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.

Giving 'em an earful (almost)

Dad's been in the wars in recent weeks. For few years now he's had problems with a cancerous tumour on his left ear, which has been removed several times only to re-grow again some months later.

For a couple of years or so he's been in the clear, but earlier this year it came back again, this time quickly growing bigger than it had previously.








There was only one thing to do - get to the specialists again and get it removed, but this time they had to cut more away to hopefully be sure they'd got it all.

Now that he's had the stitches removed it's clear that the result isn't too pleasant but hopefully it'll start to heal now, and as Dad will tell you, it's better than the alternative.

The car you always promised yourself

This one's for Wibs: We were at Cleveleys just for an afternoon out, when we stumbled across a classic car display right down the new walkway along the promenade. Whilst there were several cars there from the 60's and earlier, there were also plenty from the 70's and even 80's, however describing cars from my era as 'classic' makes me feel old!

There were several little sports cars such as Triumph Spitfires from the 60's and 70's, but this early 1980's Ford Capri caught my eye, being a favourite of Wibs, and in absolutely mint condition too.



The term Capri was first used by Ford in 1961 for a two-door coupe version of the Classic saloon, and then the Consul Capri the following year. The first car known simply as the Capri was launched in 1969, as a European version of the American Mustang, and it's sporty looks made it extremely popular. Ford coined the advertising slogan "The car you always promised yourself" for the Capri.

By 1974, the mark II Capri was launched with a number of small improvements, but sales were on a slow decline which meant by 1977, a mark III version was developed. This was ready for the public in 1978, and this is the version we saw at Cleveleys. The use of Capris in the TV series The Professionals helped maintain interest in the UK, giving the Capri a cult car status, but sales failed to improve significantly and by the mid 1980s the Capri was doomed. The last Capri rolled off the prodution line in 1986 - after more than 1.8 million Capris had been produced.

Beautiful butterflies

This weekend we found ourselves on a familiar short walk between Catterall and Churchtown and for a change, rather than focus (literally!) on the landscapes and scenery, I felt like zooming in to the world of insects. But although the macro lens is perfect for extreme close-ups, I found that my telephoto got better results as it let me in close whilst keeping my distance. Perhaps not prize-winning shots, but interesting nonetheless.

I'm no expert but I believe this is the small white butterfly, Pieris rapae, also a claimant to the informal name of 'cabbage white'.

The cabbage white caterpillars can decimate crops of cabbages, as you might expect, but also are fond of swedes, turnips, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. The small white is a native species to the UK, and populations fluctuate depending on the weather. There were plenty out today, so perhaps this is a good year for them.




This is a related butterfly, the Green-veined white, Pieris napi, which is more common than the cabbage white in the countryside.

Unlike the cabbage white its caterpillars don't attack cabbages, but it can often be found in damp hedgerows, ditches, riverbanks, meadows and moorland. It is considered the most widespread butterfly in the UK, so they aren't difficult to spot when you're out and about.

Photography at Salford Quays

There's many a photograph been taken at Salford Quays as the architecture and water lend themselves to photography. The surroundings are always changing too, with new developments almost a regular occurrence since the regeneration of the area in the early 90s.

I was here with the Camera Club, and around a dozen or so of us met up and then dispersed looking for the potential competition-winning photos.

The bridges are the obvious structures to photograph, but I was looking for something a little more original, so on a theme of reflections I produced three which I'm happy with - these are posted on my other blog here.







The theme of the evening for me was patterns, and they are everywhere once you start to see - you just need the creative parts of your brain to be switched on. The design of some of the buildings aren't always easy to fathom, but they do make great photos as this tower at the Lowry demonstrates.







After a drink at a nearby bar we let the sun set, and the landscape lit up in countless colours, giving us new opportunities for that winning picture.

The Lowry Theatre building nearby is another with a peculiar shape, but the blues and oranges which light it up after dark make for an interesting composition. But will it be good enough to win?

