Return to the Fire Station

After our camera club's visit to the Fire Station a few weeks ago, the guys there were pleased with the photos we'd shared with them, so they invited us back to photograph another practice session, this time using cutting equipment to get into a car and complete a rescue.

Unfortunately the light in the evening at this time of year isn't strong enough to allow a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the action, and flash photography was a non-starter as the firemen's reflective uniforms bounced the light from the flash straight back into the camera lens.

Fortunately I'd brought my tripod along and put it to good use, but even upping the ISO setting wasn't enough to avoid motion blur as the firemen set to work taking the roof off the car.


Gradually I realised that the best solution was to accept there would be movement and actually slow the shutter down some more to emphasise the effect. This produced this one shot of the men working furiously around the car which I was quite pleased with.

Getting ready for wedding photography

It's just over a month to Gail and Barry's wedding, and I'm responsible for the 'official' photographs! With the big day drawing nearer, I wanted to take a look at the two venues: Mere Hall, the Register Office for Bolton, where the wedding will be held, and the Last Drop Hotel, which would host the reception, so we'd planned a visit followed by some lunch with the happy couple.

I wanted to get a feel for the two places just to understand where I could possibly take photos, and we started by looking at Mere Hall. The only problem was the rain - it was bucketing down! Not to be deterred, I did have a quick walk round, taking a handful of snaps, before diving for shelter back in the car.

Mere Hall is a fabulous location, a large and impressive green space set in the middle of Bolton's urban sprawl. The hall itself was built by a local businessman in the late 1700s on what was at the time known as Mere Hill, then open countryside. At that time its grounds covered several acres, much of which has long since been built upon as the town grew around it. In 1890, Bolton's MP, J. P. Thomasson, bought the hall and its surviving grounds for the town as a public park, art gallery and museum, and it was converted to a Register Office in 1996.

The Last Drop by contrast is now one of Bolton's top hotels, set in acres of land on the hills on the outskirts of town. It doesn't have such an impressive history though, being previously a collection of farm buildings. The buildings were tastefully converted into a leisure complex in the 1960s, and it now includes a pub, craft shops and a restaurant as well as the hotel.










Despite the driving rain we had a look at the grounds to see where the best photos could be taken, though if the weather turns out as bad on the day itself then we'll need an indoor alternative.

Fortunately the room Gail and Barry have booked was open and kitted out for a wedding fair taking place whilst we were there, so we could get an impression of how the room would look on the day. For now though, we're all crossing our fingers for some fine weather on the day.

A lazy Saturday

With a week away from work to look forward to, today could be a day to relax and do nothing in particular. Erin, the cat from next door, had similar thoughts and decided to catch up on some zzz's in the conservatory.

The blog's been neglected recently as at the moment I'm without my camera and main lens - the lens has developed a fault which is currently being fixed and the camera's having its sensor cleaned at the same time. It won't keep us in all week and I do have a pocket camera in the meantime, so hopefully there'll be more photos to post over the next few days.