Then and Now Take Two – Manchester (again)

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, back in Manchester in January 2023 and arrived in St Peters’ Square by tram I took the same photograph I had taken before.

This photo was taken in May 2022.

This photo was taken March 2022.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.