so much better.