Celebrating Wibs' 40th birthday

Well we wondered if it was actually going to happen, but at the last minute the big fella came up trumps and organised a great meal for closest friends at the Sirloin in Hoghton.








As always Bev had made sure all Paul's past 40 years were well documented with a number of photo boards which featured all of us to some extent, bringing back many happy memories of past celebrations, holidays and general mucking about.

Bev had also made a fabulous cake, with Paul featuring dressed in camouflage as he tries to capture that perfect picture of a bird, proving that there is talent in the Webster house after all!


For once I managed to get everyone on camera at some point in the evening, and this included Carole and me too. The meal was fantastic and we had a great time reminiscing and generally taking the whatsit out of what is after all a top mate.

Manchester Velodrome visit

The National Cycling Centre, more commonly known as Manchester Velodrome, was built ahead of the 1996 Commonwealth Games, and along with the stadium, which is now Manchester City's home, it has become one of the Games' enduring legacies.

Britain's re-emergence as a dominant world power in cycling is in part due to the excellent facilities in Manchester, and I had the chance to go and visit this evening with the camera club, with the aim, hopefully, of taking some decent pictures.

The session we'd gone to photograph was devoted to a local club, who appeared to be a decent standard - certainly much to good for my photography as more often than not as they were just too quick for me!

We had access to all the seating areas, and without an audience I had time to set up the tripod to build this 180° panorama.



There were plenty places to look for photos inside the track circuit, from the racks of bikes to the track itself, but sports photography is more difficult than it looks and many of the images ended up being deleted once I got them on the computer.

A handful did come out quite well though, and as hopefully there'll be another visit in a few months, I may get chance to learn from my mistakes and have another go.

A fire drill with a difference!

Over the summer with the lighter nights, the camera club itinery includes a number of evenings out, but so far they've always fallen on days when I've had something else on. This week though the plan was to visit the local fire station, so I was pleased to coming along, even though I hadn't seen beyond the opportunity to take pictures of fire engines.

After a little confusion about the arrangements, the guys really came up trumps for us by changing into their gear and setting up a full drill in their practice area round the back of the station. Although the rain never stopped, it was quickly forgotton in a fast-paced hour or so where there was so much going on it was difficult to keep up and see the different picture opportunities available.




From a photography point of view, this was a real test in composition, swapping lenses frequently as the exercise developed, all the time trying to keep camera body and lenses relatively dry and the glass free from splashes.




The fire crew used water directly from the river behind the station (incredibly the hosepipe ban extends to fire crews too, at least when training), and simulated tackling a high level fire using the tower in the corner of the training area. This involved setting up the ladders quickly, and climbing through a window area to tackle the 'blaze'.

What I hadn't expected was the structure to the exercise; beforehand the station manager on duty called a drill and set out the objective of the exercise, then control was taken over by the watch manager, who was also being shadowed by as part of their training. Each firefighter had specific responsibilities, whether managing the water supply, laying hoses, supporting the ladders and of course directing the water jets.

Suddenly a series of whistle blasts sounded, this indicated that the 'building' was no longer considered safe, so all the firefighters in the tower had to exit quickly. Even here there were strict procedures to follow: I noticed only one firefighter was allowed on the ladder at any one time, and the ladder was always supported by another. With everyone accounted for, they then set up a ground-level jet, which could continue to douse the flames from a safe distance, and could even be left alone while efforts were concentrated elsewhere.

At the end of the exercise, the equipment was dismantled and dried, the hoses rolled up and the fire engine packed. After this the watch manager and station manager talked the team through the exercise, highlighting what worked well and what could have been better. To the untrained eye though, it was a very impressive display, especially as many on the team were new starters.

I wasn't aware that a number of the crew in Darwen are retained firefighters, having other jobs and careers too. They have to respond to a paging within five minutes to deal with the full range of emergencies alongside their full-time colleagues, and this makes the evening even more humbling. We talked about the anti-social behaviour fire crews experience, like hoax calls, which surely wouldn't happen as often if people could see exercises like this.