Category: flickr

Vole photos now live!

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While Flickr sorted out their problem yesterday evening, I was out and about in Sheffield, testing the local beer. That meant that when their problem was sorted out, I wasn’t around to take advantage of their new found uploading ability.

Look, the voles are very cute and I would strongly advise that you go and look at them, but this is actually my favourite photo from yesterday:

That’s the dam wall (and quite a bit of the dam) at Redmires, just on the outskirts of Sheffield. I like the photo because it’s so simple. Flat water (flat, but defined, not mirroresque), a solid wall under Simpson’s skies, and that bit of foliage just to break up the geometry and avoid plagiarising Rothko. For the full effect, go large here.
But don’t forget those voles.

Replan

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Uploading to flickr is not an option right now – presumably thanks to some problem at their end. So here’s a replanned quota photo:

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Last time I was up here, the snow was going horizontally through the air and my inadequate clothing was proving to be… well… inadequate.

Today was much more pleasant, and we saw heaps of voles. (Not literally heaps, just a lot.) I’d love to share some photos, but there’s a problem with uploading to Flickr…

Little & Large

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No, not the popular 80s British comedy duo. I’m talking about ships.

To mark the 175th anniversary of the Cunard Shipping Line, that company took three of its biggest cruise liners to Liverpool’s River Mersey to celebrate. Since the ships in question were the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Victoria and the Queen Mary 2 (recently in Cape Town), it was billed as the 3 Queens. By all accounts, it was a resounding success, with ships, flypasts and fireworks for the estimated million onlookers to see.

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If you want to find images of the event, Google is your friend. Or Flickr. And the whole thing was streamed live on Youtube. Look, you’re not short of options here.

But while people are celebrating and having a good time, normal life goes on. And if you’re the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company Limited Seacat, Manannan (seen by me here), normal life is getting people from the Isle of Man to Liverpool. And it’s probably quite annoying when you get there and someone has taken your parking space:

11162081_1015281998482036_255042973669970321_nHey – it’s ok. There’s precedent: previously in Liverpool, Manannan has had to sneak in behind the QM2 to dock at the landing stage.
But… scale!

20150525233254There she is, just off the stern of the QM2. And while we snigger at the tiny Manx ferry, it’s worth noting that it’s not actually that tiny: it’s 96m long, and carries 850 passengers and crew and 200 cars. Mind you, compare that with the QM2’s 345m length and 4,350 passenger and crew capacity, and yeah, ok.

Of course, it’s not a fair comparison – these vessels have different jobs and are each designed to fit their respective purposes. But the QM2 is awfully big, isn’t she?

An excellent Flickr account to visit

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No. It’s not mine. Incoming from the etv guy:

Have you seen this?

And a link to a photo on HiltonT’s photostream. For the record, this was the photo in question, and no, I hadn’t seen it:

kalbay05Apparently, it’s a regatta at Kalk Bay in 1905. It’s interesting for a number of reasons: the transport, the clothing, the frankly disappointing lack of any sort of water craft for a regatta, the additional lack of any breakwater wall or railway, and that business on the building at the back: Kalk Bay Fish and Land Co. Ltd.

– Let’s start a business in Kalk Bay.
– OK, sounds like a good plan. What sort of business?
– Hmm… Fish?
– Excellent. But…
– But what?
– Well, don’t you think that’s a bit niche?
– Ja, good point. We need something more diverse.
– How about… How about Fish… and Land?
– Brilliant. But what are we going to call it?
– No idea, mate. Maybe let’s just leave it, hey.

But of course, they didn’t. And thus the Kalk Bay Fish and Land Co Ltd was born.
That’s exactly how it all happened.

Probably.

Anyway, I digress. Often. The real reason that this post is happening to to advise you about the rest of HiltonT’s Flickr account. There’s quite a lot of history, quite a lot of South Africa, quite a lot of photographs of documents, some local (pre-1994) football and other… stuff.

If you’re in the right frame of mind, you could get lost in there for literally hours.

Go, do it. (And then, when you’re done, there’s this one as well.)

N.B. The Kalk Bay Fish and Land Company Limited should not be confused with the Kalk Bay Land and Sea Company (which is obviously a completely different enterprise), which went on to become Irvin and Johnson (I&J) Fisheries.

Thanks Adam

Long Beach

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Cape Town in autumn is a wonderful place to be. Sometimes, anyway. This morning was one of those times as Long Beach in Noordhoek revealed itself from the early mist during our pre-breakfast exercise. The spring tides of two weeks ago have left a huge flooded area at the top of the beach, and the lack of any significant wind made for some lovely views.

There were a few proper photographers with sturdy-looking tripods and big bags full of equipment doing their thing there, so it must have been “a good day” for taking photographs.
Of the 6 shots I have uploaded to Flickr from this morning (they’re in this album), this one is my favourite. Perhaps because many of the others appear a little washed out, or lend themselves to being monochromed, because of the low sun, the neutral beach and the grey mist. This one is surprisingly colourful – aided nicely by that splash of green on the left hand side.

I’d like to suggest that it was a deliberate inclusion, but I suspect that you would see through my tissue of lies rather quickly.