SOMERSET LEVELS 433 – WALKING WESTON’S STREETS 3

 

 

Wet morning: face with condensation or rainwater

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Weston-super-Mare, my home town, on the coast where the Somerset Levels run down into the Bristol Channel – the local, somewhat muddy, version of the sea.  Following a recent reunion with age-old friends there (here), I’ve been visiting Weston again, and walking streets echoing with things remembered – sometimes only half-remembered –  from over half a century ago.

Weston is a seaside town and, like seaside towns the UK over, it is experiencing something of an economic downturn – the era of the family seaside holiday in uncertain British weather is long past, due to cheap holidays in warmer and far more reliable, foreign climes.  So, there is to Weston something of the cheap and cheerful, a – to me, anyway – rather attractive tattiness at the edges, that makes walking here with a camera a pleasure – a definite feeling of not knowing what will appear next.  The Ghost of FATman Past perhaps?  Well, if he gives me half a chance, I’ll photograph him …

And so in Nov 2019 to pictures taken with an open mind – pictures which are, for better or for worse, in the main quite different from the preceding 400+ that I’ve posted of the Somerset Levels.  Some of them may be a little obscure / far out / radical / unexplained /  I don’t know… but I did mention photographing with an open mind, which means looking, on the spur of the moment, at anything and everything …    But, whatever, warts and all, I hope you’ll like (at least some of) these images.  (Click onto them to enlarge them)

Earlier posts in this series are here: 1 2 .

A short history of Weston is here.

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Front door

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Wet morning

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Autumn

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SOMERSET LEVELS 431 – WALKING WESTON’S STREETS

 

 

Uncertain destination

(best viewed enlarged – click onto it)

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Weston-super-Mare, my home town, on the coast where the Somerset Levels run down into the Bristol Channel – the local, somewhat muddy, version of the sea.  Following a recent reunion with age-old friends there (here), I’ve been visiting Weston again, and walking streets echoing with things remembered – sometimes only half-remembered –  from over half a century ago.

Weston is a seaside town and, like seaside towns the UK over, it is experiencing something of an economic downturn – the era of the family seaside holiday in uncertain British weather is long past, due to cheap holidays in warmer and far more reliable, foreign climes.  So, there is to Weston something of the cheap and cheerful, a – to me, anyway – rather attractive tattiness at the edges, that makes walking here with a camera a pleasure – a definite feeling of not knowing what will appear next.  The Ghost of FATman Past perhaps?  Well, if he gives me half a chance, I’ll photograph him …

And so in Nov 2019 to pictures taken with an open mind – pictures which are, for better or for worse, in the main quite different from the preceding 400+ that I’ve posted of the Somerset Levels.  Some of them may be a little obscure / far out / radical / unexplained /  I don’t know… but I did mention photographing with an open mind, which means looking, on the spur of the moment, at anything and everything …    But, whatever, warts and all, I hope you’ll like (at least some of) these images.  (Click onto them to enlarge them)

A short history of Weston is here.

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Wet morning

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Cracked and weathered frontage – built of one of the honey-coloured limestones from the Cotswold area, like Bath Stone.  An older house, once genteel.

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OUTER SUBURBS 150 – BUS SHELTER

 

 

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Looking into a bus shelter.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to further enlarge it.

Technique: TG-5 at 80mm; 1600 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; south Bristol; 24 Oct 2019.
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OUTER SUBURBS 131 – MAN AND BUS SHELTER AT SUNRISE, BESIDE GRASS AND NEW FENCE

 

 

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The year grows older, the sun rises later and – quite suddenly it seems – “the light” is starting to make very welcome appearances again during my early morning walks in Bristol’s suburbs.  From here on in, for quite a few months to come, I can look forward to sunrises, colours, mists and the wonderful remnants of night. 

One project that I have in mind is to look at autumn colour and bleakness up on the Mendip Hills; another is to take the Nikon Z 6 and the 70-300 lens down into the glare, noise, bustle, turmoil and winter darkness of Bristol’s early morning rush hours – well the spirit is willing anyway, although the willingness and fortitude of the flesh is perhaps another matter >>> but the lure of Harts Bakery might just tip the scales!!!

Anyway >>> in this image, a man stands in a bus shelter that, being struck by the sunrise’s first, intense rays, throws shadows across a new and as yet unpainted fence.  Reflected light washes over the grass in the foreground.

Click onto the image to open another version in a separate window, and click onto that image to further enlarge it.

Technique: TG-5 at 53mm (equiv); 250 ISO; spot metering on the fence; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Vivid profile; south Bristol; 28 Aug 2019.
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OUTER SUBURBS 121 – STREET ART

 

 

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Street art: functional and freshly painted.

The first image in the Outer Suburbs series, with context, is here: 1 .  Subsequent images are here: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 53a 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 .  Each will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open another version in a separate window, and click onto that image to further enlarge it.

Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 250 ISO; Lightroom; south Bristol; 25 July 2019.
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OUTER SUBURBS 115 – BUS STOP, WET MORNING

 

 

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A cool, wet morning in May: waiting for the bus.

The first image in the Outer Suburbs series, with context, is here: 1 .  Subsequent images are here: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 53a 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 .  Each will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to enlarge it further.

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 1250 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film simulation; south Bristol; 8 May 2019.
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OUTER SUBURBS 112 – SCHOOL BUS

 

 

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Grey, damp morning, with empty bus, wet road, wet pavement and puddle.

The first image in the Outer Suburbs series, with context, is here: 1 .  Subsequent images are here: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 53a 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 .  Each will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open another version in a separate window, and click onto that image to further enlarge it.

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film simulation; south Bristol; 8 May 2019.
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OUTER SUBURBS 88 – STREET SCENE 6: TWO WORLDS

 

 

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Looking at two worlds and, starting in from the left as we westerners do, first is the brash, colourful, in your face, psychological manipulation of the advertising agencies and consumerism – “EAT THIS AND YOU’LL BE HAPPY!!!“.  Backed up, of course, with the wonderful news that you don’t even have to budge from your sofa to get it, since this alluring chunk of high vitamin, high fibre (sic), instant gratification will be delivered straight to your door. 

But on getting across to the other side of the image, well, this is another world indeed – two standing, one slumped, waiting for the bus to work on a cold, dull morning; this is reality, dull, repetitive, prosaic; this is not the multicoloured fantasy of the advertising world, this is actual life.

There are earlier Street Scene posts here: 1 2 3 4 5 .  Each will open in a separate window.

The first image in the Outer Suburbs series, with context, is here: 1 .  Subsequent images are here: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 53a 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 .  Each will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to enlarge it further – recommended.

Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film simulation; south Bristol; 29 Jan 2019.
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OUTER SUBURBS 81 – A GOOD NIGHT OUT 2 (POSTSCRIPT)

 

 

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Awhile back, I posted about “Good Nights Out” in south Bristol.  A Good Night Out 2 looked at vandalism of bus shelters, which drew condemnation.  Well, just to keep you in the loop(!), one of the damaged bus shelters that I photographed then has been vandalised again, and here it is – the fragment of paving slab used to inflict  the damage can be seen in the foreground.  The earlier damage to this shelter is shown in the lowest image on the earlier post.

OH DEAR!!! >>> and walking past this bus stop this morning (2 March), I’ve found it vandalised yet again – with what looks suspiciously like the original piece of paving stone.  Such is our world or, at least, some parts of it.  And for those of you considering south Bristol for your holidays this year, be warned that Bristol City Council is considering operating a Zero Tolerance Paving Stone Policy so that, if you’re into this sort of thing, you may have to bring your own boulder.

And at top right, another recent feature of UK life.  All Motor Vehicle Tax, which is notionally paid to build/mend roads, is now paid online, which has of course resulted in some non-payments – and so to clamping of offenders’ cars.

The first image in the Outer Suburbs series, with context, is here: 1 .  Subsequent images are here: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 53a 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 .  Each will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to enlarge it yet again.

Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film simulation; south Bristol; 21 Feb 2019.
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OUTER SUBURBS 77 – METROBUS (MONO)

 

 

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Three things to talk about today.  First, Bristol has serious traffic congestion, and the new Metrobuses are aimed at helping to ease this.  These are new and very modern, double decker buses with long routes right across the city, and they are cashless, which means that you can only buy tickets online, or via your mobile phone, etc etc – you can’t actually put your hand in your pocket and pull out the filthy lucre.  This is aimed at having these buses hanging around less at their stops while the drivers give each passenger their ticket and change, and so speeding up the journeys – something which is also helped by bus only lanes on some main roads.

And because payment is digital, each bus stop must have one of these illuminated columns – looking rather like something out of the Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey – from which you can buy tickets via debit/credit cards; and where the buses are satellite tracked, so that accurate arrival times plus other info is also available.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to enlarge it further – definitely recommended.

Technique: secondly, this image comes from a source I haven’t used before, its derived from using the TG-5’s RAW Data Edit facility to process a RAW image in-camera.  This uses the TG-5’s large array of ART BKT filters, or art filters – this one being the Dramatic Tone II filter.  I like the effect, but have to say that this in-camera RAW processing is far less intuitive and useful than that found on Fujifilm’s X-T2 mirrorless camera, where it is really is a significant creative tool.  Still, yet another aspect of the TG-5, a camera which I’m increasingly impressed with.

Technique: another aspect of this photo is the deep depth of focus (= depth of field), which results from the TG-5’s very small sensor – for the most part, this is a camera for those liking front to back sharpness.  This was taken at f2, where depths of field on larger sensors are very small – the TG-5 does of course have smaller apertures, up to f11 I think, but I read somewhere that these smaller apertures do NOT give increased depth of focus on the TG-5, which is an interesting phenomenon I’ve not come across before.

The first image in the Outer Suburbs series, with context, is here: 1 .  Subsequent images are here: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 53a 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 .  Each will open in a separate window.

Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 320 ISO; in-camera processing of a RAW file, using the Dramatic Tone II art filter; followed by further processing of the resulting jpeg in Lightroom; south Bristol; 15 Feb 2019.
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